# HMS HARDY ( ii )



## little steve (Aug 28, 2007)

I have just received my fathers war record in the second world war
he servered on v class destroyer HMS HARDY from 05/08/43 till she was sunk on the 30/01/44 by a U BOAT some where near bear island
fortunatly he survived , but he never talked about it.
he also served on HMS HART a black swan class sloop if any body as
any information on thease ships or photo's , I would be pleased to
here from you . 

little steve


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## treeve (Nov 15, 2005)

Quick google gives you ..
http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4516.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/49/a2942949.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hardy

Best Wishes, Raymond


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## treeve (Nov 15, 2005)

and on HMS Hart ...
http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3930.html

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/black_swan_class.htm

http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/R_HART.HTM


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## little steve (Aug 28, 2007)

thanks raymond I will give them all a look 

little steve


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## Steve Woodward (Sep 4, 2006)

The Black swan class sloops were a developement from an earlier sloop, the Egret, they were some 7 feet longer and a little faster and had Denny-Brown stabilisers, the class comprised four ships ( Black Swan, Erne, Flamingo and Ibis), Hart was from the follow on group- the Modified Black Swan class these 27 ships - with another two for the RIN) were also fitted with the DB stabilisers and were primarily convoy escort ships, designed with the fire-power of a small destroyer but the endurance to cross an ocean, hence the slower speed/ lower fuel comsumption, their main target the U-boat.
LHart was built by Stephens being launched on the 07th July 1943, ironically her fate was that she was sold to Germany in 1959 becoming the Scheer.

L 299'06" B 38'06" Draft 11'06" displacement 1,400 tons standard and 1900 full load
Machinery : Twin screw Parsons geared steam turbines, two admiralty 3-drum O/F boilers 4,400 shp giving just under 20 knots , the bunker capacity was 390 tons oil 
Armed with six 4" C45 Mk16 HA AA guns in three twin turrets , two twin 40mm Bofors were added in 1945, 110 depth charges were carried with the possibility of another 50 in the Bofors magazine, in 1944-5 Hart was fitted with a Hedgehog ASW mortar .


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## little steve (Aug 28, 2007)

thank steve , great information ,nice twist , going from fighting the
german navy, to being part of it.

little steve


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## melliget (Dec 3, 2006)

Hi little steve.

Your father's H.M.S. Hardy was completed Aug '43, so he probably joined her when the destroyer was newly commissioned.

Here are some very brief articles from The Times:
01_TheTimes_Fri_25Feb1944_HMS_Hardy_lost.png
02_TheTimes_Fri_10Mar1944_ROH_HMS_Hardy.png
03_TheTimes_Fri_07Sep1945_HMS_Hart_transports_Japanese_officers_to_surrender.png

The above Roll of Honour, on which H.M.S. Hardy was included, also included casualties for H.M.S. Janus, H.M. minesweeper Clacton and H.M. trawler Pine.

If search Picture Australia for HMS Hart, you will find some photos of her at the Japanese surrender in the South West Pacific at the end of the war.

regards,
Martin

p.s. The articles linked above will stay there for a while but not indefinitely.


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## little steve (Aug 28, 2007)

*hms hardy*

thanks martin , I am starting to get a picture of dads war time service . they where all so young and all so brave , makes you proud
of all of them.


little steve


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## Steve Woodward (Sep 4, 2006)

Nearly forgot to add a bit on the Hardy, the first ship H87 was a GHI class leader, built slightly larger for her role as a flotilla leader ( she carried more crew) she was lost during the first Narvik battle, she was of course named after Thomas Masterman Hardy captain of HMS Victory during Trafalgar.
HardyII R08 was named in honour of H87 inn spite of her being an S,T,U,V and W class destroyer.
R08 was built by the famous John Brown company on the Clydebank being laid down on the 14th May 1942, launched almost a year later on the 18th March and commissioned In August 1943 just over 5 months later on the 30th January 1944 she was as stated earlier torpedoed by the U278 whilst withe convoy JW56B , badly damaged and far from a safe haven she was scuttled by sister-ship HMS Venus.
As the war progressed and new classes of destroyers were built improvements were slowly worked into the ships, this batch received bows vey similar to those fitted to the famous Tribal class ships making them better and drier sea-boats and at lat their was a slight improvemet in the main armament, earlier ships had a max elevation of 40 degrees the new ships had 55 degrees make them a little better for AA use but still far from ideal, Hardy was again fitted out as a destroyer leader, in total there were 40 ships in this widespread group of destroyers, one, Whelp carried a fairly well known Ist Lt. ; Phillip Mountbatten.
L 362'09" B 35'08" Draft 14'04" full load, disp 1,720 tons standard and 1,800 tons full load.
Machinery: standard destroyer package of twin screws powered by Parsons geared steam turbines and two admiralty 3-drum O/F boilers, 40,000 SHP giving 36.75 knots bunkerage was 590 tons FFO.
Armament : Four 4.7" C45 Mk9 guns these fired separate munitions with a 50lb shell being fired by a 13 lb cordite charge, the range was about 17,000 yards with 250 rounds per gun being carried.
AA armament was a twin 40mm Bofors, two quad sets of 21" tubes were also carried , the crew varied from 180 up to 225 for the flottilla leaders.


U-278 was a typeVIIC u boat built by Bremer Vulkan at Bremen-Vegesack 1942-4, she commissioned on the 16th Jan 1943 and was commanded by Kptlt. Joachim Franze at the time or Hardy's sinking, a war survivor she was surrendered at Loch Eriboll on the 19th may 1945 and scuttled under the auspices of operation deadlight on the 31st dec 1945

Hardy's career:
1944
August : she carried out acceptance trials 

Sept : Joined the home fleet based on Scapa Flow for working up

Oct : Escort for relief of garrison on Spritzbergen - other ships Anson, Janus Vigilant, Iroquois and Haida

Nov : Escort for Russian Convoy JW54B with Samaurez, Savage, Scorpion, Scourge, Vigilant and the Norwegian Stoord ( all destroyers), on the 2nd Dec she detached from the convoy and returned to Scapa Flow alone.
Jan : Convoy JW56A senior Off escort with Virago, Vigilant, Venus, Inconstant, Obdurate, Offa, Savage and the Stord again
Jan 28th arrived Kola inlet, then went back to stiffen the escort of JW56B the following convoy due to it being heavily attacked by U-boats.
On the 30th January 1945 Hardy was hit by a Gnat homing torpedo from the U278, crew taken off and Hardy sunk by Venus, if she had been anywhere safe to tow her she would have survived but the risk to her and the towing vessel would have been too great so she had to be scuttled.
I have no knowledge of any injuries to the Hardy's crew, a gnat torpedo homed in on the ships propeelors and generally caused severe damage aft.


Heroes one and all, just for going to Russia in the sort of weather they endured, summer was not popular with total daylight but winter and severe cold meant only minutes survival in the icy waters. and we complain if we have to wait a week for the latest Wii game !!!
Steve


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## Paul Webb (Feb 8, 2021)

little steve said:


> I have just received my fathers war record in the second world war
> he servered on v class destroyer HMS HARDY from 05/08/43 till she was sunk on the 30/01/44 by a U BOAT some where near bear island
> fortunatly he survived , but he never talked about it.
> he also served on HMS HART a black swan class sloop if any body as
> ...


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## Paul Webb (Feb 8, 2021)

Paul Webb said:


> Steve
> Just putting together my Dad's naval records, John H V Webb, Petty officer, on Hardy when sunk
> Paul Webb


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