A NAME BOARD FROM THE WORLD WAR II VETERAN BATTLESHIP H.M.S. DUKE OF YORK (1940)

the ¾in. deep polished brass red-sided lettering secured to D-ended wooden display board with iron suspension hooks behind -- 21 x 149in. (53.5 x 378.5cm.)

Provenance: Ex-Ferrers-Walker Collection; Formerly on loan to the Royal Navy Museum, Portsmouth

The sixth ship to bear this name, Duke of York was a King George V Class battleship built by John Brown & Co. Commissioned in November 1941, the next month she carried Winston Churchill to the United States for the first Anglo-American staff meeting. After supporting some convoys and Operation Torch, she returned to Arctic waters providing distant cover for convoy JW55B when, on 26th December 1943, the cruisers Norfolk, Belfast and Sheffield began shadowing the commerce raiding battlecruiser Scharnhorst. With hard steaming, Duke of York commenced accurate fire with 14in. shells about 20 minutes after Norfolk's initial salvos had knocked out her radar and denied her the range and weight advantage she had. Joined by Jamaica, Scharnhorst was hit at least 13 times before getting out of range, but a lucky shell from Duke of York, fired at over 18,000 yards (about ten miles) plunged into her boilers and, for about twenty minutes, her speed was reduced from 26kts to 10kts - enough time for destroyers to manouver and launch a torpedo attack, four of which struck home. The Duke of York and Jamaica closed range and subjected Scharnhorst to withering fire. Fifteen minutes later, with a further eight torpedoes finding their mark, Scharnhorst exploded and sank with the loss of 1,803 crew only 36 survived. Duke of York remained in Arctic waters until September 1944 before joining the Pacific Fleet, taking part in the bombardment of the Japanese home islands in August 1945. Placed in reserve in 1949, she was scrapped at Faslane in 1958.

This lot will be available for viewing at Imperial Road