HMS Aldenham

HMS ''Aldenham'' (pennant number L22) was an escort destroyer of the Type III . The Royal Navy ordered its construction in July 1940. Upon completion in February 1942, she was deployed to convoy escort duty. ''Aldenham'' is one of the ships credited with the sinking of the on 27 March 1942. After circumnavigating Africa, she joined the Mediterranean Fleet, escorting convoys between Alexandria, Malta and Tobruk. She took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily, landings at Salerno and Anzio, the Dodecanese campaign and Operation Dragoon before being assigned to the Adriatic campaign.

On 14 December 1944, ''Aldenham'' was sunk by a naval mine in the Adriatic Sea off Pag Island after she led a Royal Navy force in a bombardment mission against targets on the island of Pag and near the town of Karlobag in support of the Yugoslav Partisans. Although the rest of the force came to pick up survivors, cold weather and severe damage to ''Aldenham'' permitted the rescue of only 63 of her crew. Her wreck, broken in two by the explosion, was discovered in 1999–2000. The wreck has been declared a war grave, where 126 crew members and two partisans aboard ''Aldenham'' at the time of the mining died. She was the last Royal Navy destroyer lost in World War II.

Design and construction

''Aldenham'' was a Royal Navy Type III Hunt-class destroyer. She had an overall length of , a beam of and a maximum draught of . ''Aldenham'' had a standard displacement of , and a full load of . Her two Parsons geared steam turbines drove two propeller shaft. Steam was supplied by two Admiralty three-drum water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at and gave ''Aldenham'' a speed of during sea trials, but she achieved up to on deployments.

''Aldenham'' was armed with four quick-firing Mk XVI naval guns on twin mounts, four anti-aircraft QF 2-pounder naval guns and three Oerlikon 20 mm cannons. She also had two torpedo tubes, and 70–100 depth charges deployed by four throwers and two chutes.

The ship was ordered on 4 July 1940. She was laid down by Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead on 22 August 1940 as construction project J 3766. ''Aldenham'' was launched on 27 August 1941 and completed on 5 February 1942.

Service

''Aldenham'' (Lieutenant Alex Stuart-Menteth) and its crew of 170 completed brief training at Scapa Flow before deploying for the first time on 21 March 1942, as a part of an Escort Group assigned to the convoy WS 17 sailing to the Cape of Good Hope. On 27 March, ''Aldenham'', together with the ''Leamington'', and , sank ''U-587'' in the North Atlantic, due west of Ushant, France.

Circumnavigating Africa and transiting the Suez Canal accompanied by ''Grove'', ''Aldenham'' joined the 5th Destroyer Flotilla in the Battle of the Mediterranean. She escorted 14 convoys there, protecting shipping between Alexandria, Malta and Tobruk. On 29 August 1942, she was assigned coastal bombardment duties, including the area of El Daba. Sources disagree which ships took part in the bombardment of El Daba itself. According to Jürgen Rohwer, ''Aldenham'' and were the only ships involved, while Paul Kemp places ''Eridge'' at the scene supported by fellow destroyers and . ''Aldenham'' towed ''Eridge'' back to Alexandria after the latter ship was disabled by an Italian MTSM motor torpedo boat during the bombardment.

''Aldenham'' was a part of an Allied blockade off Cap Bon in May 1943 and escorted landing craft during the Allied invasion of Sicily in July and the Salerno landings in September that year. She assisted removing wounded when ''Eskimo'' was attacked and hit by the ''Luftwaffe'' on 15 July. ''Aldenham'' also took part in failed Dodecanese Campaign of 1944, when she sustained minor damage in an aircraft attack. After repairs in Alexandria, ''Aldenham'' saw action in Operation Shingle off Anzio, Italy, and escorted convoys between Oran, Algeria and Naples. She was based in Taranto in May, and transferred to Bari in June, before supporting Operation Dragoon, protecting landing craft off southern France. Afterwards, she sailed again to the Adriatic Sea, joining a Royal Navy flotilla fighting the Adriatic Campaign.

