HMS Nubian was a destroyer of the Royal Navy that saw much distinguished service in World War II. She won 13 battle honours, a record only exceeded by one other ship, and matched by two others.
Description
The Tribals were intended to counter the large destroyers being built abroad and to lend gun support to the existing destroyer flotillas and were thus significantly larger and more heavily armed than the preceding. The ships displaced at standard load and at deep load. They had an overall length of, a beam of and a draught of. The destroyers were powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three Admiralty three-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of. The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of at. The ships' complement consisted of 190 officers and ratings, although the flotilla leaders carried an extra 20 officers and men for the Captain and his staff. The primary armament of the Tribal-class destroyers was eight quick-firing 4.7-inch Mark XII guns in four twin-gun mounts, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. For anti-aircraft defence, they carried a single quadruple mount for the QF two-pounder Mk II "pom-pom" AA gun and two quadruple mounts for the 0.5-inch Mark III machine gun. The ships were fitted with a single above-water quadruple mount for British 21 inch torpedo| torpedoes. The Tribals were not intended as anti-submarine ships, but they were provided with ASDIC, one depth charge rack and two throwers for self-defence, although the throwers were not mounted in all ships; Twenty depth charges were the peacetime allotment, but this increased to 30 during wartime.
Wartime modifications
Heavy losses to German air attack during the Norwegian Campaign demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the Tribals' anti-aircraft suite and the RN decided in May 1940 to replace 'X' mount with two QF Mark XVI dual-purpose guns in a twin-gun mount. To better control the guns, the existing rangefinder/director was modified to accept a Type 285gunnery radar as they became available. The number of depth charges was increased to 46 early in the war, and still more were added later. To increase the firing arcs of the AA guns, the rear funnel was shortened and the mainmast was reduced to a short pole mast.
Construction and career
Nubian was in home waters for the early part of the Second World War, and saw action with the Home Fleet during the Norwegian Campaign in May 1940. Following this, Nubian joined 14th Destroyer Flotilla at Plymouth, which was led by Captain P J Mack. Also in the 14th Destroyer Flotilla were , and . The flotilla left Plymouth for Alexandria on 18 May 1940, in company with 4 K-class destroyers from the 5th Destroyer Flotilla en route for service in the Red Sea; they arrived in Alexandria on 25 May, just two weeks days before hostilities with Italy commenced on 11 June 1940. Nubian saw much action, being involved in the actions at Calabria, in July 1940, Matapan, Sfax, and finally Crete. During the battle of Cape Matapan, she delivered the coup de grace to the, stricken by an aerial torpedo. During the battle of Crete, on 26 May, Nubian was bombed and had her stern blown off, with the loss of 7 of her crew killed, and another 12 wounded. Despite further attacks, she was able to return to Alexandria under escort, but departed there on 12 June under tow for extensive repairs in Bombay, which were not completed for another 18 months. Nubian returned to the Mediterranean and the 14th Destroyer Flotilla in November 1942, seeing action with them against the convoy on 2 December and off Tripoli in company with Jervis on 20–21 December. In 1943, she was involved with supporting the landings in Sicily, and at Salerno, before returning to Britain for reassignment to the Arctic. While in the Arctic she conducted convoy escort duty, during which she was involved in at least one direct attack on a U-boat, a cat and mouse hunt which lasted some days. She also tracked at least 11 other U-boats that twice attacked the convoy she was shadowing. During operations conducted in the Arctic, she dispatched back to Norway on two vital operations. These were a strike on the German submarine base at Trondheim Fjord, and a strike on the German battleship at Alton Fjord. At the end of 1944, Nubian was refitted, ready to be dispatched to the Far East in March 1945 as part of the escort force of the 21st Aircraft Carrier Squadron, seeing action in support of the closing operations in Burma.
Two other ships, and, also serving in the Mediterranean with Nubian, matched this record; it was exceeded only by the , a Jutland veteran and the Mediterranean Fleet flagship through much of the Second World War.
