Home Fleet At the outbreak of
World War II Penelope was with the 3rd Cruiser Squadron in the
Mediterranean, having arrived at
Malta on 2 September 1939.
Penelope and her
sister ship were reallocated to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron in the
Home Fleet and arrived at
Portsmouth on 11 January 1940. On 3 February she left for the
River Clyde en route to
Rosyth, arrived on 7 February and operated with the 2nd Cruiser Squadron on convoy escort duties. In April and May 1940, she took part in the
Norwegian Campaign. On 11 April
Penelope ran aground off
Fleinvær while hunting German merchant ships entering the
Vestfjord. Her boiler room was flooded and she was holed forward. The
destroyer towed her to
Skjelfjord where an advanced base had been improvised. Despite air attacks, temporary repairs were made and she was towed home a month later. She arrived at
Greenock in Scotland on 16 May 1940 where additional temporary repairs were carried out, before proceeding on 19 August to the
Tyne for permanent repairs. After repairs and trials were completed in August 1941,
Penelope reappeared as 'a new ship from the water line down'. She returned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron at
Scapa Flow on 17 August 1941. On 9 September she left Greenock escorting the
battleship to Rosyth. Later that month she was employed in patrolling the
Iceland–
Faroes passage to intercept enemy surface ships. On 6 October 1941
Penelope left
Hvalfjord, Iceland, with another battleship, , escorting the
aircraft carrier for the successful Operation E. J., an air attack on German shipping between Glom Fjord and the head of West Fjord,
Norway. The force returned to Scapa Flow on 10 October 1941.
Force K Penelope and her sister were then assigned to form the core of
Force K based at Malta and departed Scapa on 12 October 1941, arriving in Malta on 21 October. On 8 November, both cruisers and their escorting destroyers sailed from Malta to intercept an Italian convoy of six destroyers and seven merchant ships sailing for
Libya, which had been sighted by aircraft at 37°53'N – 16°36'E. During the ensuing
Battle of the Duisburg Convoy on 9 November off
Cape Spartivento, the British sank one enemy destroyer () and all of the merchant ships. On 23 November, Force K sailed again to intercept another enemy convoy; next day they sank two more merchant ships,
Maritza and
Procida, west of
Crete. Force K received the Prime Minister's congratulations on their fine work. On 1 December 1941, Force K sank the Italian merchant vessel
Adriatico, at 32°52'N – 2°30'E, the destroyer
Alvise da Mosto, and the tanker
Iridio Mantovani at 33°45'N – 12°30'E. The
First Sea Lord congratulated them on 3 December. On 19 December, while operating off
Tripoli,
Penelope struck a mine but was not seriously damaged, although the cruiser and the destroyer were sunk by mines in the same action.
Penelope was sent into the dockyard for repairs and returned to service at the beginning of January 1942. On 5 January, she left Malta with Force K, escorting the
Special Service Vessel to
Alexandria (Operation ME9), returning on 27 January, escorting the supply ship . She left Malta, again with
Breconshire on 13 February 1942 and an eastbound convoy aided by six destroyers, Operation MG5, returning to Malta on 15 February, with the destroyers and . On 23 March, she left Malta with
Legion for Operation MG1, a further
convoy to Malta.
Breconshire was hit and taken in tow by
Penelope and was later safely secured to a buoy in
Marsaxlokk harbour, the whole operation was under the charge of
Penelopes commanding officer, Captain A. D. Nicholl, of whose work the Naval Officer In Command (NOIC), Malta expressed appreciation.
Penelope was holed both forward and aft by near-misses during air attacks on Malta on 26 March. While in the island, she was docked and repaired at the Malta Dry Docks. Day after day she was attacked by German aircraft and the crew worked to fix a myriad of
shrapnel holes, so many that she was nicknamed HMS
Pepperpot; when these had been plugged with long pieces of wood, HMS
Porcupine.
Penelope gun-loader, Albert Hewitt, was blown off his feet but regained consciousness still safely holding a four inch shell.
Penelope sailed for
Gibraltar on 8 April and on the next day was repeatedly attacked from the air. She arrived in Gibraltar on 10 April, with further damage from near-misses. Later that day she received a signal from Vice Admiral, Malta, "True to your usual form. Congratulations".
