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HMS Cossack was a British Tribal-class destroyer. She took part in World War II and saw heavy action until she sank in October 1941. Cossack, together with Afridi, was the first in a new series of large destroyers laid down as part of the 1935 program. Her keel was laid on June 9, 1936 at the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard , Newcastle, she was launched on June 8, 1937 and commissioned on June 14, 1938.
Service History
Contents
Pre-war service
At the end of April 1938 Cossack was assigned to the 1st Tribal Destroyer Flotilla, as part of the Mediterranean Fleet. In July, she took the British consul from Barcelona to Marseille in response to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. In August, she participated in fleet maneuvers. In February-March 1939, he participated in joint maneuvers of the Mediterranean and the Home Fleet in the Gibraltar area. 1st Tribal Destroyer Flotilla was renamed as 4th Destroyer Flotilla following these excercises. She also operated off the coast of Spain in March as the Spanish Civil War drew to a close. In the summer of 1939, she participated in fleet maneuvers in the Aegean Sea. On August 2, together with HMS Warspite, she paid a visit to Istanbul.
The beginning of the war
In September, she was in the Western Mediterranean, escorting French convoys to Marseille. On October 2, along with the rest of the 4th Flotilla, Cossack was transferred back to the UK to join the Humber Force, she left Alexandria and arrived in Immingham in mid-October.
On 7 November, Cossack collided with the SS Borthwick near the Isle of May, her hull was seriously damaged and 4 crew members were killed. During repairs in Leith, Scotland, her turbine blades were also replaced, the destroyer returned to service after 2 months under repair. In mid-November, the 4th Destroyer Flotilla was transferred to Rosyth to escort convoys to Bergen, Norway. On January 1, 1940, Captain Philip Vian was appointed commander of the flotilla.
Altmark Incident
Cossack was part of a formation located off the coast of Norway to intercept the German auxiliary vessel Altmark, on which there were about 300 British prisoners captured during the raid of the German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. On February 16, the ship was discovered, but the Norwegians opposed the inspection in their territorial waters.
On the night of February 17, Cossack, despite signals from the Norwegian ships, approached Altmark and landed a boarding party, supported by Lewis machine gun fire . The captured British sailors were released and returned home the next evening. Wayne was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. The Altmark Incident gave the British a short-lived but sorely needed morale boost during the Phoney War. In particular the phrase "the Navy's here" which had been shouted to the imprisoned British sailors became well known in Britain, being used as the title of a book about the incident.
Norwegian campaign
After receiving information about the presence of German forces off the coast of Norway on April 7, late in the evening, the 4th Flotilla, as part of the forces of the Home Fleet, left Rosyth. On April 8, Cossack, along with Zulu, was sent back to escort the damaged destroyers Kelvin and Kashmir after they suffered a collision .
Battle of Narvik
On April 13, Cossack, as part of a formation from the battleship Warspite and 9 destroyers, participated in the Second battle of Narvik with German destroyers in the Ufutfjord. Cossack under the command of Robert Sherbrooke during an attack in the harbor of Narvik received several hits from the destroyer Diether von Roeder and ran aground, from where she was removed the next morning. In the battle, Cossack lost 11 men killed and 23 wounded. Robert Sherbrooke, among other commanders, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Cossack returned to service after repairs on 15 June.
Service in northern waters
On June 24, after completing repairs, Cossack, along with the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, escorted the cruiser Emerald with a cargo of gold to Canada - due to bad weather, the destroyers had to return to Scapa Flow. On July 7, as part of the Home Fleet, she participated in the search for the submarine Shark off the Norwegian coast. She escorted the 1st Minelayer Squadron on 11 August with Maori, Sikh and Duncan as part of a series of minelaying operations off the northeast coast of Scotland (Operation SN-13).
In the autumn of 1940, the British fleet stepped up operations on enemy communications off the coast of Norway. After a German convoy was detected on October 13 from the air, the 4th destroyer flotilla was sent to intercept. The convoy was intercepted after midnight near Egersund and retreated under the cover of coastal batteries, but Cossack managed to torpedo the merchant ship Genoa, the transport was sunk by destroyer artillery fire.
