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Completed: March 1924
Displacement: 1,140 tons standard, 1,550 tons full
Length: 312 ft
Beam: 30 ft
Draught: 10 ft 11 in
Propulsion: 3 Thornycroft type Water-tube boilers, Brown-Curtis steam turbines, 2 shafts, 30,000 shp
Armament: 4 x BL 4.7 in (120mm) Mk.I L/45 guns, mount P Mk.I, 2 x QF 2 pdr Mk.II "pom-pom" (40 mm L/39) anti-aircraft guns, 6 (2x3) tubes for 21-inch (530 mm) torpedoes
Speed: Max 35 kts
Range: 320-370 tons oil, 3,500 nmi at 15 kt, 900 nmi at 32 kt
Complement: 134
HMS Witch D 89 was deployed at south Atlantic station base Freetown from February to December 1943.
Later in February 1943, the Royal Navy selected Witch for transfer to Freetown, Sierra Leone, for service with local escort forces there. Accordingly, shem the destroyer leader HMS Malcolm (D19), and the destroyers HMS Quadrant (G11) and HMS Wolverine (D78) escorted Convoy WS 28 from 16 to 27 March 1943 during its voyage from the United Kingdom to Freetown, detaching on the latter date when the convoy arrived there and remaining there in her new role. In April 1943, she and Wolverine rescued 53 survivors of the British merchant ship Empire Whimbrel, which the German submarine U-181 had sunk on 11 April 1943 420 nautical miles (778 km) southwest of Freetown at position 02°31′00″N 015°55′00″W / 2.51667°N 15.91667°W.
From 26 to 28 April 1943, she joined Malcolm and Wolverine in serving as local escort for Convoy WS 29 during the final leg of its voyage to Freetown. Witch, Malcolm, Wolverine, and the destroyers HMS Boreas (H77) andHMS Rapid (H32) departed Freetown on 6 May 1943 as local escort for Convoy WS 29, detaching on 8 May 1943 to return to Freetown, and on 3 June 1943 Witch, Rapid, Wolverine, and the destroyer HMS Boadicea (H65) departed Freetown as the local escort for Convoy WS 30, remaining with it until 9 June 1943, when Quadrant, the destroyer HMS Redoubt (H41), and the Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Norman (G49) relieved them and they detached to return to Freetown.
From 10 to 12 July 1943, Witch and the corvette HMS Armeria (K187) escorted Convoy WS 31 during a leg of its voyage from Freetown to the Cape of Good Hope, detaching to return to Freetown when relieved by Rapid. Witch continued her duties at Freetown through December 1943, when she was selected for transfer to convoy escort duties in the North Sea.
During the early months of 1944, she steamed back to the United Kingdom, and by May 1944 she had begun operations in the North Sea, which she continued – taking no part in operations related to the Allied invasion of Normandy during the summer of 1944 – until the surrender of Germany in early May 1945. After that, she served on local port duties and in support of reoccupation forces during the summer of 1945.
By www.wikipedia.org