It was headline news on 8 April 1942: 'One of the Navy's most famous
destroyers, a ship which survived bombs, torpedoes and full scale
battles, has been wrecked'. That destroyer was HMS Havock, described in
another newspaper as 'Britain's No 2 Destroyer of this war - second only
in fame and glory to the Cossack.'
Havock had earned her reputation guarding the convoys across the
Atlantic in 1939 and at Narvik in the abortive bid to stave off the
German occupation of Norway in 1940\ Havock was then transferred to the
Mediterranean, fighting at the Battle of Cape Spada in 1940 and in 1941
at the Battle of Matapan and in the evacuations of Greece and Crete.
Havock's duties in the Med continued, escorting the convoys to the
besieged island of Malta and the equally beleaguered garrison at Tobruk.
Then in the Battle of Sirte in 1942 Havock was badly damaged and she
limped into Malta for repairs. There she was heavy bombed and when
Havock made a bid to reach Gibraltar, she was wrecked off Cape Bon. Her
crew was captured and imprisoned in the infamous Laghouat internment
camp.
The authors have tracked down fifty of the surviving crew and from
interviews have been able to compile one of the most detailed, and
certainly one of the most dramatic, histories of a destroyer during the
Second World War. Destroyer at War tells the story of the battles and
operations of a famous ship, and its sad destruction, through newspaper
reports, official documents, and the words of the men who sailed and
fought in HMS Havock as she earned an astonishing eleven battle honors
in her brief but glorious career.
