HMS Grenville (H03) - Service History

Service History

Ordered in 1934, the ship was laid down by the Yarrow Shipbuilding Company at Scotstoun in Glasgow on 29 September 1934, launched on 15 August 1935, and completed on 1 July 1936. Excluding government-furnished equipment like the armament, the ship cost £275,412. Aside from a brief period when she was assigned to the 20th Destroyer Flotilla after her commissioning, Grenville spent the prewar period as the flagship of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla with the Mediterranean Fleet. She spent ten months deployed off the Spanish coast in the Western Mediterranean during the Spanish Civil War before returning to Portsmouth for a brief overhaul between 24 May and 9 June 1937. The ship returned to the Mediterranean until she was given a more thorough refit in Portsmouth between 7 June and 25 July 1938.

On the outbreak of war in September 1939, Grenville was deployed in the Mediterranean. On 22 October, Grenville and her sisters HMS Griffin, HMS Grenade and HMS Gipsy were transferred to the Western Approaches Command and arrived at Plymouth on 2 November. Grenville and Grenade collided during the night of 7/8 November and Grenville's No. 3 boiler room was flooded. She was under repair at HM Dockyard, Devonport until 1 December. While the ship was under repair, her flotilla had been transferred to the Nore Command at Harwich for local patrol and escort work. Grenville rejoined them the on 3 December and participated in several attempts to intercept enemy shipping traffic off the Dutch and German North Sea coasts. Whilst returning from one of these missions on 19 January Grenville struck a mine 23 miles (37 km) east of Kentish Knock Light Vessel. Seventy-seven of the ship's company were killed as the ship sank.