Kingfisher Class Sloops - Kingfisher Class Sloop, HMS Puffin, HMS Shearwater, HMS Kingfisher (Paperback)

Chapters: Kingfisher Class Sloop, Hms Puffin, Hms Shearwater, Hms Kingfisher. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 18. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: As designedKingfisher group; 1 x QF 4-inch (101.6 mm) Mark V L/45 gun, mount P Mk.I Depth chargesKittiwake group; 1 x QF 4 in Mark V L/45 gun, mount HA Mk.III Depth chargesShearwater group; 1 x QF 4 in Mark V L/45 gun, mount HA Mk.III 4 x 0.5-inch (12.7-mm) Mark III Vickers machine guns, quad mount HA Mk.III Depth chargesThe Kingfisher class was a class of nine patrol sloops of the British Royal Navy built in three groups of three each during the 1930s, that saw service during World War II. The Kingfisher class was an attempt to build a small patrol vessel under 600 tons, such vessels being outwith the clauses of the London Naval Treaty of 1930. It was intended that it would escort coastal shipping in wartime. The design had a number of shortcomings, however. Firstly, it was simply designed to too high a standard; constructed to full naval warship specifications and powered by geared steam turbine engines, it was not suitable for mass production. Secondly, it was simply too small, short on range, and the hull-form, based on a scaled-down destroyer, was not suitable for open ocean work, where escorts were found to be dearly lacking in numbers during wartime. Thirdly, armed originally with only a single 4-inch gun forwards and depth charges aft, they were limited in their ability to defend themselves, never mind their charges. The woeful lack of defensive armament was addressed early in the war by adding a multiple Vickers machine gun on the quarterdeck in the Kingfisher and Kittiwake groups, as per the Shearwaters. As they became available, two single 20 mm Oerlikon guns were added, on single pedestal mounts on the deckhouse aft, with t...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=705073