Repairs and awards The damage was extensive and required several months at home after temporary repairs in Gibraltar. The ship was visited by the
Duke of Gloucester on 11 April, who had originally laid down her keel plate. The duke also visited Captain Nicholl in hospital. The First Sea Lord congratulated the ship on her successful arrival in Gibraltar. The question of
Penelopes repairs had been reconsidered, and it was decided to send her to the United States. She accordingly left Gibraltar on 10 May 1942, for the Navy Yard at
New York via Bermuda, arriving on 19 May. She was under repair until September and arrived in
Norfolk, Virginia on 15 September, proceeding, again via Bermuda, to Portsmouth, England, which she reached on 1 October 1942. The King, at an investiture at
Buckingham Palace, decorated 21 officers and men from
Penelope as "Heroes of Malta". Among their awards were two
Distinguished Service Orders, a
Distinguished Service Cross and two
Distinguished Service Medals.
Western Mediterranean Penelope arrived at Scapa Flow on 2 December and remained in home waters until the middle of January 1943. She left the Clyde on 17 January for Gibraltar, where she arrived on 22 January. She had been allocated to the 12th Cruiser Squadron, in which she operated with the
Western Mediterranean Fleet under the flag of Admiral Sir
Andrew Cunningham during the follow-up of
Operation Torch, the landings in
North Africa. On 1 June 1943,
Penelope and the destroyers and shelled the Italian island of
Pantelleria. The force received enemy gunfire in return and
Penelope was hit once but suffered little damage. On 8 June 1943, with the cruiser and other ships, she took part in a further heavy bombardment of the island. A demand for its surrender was refused. The same force left Malta on 10 June, to cover the assault (
Operation Corkscrew), which resulted in the surrender of the island on 11 June 1943. On 11 and 12 June
Penelope also took part in the attack on
Lampedusa, which fell to the British forces on 12 June 1943. On 10 July 1943, with
Aurora and two destroyers,
Penelope carried out a diversionary bombardment of
Catania as part of the conquest of
Sicily, (Operation Husky, the
Allied invasion of Sicily). The flotilla then moved to
Taormina where the railway station was shelled. On 11 July,
Penelope left Malta with the 12th Cruiser Squadron as part of Force H to provide cover for the northern flank of the assault on Sicily. During the remainder of July and August, she took part in various other naval gunfire support and sweeps during the campaign for Sicily.
Force Q On 9 September 1943,
Penelope was part of Force Q for
Operation Avalanche, the allied landings at Salerno, Italy, during which she augmented the bombardment force.
Penelope left the Salerno area on 26 September with
Aurora and at the beginning of October was transferred to the Levant in view of a possible attack on the island of
Kos in the
Dodecanese. On 7 October, with the cruiser and other ships, she sank six enemy
landing craft, one ammunition ship and an
armed trawler off
Stampalia. While the ships were retiring through the Scarpanto Straits south of Rhodes, they were attacked by 18 Ju 87 "Stuka"
dive-bombers of I Gruppe
Sturzkampfgeschwader 3 MEGARA. Although damaged by a bomb,
Penelope was able to return to Alexandria at . On 19 November 1943 the ship moved to
Haifa in connection with possible developments in the
Lebanon situation. Towards the end of 1943, she was ordered to Gibraltar for
Operation Stonewall, (anti-blockade-runner duties), in the Atlantic. On 27 December, the forces in this operation destroyed the German blockade-runner
Alsterufer which was sunk by aircraft co-operating with Royal Navy ships.
Penelope returned to Gibraltar on 30 December and took part in
Operation Shingle, the amphibious assault on
Anzio, Italy, providing gunfire support as part of Force X with on 22 January 1944. She also assisted in the bombardments in the
Formia area during the later operations. She made eight shoots on 8 February.
Sinking On 18 February 1944,
Penelope, under the command of
George Devereux Belben, was leaving
Naples to return to the Anzio area when she was torpedoed at by the under the command of
Horst-Arno Fenski. A torpedo struck her in the aft engine room and was followed sixteen minutes later by another torpedo that hit in the aft boiler room, causing her to immediately begin sinking; 417 of the crew, including the captain, went down with the ship, with only 206 survivors. A memorial plaque commemorating those lost is in
St Ann's Church, HM Dockyard, Portsmouth. == Cultural references ==