INS Eilat (1955)
HMS Zealous moored at Gourock, March 1945
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Zealous |
| Ordered: | 12 February 1942 |
| Builder: | Cammell Laird |
| Laid down: | 5 May 1943 |
| Launched: | 28 February 1944 |
| Commissioned: | 9 October 1944 |
| Out of service: | Sold to Israel, 15 July 1955 |
 Israel
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| Name: | INS Eilat |
| Acquired: | 15 July 1955 |
| Commissioned: | July 1956 |
| Fate: | Sunk 21 October 1967 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Z-class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 1,710 tons |
| Length: | 362.7 ft (110.6 m) |
| Beam: | 35.7 ft (10.9 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph) |
| Complement: | 186 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Zealous was a Z-class destroyer of the Royal Navy built in 1944 by Cammell Laird. She served during the Second World War, participating in operations in the North Sea and off the Norwegian coast, before taking part in some of the Arctic convoys. She spent a further ten years in Royal Navy service after the end of the war, before being sold to the Israeli Navy, which operated her as INS Eilat. She saw action during the Suez Crisis in 1956, attacking Egyptian ships and was still active by the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967. She was sunk several months after the conflict by missiles launched from several small Egyptian missile boats; this made her the first vessel to be sunk by a missile boat in wartime. It was an important milestone in naval surface warfare, which aroused considerable interest around the world in the development of small manoeuvrable missile boats.
Zealous was one of four British destroyers of the Home Fleet that rescued 525 Norwegians, who had been hiding from German patrols in caves on the snow-covered mountains of Sørøya island, Norway for three months. The rescue involved the destroyers on a daring race 60 miles (97 km) behind enemy lines. The Norwegians were safely evacuated to the British port of Gourock.
Zealous made two trips from the UK to Russia as part of the Arctic Convoys taking supplies around Norway to Kola. Under the guidance of Commander R.F. Jessel RN DSO she ran the gauntlet of German U-Boats and aircraft.
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Wikipedia