RFA Dewdale (A151)


RFA Dewdale (1940) as Landing Ship Gantry
Career
Name: RFA Dewdale
Builder: Cammell Laird
Laid down: 1939
Launched: 1941
Commissioned: 14 June 1941
Decommissioned: 6 May 1959
Fate: Arrived Antwerp for scrapping, 23 December 1959
General characteristics
Class and type: Dale-class fleet tanker
Displacement: 16,782 long tons (17,051 t)
Length: 483 ft (147 m)
Beam: 59 ft 6 in (18.14 m)
Draught: 27 ft 6 in (8.38 m)
Propulsion: 1 × 8-cylinder B&W diesel, 502 nhp, 1 shaft
Speed: 11.5 knots (13.2 mph; 21.3 km/h)
Complement: 70
Service record
Operations: World War II
Operation Torch
Operation Tiderace

RFA Dewdale (A151) was a Dale-class fleet tanker and landing ship (gantry) of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

Taken over by the Admiralty and completed as a Landing Ship Gantry carrying 15 LCMs with accommodation for 150 military personnel. Her landing craft were in the first assault waves during the North African landings in 1943. Credited with shooting down two Ju 88s at Bougie, she was later damaged by bombing at Algiers and returned to UK for repairs in October 1944. Later in the war she served in the eastern Mediterranean and with the Eastern Fleet during the Malaya Landings.

Reconverted to a tanker at Portsmouth by March 1947, she resumed freighting duties before being sold to Netransmar Cie. SA for scrap in 1959.

References