HMS Electra was one of nine E-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. Sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea, Electra was a witness to many naval battles, including the Battle of the Denmark Strait and the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse. The ship's wreck was discovered in 2003 and had been badly damaged by illegal salvagers by 2016.
Description The E-class ships were slightly improved versions of the preceding D class. They displaced at standard load and at deep load. The ships had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . They were powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three Admiralty three-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . Electra carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave her a range of at . The ships' complement was 145 officers and ratings.Lenton, p. 156
The ships mounted four 45-calibre 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mark IX guns in single mounts. For anti-aircraft (AA) defence, they had two quadruple Mark I mounts for the 0.5 inch Vickers Mark III machine gun. The E class was fitted with two above-water quadruple torpedo tube mounts for torpedoes.Whitley, p. 103 One depth charge rack and two throwers were fitted; 20 depth charges were originally carried, but this increased to 35 shortly after the war began.English, p. 141
Construction and career She was ordered on 1 November 1932 as part of the 1931 Naval Programme; launched on 15 February 1934 at the Hawthorn Leslie Shipyard at Hebburn, Tyneside. The costs to build the ship have been given as approximately £300,000 (Janes), £247,000, or £253,350 (excluding the items supplied by the Admiralty such as guns and communications equipment).
Upon commissioning in 1934, she was attached to the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, Home Fleet, along with the rest of her sister ships. In September 1935, the 5th Flotilla was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet for the duration of the Abyssinian crisis before returning to the Home Fleet the following March. In 1936, Electra was assigned to Non-Intervention Patrols in Spanish waters during the Spanish Civil War. In 1938, she underwent a refit at Sheerness, and then was placed 'in reserve'. On 2 August 1939, she was 'Brought forward' (taken out of reserve) with Reservist ship's company, and on 26 August 1939, she attended a review by King George VI.
Early Second World War service At the beginning of World War II, Electra was attached to the 12th Destroyer Flotilla. On 3 September 1939, Electra took part in the rescue of survivors of the liner , which was torpedoed by the German submarine . The captain of Electra, Lieutenant-Commander Stuart Austen "Sammy" Buss, was the Senior Officer present at the scene so he took charge. He sent the destroyer on an anti-submarine sweep of the area, while Electra, her sister ship , the Swedish yacht Southern Cross, the Norwegian cargo ship Knut Nelson, and the American tanker rescued the survivors. Part of the rescue effort included sending a whaler to rescue a woman still in a bunk in the sickbay of Athenia. Between the ships, about 980 passengers and crew were rescued; only 112 people were lost, and Athenia sank the next morning.
Her next assignment was to escort a convoy out of Pentland Firth, along with and . During a violent storm which lasted over two days, an ammunition locker on the forecastle broke loose, and was sliding around the deck. The locker was full of shells and needed to be secured. After a short time, several volunteers managed to corral the loose object. After a boiler cleaning at Rosyth in December 1939, Electra continued escorting convoys and hunting U-boats in the Western Approaches area until April 1940. Some of the convoys she is known to have escorted include ON 14, HN 14, ON 16, HN 16, ON 18, HN 18, ON 20, and HN 20.
Norway In early April 1940, Electra escorted two convoys to Norway and back. The first trip, which also included and the cruiser , was uneventful. On the second trip, the convoy was attacked by German bombers. An ex-Polish liner serving as a transport was sunk, but the rest of the convoy arrived safely. After the convoy was delivered, Electra was tasked to drop off two Army officers at a desolate location. During this time, Electra shot down a German bomber with her 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns.
A few days later, Electra, being equipped with Two-Speed Destroyer Sweep (TSDS) minesweeping gear, was directed to lead the battleship into Ofotfjord towards Narvik, clearing a path through the minefields for her. However, Admiral Sir William Whitworth decided to risk the mines, and left Electra outside, guarding the entrance to the fjord. on 24 April, Electra escorted from Bogen to Narvik to land the Irish Guards. (See Battles of Narvik). On 8 May, Electra returned to Scapa Flow for replenishment.
On 13 June 1940, she escorted the aircraft carrier when she launched an air attack on Trondheim, Norway. In heavy fog, the admiral ordered the formation to turn into the wind so Ark Royal could launch aircraft. The destroyer screen was in arrowhead formation ahead of the capital ships; Electra in the port wing, in the starboard wing. The message "Blue nine repeat Blue nine – Executive signal." to turn was given on a low-power short-range radio. Apparently, the telegraphist of Antelope missed the signal; as a result, Antelope continued on course while Electra executed the turn. Suddenly, Antelope appeared, cutting across the bows of Electra. With no time to stop, Electra hit Antelope aft, in the wardroom pantry, just aft of the engine room. One man from Antelope climbed up Electras anchor chain to get away from the damaged area. Her bow was severely damaged, and it took Electra and Antelope four days to get back to Scotland at slow speed. She was repaired and refitted at the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company yard at Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland through the end of August. Ailsa was noted primarily for the yachts it has built, and Electra was the largest repair job it had handled to date. Here she had her bow repaired, as well as having her after bank of torpedo tubes replaced by a 3-inch anti-aircraft (AA) gun, and one 20 mm Oerlikon fitted centrally on the light AA platform. Also, during the refit and repair time, the wardroom was painted in the team colours of the Glasgow Rangers football (soccer) team, which was the favourite team of the yard manager heading up the repair work. After conducting post-refit trials on 31 August, she joined the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, Home Fleet, based at Scapa Flow.
