Dale - class oiler The Dale class were a class of replenishment oiler s taken up for service with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary , supporting the Royal Navy during the inter - war period . They went on to see action during the Second World War and supported British and allied fleet units in Cold War conflicts such as the Korean War . Class overview . The ships were eventually acquired in three batches . The first consisted of the acquisition of six tankers under construction for the British Tanker Company in 1937 . The tankers all had slightly different designs and dimensions , but had a deadweight capacity of 11 , 650 tons of fuel oil . These initial eight were supplemented with the purchase of two tankers under construction for Royal Dutch Shell in 1938 . These two new tankers were slightly larger and faster than their earlier class members . With the outbreak of the Second World War looming the Ministry of War Transport had ordered a number of new tankers to the designs used by the Royal Dutch Shell . Of these , ten were taken over by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary while under construction , and were subsequently incorporated into their Dale class . There were plans to take over an eleventh ship , to be named RFA " Eppingdale " , but this was not carried out and the vessel was retained by the Ministry of War Transport . All of the ships were named after English dales , and were identified with the suffix ' - dale ' in their names . Group I . The first group of six ships were under construction at a variety of yards when they were bought . Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd and Harland and Wolff built two each , while Cammell Laird and Co . and Lithgows each produced one . The ships saw active service during the war , in the Arctic , Atlantic and the Far East . " Aldersdale " was bombed and sunk while sailing as part of Convoy PQ 17 in 1942 , while " Boardale " was wrecked during the operations off Narvik in 1940 . " Abbeydale " was torpedoed in the Mediterranean and broke in half , but was later repaired , " Bishopdale " was nearly destroyed by a kamikaze attack in the Pacific , and " Broomdale " was accidentally torpedoed by at Trincomalee in 1944 . Those ships that survived the war remained in service with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary , with most being disposed of in the early 1960s . The longest - lived was " Bishopdale " , which despite being decommissioned in 1959 , was not scrapped until 1970 . Group II . The Royal Fleet Auxiliary made two further purchases the following year , when they acquired two tankers being built for Royal Dutch Shell at the yards of Harland and Wolff and the Blythswood Shipbuilding Company Ltd . These were taken into service as " Cairndale " and " Cedardale " . Entering service just prior to the outbreak of war , both ships went on to be heavily engaged . " Cairndale " made numerous voyages from Britain to the African coast before being torpedoed and sunk in the Eastern Atlantic in 1941 by the Italian submarine " Guglielmo Marconi " . " Cedardale " saw service in the Far East , and survived the war . She continued in service throughout the 1940s and 1950s , and was scrapped in 1960 . Group III . The third group was the largest of the Dale class . Ten new oilers that had been ordered by the Ministry of War Transport were acquired by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary to expand their capabilities . The first were ready for service in January 1939 , with the final ships being completed by mid - 1942 . As with their earlier sisters , all saw active service in a variety of theatres . U - boat s scored several kills among the third group , " Darkdale " and " Dinsdale " were both torpedoed and sunk in 1941 . " Denbydale " was badly damaged by Italian frogmen of the Decima Flottiglia MAS in harbour at Gibraltar in 1941 , and was written off . She did however continue in service throughout the war as a fuel and accommodation hulk , and was finally towed back to Britain for scrapping in 1955 . Three of the ships , " Derwentdale " , " Dewdale " and " Ennerdale " , were completed as Landing Ships ( Gantry ) and given light anti - aircraft armament . Now capable of deploying 250 troops aboard 15 LCMs , they initially took part in Operation Torch , and went on to see action at later allied amphibious landings in the Mediterranean and Pacific . All three survived the war , though " Ennerdale " was badly damaged by a magnetic mine in December 1945 , and were converted back into oilers . The survivors all continued in service until their increasing obsolescence led to their retirement from service in the late 1950s , with most having scrapped by the early 1960s .