HMS Grenville (R97)

HMS "Grenville", pennant number R97, was the second ship of this name to serve with the Royal Navy in World War II. HMS "Grenville" and seven other U class destroyers were ordered as part of the Emergency Programme. She was launched at Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd., Wallsend-on-Tyne on 12 October, 1942 and commissioned on 27 May, 1943.

The Royal Navy's practice had been to name all destroyers of a class with names starting with the class letter, in this "U". However, the Royal Navy had reverted to an earlier practice of naming the flotilla leader after a promoninent historical seaman, in this case after Vice Admiral Sir Richard Grenville, an Elizabethan soldier and sailor.

Active service

In late August, 1943, "Grenville" and the Canadian destroyer HMCS "Athabaskan" formed the force covering anti-submarine sweeps by the Canadian 5th Support group, off north-west Spain. These ships were attacked by eighteen Dornier Do 217s using Henschel Hs293 A-1 glider bombs. "Athabaskan" was heavily damaged and HMS "Egret" was sunk with the loss of 194 of her crew. After this, the u-boat hunt was abandoned.

Later on, in September and October, "Grenville" was involved in a series of blockade runner sweeps along the French coast (Operation "Tunnel"). On 4th October, she joined in an action with enemy destroyers in which she was hit and suffered a small number of casualties. Later in October, during another of these sweeps, Grenville was with the cruiser HMS "Charybdis" and other destroyers in another, more disastrous, Operation "Tunnel" action against a blockade runner off the north coast of Brittany. In this operation, the cruiser HMS "Charybdis" and destroyer HMS "Limbourne" were sunk by German "Elbing"-class torpedo boats.

In November, "Grenville" joined the 24th Destroyer Flotilla and the Mediterranean Fleet. In the Mediterranean, she supported the Anzio landings, sunk an E-boat and destroyed a train near San Giorgio on the Adriatic Sea.

In May 1944, "Grenville" returned to Britain and in June took part in the landings in Normandy.

At the end of 1944, after a refit on the Humber, she left for the Indian Ocean where she joined operations against the Japanese. In January, 1945, "Grenville" and three other "U" class destroyers forming the 26th Destroyer Flotilla, escorted the British carrier force (Task Force 63) that became the British Pacific Fleet. After raids against Japanese installations on Sumatra, TF63 left for Okinawa, via Sydney, where there were air strikes on Japanese airfields in support of Operation Iceberg. Later, "Grenville" participated in the final raids on the Japanese home islands.

Post-war

Near the end of the Pacific war, several allied warships began to relay Australian programmes to surrounding areas on shortwave. "Grenville" was one of these heard relaying the commercial programmes from 2KY Sydney in January 1946.

HMS "Grenville" was used as an air training target vessel in October 1951. She collided with the Italian ship "Alceo", off Start Point, Devon. Three crewman on the "Grenville" died and another four were listed as missing.

In 1953 - 54, she was extensively converted and re-armed into a Type 15 frigate. She was subsequently fitted with a third mast carrying experimental air-search radar, prior to its operational use in "Invincible" class aircraft carriers.

"Grenville" was scrapped in 1983.

References

*cite book
last = Hill
first = Roger
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Destroyer Captain
publisher =
date =
location =
pages =
url =
doi =
id =
*cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = uboat.net
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4219.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2006-12-24
*cite web
last = Lewis
first = Gareth
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = WW2 People's War - HMS Grenville 1943 to 1945
work =
publisher = BBC
date =
url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/17/a2805617.shtml
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2006-12-24
*cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = H.M.S. Grenville
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.offshore-radio.de/fleet/grenville.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2006-12-24
*http://www.offshore-radio.de/fleet/grenville.htm