HMS Hursley (L84)

HMS ''Hursley'' was a Second World War Type II Hunt-class escort destroyer of the British Royal Navy. She is the only Royal Navy ship to have carried this name. Hursley is a village in Hampshire. Commissioned in 1942, she served in the Mediterranean, before being transferred to the Hellenic Navy in November 1943 and renamed ''Kriti''. She took part in the landings in Sicily, Anzio, and southern France, and remained in Greek service until 1959.

Design and construction

''Hursley'' was ordered with 15 others of the same type on 20 December 1939 as part of the War Emergency Programme. The Hunts were meant to fill the Royal Navy's need for a large number of small destroyer-type vessels capable of both convoy escort and operations with the fleet. The Type II Hunts differed from the earlier ships in having increased beam in order to improve stability and carry the ships' originally intended armament.

''Hursley'' was long between perpendiculars and overall. The ship's beam was and draught . Displacement was standard and under full load. Two Admiralty boilers raising steam at and fed Parsons single-reduction geared steam turbines that drove two propeller shafts, generating at 380 rpm. This gave a speed of . Fuel capacity was of oil, giving a design range of (although in service use, this dropped to ).

The ship's main gun armament was six 4 inch (102 mm) QF Mk XVI dual purpose (anti-ship and anti-aircraft) guns in three twin mounts, with one mount forward and two aft. Additional close-in anti-aircraft armament was provided by a quadruple 2-pounder "pom-pom" mount and two single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon mounted in the bridge wings. Power-operated twin 20 mm Oerlikon mounts replaced the single Oerlikons during the war. Up to 110 depth charges could be carried. The ship had a complement of 168 officers and men.

''Hursley'' was laid down by Swan Hunter at Wallsend on 21 December 1940 as Admiralty Job No. J4139, launched on 25 July 1941, and completed on 2 April 1942. She was the first ship named ''Hursley'' to serve with the Royal Navy.

Service history

HMS ''Hursley''

After sea trials ''Hursley'' sailed for Scapa Flow for training. She formed part of the Home Fleet covering force for the Arctic convoy PQ 15 from Iceland to Murmansk and for the simultaneous west-bound convoy QP 11 in late April to early May 1942. Assigned to the Eastern Fleet, in May she joined the escort for Convoy WS 19 to Durban. There she was transferred to the 5th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean, owing to heavy losses in " Operation Vigorous", and sailed to Alexandria, Egypt, where she was deployed for flotilla duties in eastern Mediterranean.

On 29 August, ''Hursley'', along with and took part in bombardment operations against El Dabaa on the Egyptian coast. ''Eridge'' was hit by a torpedo from an Italian motor torpedo boat and badly damaged, being towed back to Alexandria by ''Aldenham''. ''Hursley'' was returning from the operation when she was attacked by enemy aircraft and near missed by a bomb, causing minor damage. ''Hursley'' was under repair for 10 days. On 12–14 September 1943, ''Hursley'' took part in "Operation Agreement", a combined operations raid on the port of Tobruk. ''Hursley'', as part of the 5th Flotilla, accompanied the anti-aircraft cruiser in a covering force. The destroyers and would land 350 troops at Tobruk, with a further 150 being landed by 18 Motor Torpedo Boats and 3 launches, while a land-based column would also attack the town. The operation proved to be a disaster, however. On the morning of 14 September, ''Sikh'' was badly damaged by shore fire while attempting to land her troops, and attempts by ''Zulu'' to tow her away failed, with ''Zulu'' being hit several times and ''Sikh'' being scuttled. ''Hursley''s force was attacked by dive bombers as it was going to the assistance of ''Zulu'', and ''Coventry'' was badly hit by bombs, and her crew forced to abandon ship. and ''Hursley'' were ordered to scuttle the wreck of ''Coventry'' with gunfire, while the remaining ships of the Flotilla, which were short of fuel and laden with survivors of ''Coventry'', returned to Alexandria. These attempts failed, and the two Hunts were then joined by ''Zulu'', which then sank ''Coventry'' with torpedoes, before the three destroyers set course for base. The force came under sustained air attack, and ''Zulu'' was hit by a bomb and disabled. ''Hursley'' took ''Zulu'' in tow, but ''Zulu'' sank after sunset.

In October ''Hursley'' carried out two diversionary operations in support of the 8th Army operations " Lightfoot" and "Supercharge" during the battle of El Alamein. On 17 November she was deployed for the defence of the Malta relief Convoy MW 13 in " Operation Stone Age", coming under air attack, but arriving safely on the 19th, and returned to Alexandria on the 21st.

