HMS Ledbury (L90)

HMS Ledbury at a buoy at Sheerness.
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Ledbury
Ordered	3 September 1939
Builder	J I Thornycroft Ltd
Laid down	24 January 1940
Launched	27 September 1941
Identification	Pennant number: L90
Honours and awards	Malta (1942) & (1942), Arctic (1943), Sicily (1943), Salerno (1943), Adriatic (1944), Aegean (1944).
Fate	Scrapped at Rosyth in April 1958
Notes	Sailed in convoys PQ 12, PQ 13, PQ 14, PQ 15, PQ 16, PQ 17, QP 9, QP 10, QP 15, JW 51A, JW 51B, JW 52, RA 51 & RA 53.
General characteristics
Class and type	Type II Hunt-class destroyer
Displacement	1,050 tons standard; 1,430 tons full load
Length	85.3 m (280 ft)
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
Speed	27 kn (50 km/h; 31 mph) (25.5 kn (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph) full)
Range	3,600 nmi (6,670 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h)
Complement	164
Armament	6 × QF 4 in Mark XVI on twin mounts Mk. XIX 4 × QF 2 pdr Mk. VIII on quad mount MK.VII 2 × 20 mm Oerlikons on single mounts P Mk. III 110 depth charges, 2 throwers, 3 racks

HMS Ledbury was an escort destroyer of the Hunt class Type II. The Royal Navy ordered Ledbury's construction two days after the outbreak of the Second World War and J. I. Thornycroft Ltd laid down her keel at their Southampton yard on 24 January 1940.^[1] Air raid damage to the yard delayed her construction and she did not launch until 27 September 1941. Her initial assignment was to perform escort duties between Scapa Flow and Iceland. She remained in this theatre for the first part of the war, during which time she served with the ill-fated Arctic convoy PQ 17 in June 1942, from which twenty-four ships were lost.^[2]

Only two months later she took up the role of close escort in the Pedestal convoy to Malta. During the fierce attacks that dogged the convoy, Ledbury claimed three enemy aircraft destroyed and five damaged, and was one of three destroyers that helped the crippled oil tanker Ohio into the Grand Harbour.^[2] She added to her battle honours with the Allied landings in Sicily, Salerno, and operations in the Adriatic and Aegean. The Royal Navy finally scrapped Ledbury in 1958.