HMS Ledbury (L90)

The Arctic convoy PQ 17 Ledbury was engaged in escorting major warships and Fleet auxiliaries in the North Sea until late June 1942, when she was attached to the ocean escort of the convoy PQ 17. Mariners that took part in convoys delivering supplies to Russia remember vividly the biting cold and the continual fear of attack by air or sea. The supplies were vital in that they were needed to keep Russia in the war following her invasion by German forces in 1941. The PQ 17 convoy, which left Iceland at the end of June 1942, is known particularly for the tremendous losses among the merchant ships. The problems for convoy PQ 17 started early on the morning of 4 July 1942, with the appearance of a copper-yellow warhead of a torpedo, clearly visible just below the surface of the sea. The freighter sounded her siren to warn the leading ships in column eight, but it was too late: the weapon was heading straight for the midship section of the Liberty ship , at the head of that column. The ship's Armed Guard ordered the machine guns to be turned on the torpedo racing towards them. Newports merchant seamen loading the guns lost their nerve and scrambled to the ship's port side. One gunner remained at his post, directing bullets at the torpedo; but these were deflected by the water. The torpedo slammed into the ship's engine-room, tearing a gaping hole and knocking the steering gear out of action with an enormous explosion. The helpless ship was yawing out of control across the sixth and seventh columns of the convoy, narrowly missing collisions with other ships, before she lurched round in the opposite direction to that of the convoy and slowed to a standstill. The surviving ships rolled past her, and the convoy sped on in the fog. Christopher Newport (code-number in the convoy, 'Penway' ) wirelessed the leading ship : 'Hit by aerial torpedo.' The Convoy Commander, Jack Broome, ordered Ledbury, and to '... take all possible action to keep U-boats down.' Ledbury was one of the ships chosen to stay behind to tend to, and if necessary scuttle, the torpedoed ship and they themselves could have been an easy target to any submarines; however, none of the U-boats had maintained contact with the convoy. before the sailing of Convoy PQ 17 The next front action for Ledbury came later on that day, at 08:20, when the destroyer began signalling, 'Eight air torpedo-bombers 210 degrees, five miles', and then two minutes later, 'for eight read ten'. Suddenly after Ledburys signals, all the escorts seemed to be blinking morse-signals at once. The loudspeakers were booming, 'Bombers approaching ... there's six of them ... there's twelve ... there's eighteen ... good God, there's twenty-five!' The anti-aircraft ship lurched forward and altered course to head off the attack. Commodore Dowding signalled Keppel to ask if the convoy should make an 'emergency turn'; but it was deemed too late for such a manoeuvre, since half the ships would most likely miss the signal altogether and Broome flashed back, 'I do not think it worth it.' The developing air attack spotted by Ledbury turned into a blitz of the convoy, with Luftwaffe aircraft being shot down over the formation, and one plane crashed into the sea about four thousand yards from the destroyer , on the convoy's starboard bow. The crash occurred not far from Ledbury and seamen on board saw four German airmen climbing out into a rubber dinghy with the bomber sinking soon after. The pilot, Lieutenant Kaumeyr, and his three crewmen were picked out of their dinghy by Ledbury. The attack however, continued and throughout the fierce fighting the escorts distinguished themselves by screening the merchantmen from many attacks, especially U-boat sorties; Ledbury alone had sighted seven. The Admiralty believed However the threat posed by the capital ships failed to materialise and the scattered merchant ships came under U-boat and Luftwaffe attack, resulting in the sinking of twenty three ships. As well as the loss of precious lives and supplies, there was widespread bitterness and the recriminations reverberated for many months, as stated by the commander of Ledbury, Roger P. Hill: ==Pedestal and Ledbury==

