E and F-class destroyer: Difference between revisions

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The '''E and F-class destroyers''' were a group of 18 [[destroyer]]s built for the [[Royal Navy]] during the 1930s. The ships were initially assigned to the [[Home Fleet]], although they reinforced the [[Mediterranean Fleet]] during the [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War|Italian invasion of Abyssinia]] of 1935–36 and enforced the [[Non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War|Non-Intervention Agreement]] during the [[Spanish Civil War]] of 1936–391936–1939. After the beginning of the Second World War in August 1939, the E-class ships were mostly assigned to escort duties under the [[Western Approaches Command]], while the Fs were assigned to escort the ships of the Home Fleet. Between them they sank four German submarines through March 1940 while losing only one ship to a submarine.

Most of the [[sister ship|sisters]] were committed to the [[Norwegian Campaign]] in April–June where they helped to sink one German destroyer and a submarine. The two E-class [[minelayer]]-destroyers helped to [[evacuation of Dunkirk|evacuate Allied troops from Dunkirk]] in May–June. Most of the Fs were sent to [[Gibraltar]] around the end of June and formed part of [[Force H]] where they participated in the [[attack on Mers-el-Kébir]]. Two months later they participated in the [[Battle of Dakar]] where they sank three [[Vichy French]] submarines. During the rest of 1940, they sank one Italian submarine while losing two ships to [[naval mine|mine]]s and torpedoes. Force H covered a number of [[Malta convoys|convoys to Malta]] in 1941, during which they sank one German submarine and lost one destroyer to bombs. Three E-class ships began escorting [[Arctic convoys|convoys to Russia]] in late 1941 and three others were transferred to the [[Eastern Fleet]].