SHIPS PENNANT NUMBERS 17/06/2011 Please Email Any
SHIPS PENNANT NUMBERS The Royal Navy Pennant Numbering System Pennant, or Pendant, numbers were introduced to help to abbreviate signalling and to help make signals more secure, they also served to clear up confusion between ships with similar names and as an aid in identifying ships visually, particularly where ships of the same classification were grouped in a Squadron. During the war, many ships were transferred between Commonwealth and Allied Navies. Where this did occur, the ship usually kept the same Pennant Number (even though the ships name may well have changed). If a ship was sunk in action, it was usual for the Pennant Number of that ship to be allocated to the next ship to be launched. Renaming of ships was also regularly carried out. During and after the war, some ships had received up to three or four changes of Flag Superior, with many destroyers changing from F to G in 1940, then to L, and later to R, and finally to D after the war. Usually, ships of the same Classification were grouped under the same Flag Superior, although this wasn’t always the case. Due to shear numbers of ships in the Second World War a greater number of Flag Superior allocations were in use. Today, the Flag Superior generally helps to identify the Class of ship, i.e. A – Auxiliaries, D = Destroyers, F = Frigates, R = Aircraft Carriers (A already in use for Auxiliaries), S = Submarine. Until the Second World War, it was usual for submarines to have only a Pennant Number and no name, Winston Churchill directed that all Submarines be named.
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