HMS Dundee (L84)

HMS "Dundee" (L84) was a Royal Navy sloop of World War II

Some sources put "Dundee" with the Falmouth class sloops, others that she was of the Shoreham class sloops which was derived from the Bridgewater class sloop, others that she was of the Bridgewater class. She was built in Chatham Dockyard in Kent and launched in 1932.

HMS "Dundee" served as an escort for convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic. She was sunk at 00.25 hours on 15 September 1940 by the most successful German submarine of the war, U-48, commanded at that time by Kapitanleutnant Heinrich Bleichrodt.

"U-48" attacked a convoy, SC-3, of which HMS "Dundee" was the only escort. "U-48" missed the British merchant ship "Empire Soldier", but later torpedoed and sank "Dundee", commanded by Capt. O.M.F. Stokes, RN, in position 56º45'N, 14º14'W, off Northern Ireland.

The Imperial War Museum has a recording from its sound archives of W J H Mills, a Canadian serving with the Royal Navy on HMS "Dundee", describing the sinking. In the recording he recounts "The blast was so severe that it tore the lockers away from the bulkhead mess – we knew we’d been hit – there was no mistaking it."

ee also

* Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945)
* List of shipwrecks in 1940

External links

* [http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/522.html Uboat.net on HMS "Dundee" (L84)]
* [http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/shoreham.htm An Image of HMS Dundee]
* [http://navalhistory.flixco.info/H/159280/8330/a0.htm An Image of HMS Bridgewater, a ship of the same or a similar class as HMS Dundee]
* [http://www.members.shaw.ca/johnbubb/index_files/dundee.htm Ports visited by HMS Dundee from April 1933 to October 1935 - Recorded by Chief Petty Officer Joseph Henry Bubb]