HMS Walpole (I41): The Destroyer That Evacuated Dutch Diamonds Ahead of the Nazis

Built at Sunderland

HMS Walpole was built by Doxford Shipyard in Sunderland, ordered on 9 December 1916, laid down in May 1917, launched on 12 February 1918 and commissioned on 7 August 1918, an Admiralty W-class destroyer that arrived in the final months of the First World War.

Escaping IJmuiden With the Crown Jewels of Commerce

In May 1940, as German forces overran the Netherlands, Walpole took part in the evacuation of a substantial cargo of diamonds from the port of IJmuiden as part of Operation Amsterdam, a wartime intelligence operation to keep the city's industrial diamond stocks out of German hands. Lieutenant Commander H.G.

Bowerman had her carry the MI6 officer Montagu Chidson along with two representatives from the diamond trade, Willem Woltman and Jan Kors Smit, who together secured gems worth somewhere between half a million and two and a half million pounds at 1940 prices, a truly dramatic wartime episode that saw a Royal Navy destroyer pressed into service smuggling out both people and precious cargo just ahead of the advancing enemy.

Bombs, Mines, and the Atlantic Convoys

Walpole suffered bomb damage in July 1940 and further damage from a magnetic mine that October, requiring repairs that kept her out of action until April 1941. Once back in service, she carried out extensive convoy escort duty across the Atlantic, including the HX convoy series, and on the demanding Arctic route to northern Russia, supporting convoys including PQ 18 and QP 14.

Mined Off Flushing

On 6 January 1945, in the war's final winter, Walpole was heavily damaged by a mine off Flushing in the Netherlands, an explosion that killed two of her crew, a loss this account records with due respect. The damage was severe enough that she was declared a constructive total loss.

Sold for Scrap

HMS Walpole was sold to be broken up for scrap on 8 February 1945, just months before the war in Europe ended, bringing to a close the career of a destroyer whose service had ranged from smuggling diamonds out of occupied Holland to the icy convoy routes of the Arctic.