HMS Active (H14)

Active in 1944
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Active
Builder	Hawthorn Leslie & Company, Hebburn[1]
Yard number	557
Laid down	10 July 1928
Launched	9 July 1929
Completed	9 Jan 1930
Commissioned	9 Feb 1930
Decommissioned	20 May 1947
Identification	Pennant number: H14
Fate	Sold for scrap, 1947
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	A-class destroyer
Displacement	1,350 long tons (1,370 t) (standard) 1,773 long tons (1,801 t) (deep load)
Length	323 ft (98 m) (o/a)
Beam	32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)
Draught	12 ft 3 in (3.73 m)
Installed power	34,000 shp (25,000 kW) 3 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Propulsion	2 × shafts; 2 × geared steam turbines
Speed	35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range	4,800 nmi (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	134; 140 (1940)
Armament	4 × single 4.7 in (120 mm) guns 2 × single 2-pdr (40 mm) AA guns 2 × quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 × depth charges, 3 chutes

HMS Active, the tenth Active, launched in 1929, was an A-class destroyer. She served in the Second World War, taking part in the sinking of four submarines. She was broken up in 1947.

Active was ordered on 6 March 1928 as a part of the first class of destroyers for the Royal Navy to be built after the First World War.^[2] The ship was laid down on 10 July 1928 at Hawthorn Leslie in Hebburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, was launched on 9 July 1929 and commissioned on 9 February 1930 with the pennant number H14,^[3] being the first of the A class to be completed.^[4]

Like the rest of the A class, Active had a main gun armament of four 4.7 in (120 mm) guns on low angle (30 degree) mounts that were only suitable for anti-ship use, and an anti-aircraft armament of two 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-poms". Eight 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes were carried on two quadruple mounts, with Mark V torpedoes carried.^[4][5] No sonar set was initially fitted, although provision was made to fit one later, while anti-submarine armament consisted of three depth charge chutes with six depth charges carried. High speed minesweeping equipment was also fitted.^[6]

The ship was powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines fed by three Admiralty 3-drum boilers. The machinery generated 34,000 shaft horsepower (25,000 kW), driving the ship to a design speed of 35.25 knots (65.28 km/h; 40.56 mph),^[3] although 36.73 knots (68.02 km/h; 42.27 mph) were reached during trials in December 1929.^[4]

Following commissioning, Active joined the Third Destroyer Flotilla as part of the Mediterranean Fleet, remaining in the Mediterranean other than for refits until 1939. On 4 April 1932, Active was involved in a collision with fellow A-class destroyer HMS Achates off Saint-Tropez, although damage was limited. Active patrolled off the coast of Palestine in response to the Arab revolt in June 1936, and following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, patrolled off Spain from September 1936 to January 1937.^[7]

On 16 February 1937, Active collided with the destroyer HMS Worcester following failure of Active's steering gear at high speed. This time damage was more severe, and Active was under repair at Malta until June that year, when the ship joined the Second Destroyer Flotilla. Active served with the Second Flotilla until October 1938, when she went into reserve at Malta.^[7] Active recommissioned as a tender to Cormorant, the receiving ship at Gibraltar.^[7]

At the beginning of the Second World War she joined the 13th Destroyer Flotilla based in Gibraltar and in June 1940 joined Force H. As such she took part in Operation Catapult against the French fleet in Mers El Kébir.^[7] On 31 July Active set out from Gibraltar as part of Force H for Operation Hurry in which the aircraft carrier Ark Royal's aircraft attacked Cagliari in Italy as a diversion while the carrier Argus ferried 12 Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft to Malta.^[8] In August 1940, she returned to British waters, joining the 12th Destroyer Flotilla for operations in the Western Approaches and with the Home Fleet. From November 1940 to March 1941 Active was refitted at Liverpool.^[7]

After completing this refit, Active joined the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet,^[7] and in May 1941 the ship participated in the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck.^[7][9]

In 1942 she participated in the Madagascar landings (Operation Ironclad) during which on 8 May she sank the Vichy French submarine Monge.

Later while being based in Cape Town on 8 October she sank the German submarine U-179 en route to Penang.

During the rest of the war the ship served as escort mainly between Great Britain and Sierra Leone after receiving increased anti-aircraft and anti-submarine armament. On 23 May 1943 she sank the Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci west of Cape Finisterre together with the frigate HMS Ness and on 2 November 1943 sank U-340 close to Tangier.

In May 1947 Active was decommissioned and sold for scrap.

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• Shores, Christopher; Massimello, Giovanni; Guest, Russell; Olynyk, Frank; Bock, Winfried; Thormas, Andy (2018). A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940–1945: Volume Four: Sicily and Italy to the Fall of Rome: 14 May, 1943 –5 June, 1944. London: Grub Street. ISBN 978-1-911621-10-2.
• Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.
• Winser, John de D. (1999). B.E.F. Ships Before, At and After Dunkirk. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-91-6.

• HMS Active at naval-history