1/700 HMS Wolsey 1940 (WSW)
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by Jerry Lloyd |
1/700 HMS Wolsey 1940 (WSW)
HMS Wolsey was built by J.L. Thornycroft at their Woolston yard at Southampton in May 1918, she went into reserve at Malta for ten years in 1928 before refitting as an AA destroyer completing in 1940 with 2 x twin 4inch, 2 x quad .5 MGs and 2 x depth charge racks with 2 x throwers, on 16th and 17th May she bombarded advancing enemy troops near the Pas De Calais.five days later she picked up 200 walking wounded from Dunkirk and returned them to Dover, she returned the next day leading two hospital ships that had no charts into Dunkirk harbour and picked up 180 Army GPOs and non combatants returning them to England, on 24th May she took demolition parties to Le Havre to disable that port and on 26th May made a pre-dawn bombardment of enemy artillery surrounding Calais and later on the 26th she left Dover for Dunkirk only 40 minutes after Operation Dynamo had begun to act as a wireless link arriving off the French coast at 23.50, the next morning as the shore signals station was obscured by smoke she picked up 102 troops off Bray beach despite the six air raids that day, on four more runs she took anther 2,421 troops back to England before being withdrawn from Dynamo for repairs on 1st June, in 1941 she joined the Rosyth escort force on anti- E boat patrols, after VE day she supported minesweepers re-opening Stavanger port in Norway before going into reserve in June 1945 and she was scrapped two years later.
