HMS Naiad (93)
HMS Naiad (93) in October 1940
| Name | HMS Naiad (93) | ||
| Type: | Light cruiser (Dido) | ||
| Tonnage | 5.450 tons | ||
| Completed | 1940 - Hawthorn Leslie, Hebburn | ||
| Owner | The Admiralty | ||
| Homeport | |||
| Date of attack | 11 Mar, 1942 | Nationality:  British | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-565 (Johann Jebsen) | ||
| Position | 32.01N, 26.20E - Grid CO 9221 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 664 officers and men (82 dead and 582 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | |||
| Route | Alexandria - Alexandria | ||
| Cargo | |||
| History | After completion, the HMS Naiad (93) joined the 15th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet, was used for ocean trade protection duties and escorted WS convoys to Freetown. On 28 Jan, 1941 she sighted the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau south of Iceland, but the cruiser lost the contact after a short time, while the German ships were forced to break off their attempt to go into the Atlantic. In May 1941 she was based at Malta as flagship of 15th Cruiser Sqdn in Force H and took part in Crete operations and against Vichy-French forces in Syria, where she engaged the Guepard together with HMNZS Leander (75). The cruiser then took part in several operations to resupply Malta. | ||
| Notes on loss | On 9 Mar, 1942, the HMS Naiad (93) (Capt Grantham) sailed from Alexandria as flagship of a cruiser force under KAdm Vian, consisting of the cruisers HMS Dido (37) and HMS Euryalus (42) and the destroyers HMS Kipling (G 91), HMS Kelvin (G 37), HMS Lively (G 40), HMS Sikh (G 82), HMS Zulu (G 18), HMS Hasty (H 24), HMS Havock (H 43) and HMS Hero (H 99) to attack a reported damaged Italian cruiser, but this report proved to be wrong and the ships turned back to Alexandria together with the HMS Cleopatra (33) and HMS Kingston (G 64) from Malta. The task force was unsuccessfully attacked several times by Italian torpedo planes and German bombers. At 20.01 hours on 11 March, the HMS Naiad (93) was hit by one torpedo from U-565 and sank north of Sidi Barrani, Egypt. | ||
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