HMS Onslow (G17)
1941 O and P-class destroyer
HMS Onslow was an O-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. The O-class were intermediate destroyers, designed before the outbreak of the Second World War to meet the likely demands for a large number of destroyers. They had a main gun armament of four 4.7 in (120 mm) guns, and had a design speed of 36 kn (41 mph; 67 km/h). Onslow was ordered on 2 October 1939 and was built by John Brown & Company at their Clydebank, Glasgow shipyard, launching on 31 March 1941 and completing on 8 October 1941.
Onslow served with the Home Fleet during the war, with a major activity being escorting Arctic Convoys to the Soviet Union. She sank the German submarine U-589 in September 1942 and in December that year took part in the Battle of the Barents Sea, while escorting Convoy JW 51B to Russia. The convoy escorts held off attacks from the powerful cruiser Admiral Hipper, with Onslow being severely damaged and her captain, Robert Sherbrooke, seriously injured. She also saw detached service in the Mediterranean, covering the Malta Convoy Operation Harpoon in June 1942, and protected invasion shipping in the English Channel from German attack during the Normandy landings in mid-1944.
The ship was sold to the Pakistan Navy in 1948 and was renamed Tippu Sultan. Tippu Sultan was converted to a Type 16 anti-submarine frigate from 1957 to 1959 and took part in the 1965 and 1971 wars with India, remaining in service until 1980.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “HMS Onslow (G17)” is 1941 O and P-class destroyer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Onslow, P-class and destroyer, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1941 O and P-class destroyer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4354790. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1941, 1942 and 1944.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “HMS Onslow (G17)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow HMS Onslow (G17) primary sources, HMS Onslow (G17) archive and Onslow research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “HMS Onslow (G17)”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “HMS Onslow (G17)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.