HMS Mackay

HMS MACKAY

HMS Mackay (D70)
IWM FL 014978.jpg

Click on the links within this brief outline for first hand accounts by the men who served on HMS Mackay and for a more detailed chronology see www.naval-history.net

HMS Mackay was one of five Admiralty type flotilla leaders, often known as the Scott Class, named after Scottish families, ordered from Cammell Laird in April 1917. She was 332 feet long with a beam of 31 feet and a draught of 12 feet. She displaced 1,580 long tons and 2,050 when fully loaded. She was launched on 21 December 1918 and commissioned in June 1919.

Mackay joined the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet in 1919, at Rosyth. She took part in the British campaign in the Baltic during the Russian Civil War, supporting the advance of Estonian forces against Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg), and in the bombardment of the Bolshevik-held Krasnaya Gorka fort. The Estonian assault failed and Mackay returned to Britain in November 1919.

Mackay was deployed to Pembroke Dock during industrial unrest in South Wales in April - June 1921 and then had a refit at Chatham Dockyard from July to August. The destroyers in the Atlantic Fleet were reorganised into six smaller flotillas that were easier to manage than the earlier, larger flotillas, with Mackay the leader of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla by the end of 1921. Mackay was under repair at Chatham in January 1923 before recommissioning with the 4th Flotilla for deployment to the Dardanelles from March to August 1923, before returning to Chatham for a refit. In December 1923, she transferred to the 9th Destroyer Flotilla at Rosyth until November 1925.

In June 1927, Mackay recommissioned as leader of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, replacing Wallace which was having her turbines repaired. Mackay left the 5th Flotilla in November 1927 and entered refit at Sheerness until April 1928, and then went into reserve. In June 1929, Mackay returned to active service, recommissioning at Devonport for service with the 1st Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean.

Mackay joined the 2nd Submarine Flotilla at Devonport in April 1933. On 8 October 1933, she came to the aid of submarine L26 whose battery exploded in Campbeltown harbour killing two of the crew and seriously wounding fourteen others. In September 1935 she joined the 1st Destroyer Flotilla at Malta during the Abyssinia Crisis, until the end of March 1936, when she returned to British waters and went back into reserve at Devonport. On 25 July 1938, Mackay recommissioned and joined the 2nd Submarine Flotilla. The Munich Crisis saw Mackay briefly (between 27 September and 10 October 1938) operate with the 12th Destroyer Flotilla before returning to the 2nd Submarine Flotilla.

At the outbreak of the War Mackay joined the 11th Destroyer Flotilla, part of the Western Approaches Command, initially based at Devonport and later operating out of Liverpool on anti-submarine patrol and convoy escort duties, as flotilla leader. On 15 September, the German submarine U-53 torpedoed the tanker Cheyenne, forcing her crew to abandon ship. Cheyenne remained afloat but Cheyenne could not be saved and was scuttled by Mackay. On 9 December 1939, Mackay was part of the escort for Convoy OB 48 when the tanker San Alberto was torpedoed by U-48. San Alberto broke in two, and attempts at salvage iwere abandoned with Mackay scuttling the wreck and taking her survivors back to Plymouth. On 17 January 1940, Mackay, part of the escort for Convoy OB 74, rescued the crew of the merchant ship Cairnross, sunk by a mine near Liverpool.

Mackay took part in Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk and nearby beaches began. She picked up 581 troops on 28 May, but when approaching the beaches for a second run just after midnight on the night of 28 - 29 May, ran aground off Zuydcoote. She was refloated, but the evacuation run was abandoned and she was under repair at Sheerness from 3 - 5 June. Mackay then took part in Operation Aerial, the evacuation of British troops from ports in the west of France, including Brest on 16–17 June, where she ferried men from the shore to evacuation ships, from La Pallice on 20 June, and the final evacuation from Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the far South-West of France, on 24 June.

Mackay continued operations with the 11th Flotilla until October 1940, when she underwent a period of refit and repair at Devonport, with her boilers being replaced. In April 1941, Mackay joined the 16th Destroyer Flotilla at Harwich, escorting convoys along the East coast. On 12 February 1942, Mackay, with Whitshed, Walpole, Worcester of the 16th Flotilla and Campbell and Vivacious of the 21st Destroyer Flotilla, were ordered to intercept the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, heading up the English Channel from France towards Germany in what became known as the Channel Dash. Walpole turned back due to mechanical problems before the remaining ships encountered the German force off the Scheldt estuary. The British ships came under heavy German fire with Worcester being hit and badly damaged. All five British ships launched torpedoes at the German ships at a range of 4,000–2,400 yards, with Mackay launching her torpedoes from 4000 yards, but all the torpedoes missed. Capt Wrights full report in the National Archives on the part played by HMS Mackay in Operation Fuller can be read as a PDF.

After a successful Warships Week in April 1942 HMS Mackay was adopted by Wigtownshire, now part of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. On 29 August 1942, Mackay was detached to the Home Fleet in support of the Arctic convoy PQ 18 to Northern Russia and the return convoy QP 14. Mackay was part of the distant cover force (led by the battleships Anson and Duke of York) for PQ 18 and QP 14, before returning to Harwich on 27 September 1942.

On the night of 7 - 8 March 1943, Mackay, with Motor Gun Boats MGB 20, MGB 17 and MGB 21, repelled an attack by German E-boats near the Sunk lightship in the Thames estuary. Two of the E-boats, S114 and S119 collided, with S119 being sunk by MGB 20. On the night of 24 - 25 October 1943, 32 E-boats attempted to attack Convoy FN 1160 off Cromer. The destroyer Pytchley acted as close escort for the convoy, with Mackay and the destroyers Campbell, Eglinton and Worcester, and four MTBs, eight MGBs and four Motor Launches patrolled the convoy route. They beat off the German attacks, with Mackay ramming and sinking one E-boat, S63 and a second (S88) sunk by MGB 603 and MGB 607 but the Naval trawler William Stephen, which had become detached from the convoy, was torpedoed and sunk by S74. On the night of 5 - 6 January 1944, Mackay was escorting Convoy WP 457, between the Bristol Channel and Portsmouth, when it was attacked by seven E-boats. Bad weather disrupted planned air cover and the E-boats sank three merchant ships and the naval trawler Wallasea without loss.

In June 1944, Mackay supported the Normandy Landings, escorting convoys to the beaches from 7 June. She escorted follow-up convoys until July, when she returned to the East coast. After the German surrender on 8 May, Mackay assisted in the Liberation of Norway, with Viceroy escorting nine minesweepers to Trondheim, arriving there on 17 May and visiting Bergen on 9 June.

Mackay was allocated by BISCO to Metal Industries for disposal on 18 February 1947 and scrapped at their Charlestown breaking yard from June 1949.

Commanding Officers

With acknowledgment to the Dreadnought Project and Unithistories.com

Capt Dashwood F. Moir (6 May, 1919 – 7 July, 1919)
Capt Aubrey T. Tillard (7 July, 1919 – 9 July, 1920)
Cdr Hugh D. Colville (9 July, 1920 – June, 1921)
Capt Dashwood F. Moir (6 July, 1921– 15 Jan 1923 - Captain (D) 4DF)
Capt Sidney R. Bailey (5 January – 15 Jan 1925 as Captain (D) 4DF, later 8DF and 9DF)
Capt Lewis G. E. Crabbe (15 Jan 1925 – 4 July, 1926)
Lt Cdr John Henry Jauncey (29 March 1926 - Feb 1927)
(and as Captain (D), 9DF, then of 7DF from 1 April, 1925)
Capt Evelyn C. O. Thomson (4 July, 1926 – 2 Dec 1926)
Capt Montague G. B. Legge (2 Dec 1926 – 6 April, 1927 and Captain (D), 7DF)
Capt John H. K. Clegg (6 April, 1927 – June, 1927 and Captain (D), 7DF)
Capt Lewis G. E. Crabbe (June, 1927 - and Captain (D), 5DF)
Capt Frank Elliott (16 Aug 1927 - and Captain (D), 5DF)
Lt Cdr Donald C. Brock (20 Feb 1928 – 21 Jan 1929)
Capt John H. K. Clegg ( – 7 Dec 1929 and Captain (D), S7DF tansfer from Montrose)
Capt Alan R. Dewar (16 Nov 1929 – 10 Dec 1931 and Captain (D), 1DF)
Capt Edward B. Cloete (Dec 1931 – Dec 1932 and Captain (D), 1DF)
Lt Cdr Frederick R. M. Johnson (30 March, 1932 – 23 April, 1932)
Capt Charles F. Harris, 2 January, 1933 – May, 1933 and Captain (D), 1DF)
Capt Philip E. Phillips (April, 1933 – Dec 1934 and Captain (S), 2DF)
Capt Geoffrey R. S. Watkins, (2 Dec 1934 – 1935 and Captain (S), 2SF)
Cdr William A. R. Cartwright (24 Sept 1935 – 29 June, 1936)
Capt Percival H. G. James (28 Sept 1938 – 9 Oct 1938 and Captain (D), 12DF)

Capt Philip L. Vian (3 Aug, 1939 – 26 Sept 1939 and Captain (D) 11DF)
Lt Cdr (retired) Ernest Adams (1 May, 1940 – 10 June, 1940)
Cde Graham H. Stokes (10 June 1940 – 15 Oct 1940)
Cdr Eric G. A. Clifford (15 Oct 1940 – late 1940)
Lt Cdr (ret) Ernest Adams (late 1940 – 25 Jan 1941)
Lit Cdr Ernest C. Coats (25 January, 1941 – 15 May, 1941)
Capt Thomas E. Halsey (15 May, 1941 – 16 Sept 1941 and Captain (D), 16DF)
Capt John P. Wright (16 Sept 1941 – 5 July, 1942)
Capt Selwyn V. Jephson (5 July 1942 – Aug 1942)
Lt I/C James B. Marjoribanks (22 Aug 1942 – 29 Sept 1942)
Capt Selwyn V. Jephson (29 Sept 1942 - 15 Nov 1943)
Cdr Richard F. Jessel (15 Nov 1943 – mid 1944)
Lt I/C James W. Cortlandt-Simpson (mid 1944 – June, 1944)
Capt Jocelyn S. C. Salter (June, 1944 – October, 1944)
Cdr (ret) Walter J. Phipps (1 Dec 1944 – mid 1945)

Officers

Further names from the Navy List will be added later.

Lt Herbert Jack Lee (22 Feb - Oct 1944)
Lt Cdr John Wentworth McCoy (31 Dec 1934 - July 1935)

Lt Cdr Anthony Follett Pugsley (1 May 1931 - Jan 1933)
Lt Sir Geoffrey William Vavasour, 5th Baronet, of Haslewood, Yorkshire (1 Sept 1941 - Aug 1942)
Mid / Sub Lt Cedric Collinwood Wake-Walker (Oct 1941 - Feb 1942)
Lt Basil Chrystie Ward (14 Aug 1941 - 15 Dec 1942)

Members of the V & W Destroyer Assoociation
The veterans did not regard the Flotilla Leaders as true V & Ws as they were larger to accommodate the additional staff required by Captain (D)
As far as is known non of the officers and men who served in HMS Mackay or any of the Flotilla Leaders with the exception of HMS Wallace were members of the V & W Destroyer Association
But the Association was proud to have Prince Philip as its Patron and since he served as First Lieutenant in HMS Wallace her veterans were encouraged to join

The Liberation of Norway

HMS Mackay at Trondheim, Norway, in My 1945

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