HNoMS Sleipner (1936)

Sleipner at sea sometime after the Second World War.
History
Norway
Name:	Sleipner
Namesake:	Sleipnir – the eight-legged steed of Odin
Builder:	The Royal Norwegian Navy's shipyard at Horten
Yard number:	120
Laid down:	3 October 1934
Launched:	7 May 1936
Commissioned:	1936
Decommissioned:	1959
Fate:	Sold for scrapping in 1959
General characteristics
Class and type:	Sleipner-class destroyer
Displacement:	735 tons
Length:	74.30 m (243.77 ft)
Beam:	7.75 m (25.43 ft)
Draft:	4.15 m (13.62 ft)
Propulsion:	Two De Laval geared turbines with two shafts and 12,500 hp
Speed:	32 knots (59.26 km/h)
Range:	3,500 nautical miles (6,482.00 km) at 15 knots (27.78 km/h)
Complement:	Peacetime: 72 men War crew: 83 men
Armament:	As built: 3 × 10 cm guns 1 × 40 mm Bofors L/60 anti-aircraft gun 2 × 12.7 mm Colt anti-aircraft machine guns 2 × 53.3 cm trainable torpedo tubes 4 × depth charge throwers After 1942 rebuild: 3 × 4 in. guns 1 × 40 mm Bofors L/60 anti-aircraft gun 2 × 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun 1 × 12.7 mm Colt anti-aircraft machine guns 2 × 53.3 cm trainable torpedo tubes 4 × depth charge throwers
Service record
Commanders:	Captain E. Ullring (8 April 1940 – 28 June 1940) Captain T. Horve (28 June 1940 – December 1941) Captain Rolf Hag (December 1941 – 22 July 1942) Lieutenant Kleppe (22 July 1942 – 10 March 1944)
Operations:	Norwegian Campaign Battle of Britain
Victories:	2 ships (1,500 tons) captured 2 bombers downed

HNoMS Sleipner was a destroyer commissioned into the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1936. The lead ship of the Sleipner class, she gained near-legendary status in Norway by enduring over two weeks of intense air attack by Luftwaffe bombers following the 9 April 1940 invasion of Norway. After the resistance in South Norway started unravelling she made her way over the North Sea to continue the fight against the Germans from exile. After serving as a convoy escort along the coast of the United Kingdom, she was decommissioned in 1944. She was recommissioned in 1948 after being converted to a frigate. Along with her surviving sister ships she was sold for scrapping in 1959.

Sleipner was built at Karljohansvern naval shipyard in Horten and had yard number 120. Unlike the rest of her class, Sleipner had only two 10 cm guns and was unable to elevate her main pieces high enough to fire at aircraft.

Sleipner became involved in the events surrounding the steamer City of Flint when the captured American ship's German prize crew brought her to the North Norwegian port city of Tromsø on 30 October, seeking shelter from British naval forces. The Norwegian destroyer escorted the ship away from the port after its German prize crew were refused entry into the port. After City of Flint entered the port of Haugesund further south on 3 November the ship was seized by the Norwegian minelayer Olav Tryggvason, the German prize crew interned and the American crew freed.

When Sleipner's commander got a word of the German attack the destroyer was part of the 2nd Naval District's 2nd destroyer division, covering an area roughly the same as the Vestlandet and Trøndelag regions. On 8 April she patrolled Hustadvika Bay together with the patrol boat Syrian, watching over a fictitious minefield laid there by the British destroyers Hero and Hyperion (Operation Wilfred). She was immediately ordered to join the torpedo boats Trygg and Sild in order to defend the mouth of the Romsdalsfjord against any German attempt at intrusion.