HMS Hardy (1936)
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HMS Hardy was a Royal Navy destroyer flotilla leader of the H Class destroyers, laid down by Cammell Laird and Company at Birkenhead on 30 May 1935, launched on 7 April 1936 and commissioned on 11 December 1936. Her pennant number was H87, but as she spent her entire career as a flotilla leader she never actually wore it.
On commissioning, she joined the Mediterranean Fleet as leader of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, composed of Hardy and the eight destroyers of the H Class (Hasty, Havock, Hereward, Hero (later HMCS Chaudiere), Hostile, Hotspur, Hunter, and Hyperion.
On 10 April 1940 in Ofotfjord, Narvik, Norway, Captain Warburton-Lee on Hardy led a flotilla of five destroyers in a surprise dawn attack on German destroyers and merchant ships in Narvik harbour during a blinding snowstorm, resulting in the First Battle of Narvik. A torpedo from Hardy blew off the stern of the German flagship Wilhelm Heidkamp and killed the German flotilla commander, Commodore Friedrich Bonte. A second destroyer was sunk by two torpedoes and three others were damaged by gunfire. Six of the eight German merchant ships present were sunk.
As the British destroyers withdrew they were engaged by five more German destroyers, during which Captain Warburton-Lee was mortally wounded by a shell which hit Hardy's bridge. Hardy and Hunter were both badly damaged during this stage of the battle: Hunter sank in the middle of the fjord, while Hardy, heavily damaged, was beached by Pay-Lieut. G.H. Stanning (Captain's Secretary) upon the death of Captain Warburton-Lee and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his actions. Many of her crew survived to be rescued a few days later.
Captain Warburton-Lee was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for this action.
[edit] Sources and references
English, John. Amazon to Ivanhoe - British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s.
March, Edgar J. British Destroyers, 1892-1953.
