HMAS Vampire (D68)

HMAS Vampire
History
United Kingdom
Name	Wallace
Namesake	William Wallace
Ordered	1916
Builder	J. Samuel White & Co Ltd
Laid down	10 October 1916
Launched	21 May 1917
Renamed	Vampire 1917
Commissioned	22 September 1917
Decommissioned	11 November 1933
Fate	Transferred to Australia
History
Australia
Name	Vampire
Namesake	vampire
Acquired	11 November 1933
Commissioned	11 November 1933
Decommissioned	31 January 1934
Recommissioned	11 May 1938
Identification	Pennant number D68/I68
Honours and awards	Battle honours: Calabria 1940 Libya 1940–41 Greece 1941 Crete 1941 Indian Ocean 1941–42
Fate	Bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft on 9 April 1942
General characteristics (RAN service)
Class and type	V-class flotilla leader
Displacement	1,188 tons standard 1,489 tons deep
Length	312 ft (95.1 m) overall 300 ft (91.4 m) between perpendiculars
Beam	29 ft 6 in (9.0 m)
Draught	13 ft 9 in (4.2 m) maximum
Propulsion	3 × White Forster boilers, 2 × Brown-Curtis turbines, twin screws, generating 27,000 shp (20,000 kW)
Speed	34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph)
Range	3,500 nmi (6,500 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	6 officers, 113 sailors
Armament	4 × QF 4-inch (101.6 mm) Mk V guns 1 × QF 2-pounder gun (increased to 2 in January 1942) 4 × Lewis .303 guns (2 twin mountings) 1 × Lewis .303 gun (later replaced by 1 × 4-barrel Vickers .303 gun) 6 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2 triple mounts, later increased to 2 quad mounts) 2 × depth charge throwers (installed later) 4 × depth charge chutes (installed later) 50 depth charges

HMAS Vampire was a V-class destroyer of the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Launched in 1917 as HMS Wallace, the ship was renamed and commissioned into the RN later that year. Vampire was lent to the RAN in 1933, and operated as a depot tender until just before World War II. Reactivated for war service, the destroyer served in the Mediterranean as part of the Scrap Iron Flotilla, and was escorting the British warships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse during their loss to Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea in December 1941. Vampire was sunk on 9 April 1942 by Japanese aircraft while sailing with the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes from Trincomalee.