HMS Verity (D63)

HMS Verity circa. 1930
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Verity
Ordered	January 1918
Laid down	17 May 1918
Launched	19 March 1919
Commissioned	17 September 1919
Refit	Reconstructed to Long Range Escort finished in October 1943
Fate	Sold to be broken up for scrap on 4 March 1947
General characteristics
Displacement	1,188 tons
Tons burthen	1,550 tons
Length	312 ft (95 m)
Beam	30 ft (9.1 m)
Draught	10 ft 11 in (3.33 m)
Propulsion	3 Yarrow type Water-tube boilers, Brown-Curtis steam turbines, 2 shafts, 30,000 shp
Speed	34 knots
Range	3,500 nmi at 15 knots
Complement	134
Armament	4 × BL 4.7-inch (120-mm) guns 2 × QF 2pdr AA guns 6 × 21-inch torpedo tubes

HMS Verity was a Royal Navy destroyer which saw service in, and survived, World War Two. Her pennant number was originally D63 but was changed to I63 in May 1940.

Major rôles during the Second World War

Convoy Defence

Throughout the Battle of the Atlantic, HMS Verity was a convoy escort ship. This was by far her most usual capacity, during which she operated with the 18th Destroyer Flotilla. On 8 March 1941, she rescued survivors from the British merchantman Dunaff Head after it had been sunk by a U-boat attack. One of the convoys she escorted was OB-239, which came under attack by numerous submarines. During the anti-submarine operations, U-70 was sunk by the convoy's escort. She also operated as an escort in the Mediterranean Sea and the North Sea. She escorted a total of 119 convoys during the war.

Dunkirk Evacuation

HMS Verity was assigned to assist in the Evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. She came under fire from shore batteries near Calais and suffered casualties.

She remained in the area after the evacuation as a convoy escort, and was attacked on 14 August by six Kriegsmarine trawlers and three E-boats. Two of the German ships were sunk in the resulting engagement.

North Africa

Operation Torch, the invasion of Axis controlled Africa, started in 1942. HMS Verity was assigned to escort military convoys in preparation of this attack. She supported the landings at Oran, during which she helped rescue troops from a stricken Strathallan, which had been attacked by U-562. Thankfully, only 11 were killed in the attack on the ship, which was carrying over 5,000 officers, men and crew. The ship finally sank nearly 22 hours after the torpedo hit.

Sources

• uboat.net
• HMS Verity, Destroyer