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Allied Ships hit by U-boats


HMS Fidelity (D 57)


NameHMS Fidelity (D 57)
Type:Special service vessel (SSV)
Tonnage2.456 tons
Completed1920 - H. & C. Grayson Ltd, Garston, Liverpool 
OwnerThe Admiralty 
Homeport 
Date of attack30 Dec, 1942Nationality:      British
 
FateSunk by U-435 (Siegfried Strelow)
Position43.23N, 27.07W - Grid CE 3178
- See location on a map -
Complement379 (369 dead and 10 survivors).
ConvoyONS-154 (straggler)
RouteUK - Colombo, India 
CargoCommandos and two landing craft 
History Built as French Le Rhin for Compagnie de Navigation Paquet, Marseilles.
In June 1940 taken over by Britain, converted to the special service vessel (SSV) HMS Fidelity (D 57) and commissioned on 24 Sep, 1940. The ship was armed with four 4in guns and four torpedo tubes and equipped with two seaplanes, a motor torpedo boat (MTB), HF/DF and torpedo nets. 
Notes on loss At 21.38 hours on 29 Dec, 1942, U-225 (Leimkühler) missed the HMS Fidelity (D 57), which was straggling from convoy ONS-154 station #54. U-615 (Kapitzky) missed the same ship with five torpedoes between 22.00 and 23.00 hours on the same day.

At 16.38 hours on 30 December, the vessel was finally hit by two torpedoes from U-435 and sank immediately. The landing crafts HMS LCV-752 and HMS LCV-754 on board were lost with the ship.
The HMS Fidelity (D 57) had a crew of 284 men and transported 51 Royal Marines for Indochina. The day before, she picked up 44 survivors from Empire Shackleton, which had been sunk the day before by U-225 (Leimkühler), U-123 (Schroeter) and U-435.
The MTB with eight men floated free from the fast sinking ship and were picked up by the HMCS Woodstock (K 238). They were the only survivors apart from two men that had been picked up by the HMCS St Laurent (H 83) after a seaplane of the vessel crashed on take off. 


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