HMS Troubridge (R00): Five Invasions in Eighteen Months

Built on the Clyde

HMS Troubridge was built by John Brown and Company at Clydebank, laid down on 10 November 1941, launched the following September and completed on 8 March 1943, a T-class destroyer that joined the 24th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean and would go on to take part in an extraordinary run of Allied amphibious landings.

Capturing an Island Fortress

Troubridge's first major action came during Operation Corkscrew in May and June 1943, the bombardment and capture of the fortified island of Pantellaria, before she went on to cover the invasion of Sicily that July during Operation Husky, escort the bombardment forces supporting the Calabria landings in August's Operation Baytown, and provide covering force for the Salerno landings that September under Operation Avalanche, an exhausting sequence of major operations within the space of just a few months.

The Adriatic and Southern France

Through 1944, Troubridge conducted bombardment operations against targets along the Dalmatian coast in the Adriatic, before screening escort carriers supporting the invasion of Southern France that August under Operation Dragoon, adding yet another major amphibious operation to her already substantial wartime record.

Sinking a Ship and a U-Boat in the Aegean

That September, Troubridge took part in operations interfering with the German evacuation of the Greek islands, sinking the cargo ship Toni and taking part in the destruction of the German submarine U-407, a particularly productive close to her European war before she deployed east, briefly serving with the East Indies Fleet in March 1945 and then the British Pacific Fleet from that May, taking part in operations including attacks on Truk.

Hurricane Relief in the Caribbean

Converted into a Type 15 fast anti-submarine frigate between 1955 and 1957 and recommissioned as F09, Troubridge went on to serve with the 8th Frigate Squadron on the America and West Indies Station, undertaking humanitarian relief operations after Hurricane Hattie struck in October 1961 and responding to civil disturbances in British Guiana the following February, a truly varied second career a world away from her wartime Mediterranean service.

Scrapped at Newport

HMS Troubridge was decommissioned for the final time on 29 March 1969 at Chatham and sold for scrap, arriving at the yard of John Cashmore Ltd at Newport, Wales, on 5 May 1970, closing out the career of a destroyer whose wartime record of amphibious support operations was remarkably exceptional even by the standards of her hard-fighting class.