HMS Penelope (97)

HMS Penelope at Spithead, December 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Penelope
Builder:	Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Yard number:	940
Laid down:	30 May 1934
Launched:	15 October 1935
Completed:	15 November 1936
Commissioned:	13 November 1936
Identification:	Pennant number: 97
Fate:	Sunk 18 February 1944 by torpedoes from U-410, while returning from Naples to the Anzio beach-head (415 lost)
General characteristics
Class and type:	Arethusa-class light cruiser
Displacement:	5,220 tons standard load 6,665 tons full load
Length:	506 ft (154 m)
Beam:	51 ft (16 m)
Draught:	14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion:	Four Parsons geared steam turbines Four Admiralty 3-drum oil-fired boilers Four shafts 64,000 shp
Speed:	32 knots (59 km/h)
Range:	Unknown; 1,325 tons fuel oil
Complement:	500
Armament:	Original configuration: 6 × BL 6-inch (152 mm) gun 4 (2x2) 4-inch (102 mm) AA guns 8 (2×4) 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) machine guns 6 (2x3) 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes August 1940 configuration: 3 × 6-inch (152 mm) dual guns 4 × 4-inch (102 mm) dual AA guns 2 × quadruple mount QF 2 pdr (40 mm)"pom-pom" AA guns 6 × 20 mm Oerlikon single AA guns 2 × 0.5 inch quadruple machine guns 2 × 21 in (533 mm) triple torpedo tubes
Armour:	Original configuration: One to three inches - magazine protection 2.25 inches - belt One inch - deck, turrets and bulkheads
Aircraft carried:	One aircraft (later removed).

HMS Penelope was an Arethusa-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built by Harland & Wolff (Belfast, Northern Ireland); her keel was laid down on 30 May 1934. She was launched on 15 October 1935, and commissioned 13 November 1936. She was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat near Naples with heavy loss of life on 18 February 1944.

On wartime service with Force "K", she was holed so many times by bomb fragments that she acquired the nickname "HMS Pepperpot".

At the outbreak of World War II she was with the 3rd Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean, having arrived at Malta on 2 September 1939.

Penelope and her sister ship Arethusa were reallocated to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron in the Home Fleet and arrived at Portsmouth on 11 January 1940. On 3 February she left for the River Clyde en route to Rosyth. She arrived on 7 February, and operated with the 2nd Cruiser Squadron on convoy escort duties, and in April and May 1940, she took part in the Norwegian operations.

On 11 April Penelope ran aground off Fleinvær while hunting German merchant ships entering the Vestfjord. Her boiler room was flooded and she was holed forward. The destroyer Eskimo towed her to Skjelfjord where an advanced base had been improvised. Despite air attacks, temporary repairs were made and she was towed home a month later. She arrived at Greenock in Scotland on 16 May 1940 where additional temporary repairs were carried out, before proceeding on 19 August to the Tyne for permanent repairs.