HMS ''Auckland'' (L61) was an

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

built for the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. She was active during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and was employed as a convoy escort and

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...

vessel. ''Auckland'' was sunk in an air attack in the eastern

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

in June 1941.

Construction

''Auckland'' was ordered on 5 March 1937 from

William Denny and Brothers William Denny and Brothers Limited, often referred to simply as Denny, was a Scottish shipbuilding company. History The shipbuilding interests of the Denny family date back to William Denny (born 1779), for whom ships are recorded being built ...

, of Dumbarton, as part of the 1936 construction programme, and was laid down there on 16 June 1937. Originally named ''Heron'', she was renamed ''Auckland'' when launched on 30 June 1938. She was designed as a general-purpose vessel, and intended for use as a

survey ship A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for underwater surveys, usually to collect data for mapping or planning underwater construction or mineral extraction. It is a type of research vessel, and may be designed for the purpo ...

around

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. However, with the approach of war, ''Auckland'' was modified during her construction for service as a convoy escort and anti-submarine warfare ship. She was completed on 16 November 1938.G Mason
HMS ''Auckland''
/ref>

Service history

At the outbreak of the Second World War, ''Auckland'' was stationed at Simonstown in South Africa. She was briefly employed in hunting for raiders in the South Atlantic before returning to the UK with convoy SL 9. In January 1940 ''Auckland'' was stationed at Rosyth, serving as escort to east coast convoys in the North Sea. In April ''Auckland'' took part in Operation Primrose, a planned landing in Norway, and later assisted in the evacuation of troops from Namsos and Andalsnes. In May ''Auckland'' was transferred to the Mediterranean for service in the Red Sea. After a refit she served as a convoy escort in the Red Sea, and in October was involved in the action around convoy BN 7. After a further refit in January 1941 ''Auckland'' joined the Mediterranean fleet. In April she was involved in an action in the

Kasos Kasos (; el, Κάσος, ), also Casos, is a Greek island municipality in the Dodecanese. It is the southernmost island in the Aegean Sea, and is part of the Karpathos regional unit. The capital of the island is Fri. , its population was 1,22 ...

strait, defending a troop convoy against an attack by Italian destroyers. In May she was escorting convoys to

Tobruk Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near th ...

, which was

under siege ''Under Siege'' is a 1992 American action thriller film directed by Andrew Davis, written by J. F. Lawton, and starring Steven Seagal as a former Navy SEAL who must stop a group of mercenaries, led by Tommy Lee Jones, after they commandeer the ...

by Axis forces in North Africa.

Fate

On 24 June 1941 ''Auckland'' was in company with Australian sloop , escorting the oiler ''Pass of Balmaha'' to Tobruk. In the evening of 24 June they were attacked by Axis aircraft. ''Auckland'' was hit several times and wrecked; her crew abandoned ship and she sank, with the loss of 36 of her 198 crew. Most of the 162 survivors from her crew were saved by ''Parramatta''.O'Hara p124

Notes

References

* * * * * Vincent O’Hara : ''The Struggle for the Middle Sea'' (2009) * *

Stephen Roskill Captain Stephen Wentworth Roskill, (1 August 1903 – 4 November 1982) was a senior career officer of the Royal Navy, serving during the Second World War and, after his enforced medical retirement, served as the official historian of the Royal ...

: ''The War at Sea: vol I'' (1954)

External links

HMS ''Auckland''
at uboat.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Auckland, HMS Egret-class sloops Maritime incidents in June 1941 1938 ships Ships sunk by German aircraft World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea