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Halcyon Class Fleet Minesweepers.
Built to replace the WW1 ships of the Hunt and Aberdare types, these were
full warships with steam turbine machinery. Because of this the design was
unable to be mass produced. The fine tolerances required for producing the
turbine blades could only be done in a few places. Those manufactories were
taken up with all the work they could handle with major warship construction.
The dozen ships completed between 1934 and 1940 proved an excellent investment.
As well as their primary duties as minesweepers these tough little ships were
attached to Arctic Convoys so that the approaches to Murmansk and Archangel
could be swept ahead of the convoy as it entered port. Both Russian and German
mines were likely to be encountered in supposedly swept areas.
The original basic armament was two low angle 4", the later members of the class
were completed with high angle 4" and some of the earlier ships were upgraded to
the later standard. Close range AA was originally 4x0.5" Vickers in a quad mount
and four 0.5" Browning machine guns in single mounts. From 1940 the AA guns went
to one twin 20mm and four single 20mm.