HMS Southdown at a buoy, c1941 (IWM)
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Southdown
Ordered	11 April 1939
Builder	J. Samuel White, Isle of Wight
Laid down	22 August 1939
Launched	5 July 1940
Completed	8 November 1940
Decommissioned	1946
Identification	Pennant number: L25
Honours and awards	North Sea 1941–45 Normandy 1944
Fate	Scrapped, 1956
Badge	On a Field Red, in front of two bugle horns in Saltire Gold, a horseshoe inverted white
General characteristics
Class and type	Type I Hunt-class destroyer
Displacement	1,050 long tons (1,070 t) standard 1,430 long tons (1,450 t) full load
Length	85.3 m (279 ft 10 in) o/a
Beam	9.6 m (31 ft 6 in)
Draught	2.51 m (8 ft 3 in)
Propulsion	2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers 2 shaft Parsons geared turbines, 19,000 shp (14,170 kW)
Speed	27.5 knots (31.6 mph; 50.9 km/h) 26 kn (29.9 mph; 48.2 km/h) full
Range	3,500 nmi (6,500 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h) 1,000 nmi (1,850 km) at 26 kn (48 km/h)
Complement	164
Armament	4 × QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mark XVI guns on twin mounts Mk. XIX 4 × QF 2-pounder (40 mm) Mk. VIII AA guns on quad mount MK.VII 2 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns on single mounts P Mk. III 50 depth charges, 2 throwers, 1 rack

HMS Southdown was a Type I Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy which served in World War II. She was scrapped in 1956.

Service history

Southdown was ordered on 11 April 1939 under the 1939 War Emergency Build Programme as job number J6602.^[1] She was completed in November 1940. She was adopted by the town of Woking in Surrey as part of Warship Week in 1942.

She earned battle honours during the Second World War for the North Sea 1941–1945, where she spent the majority of her service. In June 1944 she formed part of the Naval escort force in support of the Normandy Landings.

Following the war she was converted for use as an air target ship at Rosyth in September 1945. She then transferred to the Reserve Fleet at Portsmouth in April 1946. She remained there until sold to Thos. W. Ward for scrap. She arrived at the breakers yard at Barrow on 1 November 1956.^[2]

References

Publications

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• English, John (1987). The Hunts: A history of the design, development and careers of the 86 destroyers of this class built for the Royal and Allied Navies during World War II. World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-44-4.