On 14 January 1943, while part of the escort for convoy ME 15, ''Hursley'' and the destroyer sank the , which was returning to Italy from delivering ammunition and fuel to Tripoli. The submarine was carrying 11 British prisoners of war. 28 Italians and 8 of the prisoners died in the sinking. On 19 February, ''Hursley'' was part of the escort for the Alexandria–Tripoli Convoy XT 3, when a Vickers Wellington bomber of 38 Squadron Royal Air Force spotted the German submarine at periscope depth north-east of Benghazi. The destroyer was summoned from the convoy, but failed to get a sonar contact, as did , the senior ship of the convoy's escort. ''Hursley'' was then ordered to join ''Isis'' to carry out a prolonged hunt for the submarine while ''Derwent'' returned to the convoy. After about an hour, ''Hursley'' detected the submarine with her sonar, and the two destroyers carried out a series of depth charge attacks, during which ''U-562'' briefly surfaced and was seen to have a "badly buckled" conning tower. In all, the two destroyers dropped 59 depth-charges in nine separate attacks before sonar contact was lost, and the two destroyers and the Wellington bomber were later credited with ''U-562''s destruction. There were no survivors from the submarine.

Later that month, ''Hursley'' transferred to the 22nd Destroyer Flotilla, continuing convoy defence and support duties into April. In May she was deployed in " Operation Retribution", part of the blockade positioned in the Cap Bon area to intercept vessels evacuating enemy troops from North Africa. On 12 May she took part in a landing operation on the Tunisian island of Zembra with ''Aldenham'' and Hellenic Navy ship ''Kanaris'', returning to Malta with captured enemy personnel.

After usual escort and support duties, in July she joined Support Force East as an escort for assault convoys and in support of landings during the Allied invasion of Sicily ("Operation Husky"). ''Hursley'' was attached to Escort Group R, and on 6 July sailed from Alexandria as part of the escort for the fast Convoy MWF 36, arriving at the "Acid" invasion beaches south of Syracuse on 7 July, before returning to Alexandria the next day to escort the follow-up Convoy MWS 36, which left Alexandria on 9 July and arrived at Syracuse on 13 July.

In September ''Hursley'' was attached to the Levant Flotilla to support military operations in the Dodecanese Campaign to occupy various Italian-occupied Greek islands after the armistice with Italy. On the night of 16/17 October 1943, ''Hursley'', together with the destroyers , and the Greek , carried out a search for a German convoy. They found the convoy after it had reached Kalymnos harbour, with ''Hursley'' and ''Miaoulis'' entering the harbour to attack the convoy, while the other two ships remained outside. ''Hursley'' and ''Miaoulis'' sank the German submarine chaser and the barge ''F338'' and badly damaged the transport . In return, ''Hursley'' was hit by a single German shell that caused a hole in the ship's port side and caused a minor fire. ''Trapani'' was sunk by ''Penn'' and ''Jervis'' the next night.

''Kriti''

On 2 November 1943, ''Hursley'' was transferred to the Royal Hellenic Navy and renamed ''Kriti'' ("Crete"). Despite her new name and new crew, the ship remained part of the 22nd Destroyer Flotilla. In January 1944 she was assigned to duties escorting convoys from North Africa to Naples. She was attached to the Southern Attack Force ("Force X") to support the landing by the U.S. VI Corps, forming part of the escort force. On 21 January she sailed from Naples, arriving at the beachhead on 22 January. ''Kriti'' remained at Anzio into February providing defence for military convoys and fire support for ground troops.

From March to July she returned to normal flotilla duties while based at Algiers, then in August took part in "Operation Dragoon", the invasion of Southern France. She sailed from Naples on 12 August as part of the escort of Convoy SF2, which comprised 38 LCIs, arriving at "Delta Beach" (Saint-Tropez) two days later.

''Kriti'' resumed her usual duties in September, but was transferred to the British Aegean Force to support military operations to re-occupy the Aegean islands and Greek mainland. She was engaged in supporting military operations in the Aegean until the end of the war in Europe in May 1945.

After V-E Day she was transferred on loan to the Royal Hellenic Navy and remained there until 12 December 1959 when she reverted to Royal Navy control and was placed on the Disposal List.

Notes

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hursley (L84)
Hunt-class destroyers of the Royal Navy
Ships built by Swan Hunter
Ships built on the River Tyne
1941 ships
Hunt-class destroyers of the Hellenic Navy
World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom