HMS Tenedos (H04)

Tenedos was ordered from the Tyneside shipbuilding company Hawthorn Leslie on 23 June 1917, as part of the Twelfth War Programme, one of 36 destroyers ordered on that date, including four Admiralty S-class destroyers ordered from Leslies.{{harvnb|Friedman|2009|pp=169–170, 311–312}}

Tenedos was {{convert|276|ft|m|2}} long overall and {{convert|265|ft|m|2}} between perpendiculars, with a beam of {{convert|26|ft|8|in|m}} and a draught of {{convert|9|ft|10|in|m}}.{{harvnb|Friedman|2009|p=297}} Displacement was {{convert|905|LT|t|lk=in}} standard and {{convert|1221|LT|t}} full load. Three Yarrow boilers fed steam at {{convert|250|psi}} to two sets of Brown-Curtiss single-reduction steam turbines rated at {{convert|27000|shp|kW|lk=in}} at 360 rpm which in turn drove two propeller shafts. This gave a speed of {{convert|36|kn}}. {{convert|301|LT|t}} of oil could be carried, giving a range of {{convert|2750|nmi}} at {{convert|15|kn}}.{{harvnb|Whitley|2000|p=83}}{{harvnb|Lenton|1970|p=15}} The ship had a crew of 90 officers and men.

Three 4 inch (102 mm) guns were carried, together with a single 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom" anti-aircraft gun. Torpedo armament was four 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes in two twin rotating mounts and two 18 inch tubes at the break of the ship's forecastle for snap shots at close range.{{harvnb|Friedman|2009|pp=168–169}} Later ships of the class had the 18 inch tubes left off, while they were removed from the ships that were fitted to them between the wars.{{harvnb|Gardiner|Gray|1985|p=85}}

Tenedos was laid down at Leslie's Hebburn shipyard on 6 December 1917, launched on 21 October 1918 and completed in July 1919.{{harvnb|Friedman|2009|p=312}}

Tenedos commissioned later in 1919,{{cite journal|title=866a: Tenedos|journal=The Navy List|date=January 1921|page=872|url=http://digital.nls.uk/british-military-lists/pageturner.cfm?id=94480884}} joining the 4th Destroyer Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet.{{cite journal|title=I.—Atlantic Fleet: Destroyers|journal=The Navy List|date=December 1919|pages=702–3|url=http://digital.nls.uk/british-military-lists/pageturner.cfm?id=92606014}}{{cite web|url=http://www.rmg.co.uk/sites/default/files/media/pdf//Warship_Histories_Vessels_iv.pdf|title=NMM, vessel ID 377160|work=Warship Histories, vol iv|publisher=National Maritime Museum|access-date=26 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016194256/http://www.rmg.co.uk/sites/default/files/media/pdf/Warship_Histories_Vessels_iv.pdf|archive-date=16 October 2014|url-status=dead}} In December 1924, Tenedos was under refit at Chatham Dockyard.{{cite news |title=Naval and Military: Warship Refits |newspaper=The Times |date=20 December 1924 |issue=43840 |page=6}}

In September 1930, it was announced that Tenedos, in maintenance reserve at Rosyth, would be recommissioned to replace sister ship {{HMS|Seawolf|1918|2}}, based at Cobh in the Republic of Ireland, after Seawolf had been damaged in a collision with a trawler, with Seawolf to be disposed of.{{cite news |title=Naval, Military, And Air Force: H.M.S. Seawolf for Sale |newspaper=The Times |date=10 September 1930 |issue=45614 |page=17}} In April 1932, it was announced that Tenedos and {{HMS|Sturdy|1919|2}} would be replaced at the Irish station by {{HMS|Amazon|D39|2}} and {{HMS|Ambuscade|D38|2}}, with Tenedos and Sturdy transferring to the reserve.{{cite news |title=Royal Navy: Irish Division Reliefs |newspaper=The Times |date=11 April 1932 |issue=46104|page=7}} In December 1933, it was announced that Tenedos would transfer from reserve at Portsmouth to Devonport, where she would serve as spare emergency destroyer.{{cite news |title=Royal Navy: Destroyer Changes |newspaper=The Times |date=27 December 1933 |issue=46636 |page=19}} On 7 February 1936, the Daunt Rock lightship broke free from her moorings near Cork Harbour. Attempts by Tenedos to take the drifting lightship under tow were unsuccessful, and the crew of the lightship were eventually rescued by the Ballycotton lifeboat.{{cite web|url=https://www.rnli.org/aboutus/historyandheritage/Pages/timeline/1936-the-daunt-rock-rescue.aspx|title=1936: The Daunt Rock rescue|publisher=RNLI|access-date=1 August 2015}}{{cite news|title=Lifeboat V.C.|work=The Cairns Post|date=6 May 1936|page=8|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41749491}} Tenedos was transferred to the China Station (as the Royal Navy's forces in the West Pacific, Singapore and China were known), going into reserve at Singapore in March 1938.{{cite news|title=Two Destroyers for Singapore|work=The Singapore Free Press | date=12 January 1938|page=9|url=http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/singfreepressb19380112-1.2.89.aspx?q=hms+tenedos&page=1&sort=relevance&token=tenedos%2chms&sessionid=7f89795dfdf34edf9e5053c00068dd78}}{{cite journal|title=Tenedos. (Dev) Destroyer|journal=The Navy List|date=February 1939|page=289|url=http://digital.nls.uk/british-military-lists/pageturner.cfm?id=92652978}}

