HMS Sussex (96): Bombed, Torpedoed, and Struck by a Kamikaze, and Still She Fought On

Built on the Tyne

HMS Sussex was built by R. and W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company at Hebburn-on-Tyne, laid down on 1 February 1927, launched on 22 February 1928 and completed the following March, a County-class heavy cruiser that spent her interwar years in the Mediterranean, including a spell exchanged with the Royal Australian Navy, and protecting neutral shipping during the final stages of the Spanish Civil War.

Hunting the Graf Spee

With the outbreak of war, Sussex joined Force H's search for the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee across the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean in September 1939, and that December intercepted the German passenger ship Watussi alongside HMS Renown.

Gutted by Fire

On 18 September 1940, Sussex was struck by German bombs that caused serious fires, gutting her aft end, a severe blow that this account records honestly given how close she came to being lost entirely. Yet she recovered, and by February 1943 was back in action, sinking the German tanker Hohenfriedburg southwest of Cape Finisterre.

Missed by Four Torpedoes

In a remarkable stroke of fortune, Sussex survived an attack by the German submarine U-264, which fired four torpedoes at her without a single one finding its mark, an escape that many less fortunate ships of the war never got the chance to have.

Struck by a Kamikaze

Sussex's run of narrow escapes continued to the very end of the war. On 26 July 1945, she was attacked by a kamikaze aircraft, a Mitsubishi Ki-51, off the coast of Japan, the culmination of a wartime career that had already survived bombing, fire and torpedo attack, a genuinely extraordinary record of resilience for a single ship.

Present for the Japanese Surrender

On 5 September 1945, Sussex entered Singapore Harbour carrying Rear-Admiral Cedric Holland, and it was aboard her own decks that General Seishiro Itagaki signed the formal Japanese army surrender, completing Operation Tiderace, a fittingly historic conclusion for a ship that had fought through so much of the war to reach that moment.

Broken Up in Scotland

HMS Sussex was paid off in 1949 and handed over to the British Iron and Steel Corporation on 3 January 1950, broken up in Scotland within weeks, bringing to a close the career of one of the more genuinely fortunate and battle-tested cruisers of the entire Royal Navy.