DEDICATION
This volume is dedicated to the memory of my late father-in-law, Royal Marine Andrew Wall, of Cobh, Ireland, who served through the Battle of the Atlantic 1939–45. He was present at the sinking of the Bismarck and at the Battle of North Cape, with most of his service being on HMS Belfast.
Copyright © Malcolm Wright 2014
First published in Great Britain in 2014 by
Seaforth Publishing,
Pen & Sword Books Ltd,
47 Church Street,
Barnsley S70 2AS
Published and distributed in the United States of America and Canada by
Naval Institute Press
291 Wood Road
Annapolis, Maryland 21402-5034
This edition is authorized for sale only in the United States of America, its territories and possessions and Canada.
First Naval Institute Press eBook edition published in 2015.
ISBN 978-1-61251-951-7 (eBook)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP data record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing of both the copyright owner and the above publisher.
The right of Malcolm Wright to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Typeset and designed by Stephen Dent
CONTENTS
Introduction
Reference Sources
Abbreviations
1 Destroyers Built to WWI Programmes
2 Destroyers Built Between the Wars
3 Early WWII Destroyers
4 War-Built Destroyers
5 ‘Hunt’ Class Escort Destroyers
6 Sloops
7 Frigates
8 Corvettes
9 Minesweepers
10 Trawlers
11 Auxiliary AA ships
12 Coastal Warfare Craft
13 Submarines
14 Miscellaneous Vessels
Index
This work was inspired by friends and readers of my WWII Convoy series of wargame books who felt I should publish the hundreds of colour drawings of ships that I have made over the years as well as my maritime paintings and cover art. They were gathered together over the past fifty years, sometimes from descriptions given by veterans, models in museums, works of art, etc. Where I have remembered the sources, these have been included in the bibliography. Many were taken from a study of war art that I did some decades ago. There are some which, across half a century, I have simply forgotten the origin of. In these cases where mistakes occur in the drawings I have produced, I accept full blame.
One of the first occasions on which I recall realising the importance of paint schemes used in war was when, as a boy, and later as a young man, I spent many hours in the company of various naval veterans of several nations, particularly British and Australian. Of great value was that I was able to meet two men who had served in naval dockyards: one of the two in Sydney, Australia, and the other in three dockyards in the UK from slightly before the war to just after it. It was fortunate that I met these men in the prime of their lives with memories still fresh and not distorted or dulled by age and the years in between.
These hours were many decades ago and the veterans have sadly all passed on. How I wish they were still here so I could clarify some things with them. They were kind enough to help me match colours on various model ships I built and with some of my early art work. There were colours that I found hard to imagine being used in my young days but, of course, since then there have been publications showing the paint schemes for a whole range of ships. Today we know much more about them, but even so many records were destroyed or lost. I remember one ex-sailor laughing that HMAS Hobart arrived in Fremantle from the Mediterranean painted pink. In his story, he said he thought it was because they had mixed undercoat into grey because they were short of paint, but as soon as the ship arrived in Sydney they painted it grey again. He had obviously never heard of the famous Mountbatten Pink scheme, and nor had I, so I was unsure if he was just telling a tall tale. In later years, I realised what he had seen was a well-used camouflage scheme in the Mediterranean theatre of war up till late 1942.
An analysis of colour photographs is helpful but the film used in WWII is not necessarily true to shade, with many colours appearing darker or lighter than in real life due to poor-quality film or just tricks of the light. But black and white photographs can be quite helpful if you have access to the shades that were available and which were probably used on the ship in question. With patient research, it is possible to reconstruct schemes.
In this manner, and with a lot of detective work, I have assembled line drawings of the hundreds of ships that appear in this series. If any are wrong, then, again, I accept responsibility, but would point out that in some cases there are no hard references and therefore my deductions are probably as good as any.
In some instances I was able to use the work of earlier authors for reference or to check my own research against theirs. I have not always totally agreed with some and if my drawings vary from other sources it is because that is my opinion based on the research of many decades. Sometimes the difference may be merely the size and shape of a squiggle or triangle or the exact tint of the shade.
This book is intended as a quick reference source for people wanting to paint model ships as a hobby, for wargaming or art. Mostly I show only the starboard side of a ship. This is because
