HMS Airedale
HMS Airedale was a Hunt-class destroyer built for use by the British Royal Navy during the Second World War. She entered service in early 1942 as a convoy escort, being assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet in May. Airedale was sunk while escorting a convoy from Alexandria to Malta on 15 June 1942 by Sturzkampfgeschwader 3. Construction and design Airedale was one of seven Type III Hunt-class destroyers ordered for the Royal Navy on 4 July 1940, as part of the 1940 War Emergency Programme. The Hunt class was meant to fill the Royal Navy's need for a large number of small destroyer-type vessels capable of both convoy escort and operations with the fleet. The Type III Hunts differed from the previous Type II ships in replacing a twin 4-inch gun mount by two torpedo tubes to improve their ability to operate as destroyers. The Type III Hunts were long between perpendiculars and overall, with a beam was and draught . Displacement was standard and under full load. Two Admiralty boilers raising steam at and fed Parsons single-reduction geared steam turbines that drove two propeller shafts, generating at 380 rpm. This gave a design maximum speed of . of oil fuel