Ordered on 2 February 1931 under the 1930 Naval Programme,
Defender was
laid down at the
Vickers Armstrongs yard in
Barrow as
yard number 674 on 22 June 1931, and
launched on 7 April 1932. She was completed on 31 October 1932 having cost a total of £223,979, excluding the
Admiralty supplied equipment such as guns, ammunition and wireless outfits. The ship was initially assigned to the
1st Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean and made a brief deployment to the
Persian Gulf and
Red Sea in September–November 1933.
Defender was
refitted at
Devonport Dockyard between 3 September and 23 October 1934 for service on the China Station with the
8th Destroyer Flotilla and arrived at Hong Kong in January 1935. The ship was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in the Red Sea from November 1935 to June 1936 during the Abyssinian Crisis and then visited ports in East Africa for a month before returning to the China Station. Her boilers had to be retubed at Singapore between 5 November 1938 and 26 January 1939 and her
superheaters were repaired at Hong Kong from 31 January to 14 March. With the outbreak of war,
Defender was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and arrived in
Alexandria on 19 September. She was assigned to
contraband control duties until she was transferred to Gibraltar in January 1940. The ship patrolled the Portuguese coast until she was transferred to
Freetown in mid-February to escort convoys off the
West African coast.
Defender was transferred back to Gibraltar in April, escorting the
light cruiser en route, and arrived there on 23 April 1940. The next month, she joined the
10th Destroyer Flotilla of the Mediterranean Fleet On 27 June, together with
sisters and , with the destroyers and , she sank the south east of Crete.
Defender took part in the Battle of Calabria on 9 July as an escort for the heavy ships of Force C and unsuccessfully engaged Italian destroyers without suffering any damage. Together with her sisters
Dainty and , the Australian destroyer , and the
light cruisers and , she escorted Convoy AN.2 from
Egypt to various ports in the
Aegean Sea in late July. On 6 November,
Defender, together with the destroyers , , , , , ,
Ilex, , , , and screened the
capital ships of the Mediterranean Fleet, which provided distant cover for the passage of Convoy MW3 from Egypt to Malta and Convoy ME3 from Malta as part of
Operation MB8. During
Operation Collar in late November,
Defender, the
anti-aircraft cruiser and four other destroyers sailed from Alexandria to rendezvous with a convoy coming from
Gibraltar. After reaching Malta on 26 November, the destroyers joined the battleship , and the light cruisers and of Force D and sailed to rendezvous with
Force H, also coming from Gibraltar. The next day, after the British forces had combined, they were spotted by the Italians and the inconclusive Battle of Cape Spartivento was fought. On 7 January 1941,
Defender escorted Convoy MW.5 with her sister
Diamond and the anti-aircraft cruiser from Alexandria to Malta during
Operation Excess. The ship was refitted in Malta from 4 February to 19 March, and took part in the Battle of Cape Matapan on 27–29 March. She then escorted Convoy GA.15 on 29–30 April from Souda Bay to Alexandria. An Italian destroyer and two
torpedo boats attacked the convoy at night as it was transiting Kaso Strait east of Crete, but were rebuffed by the escorts without inflicting any damage. The following month
Defender assisted in the evacuation of troops from Crete to Egypt after the Germans invaded on 22 May (
Operation Merkur). Later that month, she began escorting convoys to and from
Tobruk and on 29 June the Australian destroyer was badly damaged by Italian
Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka"
dive bombers off Tobruk.
Defender took
Waterhen in tow, but the next day she
capsized and sank.
Loss On 11 July 1941,
Defender was returning from Tobruk in company with the Australian destroyer . They were attacked by a single
Junkers Ju 88 bomber of I./
Lehrgeschwader 1 piloted by
Gerhard Stamp on a reconnaissance flight along the coast before dawn. The bomber scored a near-miss on
Defender which detonated under the ship, just forward of the
engine room. The shock broke the ship's back and flooded the engine room, although there were no casualties among her crew or passengers.
Vendetta took
Defender in tow, leaving a skeleton crew aboard the damaged ship, but she started to break up and
Vendetta was forced to scuttle her with a torpedo and gunfire off
Sidi Barrani about five hours later. ==Notes==