HMS Venomous (ex-Venom), was a Modified W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the Russian Civil War and World War II.
Construction and commissioning
Venom, the second Royal Navy ship of the name, was ordered in January 1918 as part of the 10th Order of the 1918-19 Naval Programme. She was laid down on 31 May 1918 by John Brown & Company at Clydebank, Scotland, and launched on 21 December 1918.Naval History: Ships of the Royal Navy, 1914-1919 - in alphabetical order (Part 2 of 2) She was renamed Venomous, the first Royal Navy ship of the name, on 24 April 1919 to avoid confusion with the Royal Navys torpedo school, . She was completed on 24 August 1919 and commissioned into service the same day. Her original pennant number, G98, assigned in June 1919, was changed to D75 during the interwar period.
Service history
Interwar years Venomous was assigned to the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla in the Atlantic Fleet. During the winter of 1919–1920, she made several cruises in the Baltic Sea, participating in the British campaign against Bolshevik and German forces in Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. In 1920, she conducted patrols to prevent smugglers from bringing guns into Ireland, and her crew took part in preventing a coal strike from paralysing the British economy.Naval Historical Foundation Book Review – A Hard Fought Ship, The Story of HMS Venomous
On 8 October 1923, Venomous recommissioned at Chatham for service in the Mediterranean Fleet,The Navy List, April 1925, p. 280. in which she operated until 1929 with Valletta, Malta, as her home port. Early in her Mediterranean tour, she patrolled in support of British interests during fighting between Greece and Turkey. On 2 November 1924, she was steaming in the Grand Harbour upon returning to Valletta from a cruise in the Western Mediterranean Sea when she accidentally rammed and sank a motorboat from the light cruiser ; all four people aboard the motorboat were saved by a boat from the destroyer .holywellhousepublishing.co.uk A HARD FOUGHT SHIP: The story of HMS Venomous: What's NewA Hard Fought Ship, The Story of HMS Venomous: The Grand Harbour, Valletta, 2 November 1924
By March 1925, Venomous was operating as part of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean. She recommissioned at Chatham on 30 April 1926 for continued service with the 4th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean.The Navy List, July 1927, p. 279. She recommissioned again on 21 August 1928.The Navy List, February 1929, p. 279.
Venomous was decommissioned in 1929 and transferred to the Reserve Fleet at Rosyth, Scotland. She was reduced to maintenance reserve on 10 July 1930.The Navy List, July 1937, p. 283.
In October 1938, Venomous briefly was recommissioned during a crisis with Nazi Germany, but she soon was placed back in reserve when the war scare abated. As tensions with Germany grew again in the summer of 1939, Venomous was recommissioned again with Donald Macintyre as her commanding officer; he would remain in command of her until January 1940 and go on to become one of the most famous convoy escort commanders of World War II.
World War II
September 1939 – May 1940 The United Kingdom entered World War II in September 1939. That month, Venomous was assigned to the 16th Destroyer Flotilla at Portsmouth, England, to escort troop convoys carrying the British Expeditionary Force from the United Kingdom to France. Her first such convoy was on 7 September 1939, which she and the destroyer escorted. On 12 September 1939 the two destroyers escorted Convoy MB 2 from England to Cherbourg, France, and on 15 September they escorted Convoy DB 2. In October 1939, Venomous was reassigned to duty escorting convoys of merchant ships in the Southwestern Approaches and English Channel which she continued until May 1940.
The Battle of France, May–June 1940 Venomous had just left Cherbourg on 10 May 1940 when she received a signal that Germany had invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. She was assigned to operations in support of Allied forces, and spent the next week operating in the North Sea off the Dutch coast. She and the destroyer transported a party of Royal Marines to the Hook of Holland in the Netherlands on 12 May 1940. On 15 May she embarked refugees at Amsterdam in the Netherlands and picked up 46 or 48 (sources differ) refugees aboard the Dutch lifeboat Zeemanshoop in the North Sea and took them to Dover, England.
