- Yes
- Maybe
- Unsure
- No
Background
HMS Savage was one 1 of 8 destroyers of the S-class destroyer built and designed by the Royal Navy during the Second World War, like most of the designs for the Royal Navy during the Second World War the S-class was designed as one of the wartime emergency programs with the S-class being the 5th wartime emergency flotilla, as with the previous classes of destroyers they were normally armed with 4.7 inch guns in 4 single mounts as the twin mounts for destroyers had been basically abandoned by the Royal Navy for the classes that were built during the war following the L and M classes in order to make construction of newer destroyers simpler and faster.
With all that being said HMS Savage was an exception, compared to all her sisters and even ships of succeeding classes she was instead armed with the 4.5 inch/45 (114mm) guns instead of the 4.7 inch guns and what was also unusual was even the mountings themselves and the guns were different with the ship having 1 twin mount forward which used Mark III guns and 2 single mounts aft which used the Mark IV gun, it’s also worth noting that the forward twin mount was actually a spare for the Illustrious class aircraft carriers which had been modified, the reason she was given such a odd armament is due 3 classes which were in development as it was intended to use her as a test bed, the forward twin mount was intended for the usage on the Battle class destroyers while the rear single mounts were intended to be used on the Z and R class destroyers, the latter 2 classes would also actually the be the last destroyer classes built under the wartime emergency program. Her remaining armament was more ordinary, her anti aircraft armament consisted of 12 20mm Oerlikon’s in 5 twin mounts and 2 single mounts and she would have had 40mm Bofors equipped though due to a lack of Hazemeyer mounts they were never equipped, she would also come with a torpedo armament of 8 21-inch (533mm) torpedo tubes in 2 quad mounts, she also had 4 depth charge throwers and 2 depth charge racks
History
HMS Savage was laid down on December 7th, 1941, she was launched on September 24th, 1942, and entered service on June 8th, 1943, her career during the Second World War would be relatively peaceful, the height of her career would be actually during her early career when she joined the aircraft carrier Furious and the battleships Alabama, Anson, Duke of York, Malaya and South Dakota in Operation Camera as apart of the diversion to the landings in Sicily, this proved unsuccessful as they were never detected or found by the germans and she would next escort the aircraft carriers Illustrious and Unicorn during Operation Governor in July, following this she joined the fleet escorting them to Gibraltar in support of the Allied invasion of Italy, and on October 13th she escorted King George V from Gibraltar to Scapa Flow.
Following this she mainly took part in Arctic convoys though she was present for the battle of the North cape but otherwise she took part against German forces in Norway for the remainder of her career outside of the Arctic convoys. Post war she would be assigned as a training vessel before being put into the reserve in 1948, she would be modernized in the 1950’s though never returned to active service and in 1960 was placed on the disposal list and was scrapped in 1962.
Specifications
Displacement:
1,710 long tons (1,737 t) (standard nominal)
1,780 long tons (1,809 t) (actual)
2,505 long tons (2,545 t) (full load)
Length:
339 ft 6 in (103.48 m) pp
362 ft 9 in (110.57 m) oa
Beam: 35 ft 8 in (10.87 m)
Draft: 10 ft 0 in (3.05 m)
Propulsion:
2 shaft Parsons geared turbines
2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
40,000 shp (30,000 kW)
Speed: 36.75 knots (42.29 mph; 68.06 km/h)
Range: 4,675 nautical miles (8,658 km) at 20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h)
Complement: 180 - 225
Sensors and processing systems:
Type 272 radar
Type 285 radar
Type 291 radar
Type 144 sonar
Armament:
Primary Armament:
2 × 4.5-inch (114 mm) QF Mk III guns (1×2)
2 × 4.5-inch (114 mm) QF Mk IV guns (2×1)
AA Armament:
12 × 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns (5 x 2 and 2 x 1)
Torpedo tubes:
8 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2×4)
Other weaponry:
4 x depth charge throwers
2 x Depth charge racks
70 to 130 depth charges
Sources
Image Sources