HMS Hursley
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Hursley |
| Ordered: | 20 December 1939 |
| Builder: | Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom |
| Laid down: | 21 December 1940 |
| Launched: | 25 July 1941 |
| Commissioned: | 2 April 1942 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: L84 |
| Honours and awards: |
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| Fate: |
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| Badge: | On a Field Red in front of a hunting horn erect the sails of a windmill White. |
 Greece
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| Name: | Kriti |
| Acquired: | 2 November 1943 |
| Fate: | Returned to UK, 12 November 1959 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Hunt-class destroyer |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 85.3 m (279 ft 10 in) o/a |
| Beam: | 9.6 m (31 ft 6 in) |
| Draught: | 2.51 m (8 ft 3 in) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: |
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| Range: | 3,600 nmi (6,700 km) at 14 kn (26 km/h) |
| Complement: | 164 |
| Armament: |
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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.
Hursley was ordered with 15 others of the same type on 20 December 1939 as part of the War Emergency Programme. The ship 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.
After sea trials Hursley was commissioned for service on 2 April 1942. She sailed for Scapa Flow for training, and then joined the escort for Russian Convoy PQ 15 to Murmansk and back. 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 14 September Hursley and Aldenham escorted the tug Brigand out to rendezvous with the cruiser Coventry and the destroyer Zulu, both damaged during "Operation Agreement" at Tobruk. Coventry was sunk, but Hursley took Zulu in tow, but under attack by enemy aircraft Zulu was sunk.
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