the war and replaced with a single QF 12 pdr A/A gun. They also landed 'Y' gun to receive additional space for depth charge gear and stowage. Generally, two 20 mm Oerlikons were added in the bridge wings and (when available) replaced the old 2 pounder guns amidships, 'A' gun was replaced by a Hedgehog weapon and Radar Type 271 target indication was added on the bridge, with Type 286 or 291 air warning fitted at the masthead as and when available. Walpole, Windsor, Witshed and Wivern received an army-pattern semi-automatic twin QF 6 pounder 10 cwt gun in 'A' position for East Coast anti-E boat work. The following vessels were short range escorts (one vessel was allocated a new pennant number in the L – escort – series): Venomous Vortigern Walpole Windsor (L94) Veteran Whitshed Wild Swan Wishart Witch Witherington Wivern Wolverine Unmodified escorts The remainder of the class were unaltered as all (except Worcester) were war losses during 1940 (one vessel was allocated a new pennant number in the L – escort – series): Venetia Wakeful (L91) Wessex Whirlwind Worcester Wren There remained also the quartet in the Royal Australian Navy – Vampire, Vendetta, Voyager and Waterhen – which simply had the aft bank of torpedo tubes replaced by a 12pdr A/A gun, and had 2 or 4 x 20mm A/A and 4 x .5in A/A guns added. V and W class in fiction HMS Viperous is the name of a fictional V and W-class destroyer in the novel The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat, the leader of an escort group including Compass Rose, the focus of the first part of the story. HMS Warlock is the name of the leader of a flotilla of eight fictional destroyers in the 1974 novel The Destroyers by Douglas Reeman. Seven of these are V and W-class destroyers (HMS Ventnor, HMS Victor, HMS Warden, HMS Warlock, HMS Waxwing, HMS Whiplash and HMS Whirlpool); the eighth, HMS Lomond, is explicitly described as being a newer and larger destroyer than the other seven. HMS Vagabond is the name of an apparently fictional V and W-class destroyer in the 1989 novel The Fighting Spirit by Charles Giddey (Wheeler) published by William Collins. In this book's fictionalised account of the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation at least 15 actual V and W class ships are mentioned. HMS Virtue and HMS Vagrant are the names of two fictional