HMS Aphis

HMS Aphis
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Aphis
Namesake	Aphis
Builder	Ailsa Shipbuilding Company
Launched	15 September 1915
Motto	Hostibus hostis ("A Foe to our Foes")
Honours and awards	Mediterranean (1940-45) Libya (1940-42) Sicily (1943) Adriatic (1944) Southern France (1944)
Fate	Scrapped 1947
Badge	On a Field Gold, an Aphis green
General characteristics
Class and type	Insect-class gunboat
Displacement	625 long tons (635 t)
Length	237 ft 6 in (72.39 m)
Beam	36 ft (11 m)
Draught	4 ft (1.2 m)
Propulsion	2 × vertical triple expansion engines, 2,000 ihp (1,500 kW), 2 shafts
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	55
Armament	2 × BL 6-inch Mk VII guns 2 × 12-pounder guns 6 × .303-inch Maxim machine guns

HMS Aphis was a Royal Navy Insect-class gunboat. She was built by Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, launched on 15 September 1915 and completed in November 1915. She was based in Port Said at the beginning of World War I, served in Romania and then the China Station until 1940. All of her fighting service was in the Mediterranean, taking part in the invasion of Pantelleria and landings in the south of France, returning briefly to the Pacific in 1945. She was scrapped at Singapore in 1947. Her class was intended for shallow, fast flowing rivers and they also proved suitable for inshore operations when her relatively heavy weaponry could be used to support Army operations.

In February 1942 after a successful Warship Week National Savings campaign, Aphis was adopted by the civil communities of Warminster and Westbury in Wiltshire.^[1]