Hi Anthony,
My great uncle served on Havelock from her commissioning, working up at Portland; off to Norway, came back with one of the very last convoys to leave; rushed back down to St Nazaire and therefore was one of only 2 destroyers there at the sinking of the Lancastria and helped by picking up survivors. He then spent the majority of his time afterwards based at Liverpool and attached to Western Approaches Command on Atlantic convoy duty. He left in 1942 to go on a training course shortly before Havelock departed to become based in the Caribbean/US East Coast to help supplement the inexperienced ASW forces over there.
Where to start with Havelock and the WEM kit!
The box art and instructions are plain and simply wrong.
I helped WEM develop this kit, however they failed to speak to me before finalising the kit, therefore errors have crept in.
Havelock either completed at Cowes, Isle of White in the unofficial 1940 dazzle OR she received it whilst working up at Portland OR somewhere else in home waters prior to going to Norway. None of her still-surviving elderly crew members I interviewed could remember when precisely she got it. Additionally I have seen NO 1940-41 photos of her in any type of dark hull and light superstructure (AP507A-AP507C). The photos of her launching, I have, show her in light grey overall. I have no photos of her final-fitting out during 1939-40, although some may exist. She only was in a paint scheme which resembles the one on the WEM box by 1945 (then of course her armament and electronics differed dramatically of course) and during her last duties when nominated for Air Target Ship duty in the summer of 1945.
As some of the G-class coming back from the Med started to receive some wild camouflage schemes whilst working up at Portland in late 39/early 1940 Havelock's may have been applied there, but I have been unable to find any photos of Havelock as 1st commissioned at Cowes or shortly thereafter working up at Portland, despite visiting and looking through the collection of photographs from her builders and speaking to everyone who served on her who was still alive that I could track down.
The earliest commissioned photos I have located of her are in Norway May-1940 with the following features:
- 1940 Unofficial Dazzle in place
- No Pendant Number allocated (she had to wait for Wakeful H88 to be sunk at Dunkirk before she was allocated her pendant number)
- No DCT fitted and therefore main armament could fire only in local control
- Tripod mainmast still shipped and D/F atop it
- Obviously No Radar
- 0.5 Vickers fitted
- Aft funnel bands in place, and they appear to be the correct marking for the flotilla she was first assigned. i.e. the 9th DF which was 1 black over 2 white.
- She had some sort of French army Mortar rigged up on her forecastle whilst in Norway, but I could find no photos of it. This was most likely fitted to give her additional firepower in offering fire support for the French elite Alpine Mountain troops she was carrying on board which she landed during one operation in Norway.
The next photos I have of her, which I've dated as most likely late 1940 show Havelock as follows:
- DCT fitted
- Tripod mainmast landed and a small mast added on the back of the searchlight platform with her D/F atop it
- Pendant number of H88 now in place
- Dazzle scheme still in place
- 3-inch fitted in place of aft torpedo tubes
- Only 1 dark funnel band atop the aft funnel visible due to the angle of the photo.
- She appears to have a bent stem, which should help me better date the photo I have, but I could find no record so far of when she would have sustained this collision damage.
I have further photos taken from abreast the fore funnel, looking aft, (possibly taken in 1940) which clearly shows the funnel bands for the 9th DF in place of 1 black over 2 white.
To summarise on Havelock's Camouflage, evidence which has come to light so far has her in the following schemes:
- 1940-41 Unofficial 1940 Dazzle
- 1942-43 WA scheme
- 1943-44? Undated photos I have show her in a light grey overall with surface radar in place therefore perhaps they are of this period.
- 1944 - I don't have any clearly dated photos for around D-day which would be nice to know what she looked like whilst operating with the 14 DF out of Plymouth.
However, I suspect she may have been light grey overall as the undated and unidentified photos mentioned above I believe show the sinking of U-767 along with HMS Fame as it is unmistakably Havelock and Fame (due to pendant numbers H88 and H-78 respectably)
- 1945-46 Dark hull light upperworks
Her funnel band arrangement also got altered in 1942 when she was in the WA scheme as she became leader of B5 escort group in March.
The fore funnel quite expectantly got a large black band towards the top in order to denote her senior officers ship B5 / leader status, however the rest of the funnel below is further painted in 2 other different colours. I.e. the whole fore funnel is split into 'thirds': black top, unknown colour mid section, a lighter colour lower section. The mid funnel colour looks a medium tone, and the lower one looks a lighter tone.