At the end of 1940, Cossack participated in the interception of a possible exit of German raider forces into the Atlantic as part of a formation with the battlecruiser Hood, the cruiser Edinburgh, the destroyers Electra, Echo, and Escapade. After unsuccessful 7 days at sea, she returned to port on 31 December.
The hunt for the Bismarck
Cossack, with the rest of 4th Destroyer Flotilla, took an active part in the search for and sinking of the German battleship Bismarck.
On May 25, Bismarck moved towards Brest, and the main forces of the Home Fleet were forced to withdraw for refuelling. To replace them, the destroyers Cossack, Zulu , Sikh , Maori, and the Polish ORP Piorun were withdrawn from the escort of the troop convoy WS-8B , en route from Glasgow to the Indian Ocean. In the early morning of May 26, orders were received from the Admiralty to send Cossack, Sikh, and Zulu to join the battleship HMS King George V, and Maori and Piorun were assigned to escort the battleship HMS Rodney.
Later in the morning, a radio message was received about the discovery of the battleship Bismarck, 690 miles from Brest. Given that no British formation was close to the enemy, the destroyers were sent to intercept. Their purpose was to maintain contact, as well as a to mount torpedo attack to slow down the raider after dark.
At dusk, the flotilla met the cruiser HMS Sheffield, who relayed the latest information about the battleship. At 22:38, Piorun was the first to spot the enemy and fired at him for about half an hour with main guns until close cover forced her to disengage from the battle and lose contact with Bismarck and the allied destroyers.
At 23:34, the destroyers were ordered to attack, but rough seas and fire from the battleship prevented the destroyers from getting hit: for example, at 23:42, fragments cut off the radio antennas on Cossack, and on Zulu at 23:50, the director was damaged and an artillery officer was wounded. Attempts of single attacks continued almost all night. At 01:40 Cossack went on the attack and fired three torpedoes. From the destroyer they observed an explosion in the bow of the battleship and considered it a hit, but in fact the battleship was not damaged. At 03:55 Cossack passed Bismarck forward and fired the last torpedo. After that, the flotilla remained to track the battleship. In the final battle on May 26, the destroyers of the 4th flotilla remained observers.
Gibraltar
4th Destroyer Flotilla returned to escort activity. In early June they escorted troop convoy WS-9A , in the middle they escorted the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious to Gibraltar, in early July they escorted convoys WS-9B and WS-9C . Also at this time, 2 "pom-pom" installations were installed on Cossack to deal with torpedo boats. During June and early July, Cossack spent 23 days at sea.
On July 19, the flotilla arrived in Gibraltar and subsequently continued its escort service. July 21-28 escorted convoy GM-1 to Malta. On July 31 - August 4, troops were delivered to Malta (Operation Style ), during which on August 1 they fired at the port of Alghero in Sardinia. 8-14 August they escorted the battlecruiser HMS Renown and the troop transport Paster to Britain. Between August 30–September 2, Cossack and Zulu escorted convoy WS-11 . On September 24-30, together with Zulu, she also participated in the protection of a large convoy to Malta (Operation Halberd ). Between October 16-19 Cossack , Sikh, and Zulu escorted the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, which delivered aircraft to Malta (Operation Callboy ).
Loss
On 20 October, Cossack departed Gibraltar as part of an escort for the Atlantic convoy HG-75 . On the night of October 23, the convoy was discovered by the German submarine U-563 from the Breslau patrol group. The submarine attacked Cossack and scored a hit. The explosion occurred under the bridge of the destroyer, the forward magazines of ammunition detonated, the bow of the destroyer was torn off, and a fire started. The captain and another 158 officers and sailors were killed.
However, by morning she was still afloat, and the fire went out. Part of the crew returned to the Cossack in an effort to save her, they started the engines and tried to start moving towards Gibraltar stern first. It was possible to move at 3 knots, and the tug Thames left Gibraltar and arrived on the evening of October 25 and began towing. However, a day later the weather worsened, the towing cables were cut off, and water began to enter the hull again. Cossack was abandoned and sank at about 11 am on 27 October off Gibraltar.
Battle Honours
HMS Cossack and her successors were entitled to the following battle honors: Baltic 1835* - Dover Patrol 1914-19* - Narvik 1940 - Norway 1940 - Atlantic 1940-41 - Bismarck 1941 - Malta Convoys 1941 - Korea 1950-53*
* denotes honours won by other ships named Cossack
