HMS Starling (U66)
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| HMS Starling (U66) underway in 1943
HMS Starling underway, in 1943
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom |
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| Name: | HMS Starling |
| Namesake: | Starling |
| Builder: | Fairfields |
| Laid down: | 21 October 1941 |
| Launched: | 14 October 1942 |
| Completed: | 1 April 1943 |
| Reclassified: | As a frigate in 1947 |
| Fate: | Broken up July 1965 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Modified Black Swan-class sloop |
| Displacement: | 1,350 tons |
| Length: | 299 ft 6 in (91.29 m) |
| Beam: | 38 ft 6 in (11.73 m) |
| Draught: | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 20 knots (37 km/h) |
| Range: | 7,500 nmi (13,900 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h) |
| Complement: | 192 |
| Armament: | |
| Service record | |
| Part of: | 2nd Support Group |
| Commanders: | Frederick John Walker |
| Operations: | |
| Victories: | 15 U-boats (shared) |
HMS Starling, pennant number U66, was a Modified Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Govan, Scotland, launched on 14 October 1942, and commissioned on 1 April 1943.
In the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II, Starling was the flagship of Captain Frederic John Walker's 2nd Support Group, a flotilla of six sloops not tied down to convoy protection, but free to hunt down U-boats wherever found. The other ships of the group were Cygnet, Kite, Wild Goose, Woodpecker, and Wren.
Starling was scrapped in 1965.
Contents
Combat record against U-boats
Starling participated in the sinking of fourteen U-boats:
- U-202 was sunk south-east of Cape Farewell, Greenland, by depth charges and gunfire from Starling on 2 June 1943.
- U-119 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by Starling on 24 June 1943.
- U-226 was sunk east of Newfoundland by Starling, Woodcock and Kite on 6 November 1943.
- U-842 was sunk by Starling and Wild Goose on 6 November 1943.
- U-592 was sunk south-west of Ireland by Starling, Wild Goose and Magpie on 31 January 1944.
- U-734 was sunk south-west of Ireland by Wild Goose and Starling on 9 February 1944.
- U-238 was sunk south-west of Ireland by Kite, Magpie and Starling on 9 February 1944.
- U-264 was sunk by Woodpecker and Starling on 19 February 1944.
- U-653 was sunk by a Fairey Swordfish from the escort carrier Vindex, Starling and Wild Goose on 15 March 1944.
- U-961 was sunk east of Iceland by Starling on 29 March 1944.
- U-473 was sunk south-west of Ireland by Starling, Wren and Wild Goose on 6 May 1944.
- U-333 was sunk west of the Scilly Isles by Starling and the frigate Loch Killin on 31 July 1944.
- U-736 was sunk in Bay of Biscay, west of St. Nazaire by Starling and Loch Killin on 6 August 1944.
- U-385 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by Starling and a Short Sunderland flying boat on 11 August 1944.
During the war the Starling was credited, along with the sloops Amethyst, Peacock, Hart, and frigate Loch Craggie, with sinking the U-482 in the North Channel on 16 January 1945. The British Admiralty withdrew this credit in a post-war reassessment.[1]
Post-war service
In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.[2]
She was modified to a Navigation training ship in support of Navigators training at HMS Dryad. During her last year in commission she visited the Norwegian fjords and the U-boat base at Kiel. Her final voyage was a call at Bootle Liverpool to attend a farewell celebration provided by the local authority and Captain Walker's widow took passage on the final sailing from Bootle to Portsmouth where she paid off.[3]
She was subsequently placed on the disposal list and arrived at Lacmots, Queenborough for scrapping on 6 July 1965.
In popular culture
- Starling's service in the Arctic convoys (fictionalised as "HMS Sparrow") is described in the prologue to children's adventure novel The Salt-stained Book by Julia Jones (2011).
Notes
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- Conway's All the World's Fighting ships 1922-1946 (1980) ISBN 0-85177-146-7
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Starling (U66). |
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