HMS Kite (U87)

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HMS Kite (U87) was a Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy, once commanded by the famous U-boat hunter Captain Frederic John Walker. She was one of several ships of that class that took part in the famous "six in one trip" in 1943 (in which six U-boats were sunk in one patrol).

She was built at Cammell Laird shipyard, Birkenhead, on the banks of the river Mersey (she was to later to be based across the river in Gladstone Dock, Bootle). She was launched on 13 October 1942 and commissioned on 1 March 1943.

She took part in the sinking of five U-boats together with several sister ships:

On 24 June 1943 U-449 was sunk near Cape Ortegal, Spain by the sloops Wren, Woodpecker, Kite and Wild Goose.
On 30 July 1943 U-462 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by a Handley-Page Halifax aircraft and Wren, Kite, Woodpecker, Wild Goose and Woodcock.
On 30 July 1943 U-504 was sunk near Cape Ortegal by Kite, Woodpecker, Wren and Wild Goose.
On 6 November 1943 U-226 was sunk east of Newfoundland by Starling, Woodcock and Kite.
On 9 February 1944 U-238 was sunk south-west of Ireland by Kite, Magpie and Starling.

On August 20, 1944 Kite was escorting the aircraft carriers Vindex and Striker, which in turn were escorting convoy JW-59 to Northern Russia when the convoy was sighted in the Barents Sea by German aircraft. Soon a pack of U-boats attacked the convoy and one U-boat was sunk by Swordfish aircraft from one of the carriers. Two more were sunk by other destroyers.

At 06:30 on August 21, Kite slowed to 6 knots (10 km/h) to untangle her "foxers" (anti acoustic torpedo noise makers, towed astern). The decision to do so, rather than severing the foxers' cables and abandoning them, was made by her temporary commander, a submariner. At that speed Kite was a sitting duck, and she was hit by two torpedoes from U-344 (commanded by Oberleutnant Ulrich Pietsch) and sank.

Of Kite's crew of 10 officers and 207 ratings, 60 survived the attack, but from the freezing Arctic water only 14 sailors were picked up alive (by Keppel, Peacock and Mermaid). Five of the rescued died on board Keppel, leaving only nine to make it to shore. As of 2004, there are two living survivors.

U-344 was sunk the next day by depth charges from Fairey Swordfish planes from Vindex.