HMS Apollo (M01)
HMS Apollo in August, 1945
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Apollo |
| Namesake: | Apollo |
| Ordered: | 1940 |
| Builder: | Hawthorn Leslie, Hebburn |
| Laid down: | 10 October 1941 |
| Launched: | 5 April 1943 |
| Completed: | 12 February 1944 |
| Commissioned: | 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 1946 |
| Recommissioned: | 1951 |
| Decommissioned: | 1961 |
| Identification: | pennant number M01/N01 |
| Motto: |
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| Honours and awards: |
NORMANDY 1944 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping, 1962 |
| Badge: | On a field Blue, a sun in splendour Gold |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Abdiel-class minelayer |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 418 ft (127 m) |
| Beam: | 40 ft (12 m) |
| Draught: | 16 ft (4.9 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph) |
| Range: | 1,000 nmi (1,900 km) at 38 kn (70 km/h; 44 mph) |
| Complement: | 242 |
| Armament: |
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| Service record | |
| Operations: | Operation Neptune |
HMS Apollo was an Abdiel-class minelayer of the Royal Navy, the eighth RN ship to carry the name. She served with the Home Fleet during World War II, taking part in the Normandy Landings before being transferred to the British Pacific Fleet. Put into reserve in 1946, she was recommissioned in 1951, serving until 1961, and was sold for scrapping in 1962.
Commissioned after sea trials in February 1944 Apollo joined the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow before setting out for Plymouth for minelaying operations in support of the planned invasion of France. Loading mines at Milford Haven she commenced a series of operations off the French coast of Brittany between Ushant and Île Vierge.
She was detached for duty in "Operation Neptune" and on 7 June (D-Day+1) she embarked Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Naval Commander in Chief Admiral Bertram Ramsay, General Bernard Law Montgomery and staff officers from SHAEF, to visit the assault areas. Unfortunately the minelayer grounded while underway, damaging her propellers, and her passengers were transferred to the destroyer Undaunted.
Apollo took passage to Sheerness and then to the Tyne for repairs, which were completed in September. The ship was then transferred to Western Approaches Command, and deployed in the South-Western Approaches laying deep trap minefields as a countermeasure to U-boat activities in inshore waters. With minelayer Plover she laid more than 1200 Mk XVII moored mines across the coastal convoy route along the north coast of Cornwall. She started on 29 November 1944 with minefield "HW A1" – this minefield was later fatal to the submarine U-325. On 3 December she laid minefield "HW A3" east of "HW A1". This minefield was later fatal to the submarine U-1021.
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