HMS Hero (H99) - Career

Career

Hero was assigned to the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla of the Mediterranean Fleet upon commissioning. She patrolled Spanish waters during the Spanish Civil War enforcing the policies of the Non-Intervention Committee. Hyperion received a refit in June–July 1939 in the UK and rejoined the Mediterranean Fleet upon its completion. The ship remained in the Mediterranean until 5 October when she was transferred to Freetown, Sierra Leone to search for German commerce raiders. Hero returned to the UK in January 1940 and received a refit at Portsmouth from 15 February to 16 March. In the meantime, the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla had been assigned to Home Fleet and the ship rejoined them when her refit was finished.

On 5 April Hero escorted the battlecruiser Renown as she covered the minelayers preparing to implement Operation Wilfred, an operation to lay mines in the Vestfjord to prevent the transport of Swedish iron ore from Narvik to Germany. The ship and her sister Hyperion pretended to lay a minefield off Bud, Norway on 8 April and reported its location to the Norwegians. Hero and the destroyer Foxhound streamed their TSDS minesweeping gear in advance of the battleship Warspite and her escort as they steamed up the Vestfjord to engage the remaining German destroyers at Narvik on 13 April. The ship, and three other British destroyers pursued the remaining German ships into the Rombaksfjorden (the easternmost branch of the Ofotfjord), east of Narvik, where the lack of ammunition had forced the German ships to retreat. Most of the German destroyers had scuttled and beached themselves at the head of the fjord, but the scuttling charges on Z18 Hans Lüdemann had failed to detonate properly and she was boarded by a small party from Hero. They found nothing of any significance as she'd been abandoned by her crew and the destroyer put a torpedo into her to prevent any salvage.

Hero was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet on 17 May as part of the reconstituted 2nd Destroyer Flotilla. During the Battle of Cape Spada on 19 July, the ship escorted Australian light cruiser Sydney and rescued some of the 525 survivors from the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni together with the other escorting destroyers. Hero, together with her sister, Hostile, and the destroyers Nubian and Mohawk, were ordered to Gibraltar on 22 August where they were to join Force H. Hostile struck a mine en-route on the early morning of 23 August off Cap Bon that broke her back. The explosion killed five men and wounded three others. Mohawk took off the survivors while Hero fired two torpedoes to scuttle her. The ship participated in Operation Hats in September, before refitting in Malta during November. She sortied into the North Atlantic when Convoy WS-5A reported that it had been attacked by the German cruiser Admiral Hipper on 25 December to round up the scattered ships.

On 1 January 1941, Hero was one of the ships that intercepted a Vichy French convoy off Mellila and seized all four merchant ships of the convoy. The ship participated in Operation Excess in early January 1941 and was transferred back to the Mediterranean Fleet. On 27 February, she evacuated a few surviving commandos from the island of Kastelorizo who had attacked the island in Operation Abstention. In mid-April she escorted the fast transport Breconshire and three battleships from Alexandria to Malta before going on to escort the battleships as they bombarded Tripoli on 20 April. After refueling in Alexandria on 23 April, Hero sailed for Greece to begin evacuating British and Australian troops from the beaches. During the evacuation of Crete, Hero and the destroyer Decoy evacuated the King of Greece and his entourage on the night of 22/23 May.

Hero escorted the LSI(L) Glengyle as she conducted an amphibious landing in early June 1941 on the Lebanese coast during the opening stages of the Operation Exporter. She spent most of the rest of the year escorting convoys to Tobruk. Together with her sister Hotspur and the destroyer Encounter, the ship escorted Latona on 25 October whilst en route to Tobruk. They were attacked by Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers of I./StG 1 that hit Latona and set her afire. Hero and Encounter came alongside and rescued the crew and passengers before Latona's magazine exploded, but Hero was damaged by three near misses whilst alongside. The ship returned to Alexandria for repairs and escorted a convoy to Malta in January 1942. She participated in the 2nd Battle of Sirte on 22 March whilst escorting a convoy to Malta. Together with the Hunt-class destroyers Eridge and Hurworth on 29 May, she sank the German submarine U-568 north-east of Tobruk, at 32°42′N 24°53′E / 32.7°N 24.883°E / 32.7; 24.883, and rescued 42 survivors.

During Operation Vigorous in June, Hero formed part of the escort for the covering force of the Mediterranean Fleet for the Malta-bound convoy. At time the ship still had not been fitted for radar. After Panzer Army Africa occupied Mersa Matruh in late June, the Admiralty ordered the submarine tenders Medway and the Greek Corinthia transferred to Haifa, but Medway was torpedoed and sunk en route despite the strong escort. Hero and the destroyer Zulu rescued 1105 survivors between them. On 17 August, the ship rescued some 1100 survivors of the torpedoed troopship Princess Marguerite. In conjunction with four other destroyers and a Wellesley light bomber of the Royal Air Force, Hero sank U-559 60 nautical miles (110 km; 69 mi) north-east of Port Said on 30 October. The ship was ordered back to the United Kingdom, via the Cape of Good Hope, to be converted to an escort destroyer late in the year.