H.M.S. Attack (1911)

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H.M.S. Attack (1911)
Pendant Number: H.14 (1914)
H.86 (Jan 1916)
H.08 (Jan 1918)[1]
Builder: Yarrow & Company[2]
Ordered: 1910-11 Programme[3]
Launched: 21 Dec, 1911[4]
Completed: May, 1912[5]
Mined: 30 Dec, 1917[6]
Fate: off Alexandria[7]

H.M.S. Attack was one of twenty-nine Acheron class destroyers completed for the Royal Navy.

Service

Attack was one of eighteen Acheron class destroyers fitted with W/T in 1912, becoming one of 123 destroyers so far fitted with Destroyer Sets.[8]

Lt. Cdr. Cyril Callaghan was appointed in command on 21 May, 1912.[9] Though he contributed to good gunlayer test results in 1912, in March 1913, Attack collided with the destroyer Hydra and Callaghan was told that the Admiralty was disappointed at the manner in which he had handled his destroyer. A July inspection of the ship indicated a "want of attention to detail throughout." He then damaged a propeller, though he was held only to be slightly at fault.[10]

In mid-1913 the destroyer was serving with the First Destroyer Flotilla.[11]

In July, 1914, Attack was serving in First Destroyer Flotilla, part of First Fleet.[12]

Attack was one of fourteen Acherons from the flotilla to fight in the Battle of Dogger Bank on 24 January, 1915 when she was under the command of Callaghan, whom was mentioned in Beatty's dispatch for his fine work in removing his admiral from the disabled Lion and installing her in the Princess Royal.[13]

On 10 March, 1915, while operating out of Rosyth, she attacked and sank U 12 off of Fife Ness along with Ariel and Acheron by repeated rams and gunfire.[14] Cyril Callaghan was in command for this sinking.[15]

She fought under Charles H. N. James at the Battle of Jutland as part of the First Destroyer Flotilla,[16] which was tasked with screening the Fifth Battle Squadron.

Attack lost two men overboard while steaming in Force 6 winds just one day out of Devonport on 30 March, 1917.[17][18]

She sank when she was torpedoed by UC 34, losing ten men; worse still was the transport Aragon, from which over six hundred men died in the same attack.[19]

Captains

Dates of appointment are provided when known.

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 62.
  2. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 62.
  3. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. p. 75.
  4. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 62.
  5. Friedman. British Destroyers. p. 306.
  6. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 62.
  7. Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships 1914–1919. p. 62.
  8. Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1912. Wireless Appendix, p. 6.
  9. The Navy List. (January, 1915). p. 278.
  10. Callaghan Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/46/130. f. 130.
  11. The Navy List. (July, 1913). p. 281.
  12. Admiralty Weekly Order No. 109 of 10 July, 1914.
  13. Smith. Hard Lying. p. 121.
  14. Smith. Hard Lying. pp. 121-2.
  15. Naval Operations. Volume II. p. 280.
  16. Battle of Jutland Official Despatches. pp. 34, 46.
  17. http://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-10-HMS_Attack.htm Ship's Log.]
  18. Kindell. Royal Navy Roll of Honour Part 2. p. 337.
  19. Kindell. Royal Navy Roll of Honour Part 2. p. 441.
  20. Callaghan Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/46/130. f. 130.
  21. The Navy List. (April, 1915). p. 392f.
  22. Callaghan Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/46/130. f. 130.
  23. The Navy List. (October, 1915). p. 392f.
  24. Rainier Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/144/33. f. 363.
  25. The Navy List. (December, 1916). p. 392g.
  26. Rainier Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/144/33. f. 363.
  27. Geake Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/51/243. F. 257.
  28. Geake Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/51/243. F. 257.
  29. The Navy List. (November, 1917). p. 391m.
  30. Hepper. British Warship Losses in the Ironclad Era: 1860-1919. p. 114.

Bibliography


Acheron Class Destroyer
Admiralty Design
Goshawk Hind Hornet Hydra Defender
Druid Sandfly Jackal Tigress Lapwing
  Lizard Phoenix Ferret Forester  
Yarrow Specials
  Archer Attack  
Thornycroft Specials
  Acheron Ariel  
Parsons Specials
  Badger Beaver  
Firedrake/Yarrow Specials
  Firedrake Lurcher Oak  
Australian type
  Parramatta Warrego Yarra  
  Huon Swan Torrens  
<– Acorn Class Destroyers (UK) Acasta Class –>