HMS Peony (K40)
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 RHS Sakhtouris underway in September 1943, shortly after her transfer to the Royal Hellenic Navy. |
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| Career (United Kingdom) |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Flower-class corvette |
| Name: | HMS Peony |
| Builder: | Harland and Wolff, Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Laid down: | 24 February 1940 |
| Launched: | 4 June 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 2 August 1940 |
| Out of service: | Transferred to the Royal Hellenic Navy in 1943 |
| Renamed: | RHS Sakhtouris for the Royal Hellenic Navy |
| Reinstated: | Returned to the Royal Navy in September 1951 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 21 April 1952 |
| Career (Kingdom of Greece) |  |
| Name: | RHS Sakhtouris |
| Acquired: | 1943 |
| Out of service: | September 1951 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 940 tons |
| Length: | 205 ft (62 m) |
| Beam: | 33 ft (10 m) |
| Draught: | 11 ft 6 in (3.5 m) |
| Propulsion: | Two fire tube boilers one 4-cycle triple-expansion steam engine |
| Speed: | 16 knots at 2,750 hp |
| Range: | 3,500 nautical miles at 12 knots (6,500 km at 22 km/h) |
| Complement: | 85 |
| Armament: | 1 × 4-inch BL Mk IX gun 2 × 0.50-inch twin machine guns 2 × 0.303-inch Lewis machine guns 2 × stern depth charge racks with 40 depth charges |
HMS Peony (K40) was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Navy. She also served in the Royal Hellenic Navy as RHS Sakhtouris. The ships pennant number was not changed upon transfer.
[edit] Royal Navy
Throughout her career with the Royal Navy, Peony escorted convoys. She primarily escorted convoys in home waters, but was sometimes called upon to escort convoys in the Mediterranean Sea and to Freetown.
In late 1940 through to early 1941, she was part of the 10th Corvette Group, Mediterranean Fleet based in Alexandria. While based there, she escorted numerous convoys to Malta. In February 1941, she was equipped for minesweeping duties as there were not enough minesweepers available. In July 1941, she assisted in the transportation of men to Cyprus. She carried out anti-submarine operations off Cyprus during the following months. She attacked a U-boat on 8 October 1941 with HMAS Vendetta, three corvettes and two anti-submarine aircraft, but the U-boat escaped.
In December 1941, while escorting Mediterranean convoy AT-6 (from Alexandria to Tobruk), she came under attack by U-559 which torpedoed the Polish steamer Warszawa. Peony took the stricken ship in tow until another torpedo hit from the U-boat doomed the steamer and she sank. Peony and HMS Avon Vale rescued some survivors, but 23 people died in the strike.
[edit] Royal Hellenic Navy
In 1943, Peony was transferred to the Royal Hellenic Navy where she was re-named Sakhtouris. She was the second HMS Peony to serve in the Hellenic Navy, the first was captured by the Germans and was still afloat when this ship was transferred, but sank after hitting a mine in the same year.[1]
She served the remainder of the Second World War under the Greek flag. She also served in the Greek Civil War, which started before the end of the Second World War.
In 1947, The United States proclaimed that it would support the military of Greece in wht became known as the Truman Doctrine. In the early 1950s, the Mutual Defense Assistance Act started the transfer of American ships to Greece. Four Cannon class destroyers entered Greek service and so the old British Flower class corvettes were superseded.
Sakhtouris was returned to the Royal Navy in September 1951 and was scrapped on 21 April 1952.
[edit] References
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