Her operations focused on the evacuation of Allied personnel and refugees as the German offensive inflicted defeat after defeat on Allied forces. At Calais, France – where she fired her antiaircraft guns at German aircraft bombing the harbour – she picked up some 200 British subjects on 21 May 1940, also loading submarine detection equipment and manufacturing equipment from a rayon factory, and transported the refugees and cargo to England. On 22 May she escorted the Isle of Man ferry Mona Queen as she transported British Army troops of the Irish Guards to Boulogne, returning to England with 212 refugees aboard.A Hard Fought Ship, The Story of HMS Venomous: The evacuation of British citizens from Calais by the V & Ws The contingent of refugees included the Austrian-born philosopher, philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist Otto Neurath and the German designer, social scientist, and author Marie Reidemeister, who married Neurath in 1941.A Hard Fought Ship, The Story of HMS Venomous: Children escape besieged Boulogne on HMS Venomous
On 23 May 1940, Venomous embarked a demolition party of Royal Engineers at Dover and took them to Calais to destroy port facilities there, but the party was unable to disembark due to heavy fighting in the area and Venomous returned to Dover. Later in the day, she joined the destroyers , , , and off Boulogne to evacuate troops of the British Armys Irish Guards and Welsh Guards, who had become trapped there by advancing German troops and tanks of the 2nd Panzer Division during the Battle of Boulogne. Sixty German Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers had recently attacked the harbour and French destroyers bombarding offshore, so the British ships awaited the arrival of Royal Air Force fighter cover before attempting to enter the harbour. After British aircraft arrived on the scene at 19:20 hours, Whitshed and Vimiera entered the harbour first, taking aboard as many British soldiers as possible – over 550 men each – under fire from German forces before steaming back out of the harbour at 20:25 hours, with Whitshed completely destroying two German tanks at point-blank range with her 4.7-inch (120-mm) guns as she departed. Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh, Dunkirk: Fight To the Last Man, Harvard University Press, 2006, pp. 208–209, 593–594
Venomous and Wild Swan entered the harbour next, at 20:35 hours, followed by Venetia at 20:40 hours. The Germans opened fire on Venetia with heavier guns as she entered the harbour, apparently in an attempt to sink her in the harbour entrance to trap Venomous and Wild Swan and bring the evacuation operation to an end. A German shell, probably from a tank, hit Venetia, starting a fire aft and prompting her crew to jettison her torpedoes and burning Carley floats. Another shell hit her "B" gun turret, blowing overboard and killing some of the men there, and German gunfire also inflicted casualties among the men on her bridge, causing her to go out of control and briefly run aground. Gunners aboard Venomous, seeing that Venetia was in danger of being sunk, realized that the Germans had captured Fort de la Crèche on a hill overlooking the entrance and were using its coastal artillery to fire on Venetia. Venomous opened fire on the fort; her first salvo went over it, but her second salvo silenced the forts guns by blowing off one side of the fort and much of the hillside it was on, causing artillery pieces to tumble down the hill. Venomous also detected a German light field gun in the garden of a house and fired on it; her first salvo flattened all of the trees in the garden, set the house on fire, and caused German troops in the vicinity to flee. All heavy German guns fell silent after this and, given a reprieve, Venetia, which had been hit seven times and been unable to embark any troops, was quickly refloated and backed out of the harbour at full speed at 20:48 hours. Venomous—using her engines to manoeuvre because her steering gear had jammed—and Wild Swan followed Venetia out of the harbour, also in reverse, carrying about 400 evacuees each, along the way knocking out a German tank and shooting up two German troop columns. Venomous and Wild Swan then escorted the damaged Venetia to Dover.
On 26 May 1940, Venomous began operations in support of Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Allied personnel from the beachhead around Dunkirk, France. She made two trips on 31 May 1940, carrying 670 troops from De Panne, Belgium, and Bray-Dunes, France, on the first one and 408 troops from the pier at Dunkirk on the second. She transported 630 troops on 2 June 1940, 957 more on 3 June, and 463 troops on her final voyage from Dunkirk on 4 June. In all, she evacuated 3,128 or 4,410 troops (sources differ) in her five evacuation voyages to the Dunkirk beachhead.
June–December 1940
Venomous was released from operations related to the Battle of France on 7 June 1940 and reassigned to convoy defence and anti-invasion patrols in the North Sea, which she conducted through August 1940. She and the destroyer were escorting Convoy FN 19 off Great Yarmouth on 11 June 1940 when they came under attack by six German aircraft, but she used skilful manoeuvring to avoid damage. In September 1940, she and Wild Swan patrolled off Boulogne, and on the night of 13–14 September 1940 they and the destroyer bombarded German positions there.
In October 1940, Venomous was transferred to the Western Approaches for convoy escort duty. On 13 November 1940, she began a voyage to Gibraltar as part of the screen of the aircraft carrier as she deployed to the Mediterranean to transport aircraft to Malta in Operation White.
On 18 December 1940, Venomous arrived at Derry, Northern Ireland, to become part of the 1st Escort Group. She was operating as part of the escort for Convoy HX 96 when she struck a mine in Liverpool Bay on 31 December 1940 and suffered serious damage, forcing to her to undergo repairs that were not complete until February 1941.
1941
Her repairs complete, Venomous was back in service with the 1st Escort Group at Derry in February 1941 to continue convoy escort work in the Western Approaches. In April 1941 she collided with the submarine and required two weeks of repairs before returning to service in May 1941. She was escorting Convoy OB 343 off Iceland in July 1941 when she was forced to detach and return to Derry for repairs to her propulsion machinery, which lasted until September 1941. She returned to her escort group and was part of the escort of Convoy ONS 21 in October 1941. In November 1941 she was escorting Convoy OS 35 when she collided with the destroyer leader . She was withdrawn from service and in December 1941 work began at Greenock, Scotland, both to repair her and convert her into a long-range escort, as well as to install Type 271 surface warning radar.
1942
While under repair, Venomous was "adopted" by the civil community of Loughborough in Leicestershire, England, in a Warship Week campaign than ran from 5 to 14 February 1942.holywellhousepublishing.co.uk A Hard Fought Ship - The Story of HMS Venomous: TS Venomous, the Sea Cadet Corps unit at Loughborough When her repairs, conversion, and radar installation were complete, she reported to the Home Fleet on 20 April 1942 for duty escorting Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union. From 28 April to 5 May 1942, she escorted Convoy PQ 15 bound for the Soviet Union, and from 21 to 27 May 1942 she escorted Convoy QP 12 during its voyage from the Soviet Union to the United Kingdom.