HMS Decoy (H75)

Decoy in 1933
History
United Kingdom
Name	Decoy
Ordered	2 February 1931
Builder	John I. Thornycroft & Company, Southampton
Laid down	25 June 1931
Launched	7 June 1932
Commissioned	4 April 1933
Motto	Cave quod celo (Beware what I hide)
Honours and awards	Mediterranean 1940 Calabria 1940 Greece 1941 Crete 1941 Libya 1941–42 Malta Convoys 1941–42 Atlantic 1942
Fate	Transferred to RCN, 1 March 1943
Badge	On a Field Green, a Hawk's lure gold
Canada
Name	Kootenay
Acquired	1 March 1943
Commissioned	12 April 1943
Decommissioned	26 October 1945
Honours and awards	Atlantic 1943–45 English Channel 1944 Biscay 1944 Normandy 1944
Fate	Scrapped 1946
General characteristics
Class and type	D-class destroyer
Displacement	1,375 long tons (1,397 t) (standard) 1,890 long tons (1,920 t) (deep)
Length	329 ft (100.3 m) o/a
Beam	33 ft (10.1 m)
Draught	12 ft 6 in (3.8 m)
Installed power	36,000 shp (27,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 × shafts 2 × Parsons geared steam turbines 3 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Speed	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range	5,870 nmi (10,870 km; 6,760 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	145
Sensors and processing systems	ASDIC
Armament	4 × 1 - 4.7-inch Mk IX guns 1 × 1 - QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun 2 × 4 - QF .5 in (12.7 mm) Vickers Mk III AA machine guns 2 × 4 - 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 20 × depth charges, 1 rail and 2 throwers

HMS Decoy was a D-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. Ordered in 1931, the ship was constructed by John I. Thornycroft & Company, and entered naval service in 1933. Decoy was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet before she was transferred to the China Station in early 1935. She was temporarily deployed in the Red Sea during late 1935 during the Abyssinia Crisis, before returning to her duty station where she remained until mid-1939. Decoy was transferred back to the Mediterranean Fleet just before the Second World War began in September 1939. She briefly was assigned to West Africa for convoy escort duties in 1940 before returning to the Mediterranean. The ship participated in the Battles of Calabria without significant damage and escorted ships of the Mediterranean Fleet for most of the rest of the year.

Decoy assisted in the evacuations from Greece and Crete in April–May 1941. She began escorting supply convoys in June to Tobruk, Libya, until the ship was badly damaged in a collision in November. Repairs were not completed until February 1942 and Decoy was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean the following month. She remained there until September when she was ordered to return to Britain. The ship was refitted as an escort destroyer from November to April 1943 and transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy that same month as HMCS Kootenay. The ship was assigned to convoy escort duties in the mid-Atlantic for the rest of 1943 and early 1944. Kootenay was transferred back to British coastal waters in May to protect the build up for Operation Overlord. Together with other ships, she sank three German submarines between July and September. The ship was given a lengthy refit in Canada from October to February 1945 and returned to the English Channel in April to protect against any last-gasp efforts by the Kriegsmarine to interfere with Allied supply lines to the Continent. After the end of the war in May, Kootenay served as a troop transport in Canadian waters. She was placed in reserve in October and broken up in 1946.