HMIS ''Narbada'' (U40) was a Modified Bittern class sloop, later known as the ''Black Swan'' class, which served in the

Royal Indian Navy The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British India and the Dominion of India. Along with the Presidency armies, later the Indian Army, and from 1932 the Royal Indian Air Force, it was one of the Armed Forces of British India. F ...

(RIN) during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. ''Narbada'' was transferred to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

in 1948 after the Partition of India, and served as ''PNS Jhelum''.

History

HMIS ''Narbada'' was ordered in 1940 as a part of the 1940 Build Program for the Royal Indian Navy. She was built by John I. Thornycroft & Company and commissioned in 1943. With World War II underway, she was deployed as an escort to multiple Allied convoys en route to Bombay. Upon arrival, she joined the Eastern Fleet. In 1944, she was deployed for defence of military convoys in the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line betwee ...

. In early January 1945, she was deployed with to support the landing of the 74th Indian Brigade of the British Indian Army on

Akyab Sittwe (; ; formerly Akyab) is the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). Sittwe, pronounced ''sait-tway'' in the Rakhine language, is located on an estuarial island created at the confluence of the Kaladan, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers emp ...

Peninsular, as a part of Operation Lightning. ''Jumna'' and ''Narbada'' engaged Japanese batteries up the

Kaladan River The Kaladan River ( my, ကုလားတန်မြစ်, ; also Kysapnadi, Beino, Bawinu and Kolodyne) is a river in eastern Mizoram State of India, and in Chin State and Rakhine State of western Myanmar. The Kaladan River is called the ...

near Ponnagyun. After embarking troops, she joined Task Force 64 headed by for support of landing by 3rd British Commando Brigade between Akyab and Ramree with and HMIS ''Jumna''. On 13 January 1945, with the task force under attack by Japanese aircraft, ''Narbada'' downed an Oscar aircraft of the

Imperial Japanese Army Air Force The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) or Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF; ja, 大日本帝國陸軍航空部隊, Dainippon Teikoku Rikugun Kōkūbutai, lit=Greater Japan Empire Army Air Corps) was the aviation force of the Im ...

. In February, she supported the landing of the 53rd Indian Infantry Brigade at Ryuwa with and HMIS ''Jumna''. She was hit aft by return fire, but continued operations. In March, she returned to Bombay for a refit and to repair damages. In April 1945, she resumed escort duties and supported the Indian and British Army amphibious landings in Rangoon with , , , and as a part of

Operation Dracula Operation Dracula was a World War II-airborne and amphibious attack on Rangoon by British and Anglo-Indian forces during the Burma Campaign. The plan was first proposed in mid-1944 when the Allied South East Asia Command was preparing to reoccu ...

. The next month, in May, she was deployed with HMIS ''Cauvery'', HMIS ''Godavari'', HMIS ''Kistna'', HMIS ''Sutlej'' and HMIS ''Hindustan'' to intercept Japanese troops withdrawing from the Andamans. In July, ''Narbada'' was a part of the planned force for Operation Zipper and conducted preparatory exercises, before the postponement of the operation. At the end of World War II, after the Surrender of Japan, she sailed to Andaman waters and her commanding officer Martin Henry St. Leger Nott accepted the surrender of the Japanese

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. I ...

in command of the

Car Nicobar Car Nicobar ( in Car language) is the northernmost of the Nicobar Islands. It is also one of three local administrative divisions of the Indian district of Nicobar, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Annual ra ...

garrison onboard the ship. After the Independence of India and the subsequent

Partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

, she was among the vessels transferred to Pakistan, where she was renamed HMPS ''Jhelum'' and subsequently, PNS ''Jhelum''. She was scrapped in 1959.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Narbada (U40) Black Swan-class sloops of the Royal Indian Navy Black Swan-class sloops of the Pakistan Navy 1942 ships India–Pakistan military relations Ships built by John I. Thornycroft & Company