1918–1939 After
acceptance trials and work-ups,
Whitley deployed in 1919 to the Baltic Sea, where she served in the
British campaign against
Bolshevik forces during the
Russian Civil War. She returned from the Baltic in 1920. In 1921, she was
decommissioned and placed in
reserve at
Rosyth,
Scotland, as part of the
9th Destroyer Flotilla. She recommissioned with a reserve crew on 23 November 1925.
Whitley commissioned at
Portsmouth on 14 December 1928 for service with the
5th Destroyer Flotilla in the
Atlantic Ocean. She recommissioned at Chatham on 8 May 1929 for service with the
1st Destroyer Flotilla in the
Mediterranean Sea. She was reduced to reserve at the
Nore on 30 June 1932, and paid into maintenance reserve at
Rosyth on 28 October 1933. In 1938,
Whitley was selected for conversion to an
anti-aircraft escort, and began conversion for her new role at
Chatham Dockyard in August 1938. Her conversion was completed in October 1938 and she was recommissioned in 1939.
World War II The United Kingdom entered
World War II in September 1939, and that month
Whitley was assigned to duty escorting
convoys in the
North Sea along the east coast of
Great Britain, which she continued through April 1940. While escorting
Convoy FN 12 from the
Thames Estuary to the
Forth Estuary on 12 January 1940, she assisted in driving off a
German air attack. In May 1940,
Whitley was transferred under the command of the
Commander-in-Chief, Dover, and was placed at the disposal of the
French Navy for operations in support of
Allied ground operations in
France and
Belgium. She was thus engaged on 19 May 1940 when a German
dive bomber attack badly damaged her off
Nieuwpoort, Belgium, forcing her to beach herself on the Belgian coast between Nieuwpoort and
La Panne to avoid sinking. To prevent her capture by advancing German ground forces, the British destroyer destroyed her with gunfire at position , leaving her wreck on the bottom in of water. ==Notes==