HMS Arethusa (26)

HMS "Arethusa" (26) was the name ship of her class of light cruisers built for the Royal Navy. She was built by Chatham Dockyard (UK), with the keel being laid down on 25 January 1933. She was launched on 6 March 1934, and commissioned 21 May 1935 by Captain Philip Vian.

History

"Arethusa" was assigned to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean on completion, and was still there at the onset of World War II in September 1939. However, early in 1940 she and her sister HMS "Penelope" were recalled to the Home Fleet, where they formed the 2nd Cruiser Squadron with the remainder of the class. She participated in the Norwegian campaign in April 1940, but on 8 May she joined the Nore Command, where she supported the defending forces in Calais and later aided the evacuations from French Atlantic ports.

On 28 June 1940 she was a component of the newly formed Force "H" at Gibraltar, with whom she participated in the action against Vichy French forces at Mers el Kebir in July 1940. With Force "H" she took part in convoy protection patrols in the Atlantic and operated in the Mediterranean.

During the Bismarck sortie in May 1941 she was employed in Iceland and Faroes waters, but by July she had returned to the Mediterranean, where she escorted Malta convoys and ran supply trips to the island herself. Towards the end of 1941 she returned to home waters and took part in the Lofoten raid in December, where she was damaged by near misses. After refit and repair at Chatham until April 1942, she returned to the Mediterranean in June 1942, where she joined the 15th Cruiser Squadron, operating mostly in support of the resupply of Malta.While on one such operation ("Stoneage"), she was struck by a torpedo from an Italian aircraft on 18 November 1942, but was towed into Alexandria with heavy casualties. Temporary repair work lasted until 7 February 1943, after which she proceeded to Charleston Navy Yard, Charleston, South Carolina, USA, for full repair. These were completed by 15 December 1943, and the ship then returned to Britain, but she did not become fully operational again until early June 1944, when she immediately sailed for the invasion of Normandy, forming part of Force "D" off Sword Beach. She had the honour of carrying King George VI across the channel to Normandy, when he toured the beaches and visited the allied command headquarters. By January 1945 she was part of the 15th Cruiser Squadron with the Mediterranean Fleet and stayed there until October 1945 when she returned to the United Kingdom and was immediately placed in the reserve (at the Nore).

There was a tentative plan to sell her to the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1946 but this came to nothing and she was placed in category 'B' reserve. Her class of ships were considered too small to be worth modernising, and "Arethusa" was used for trials and experiments in 1949 before being allocated to BISCO for disposal. She arrived at Cashmore's, Newport for breaking up, on 9 May 1950.

References

*Colledge
* [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4009.html HMS Arethusa at Uboat.net]
*S.V. Patyanin (С.В.Патянин), "Kreysera tipa Arethusa" (Крейсера типа «Аретьюза»), series Morskaya Kollektsya 6/2002 (in Russian)