The Royal Navy Adriatic flotilla consisted of ''Aldenham'', , , , , , , and . In late November 1944, the flotilla, led by ''Aldenham'' under Commander James Gerald Farrant, intercepted and captured German hospital ship ''Bonn'' (ex-Yugoslav steamship ''Šumadija''). She and ''Atherstone'' bombarded German units deployed to the island of Rab on 9 December. The bombardment was in support of Yugoslav Partisans advance north along the eastern coast of the Adriatic, capturing the coast and islands from retreating German forces.

What became ''Aldenham''s final deployment began on 14 December 1944, when she and ''Atherstone'' sortied from a Royal Navy base at Ist Island and anchored off the western coast of Pag Island, north of Zadar, to bombard an artillery battery near Karlobag and other military targets on Pag. Because of poor visibility, the artillery observers on Pag directed destroyers to strike the Pag Island objectives first. Each destroyer fired 500 shells against bunkers and barracks on the island between 09:00 and 11:20. The town of Pag itself was targeted by the destroyers for an hour at 14:00, while ''Aldenham'' alone engaged the battery at Karlobag at approximately 13:00 and again before 15:00 as visibility improved, firing 200 shells against that target. At 15:00, the destroyers started their return to Ist with ''Aldenham'' in the lead and ''Atherstone'' following her at .

Sinking

As ''Aldenham'' was making a turn at a position north of the islet of Škrda, to sail between islands of Planik and Olib, she hit a mine that exploded under her engine room. The ship broke in two and her bow sank quickly, followed by her stern a little later, at 15:29. Cold weather hampered rescue efforts by ''Atherstone'' and accompanying Motor Launches ''ML 238'' and ''HDML 1162'', and only 58 seamen and five officers, including Farrant, were pulled out of the sea. 126 crewmen died, as well as a wounded partisan transported from Pag for medical treatment and a partisan liaison officer, Colonel Ivan Preradović. ''Aldenham'' was the last Royal Navy destroyer lost in World War II.

A portion of the surviving crew revisited the site on 14 December 1984, but the shipwreck was not located until 15 years later. In 1999, Italian wreck divers located a long bow section off Škrda. It lies on the port side, at a depth of , but it is normally obscured by silt stirred up by trawling further north in the Kvarner Gulf. The aft section of the ship was discovered in 2000 through testimony of a fisherman from Pag. It was found closer to Škrda, approximately away from the bow section. ''Aldenham''s boilers and propellers were still operating as the ship sank, and the section struck the silty seafloor at a depth of , with her keel on top. Her rudder is now at a depth of . The wreck was declared a British war grave, and forms a part of "the Ghost Fleet of Pag" together with wrecks of ''Kriegsmarine'' destroyer ''TA20'' (ex-Italian ''Audace''), corvettes ''UJ 202'' and ''UJ 208'' (ex-Italian ''Melpómene'' and ''Spingarda'') sunk in the action of 1 November 1944, and World War I wrecks of Austro-Hungarian steamships SS ''Albanien'' and SS ''Euterpe''.

Remembrance

Annual memorial services are held by the HMS Aldenham Association in Aldenham Church of St John The Baptist each December. The church contains a stained glass window dedicated to ''Aldenham'', and a Book of Remembrance is displayed in front of the stained glass window, along with a White Ensign. The stained glass window memorial was unveiled on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of sinking of ''Aldenham''.

Footnotes

References

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Further reading

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External links

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* – Contains image of the White Ensign inside the Church of St John The Baptist.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aldenham, HMS
Hunt-class destroyers of the Royal Navy
Ships built on the River Mersey
1941 ships
World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom
Ships sunk by mines
World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
Shipwrecks in the Adriatic Sea
Maritime incidents in December 1944
1999 archaeological discoveries