Her first assignment after her repair work was completed was to escort the ships of the 1st Minelaying Squadron, along with the destroyers , , and , during the laying of a deep minefield in NW approaches to Irish Sea (Operation SN41). After this, she was part of the escort of the battlecruiser in a hunt for a German surface raider that had attacked Convoy HX 84 sinking the armed merchant cruiser and five ships from the convoy. Electra later joined the search for survivors from the convoy.
In December, she was again on patrol seeking a German surface raider that had been reported as breaking out into the North Atlantic. The force consisted of the battlecruiser , the light cruiser , and the destroyers Electra, , , and . After spending a week at sea, including Christmas Day, after the report turned out to be false, she returned to port on New Year's Eve. It was here that they got word that the ship's current Captain, Lieutenant-Commander Buss, was promoted to Commander and would transfer to the destroyer , and the ship received a new Captain, Lieutenant-Commander Cecil Wakeford May, who would be her captain until she was sunk. (Commander Buss was later killed in action, in HMS Dulverton on 13 November 1943.) A few days after this, Electra was sent into the Arctic for a mission to find surface raiders, returning through the Denmark Strait and refuelling from a cruiser in heavy seas on the way.
The first four months of 1941 saw Electra performing mostly convoy work around the British Isles and Bristol Channel, mostly in cold weather and heavy seas. in January, she escorted the battlecruiser Hood during Operations SN6 and SN65, providing cover for minelaying in the Northern Barrage by ships of the 1st Minelaying Squadron. Starting on 23 January, Electra participated in Operation Rubble, the escape of several Norwegian merchant ships from Gothenburg, Sweden. In February, she escorted Convoy WS6A during passage from the Clyde for two days; then in late February, she escorted the battleship during contractor's trials. One of the trips was as escort to convoy HX 122, which left Halifax on 20 April and arrived in Liverpool on 8 May. On one of the trips, she rescued the crew of a Coastal Command Avro Anson patrol aircraft that had crashed into the ocean. In March, Electra and Inglefield escorted the battleship in a search for the German battlecruisers and . In mid-May, Electra took part in Operation SN9B, escorting ships of 1st Minelaying Squadron during the laying of mines in the Northern Barrage.
Hunt for Bismarck In early May, the British Admiralty was on the alert that might attempt to break out into the North Atlantic. As a consequence, Electra was ordered to Scapa Flow for possible deployment against the Germans. Just after midnight of 21/22 May 1941, Electra sailed along with the destroyers , Antelope, , , and , escorting Hood and Prince of Wales to cover the northern approaches. The intention was that the force would refuel in Hvalfjord, Iceland, and then sail again to watch the Denmark Strait. On the evening of 23 May, the weather deteriorated. At 2055 hrs., Admiral Lancelot Holland aboard Hood signalled the destroyers "If you are unable to maintain this speed I will have to go on without you. You should follow at your best speed." At 0215 on the morning of 24 May, the destroyers were ordered to spread out at intervals to search to the north.
At about 0535, the German forces were sighted by Hood and, shortly after, the Germans sighted the British ships. Firing commenced at 0552. At 0601, Hood took a 38 cm (15-inch) shell from Bismarck in the aft magazine, which caused a massive explosion, sinking the ship within two minutes. Electra and other destroyers were about away at the time. Upon hearing that Hood had sunk, Electra raced to the area, arriving about two hours after Hood went down. They were expecting to find many survivors, prepared hot coffee and rum, set up the medical facilities for the casualties, rigged scrambling nets and heaving lines, and placed life belts on the deck where they could be quickly thrown in. From the 94 officers and 1,321 enlisted men who were aboard Hood, only 3 survivors were found. Electra rescued these three and continued searching. Shortly thereafter, Icarus and Anthony joined in the search and the three ships searched the area for more survivors. No more survivors were found, only driftwood, debris, clothing, personal effects, broken rafts and a desk drawer filled with documents. After several hours of searching, they left the area. With the sea as cold as it was, survival in the water was measured in minutes. There was little probability that anyone was left alive in the water. (See Battle of the Denmark Strait).
After dropping off the survivors in Iceland, she refuelled and then sailed immediately to escort the damaged Prince of Wales to Rosyth. After arriving, the men went on a quick shore leave, their first in many months. Then in a period of two weeks, she went to Scapa Flow, then made a run down the West Coast of England, then to Ireland, then refuelled at Derry and then escorted a troop convoy into the Atlantic.