HMS Zealous (R39): Rescued Norwegian Civilians, Later the First Ship Ever Sunk by a Missile

The Build: Birkenhead

HMS Zealous was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead, ordered in February 1942, laid down in May 1943, launched on 28 February 1944 and completed on 9 October that year, a Z-class destroyer that went on to serve on the demanding Arctic convoy route and in anti-shipping operations off the coast of Norway.

Rescuing Norwegian Civilians

In February 1945, Zealous took part in a truly remarkable rescue operation, helping to evacuate 525 Norwegian civilians who had been hiding from occupying German forces, a striking humanitarian achievement carried out under real wartime danger and a fine example of the Royal Navy's role protecting civilian lives even amid combat operations.

Sold to Israel

In 1955, the Royal Navy sold Zealous to Israel, where she was commissioned into the Israeli Navy as INS Eilat in July 1956, going on to see action against Egyptian naval forces near Haifa during the Suez Crisis that same year, a new chapter for a ship already well tested by war.

The First Ship Sunk by a Missile

On 21 October 1967, during the War of Attrition, INS Eilat was struck off Port Said by three Soviet-made Styx missiles, fired in two separate waves an hour apart from two different Egyptian missile boats, and sank, a notably pivotal moment in naval history as the first warship ever sunk in wartime by an anti-ship missile, an event that reshaped naval doctrine worldwide almost overnight.

Of her crew of 199, 47 were killed or went missing and between 90 and 100 more were wounded, a devastating loss this account records with the full solemnity it demands, marking a tragic and historically consequential end for a ship that had once carried hundreds of Norwegian civilians to safety.