Background and preliminary movements In 1942, Great Britain was waging war against Italian forces in North Africa and their allies, the Afrika Korps. Malta was critical to this campaign During this stage of the war, Malta was critically short on munitions, food and aviation fuel. Attempts to run the blockade and resupply Malta proved to be a failure; previous convoys such as Harpoon (from Gibraltar) and Vigorous (from Alexandria, Egypt) had lost most of their merchantmen and their escorts had been damaged. A new convoy was hence planned for mid-August, and named Pedestal. On 9 August 1942, Ledbury sailed from Gibraltar, sighted the convoy in the afternoon, and took its convoy screening station. An hour before midnight on 10 August she left the convoy and proceeded to refuel from the tanker Dingledale, an operation that took place early in the morning of 11 August. Ledbury took aboard 101 tons of fuel. Just before ten o'clock in the morning, the destroyer took station as starboard wing ship of screen. In the afternoon, was hit by torpedoes, with Derwent ordering Ledbury to stand by the stricken aircraft carrier. As Eagle sank, one destroyer and the tug Jaunty stopped, picking up survivors in the oil patches in the water. As Ledbury reached survivors, she was ordered to rejoin the convoy. The convoy now suffered a series of aerial attacks with the gunner of Ledbury's port Oerlikon thought to have shot down one plane, although many other ships were firing at this machine. At 21:00, Ledbury was ordered to Anti-Aircraft station, with one cable on the starboard beam of No. 43. Early on the morning of 12 August, the destroyer was ordered In the ensuing mayhem, Ledbury was ordered A Junkers Ju 87 dropped parachute mines, all of which fell clear. after Force Z turned back, the convoy was in the process of forming two lines with the three T.S.D.S. destroyers ahead, and the remaining ships in their Anti-Aircraft stations in the column of the convoy. A signal, "Form two columns" was still flying, but most ships were anticipating the movement and moving to their new positions. Four minutes before 20:00, and and the tanker were torpedoed. The convoy carried out an emergency turn to starboard, and most destroyers turned back to stand by the damaged cruisers. Ledbury was in station on the starboard side of the convoy Ledbury called and one body was buried that evening with military honours. Some time later it was discovered By half past-nine Ledbury had completed the recovery of survivors. By this time the Commander estimated that the destroyer was about thirty miles astern of the convoy, which meant that they had to speed up in order to reach the ships. Captain Hill then sent a message to Admiral Burrough, 'Interrogative STOP rejoin or go home'. When the signal rating brought in Burrough's reply it became apparent that the signal groups had been received corruptly, since the admiral was apparently ordering Ledbury to "proceed to the Orkney and Shetland Islands". After considering the signal, Captain Hill assumed that it plainly intended the destroyer to return to Gibraltar, however that he might be forgiven for not interpreting it correctly, and so Ledbury ignored the signal and set course for Ohio. Ledbury found Ohio with Penn standing by Dorset and Bramham dropping depth charges. The remnants of the convoy were about ten miles away, under attack from the air. Just as Captain Hill suggested to Penn to take Ohio in tow, Ledbury received a signal from the Convoy Commander to stand by Manchester in the Gulf of Hammamet. In view of the delay in signals, and as Penn and Bramham were standing by these two ships, Ledbury proceeded at to look for Manchester, which according to the signal given by S.O. Cruiser Force had a flooded engine room and was ablaze. As the destroyer searched for the missing ship, it had passed alongside the wreckage of Almeria Lykes, and it had also shot down two three-engined Savoia-Marchetti bombers. After making landfall and identifying a headland as Ras-Mahmur, course was set to follow the coastline looking for Manchester. When the destroyer was almost certain that Manchester was not in the bay, the coast was closed in case there might be any survivors on the beach. At this moment, the signal station at Neboel started calling up "VHM – VHA" but Ledbury did not reply. The signal station at Hammamet made a flag signal, "show your signal letters". The destroyer hoisted an Italian group consisting of flag " I " and three other flags tied in knots so as to be unreadable. This apparently satisfied the shore station as they hoisted a large French ensign. During this period Ledbury was showing no ensign and no Italian ensign was carried on board. A six-inch manilla rope to keep the ship from falling off, whilst Penn went alongside the starboard side of the tanker to act as a drag to keep her straight. Ledburys gunner, who was in charge of the towing party on board the tanker tried out all the tanker's guns, which proved valuable as at 10:44 the flotilla was attacked by nine Stukas. Just before the attack, American survivors from the merchantman Santa Elisa asked Commander Hill to take a party aboard Ohio to repair and man one of the anti-aircraft guns, an offer gratefully accepted by Ledburys captain. In the attack, Ledbury received a near miss within a few feet of the fo'c'sle, which fortunately was an oil bomb and caused no casualties. brought Ohio into Valletta Harbour. ==Further action==

The action of Ledbury during Operation Pedestal was the pinnacle of an otherwise uneventful career. After Operation Pedestal Ledbury was involved in several other convoys throughout the latter stages of the Second World War. On 17 January 1943 Convoy JW 52 set sail with fifteen ships of Loch Ewe, with a Western close escort made up of the destroyers Ledbury, Middleton and Blankney, between 17 January and 21 January. Ledbury and the other destroyers left the convoy with the arrival of the Eastern escort, made up of the destroyers Onslaught, Beagle, Bulldog, Matchless, Musketeer, Offa and the Polish Piorun. In June 1943 Ledbury proceeded again to the Mediterranean after further service on escort duties between Iceland and the Orkney Islands and took part in the invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky. During this operation, Ledbury formed part of Support Force East, in support of the troops of Forces N, B and V that formed XXX Corps. Ledbury was one of a group of upwards of fifty destroyers stationed to escort the landings' main force of cruisers. She was also involved in the Salerno invasion in September 1943, but thereafter her main employment was as a convoy escort to the Italian front, based at first on Malta and latterly at Alexandria. Occasional offensive patrols in the Adriatic and Aegean were undertaken. Between 15 January and 12 February 1944 Ledbury was engaged in patrols along the supply lines of the Dalmatian coast, where heavy Axis losses were involved, becoming untenable due to the increased employment of Allied fighter-bombers from bases in Italy. Between 15 January and 16 January, the destroyers Ledbury and Blackmore bombarded Durazzo while other elements on the same patrol, were approaching Curzola. After taking a minor covering role in the return of British troops to Athens in October 1944, Ledbury was reduced to reserve in March 1946, and was not again commissioned for active service, remaining in peacetime commission longer than most of her class, before being sold for scrap in 1958. The destroyer was broken up at Rosyth in April 1958. ==Notes==