HMS ''Egret'' was a

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

of the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, the

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may ...

of her class. She was built by

J. Samuel White J. Samuel White was a British shipbuilding firm based in Cowes, taking its name from John Samuel White (1838–1915). It came to prominence during the Victorian era. During the 20th century it built destroyers and other naval craft for both the ...

Cowes Cowes () is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked by the Cowes Floa ...

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

, was launched on 31 May 1938, and entered service on 11 November that year. ''Egret'' served as a convoy escort with the

Western Approaches Command Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches was the commander of a major operational command of the Royal Navy during World War II. The admiral commanding, and his forces, sometimes informally known as 'Western Approaches Command,' were responsibl ...

from 1940 until her loss in August 1943: She was on anti-submarine patrol in the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

when she was sunk by a guided missile in combat, the first ship to be lost in this manner.

Construction

On 5 March 1937, the British Admiralty ordered two sloops-of-war of a new class, ''Egret'' and as part of the 1936 construction programme. ''Egret'' was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

, Isle of Wight shipyard on 21 September 1937. The ship was launched on 31 May 1938 and completed on 10 November 1938.

Service history

At the outbreak of the Second World War ''Egret'' was at Laurenco Marques in East Africa. She was briefly employed in hunting for raiders in the Indian Ocean before returning to the UK via Suez and Gibraltar. In 1940 ''Egret'' was based at Rosyth employed as escort to east coast convoys in the North Sea, and remained at this duty during the Norway campaign. In December transferred to Western Approaches Command, and was based at Londonderry for escort duty for SL/OS convoys to and from

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...

, in West Africa. In June 1941 ''Egret'' was in dock for a refit before returning to escort duty In January 1942, she was escorting SL 97 when it came under attack by German aircraft and a group of U-boats. The convoy was reinforced by the Gibraltar Strike Force, an ASW support group, and ''U-93'' was destroyed with no loss to the convoy. In October ''Egret'' took part in

Operation Torch Operation Torch (8 November 1942 – Run for Tunis, 16 November 1942) was an Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of secu ...

, the Allied landings in French North Africa. In December she was escorting convoy MKF 4 from Gibraltar when they intercepted the blockade runner ''Germania'', which was scuttled by her crew to avoid capture. In 1943 ''Egret'' remained on escort duty protecting convoys to and from North Africa; in August 1943, while escorting MKF 20 from Gibraltar, ''Egret'' and her escort group were detailed to relieve 40 EG which was operating against U-boats traversing the Bay of Biscay.

Fate

The British Bay offensive in the summer of 1943 saw aircraft from

RAF Coastal Command RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation ...

patrolling the Bay of Biscay and attacking U-boats as they travelled to and from their bases in occupied France. A mistaken decision on the part of U-boat commander, Adm.

Karl Dönitz Karl Dönitz (sometimes spelled Doenitz; ; 16 September 1891 24 December 1980) was a German admiral who briefly succeeded Adolf Hitler as head of state in May 1945, holding the position until the dissolution of the Flensburg Government follo ...

, had led to U-boats resisting air attack by remaining on the surface and fighting back with anti-aircraft weapons, rather than diving to safety underwater, a policy which led to the loss of a number of boats. An escalation of the campaign had seen German and British long-range fighters, and then RN escort groups joining the fray. In mid-August 1943 40 EG was on station and came under air attack; on 25 August 1943 the Germans had used their

Henschel Hs 293 The Henschel Hs 293 was a World War II German radio-guided glide bomb. It is the first operational anti-shipping missile, first used unsuccessfully on 25 August 1943 and then with increasing success over the next year, ultimately damaging or sink ...

glide bomb A glide bomb or stand-off bomb is a standoff weapon with flight control surfaces to give it a flatter, gliding flight path than that of a conventional bomb without such surfaces. This allows it to be released at a distance from the target rat ...

for the first time, against the ships of 40 EG in the

. was slightly damaged by a near miss. was hit and damaged, with one sailor killed, though more serious damage was avoided because the bomb's explosive charge did not fully detonate. On 27 August 1943 the 40th Support Group was relieved by the 1st Support Group, consisting of ''Egret'' together with the sloop and the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

s , , and . The group was attacked by a squadron of 18

Dornier Do 217 The Dornier Do 217 was a bomber used by the German ''Luftwaffe'' during World War II as a more powerful development of the Dornier Do 17, known as the ''Fliegender Bleistift'' (German: "flying pencil"). Designed in 1937 and 1938 as a heavy bomber ...

carrying Henschel glide bombs. One of the two covering

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

s, , was heavily damaged and ''Egret'' was sunk with the loss of 194 of her crew. At the time there were four RAF Y-Service electronics specialists on board, all of whom also died in the attack, thus bringing the total killed to 198. (These four RAF personnel are typically excluded from published casualty figures.) ''Egret'' had been fitted with electronic surveillance equipment designed to monitor Luftwaffe bomber communications and these Y-Service technicians were aboard to operate this equipment. The other destroyer, , commanded by Roger Hill, was attacked by the Dorniers firing one missile at a time, but survived by being able to out-turn the glide bombs. ''Egret''s sinking led to the anti-

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

patrols in the

being suspended. Milner, Marc (1994). ''The U-boat hunters: the Royal Canadian Navy and the offensive against Germany's submarines''. University of Toronto Press, p. 57 HMS ''Egret'' was the first ship ever to be sunk by a

guided missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket ...

Notes

References

Clay Blair Clay Drewry Blair Jr. (May 1, 1925 – December 16, 1998) was an American journalist and author, best known for his books on military history. Blair wrote some two dozen history books and hundreds of magazine articles that reached a popular audien ...

(1996). ''Hitler’s U-Boat War Vol I ''. *

(1998). ''Hitler’s U-Boat War Vol II ''. * * * *

Stephen Roskill Captain Stephen Wentworth Roskill, (1 August 1903 – 4 November 1982) was a senior career officer of the Royal Navy, serving during the Second World War and, after his enforced medical retirement, served as the official historian of the Royal ...

(1960). ''The War at Sea: vol III pt 1''. (ISBN: none) *

External links