HMS Intrepid (D10): From Hunting the Bismarck to Sunk at Leros

Built at Cowes

HMS Intrepid was built by J.S. White and Co. at Cowes, laid down on 13 January 1936, launched on 17 December that year and commissioned on 29 July 1937, one of nine I-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. She got off to a strong start in the war: in October 1939, she helped sink the German submarine U-45 southwest of Ireland alongside the destroyers HMS Ivanhoe and HMS Inglefield, a solid early success against the U-boat threat.

A Collision and a Bismarck Hunt

HMS Intrepid suffered a tragic accident in March 1940, colliding with the fishing trawler MV Ocean Drift during naval manoeuvres, an incident that cost two lives, though eight survivors were rescued, a sobering reminder that naval exercises carried genuine risks quite apart from enemy action. HMS Intrepid went on to take part in the pursuit and eventual destruction of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941, part of the substantial escort and screening force assembled for one of the most significant single naval operations of the entire war.

Adopted by Uxbridge, Bound for Malta

HMS Intrepid was adopted by the town of Uxbridge as part of a wartime fundraising scheme, a popular civic arrangement that saw communities across Britain raise money in support of a particular ship in exchange for a formal affiliation. She took part in Operation Pedestal in August 1942, escorting the desperately needed supply convoy to besieged Malta, one of the most fiercely contested convoy operations of the entire war, carried out under sustained and heavy Axis air and submarine attack.

Sunk at Leros

HMS Intrepid's war came to an end on 26 September 1943, when, under the command of Commander Charles Arthur de Winton Kitcat, she was sunk by German Junkers Ju 88 bombers in Leros harbour in the Dodecanese, part of the ill-fated British campaign to hold the Dodecanese islands against German counterattack in the aftermath of the Italian armistice, a campaign that would go on to cost the Royal Navy several ships in the difficult, hard-fought waters of the Aegean. HMS Intrepid's loss came after six years of genuinely active wartime service that had ranged from hunting U-boats in the Atlantic to running the gauntlet to Malta, a solid and consistent record brought to an end not by a single dramatic action, but by the kind of sustained, determined air attack that proved so costly to Allied ships throughout the Aegean campaign.