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HMS Hursley (L84)

HMS Hursley
History
United Kingdom
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:
  • Mediterranean 1942–43
  • Sicily 1943
  • Aegean 1943
Fate:
  • Transferred to Greece, 2 November 1943
  • Sold for scrapping, 27 April 1960
Badge: On a Field Red in front of a hunting horn erect the sails of a windmill White.
Greece
Name: Kriti
Acquired: 2 November 1943
Fate: Returned to UK, 12 November 1959
General characteristics
Class and type: Hunt-class destroyer
Displacement:
  • 1,050 long tons (1,070 t) standard
  • 1,430 long tons (1,450 t) full load
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:
Speed:
  • 27 knots (31 mph; 50 km/h)
  • 25.5 kn (29.3 mph; 47.2 km/h) full
Range: 3,600 nmi (6,700 km) at 14 kn (26 km/h)
Complement: 164
Armament:
  • 6 × QF 4 in Mark XVI on twin mounts Mk. XIX
  • 4 × QF 2 pdr Mk. VIII on quad mount MK.VII
  • 2 × 20 mm Oerlikons on single mounts P Mk. III
  • 110 depth charges, 2 throwers, 3 racks

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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