HMS Cleveland (L46)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Cleveland.

HMS Cleveland (L46) was a Type I Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy built by Yarrow Shipbuilders of Scotstoun, and launched on 24 April 1940. She was adopted by the civil community of Middlesbrough then in the North Riding of Yorkshire, as part of the Warship Week campaign in 1942.

HMS Cleveland in Plymouth Sound, October 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Cleveland
Ordered	21 March 1939
Builder	Yarrow Shipbuilders, Glasgow
Yard number	Admiralty Job No.1835
Laid down	7 July 1939
Launched	24 April 1940
Completed	18 September 1940
Identification	Pennant number: L46
Honours & awards	Basque Roads 1809 Atlantic 1942 English Channel 1942 North Sea 1943 Sicily 1943 Salerno 1943 South France 1944 Aegean 1944 Adriatic 1944
Fate	Scrapped in December 1959
Badge	On a Field per fess wavy Red and Blue, upon a White roundel a huntsman's cap Black in front of a stirrup Red.
General characteristics
Class & type	Type I Hunt-class destroyer
Displacement	1,000 long tons (1,016 t) standard 1,340 long tons (1,362 t) full load
Length	85 m (278 ft 10 in) o/a
Beam	8.8 m (28 ft 10 in)
Draught	3.27 m (10 ft 9 in)
Propulsion	2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers 2 shaft Parsons geared turbines, 19,000 shp
Speed	27.5 knots (31.6 mph; 50.9 km/h) 26 kn (30 mph; 48 km/h) full
Range	3,500 nmi (6,500 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h) 1,000 nmi (1,900 km) at 26 kn (48 km/h)
Complement	146
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 40 depth charges, 2 throwers, 1 rack

Service history

On commissioning in 1940, she completed work ups for service in home waters, both the North Sea and the English Channel, which continued throughout 1941 and 1942. During April 1943, she was nominated for service in the Mediterranean. During that year, she provided cover for the Allied landings in Italy on Sicily (Operation Husky) and at Salerno (Operation Avalanche). During 1944, she was again deployed in the Mediterranean and in the Aegean Sea.

On 29 September 1945, Cleveland steamed from Gibraltar to Devonport and was placed in reserve.^[1] She was sold for scrapping and was wrecked at Llangennith beach on the Gower Peninsula in Wales, on 28 June 1957 while under tow to Llanelli, for scrapping.^[2] The wreck was stripped and blown up in December 1959.^[3] The years of salvage and stripping of the Cleveland on Llangennith beach were captured by an amateur film maker, Evan Morgan from Pontypridd, who compiled a silent film of the process ^[4]