HMS Foresight was one of nine F-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. She was assigned to the Home Fleet upon completion. Unlike her sister ships, she does not appear to have been attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1935–36 during the Abyssinia Crisis, nor did she enforce the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. The ship escorted the larger ships of the fleet during the early stages of World War II and played a minor role in the Norwegian Campaign of 1940. Foresight was sent to Gibraltar in mid-1940 and formed part of Force H where she participated in the attack on Mers-el-Kébir and the Battle of Dakar. The ship escorted numerous convoys to Malta in 1941 and Arctic convoys during 1942. Later that year, Foresight participated in Operation Pedestal, another convoy to Malta. She was torpedoed by an Italian aircraft on 12 August and had to be scuttled the next day.

Description

The F-class ships were repeats of the preceding E-class destroyers. They displaced at standard load and at deep load. The ships had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . They were powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three Admiralty three-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . Foresight carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave her a range of at . The ships' complement was 145 officers and ratings.

The ships mounted four 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mark IX guns in single mounts, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' in sequence from front to rear. For anti-aircraft (AA) defence, they had two quadruple Mark I mounts for the 0.5 inch Vickers Mark III machine gun. The F class was fitted with two above-water quadruple torpedo tube mounts for British 21 inch torpedo| torpedoes. One depth charge rack and two throwers were fitted; 20 depth charges were originally carried, but this increased to 38 shortly after the war began.

Wartime modifications

Between October 1940 and April 1941, Foresight had her rear torpedo tubes replaced by a 12-pounder AA gun. Around this time, she probably had two single Oerlikon light AA guns installed abreast the bridge. By July 1942, a Type 286 short-range surface search radar was fitted as was a HF/DF radio direction finder mounted on a pole mainmast. She played a minor role in the Norwegian Campaign in early 1940.

In late June, the 8th DF was ordered to Gibraltar where they were to form the escorts for Force H. A few days later, they participated in the attack on Mers-el-Kébir against the Vichy French ships stationed there. On 13 September, Force H rendezvoused with a convoy that was carrying troops intended to capture Dakar from the Vichy French. Ten days later, they attacked Dakar where Foresight and the destroyer sank the and Foresight sank the submarine on the 25th. She returned home for a refit after the battle and was damaged by a near-miss during a German air raid on Liverpool on the night of 21/22 December. Two months later, Foresight escorted the aircraft carrier as she flew off aircraft for the beleaguered island of Malta near Sicily on 3 April and again on the 27th. The following month she was part of the escort screen, with five other destroyers, for the battleship and the light cruisers , and which were joining the Mediterranean Fleet. This was part of Operation Tiger which included a supply convoy taking tanks to Egypt and the transfer of warships to and from the Mediterranean Fleet. Foresight and her sisters had their Two-Speed Destroyer Sweep (TSDS) minesweeping gear rigged to allow them to serve as fast minesweepers en route to Malta. Despite this, one merchant ship was sunk by mines and another damaged. Later that month, she escorted the capital ships of Force H as they searched for the and the heavy cruiser in the North Atlantic after the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 23 May. Foresight escorted another flying-off mission to Malta on 14 June; two days later, after German blockade runners reached France, Force H sortied into the Atlantic on a failed search for more blockade runners. Together with her sisters , , and , Foresight helped to sink the on 18 June. The ship participated in another Malta convoy in late July, during which she had to scuttle her sister Fearless, after she had been crippled by an airborne torpedo on 23 July. Foresight continued to escort the ships of Force H until October, after she participated in another convoy to Malta, Operation Halberd. During this operation, the ship again served as a fast minesweeper, albeit more successfully than the last time she had done so.

The 8th DF returned to Britain after Halberd and resumed their previous task of escorting the ships of Home Fleet for the next six months. In early April 1942, Foresight, Forester and the light cruiser were part of the close escort for Convoy PQ 14, bound for Murmansk. The trio were then the close escort for Convoy QP 11, returning from Murmansk to Iceland, when Edinburgh was torpedoed on 29 April. The two hits disabled her steering and she had to be towed by the sisters. Two days later, they were attacked by three German destroyers which badly damaged the two destroyers and put another torpedo into Edinburgh, crippling her. Foresight had eight men killed and eleven wounded during the battle. The two destroyers took off the survivors from the cruiser and Foresight scuttled the cruiser with a torpedo. Temporarily repaired at Murmansk, the sisters were part of the light cruiser 's escort home in May. She had to be scuttled on 15 May by the destroyer after she was set on fire by a German bomber. Foresight spent June under repair.

thumb|left|Foresight being [[scuttled by Tartars torpedoes]]

Foresight was assigned to the convoy escort force for Operation Pedestal, a heavily escorted convoy to Malta in August. On the 12th, she was torpedoed by an Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bomber at 18:45; the hit broke her back, knocked out her steering, and killed one officer and three ratings. By the time the destroyer arrived, Foresight could only steam at and a towline was secured by 19:30. Shortly afterwards, the towing wire fouled Tartars starboard propeller; another wire was rigged by 20:40, but it had to be slipped when an unknown force of one cruiser and two destroyers was spotted at close range. Around 22:30, Foresight was secured alongside Tartar until 05:15 the following day when the cables snapped. Another tow wire was rigged at 06:10, but it was dropped when a submarine periscope was spotted at 09:30 and Tartar dropped depth charges as a precautionary measure even though her ASDIC had not detected any submarines. Around that same time several Axis shadowing aircraft were seen and Tartars commander thought the likelihood of attack was now too high to proceed. He took off the 181 surviving crew and scuttled Foresight with torpedoes at 09:55 at coordinates ().

Notes

Bibliography

  • IWM Interview with Jocelyn Salter, who commanded HMS Foresight in 1942