Login
Login

HMS Wakeful (H88)

{{Short description|Destroyer of the Royal Navy}}

{{Other ships|HMS Wakeful}}

{{More footnotes needed|date=August 2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=April 2017}}

{{Infobox ship begin}}

{{Infobox ship image

|Ship image=HMS Wakeful (H88).JPG

|Ship caption=

}}

{{Infobox ship career

|Hide header=

|Ship country=United Kingdom

|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}}

|Ship name=HMS Wakeful

|Ship ordered=9 December 1916

|Ship awarded=

|Ship builder=John Brown & Company, Clydebank

|Ship laid down=17 January 1917

|Ship launched=6 October 1917

|Ship christened=

|Ship acquired=

|Ship commissioned=16 December 1917

|Ship recommissioned=

|Ship decommissioned=

|Ship in service=

|Ship out of service=

|Ship renamed=

|Ship reclassified=

|Ship refit=

|Ship captured=

|Ship struck=

|Ship reinstated=

|Ship fate=Sunk on 29 May 1940 by E-Boat S-30

|Ship homeport=

|Ship identification=Pennant number: H88

|Ship motto=*Si dormiam capiar

  • "If I sleep I may be caught"

|Ship nickname=

|Ship honours=

|Ship badge=*On a Black field an eye proper with rays ensuing therefore, Gold.

|Ship notes=

}}

{{Infobox ship characteristics

|Hide header=

|Header caption=

|Ship class=Admiralty W-class destroyer

|Ship displacement= 1,100 tons

|Ship length= {{convert|300|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} o/a, {{convert|312|ft|m|1|abbr=on}}p/p

|Ship beam= {{convert|26|ft|9|in|m|1|abbr=on}}

|Ship draught= {{convert|9|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} standard, {{convert|11|ft|3|in|m|1|abbr=on}} in deep

|Ship propulsion=*3 Yarrow type Water-tube boilers

  • Brown-Curtis steam turbines
  • 2 shafts
  • {{convert|27,000|shp|abbr=on}}

|Ship speed={{convert|34|kn|lk=in}}

|Ship range= 320-370 tons oil, {{convert|3500|nmi|km|abbr=on}} at {{convert|15|kn|lk=in}}, {{convert|900|nmi|km|abbr=on}} at {{convert|32|kn|lk=in}}

|Ship complement= 110

|Ship armament=

}}

HMS Wakeful was a W-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, built under the 1916–1917 Programme in the 10th Destroyer order. Wakeful was assigned to the Grand Fleet after completion, and served into the early years of the Second World War. Wakeful was torpedoed and sunk during Operation Dynamo by a German E-Boat on 29 May 1940.

Career

=First World War=

Wakeful joined the Grand Fleet and was present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet in 1918. She then went into reserve.

=Second World War=

Just prior to the start of the war in August 1939 Wakeful was reactivated and recommissioned to attend the Royal Review of the Reserve Fleet in Weymouth Bay. At the outbreak of war Wakeful was assigned to convoy escort duty with the 17th Destroyer Flotilla, which was part of the Western Approaches Command.

=Operation Dynamo=

Wakeful was selected to support Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of allied troops from Dunkirk, on 26 May 1940. On 27 May 1940 Wakeful embarked 631 Allied troops. While returning them to Dover Wakeful came under air attack and received minor damage below the waterline. Despite the near miss Wakeful returned to Dunkirk to continue the evacuation, embarking 640 Allied troops on 28 May 1940. While carrying this out Wakeful was torpedoed by the German E-Boat S-30. The destroyer was struck by two torpedoes, one hitting the forward boiler room. Casualties were heavy, only four of the 640 Allied troops – Sapper Michael Frazer of the Royal Engineers, Mr Stanley Patrick of the Royal Army Service Corps and Mr H.F.R. Ruddell of the Royal Army Service Corps and Mr James 'Jim' Kane of the Royal Tank Regiment {{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/27/a3700027.shtml | title=BBC - WW2 People's War - the Survivors }} plus 25 of Wakeful{{'}}s crew survived. A number of ships stopped to pick up the survivors, but one of these, the destroyer {{HMS|Grafton|H89|2}}, was then in turn sunk by a German U-boat.

Wreck

The wreck is a designated War Grave, lying at a depth of {{convert|24|m|ft}} in busy waters along the approaches to Zeebrugge harbour at 51° 22'N, 2° 43'E. Permission is needed from Belgian Nautical Authority to dive on the site. In 2003, work was done to remove parts of the superstructure and funnel that were considered to be a potential danger to navigation; the recovered ship's crest and foot plate are now placed in the National Museum of the Royal Navy.

Notes

{{reflist}}

Bibliography

  • {{cite book|last=Campbell|first=John|title=Naval Weapons of World War II|year=1985|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=0-87021-459-4}}
  • {{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=Greenwich, UK|year=1980|isbn=0-85177-146-7}}
  • {{Cite Colledge2006}}
  • {{cite book |first1=Maurice |last1=Cocker |publisher=Ian Allan |title=Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893–1981 |year=1981 |isbn=0-7110-1075-7}}
  • {{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Norman|title=British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=2009|isbn=978-1-59114-081-8}}
  • {{cite book |editor1-last=Gardiner|editor1-first=Robert|editor2-last=Gray|editor2-first=Randal|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921|year=1985|location=Annapolis, Maryland|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=0-85177-245-5|name-list-style=amp}}
  • {{cite book|last=Lenton|first=H. T.|author-link=Henry Trevor Lenton|title=British & Empire Warships of the Second World War|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=1998|isbn=1-55750-048-7}}
  • {{cite book|last=March|first=Edgar J.|title=British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans|year=1966|publisher=Seeley Service|location=London |oclc=164893555}}
  • {{cite book |last=Preston |first=Antony |title='V & W' Class Destroyers 1917–1945 |publisher=Macdonald |location=London |year=1971 |oclc=464542895}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Raven |first1=Alan |last2=Roberts|first2=John |title='V' and 'W' Class Destroyers |publisher=Arms & Armour |location=London |year=1979 |series=Man o'War |volume=2 |isbn=0-85368-233-X|name-list-style=amp }}
  • {{cite book|last=Rohwer|first=Jürgen|title=Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=2005|edition=Third Revised|isbn=1-59114-119-2}}
  • {{cite book |last=Whinney |first=Bob |title=The U-boat Peril: A Fight for Survival |publisher=Cassell |year=2000 |isbn=0-304-35132-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/uboatperilfightf0000whin }}
  • {{cite book|last=Whitley|first=M. J.|title=Destroyers of World War 2|publisher=Naval Institute Press|date=1988|isbn=0-87021-326-1|location=Annapolis, Maryland}}
  • {{cite book|last=Winser|first=John de D.|title=B.E.F. Ships Before, At and After Dunkirk|publisher=World Ship Society|location=Gravesend, Kent|year=1999|isbn=0-905617-91-6}}

External links

  • [http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-10DD-09VW-Wakeful1.htm www.naval-history.net]
  • [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4249.html http://uboat.net]
  • http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/military-history/world-war-two/art22986

{{V and W class destroyer}}

{{May 1940 shipwrecks}}

{{coord|51.3789|N|2.7228|E|source:wikidata|display=title}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wakeful (H88)}}

Category:V and W-class destroyers of the Royal Navy

Category:Ships built on the River Clyde

Category:1917 ships

Category:World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom

Category:World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom

Category:Maritime incidents in May 1940