H.M.S. Onslow - St Peter & St Paul - Oxton, Nottinghamshire - Maritime Monuments and Memorials on Waymarking.com

A white ensign with associated shield shaped plaque in St Peter & St Paul's church, Oxton, dedicated to H.M.S. Onslow for operations in the Battle of the Barents Sea, 1942.

The plaque reads -
THIS ENSIGN
WAS FLOWN BY
H.M.S.ONSLOW
CAPTAIN ROBERT ST. VINCENT SHERBROOKE, D.S.O., R.N.
ALSO COMMANDING THE 17TH DESTROYER FLOTILLA
DURING AN ACTION IN THE BARENTS SEA
WHEN PROTECTING A CONVEY TO NORTH RUSSIA
ON 31ST DECEMBER 1942
THE ENEMY FORCE CONSISTING OF THE
GERMAN SHIPS DEUTSCHLAND, HIPPER AND
SEVERAL DESTROYERS WERE SUCCESSFULLY
DRIVEN OFF AND THE CONVOY REACHED
HARBOUR SAFELY
CAPTAIN SHERBROOKE
AN IMMEDIATE AWARD
OF THE VICTORIA CROSS

"HMS Onslow was an O-class destroyer flotilla leader of the Royal Navy. She was ordered from John Brown & Company at Clydebank, Glasgow on 3 September 1939. The ship was laid down on 1 July 1940 and launched on 31 March 1941. She was completed on 8 October 1941 at a cost of £416,942.

Service history -

Attached to the Home Fleet, Onslow served mostly as an escort to Arctic convoys. She also saw detached service in the Mediterranean during Operation Harpoon in 1942, and in the English Channel before and after the Normandy landings in mid-1944. Her most notable action was at the Battle of the Barents Sea in 1942, while escorting Convoy JW 51B to Russia. The convoy escorts held off attacks from the powerful German cruiser Admiral Hipper, with Onslow being heavily damaged and her captain, Robert Sherbrooke (visit link) , severely injured.

In August 1945, she attended the first British Navy week in a foreign port, in Rotterdam. Also there were the cruiser HMS Bellona, and the destroyer Garth as well as the submarine Tuna. Foreign vessels included two of the Dutch Navy submarines of the T-class, Dolfijn and Zeehond.

In November 1945 she was the headquarter ship for Operation Deadlight, helping move U-boats from Loch Ryan for scuttling off Bloody Foreland. She returned to the reserve at Devonport in 1947. In August 1947 she was a submarine target ship and anti-submarine trials ship at Portsmouth.

Pakistan service -

Decommissioned in October 1947, the ship was procured by the Pakistan Navy in 1949 and commissioned as PNS Tippu Sultan. In 1954 she underwent a refit at Malta. Between 1957 and 1959 she underwent conversion to a Type 16 frigate at Birkenhead. She served in the Pakistan Navy until 1979."

SOURCE - (visit link)

Battle of the Barents Sea - (visit link)

HMS ONSLOW (G 17) - O-class Flotilla Leader. Service history - (visit link)

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