HMS Partridge (1916)

HMS Partridge was a Royal Navy Admiralty M-class destroyer constructed and then operational in the First World War, later being sunk by enemy action in 1917. The destroyer was the sixth Royal Navy vessel to carry the name HMS Partridge.[1]

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Partridge.

Sinking

The vessel was assigned to the Fourteenth Destroyer Flotilla by July 1916.[2] On 11 December 1917 the destroyer left from Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, along with HMS Pellew and several armed trawlers to escort six merchant ships to Bergen, in Norway.[3] The convoy was spotted by a flotilla of German destroyers and they unsuccessfully fought an engagement with the attacking destroyers, with Partridge being hit repeatedly by shells and torpedoes.[3] The destroyer subsequently sank in the North Sea on 12 December 1917.[4] Reports indicate that 97 of the crew were killed and only 24 were rescued.[3] The wreck is believed to be off the Norwegian coast.[3] One incident of reported heroism in the sinking, in which a Lieutenant Grey sacrificed a place in a life-raft for another officer resulted in the award of the Stanhope Gold Medal by the Royal Humane Society.[3]

References
  1. "HMS Partridge". Navalhistory.net. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  2. Supplement to the Monthly Navy List. (July, 1916). p. 12.
  3. "How WW1 sailor saved his life by laying it down for a friend". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  4. Dittmar, C.British Warships 1914–1919. Ian Allan, 1972. p. 67

Bibliography
  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
  • Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9.
  • Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
  • Halpern, Paul G. (1995). A Naval History of World War I. London: UCL Press Limited. ISBN 1-85728-498-4.
  • March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans. London: Seeley Service. OCLC 164893555.
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