Small naval unit losses and damage

Update: on 21-6-09 I completed a full trawl of Naval History Net and now have considerably more confidence in the completeness of this list.

The constant convoy battles either on the Italy/Greece to Libya or the Alexandria to Tobruk routes took a severe toll on smaller units on both sides. This list is probably not complete – I have tried to ignore losses in the western Med, and in Greek waters, since these would not have been directly relevant to the North African convoy battle. I will eventually also add merchant shipping losses for the period. Sources are the two excellent sites Naval History Net and the Chronik Seekrieg site at the Landesbibliothek Stuttgart.

I think that these losses show quite clearly the commitment that the Regia Marina had to the convoys and the supply of Axis forces in North Africa. Something that is often not appreciated by those who think that the Italians were not pulling their weight. Also note that any aerial torpedo losses or damage to Royal Navy vessels are almost certainly due to Italian aircraft.

The list does not include very minor damage that did not take ships out of commission, or damage/sinkings caused by collisions with friendly ships.

Italian Regia Marina/German Kriegsmarine

Destroyer

• Fulmine (lost, surface engagement, 8/9 Nov 41)*
• Libecco (lost, sub torpedo, 9 Nov 41)*
• Euro (damaged, surface engagement, 8/9 Nov 41)*
• Grecale (damaged, surface engagement, 8/9 Nov 41)*
• Aviere (damaged, submarine torpedo, 19 Nov 41)**
• Alvise da Mosto (lost, surface engagement, 1 Dec 41)***

Escort Destroyer/Torpedo Boat

• Alcione (total constructive loss after beaching, following damage by sub torpedo, 11 Dec 41)

Mine Hunter/Mine Layer

• Zirona (damaged/beached, air attack, 25 Nov 41)

Submarines

• Saint Bon (lost, sub torpedo, 4 Jan 42)****
• Caracciolo (lost, depth charges, 11 Dec 41)*****
• U557 (lost, rammed in error by Italian escort destroyer, 16 Dec 41)******
• U451 (lost,sunk by aircraft depth charge off Tangiers, 21 Dec 41)
• U79 (lost, depth charges, 23 Dec 41)
• U75 (lost, depth charges, 28 Dec 41)
• U374 (lost, sub torpedo, 12 Jan 42)*******
• U577 (lost, aircraft depth charge, 15 Jan 41 off Mersa Matruh)********

Auxiliary Warships

• Adriatico (lost, surface engagement with Force K, 1 Dec 41)
• Cittá di Palermo (lost, sub torpedo, 5 Jan 42)

* All four destroyers lost/damaged during the battle of the Duisburg convoy, by Force K operating out of Malta.

**The attack was carried out by Polish sub ORP Sokol while Aviere lay in the harbour of Navarino. Avier probably did not suffer too much damage.

*** Sunk by Force K while attempting to defend her charge, the large tanker Iridio Mantovani. Her commander received the Gold Medal of Military Valour for this action.

****Sunk on a supply mission to North Africa.

*****Sunk on return from a supply mission to Bardia.

******On return from the attack that sank HMS Galatea.

*******She was first depth-charged on 10 January by HMS Legion and HMNS Isaac Sweers, and damaged to an extent that did not allow her to dive anymore. In this condition she ran into HMS Unbeaten, which sank her two days later.

********The successful attack was made by a Swordfish of 815 Squadron FAA. It was previously thought that a Sunderland of RAF 230 Squadron sank her on 9 Jan. Instead, this attack hit U568 causing only minor damage. See here.

Commonwealth/Royal Navy

Destroyer

• HMS Jackal (severely damaged, aerial torpedo, 30 November 41)
• HMS Kandahar (lost, mine, 19 Dec 41)*
• HMS Jervis (damaged, frogmen, 19 Dec 41)**
• HMS Kimberley (severely damaged, sub torpedo, 12 Jan 42)***
• HMS Ghurka (lost, sub torpedo, 17 Jan 41)****

Sloop

• HMAS Parramatta (lost, sub torpedo, 27 Nov 41)
• HMS Flamingo (severely damaged, air attack, 7 Dec 41)*****

Corvette

• HMS Salvia (K97 – a Flower-class) (lost with all hands and about 100 rescued from merchant Shutien while on Tobruk run, sub torpedo from U-568, 24 Dec 41)

Other units/Auxiliaries

• HMS Chakdina (sunk, aerial torpedo, 5 Dec 41)******
• HMS Chantala (sunk, mine, 7 Dec 41)
• HMS Glenroy (damaged, aereal torpedo, 23 Nov 41)*******
• HMS Sotra (mine-sweeping whaler) (lost with all hands 80m east off Tobruk, sub torpedo from U-431, 29 Jan 41)

Submarines

• P.31/HMS Uproar (damaged, air attack, 14 Jan 41)
• N.36/HMS Perseus (lost, mine, 7 Dec 41)
• N.18/HMS Triumph (lost, causes unknown, 31 Dec 41)

*Lost in the same minefield as HMS Neptune

**Secondary damage from the explosion of a tanker in Alexandria harbour during the Xa MAS attack.

***Her stern was blown off by the explosion, and she would only return to duty in early 1944.  She was one of only two K-Class destroyers to survive the war.

****This was the second HMS Ghurka, the first one having been lost on 19 April 1940 off Norway.  She was torpedoed by U133, which was in turn attacked by HMS Maori, but suffered only light damage.

*****She would only return to duty in 1944.

******HMS (or sometimes SS) Chakdina (3,033 GRT) was an armed boarding vessel commandeered by the Royal Navy and acting as a hospital ship (my guess is not as an official hospital ship however). She was sunk shortly after leaving Tobruk by attack from an Italian S.79 torpedo bomber. She carried a large number of wounded and POW, many of whom died when she sank in just three minutes. One of the POWs was German general von Ravenstein, former commander of 21. Panzerdivision. He survived. HMS Chakdina and Chantala belonged to the same owner before the war. You can see a picture of the similar HMS Chakla under air attack in Tobruk harbour at this link. Armed Boarding Vessels were a kind of armed merchant cruiser, usually armed with obsolete guns. In the case of Chakdina, Chantala, and Chakla, they were used for transporting troops and stores in and out of Tobruk, and all of them were lost on the Tobruk Run.

*******HMS Glenroy was a large infantry landing ship, originally a fast freighter belonging to the Glen Line, with a deckload of caiques (traditional trading vessels of the Med) for Tobruk harbour.  She was so severely damaged that she had to be beached for a few days off Mersa Matruh, before it was possible to bring her into Alexandria. You can read a first-hand story of her ordeal at this link.