Allied Warships

HMS Varanga (FY 1625)

MS Trawler

NavyThe Royal Navy
TypeMS Trawler
Class[No specific class] 
PennantFY 1625 
Built byCook, Welton & Gemmill (Beverley, U.K.) 
Ordered 
Laid down 
Launched14 Mar 1929 
CommissionedAug 1939 
End service 
History

Completed on 25 April 1929.
Taken over by the Admiralty in August 1939.
Displacement: 361 tons.

Returned to her owner in Novmeber 1945.
Renamed Red Crusader in 1946.
Scrapped at Bruges, Belgium on 9 April 1955.

 

Commands listed for HMS Varanga (FY 1625)

Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

CommanderFromTo
1T/Skr. Charles Dennay, RNR2 Mar 19402 Apr 1940
2Lt. George Clement Crowley, RN2 Apr 1940mid 1942
3T/Skr. Frank Stephen Gleeson, RNRmid 194224 May 1943
4A/Skr.Lt. William Eric Patterson, RNR24 May 1943mid 1945

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Notable events involving Varanga include:


11 Dec 1940
HMS Varanga (T/Lt. G.C. Crowley, RNVR) picks up 25 survivors from the British passenger ship Rotorua that was torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat U-96 about 110 miles north-west of St. Kilda in position 58°56'N, 11°20'W.

29 Jan 1944
HMS Varanga picked up Sgt S.C.B.Parker [RAF] from the North Sea. He was one of four crew from a Halifax returning from a bombing run to Berlin. They had bailed out and were picked up by three minesweeping trawlers. The other two were HMS Prospect and HMS Property. They were in a group anchored 10 miles off the Wash. These four men were the only ones to survive out of a crew of seven from 431 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force flying out of RAF station Croft. (1)

Sources

  1. Personal communication

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