HMS Spiteful (P227): Bombarding Christmas Island

Constructed at Greenock

HMS Spiteful was built by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Greenock, laid down on 19 September 1941, launched on 5 June 1943 and commissioned on 6 October 1943 under Lieutenant Commander Frederick Henry Sherwood, a Canadian officer who would remain in command for nearly three years.

From the Shetlands to Sumatra

Spiteful's first patrol, in December 1943 and January 1944, was a comparatively sedate anti-U-boat watch northeast of the Shetlands, but she soon sailed for Ceylon, arriving in April 1944 to join the 8th Flotilla for far more eventful work in the Far East.

Her second patrol, off Port Blair in May and June 1944, saw her open fire on the Governor's Residence with her deck gun, and her third, in the Malacca Strait that June and July, brought the sinking of the sailing vessel Sulee Thye by gunfire.

Shelling Christmas Island

On her fourth patrol, off northwest Sumatra in August 1944, Spiteful bombarded the oil storage tanks on Christmas Island, a striking piece of coastal harassment against Japanese infrastructure.

Later patrols added a coaster sunk by gunfire in the Makassar Strait in November and December 1944, along with further gun actions against Japanese targets in June, July and December of that year, before her final, largely uneventful seventh patrol off Singapore in early 1945.

A Second Career in the French Navy

After the war, Spiteful was loaned to the French Navy and served under the name Sirene from 25 January 1952 until her return to Britain in November 1958. She was finally broken up on 15 July 1963, closing out a career that had carried her from anti-U-boat patrols in northern waters to coastal bombardments on the far side of the world.