The aft funnel is split into 'halfs' with what looks like the the same two mid and lower colours on the fore funnel used. I am uncertain what these colours were although the colour artwork in Hesperus profile hints that WA green and blue may have been used on the funnels of these 'Havants' when in the WA scheme and leaders of escort groups. Also note in that same Warship Profile by Peter Dickens that the colour artwork for Hurricane includes green which is different to Alan Raven's interpretation for this 1940 unofficial dazzle which he states is Black/507B/707c.
In terms of radar I believe Havelock got 286 some time in early 1941, I have the date written down somewhere, but don't have it to hand. A clear and rare photo I found of her in the NMM with Bob Todd is dated May 1941 clearly showing it is in place by that time.
In terms of Glowworm.
Note on this photo taken from the Glowworm website in the link called 'The Story in Pictures', she appears to have a dark grey hull by May 1939 at Alexandria:
I have no way to verify though the websites claim about which ship it is and what date it is. It would appear she also suffered collision damage at another early war time period. I have another undated photo which is stated to be Glowworm in dry-dock with bow collision damage, and again her hull looks dark grey.
There is also another strange photo labelled Glowworm here:
No idea if that is her as I haven't really studied the photo, but note immediately around the bridge and forecastle it looks rather peculiar.
For example, I see no A mount, B mount looks too close to the bridge and the bow looks too short. Perhaps she has temporary collision damage repairs and is in some sort patched up state and being towed by the destroyer behind? Anyway I digress.
Someone mentioned on Steelnavy about the Glowworm artwork in the new Shipcraft book, therefore I managed to pick up a copy cheap so I could take a look.
There appears to be numerous errors in the book, for example, the widely circulated colour photograph of Hesperus on p48, from the Canadian archives, this book has reproduced full-page and labelled as Harvester!
I could forgive the author or editor if no pendant number was visible or if the photo was of poor quality, but H57 is clear and unmistakable as is the quality of the photograph in general!
Another I noticed was for the only photo in the book which was new to me, namely top left on p55 and stated to be Ardent in camouflage worn during 1939-40 whilst on Russian convoys, courtesy of Deans Marine.
Strange I thought....Russian convoys didn't begin until well after she was sunk in Sept-1941! However it may well be Ardent in an official 1940-dazzle type, but the photo is reproduced so small it is hard to verify.
I have subsequently noticed the same photo has been posted here by a relative, confirming it is Ardent, but of course the Russian Convoy caption in the book is an error:
Such errors therefore cast a large doubt in my mind if other similar errors haven't crept into the book including the Glowworm camouflage. The plans and colour artwork is attributed to a George Richardson.
Who is he please? Can anyone say what his background is? Did he base his artwork on good photographic evidence?
I know Les Brown use to work for Vosper Thorneycroft and have met him at Telford, but the artist is new to me.
As I stated on the Steelnavy board without photographic proof it is hard to back up this Glowworm artwork, although what has been drawn it perfectly feasible as is the colours used at this early war time.
She is such a famous ship I would be surprised if she was in camouflage and yet no photo has been published, to my knowledge, confirming this.
Furthermore other G's received unusual camouflage schemes upon returning to the home fleet at the beginning of the war, so again it is quite possible. However, I have only seen her in a dark grey hull light upperworks and the various photos of her sinking, as taken by Hipper are of too poor quality to be certain as to how she is painted.
In terms of her radar, no none present at time of loss. D/F I am uncertain. Really need better photos than I've seen.
Red funnel band on aft funnel I can confirm there was 1 funnel band on her aft funnel when sunk which was also there pre-war.
Pre-war she was with the 1st DF Med which according to my Jane's 1939 had 1 red funnel band.
She then transferred to the 22nd DF in Nov 1939 which was not in operation pre-war so I'm uncertain if they wore a funnel band and what it was. I have extensive notes on funnel bands somewhere, but cannot at present locate it and as there was many flotillas I can never remember them off the top of my head.
Glowworm then transferred back into the 1st DF in March 1940, after repairs from collision damage.
Remember on the whole the whole pre-war flotilla organization and funnel markings system started to get discarded as destroyer losses increased, camouflage was applied and flotilla's got broken up and highly dispersed. However it would appear she still had 1 funnel band at the time of her loss.
My apologies for a long post, but obviously, with Havelock especially, this is something close to my heart.
Alan Raven is correct when he keeps bleating on that RN destroyer wartime appearance is a treasure trove yet to be properly researched!
Time for lunch!
LB