In August 1939, Tenedos, along with sister ships {{HMS|Scout|1918|2}}, {{HMS|Thanet|H29|2}} and {{HMS|Thracian|1920|2}}, formed a local defence flotilla at Hong Kong. On 24 August 1939 Tenedos and Scout left Hong Kong for Singapore.{{Harvnb|Smith|2005|p=180}} When the two destroyers arrived at Singapore on 28 August, they were quickly converted to minelayers,{{Harvnb|Smith|2005|p=181}} which involved removal of one 4 inch gun and the torpedo tubes to accommodate 40 mines.{{Harvnb|Lenton|1970|pp=14–15}} The two destroyers laid a defensive minefield of 544 mines off Singapore between 4 and 8 September 1939, after which Scout was returned to normal destroyer configuration, while Tenedos continued on minelaying duties, with two more minefields being laid off Singapore by October 1939. Two merchant ships, {{MV|Høegh Transporter|1935|2}} and {{SS|Sirdhana|1925|2}}, were sunk by these minefields in October–November 1939. Tenedos then had her normal destroyer armament refitted.{{Harvnb|Smith|2005|p=182}} On 23 March 1940, the Royal Navy formed Malaya Force, with the intention of preventing German merchant ships from leaving harbours in the Dutch East Indies. Tenedos, along with {{HMS|Stronghold|1919|2}} was assigned to patrol off Sabang, where five German ships were trapped. The German merchant ships were seized by the Dutch following the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940.{{Harvnb|Rohwer|Hümmelchen|1992|p=14}}{{cite web|last=Kindell|first=Don|title=Naval Events, March 1940 (Part 2 of 2): Friday 15th – Sunday 31st|work=British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day|publisher=Naval-History.net |url=http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4003-12MAR02.htm|access-date=2 August 2015}}

Tenedos was still based at Singapore on 2 December when the battleship {{HMS|Prince of Wales|53|2}} and the battlecruiser {{HMS|Repulse|1916|2}} arrived. On 5 December, Repulse left Singapore for a visit to Darwin, Australia, with Tenedos and {{HMAS|Vampire|D68|6}}, but they were recalled on 6 December when two large Japanese convoys were spotted by an RAF aircraft.{{Harvnb|Barnett|2000|pp=405–407}} Early on 8 December Japanese bombers attacked Singapore, and later that day, Force Z, comprising Prince of Wales and Repulse, escorted by the destroyers {{HMS|Electra|H27|2}}, {{HMS|Express|H61|2}}, Vampire and Tenedos set out to attack the Japanese invasion fleets.{{Harvnb|Barnett|2000|p=410}}{{Harvnb|Rohwer|Hümmelchen|1992|p=105}} At about 18:30 hr on 9 December, Tenedos, now short of fuel, was released from Force Z, and set out to return to Singapore, with orders to make radio contact with base at 08:00 the next morning telling Singapore of the planned course of Force Z, while the main fleet maintained radio silence.{{Harvnb|Barnett|2000|p=417}}{{Harvnb|Shores|Cull|Izawa|1992|pp=111, 125}} Force Z made two major course changes after Tenedos left, turning south for Singapore at 20:15 on 9 December and then, at 00:52 on 10 December, heading towards Kuantan on the East coast of Malaya to investigate reports of Japanese landings. The predicted course broadcast by Tenedos therefore did not match Force Z's actual course, preventing any attempts to provide air cover over Force Z.{{Harvnb|Barnett|2000|p=413}}{{Harvnb|Shores|Cull|Izawa|1992|p=125}} Tenedos was attacked by 9 Mitsubishi G3M bombers searching for Force Z between 09:50 and 10:20 on 10 December but was undamaged.{{Harvnb|Shores|Cull|Izawa|1992|p=115}} Force Z itself came under heavy Japanese air attack from 11:13, with both Prince of Wales and Repulse sunk by Japanese bombs and torpedoes by 13:20 hr.{{Harvnb|Barnett|2000|pp=415–421}}

After the loss of the capital ships, Tenedos, along with other British and Allied warships at Singapore, was employed in escorting shipping between Singapore and the Sunda Strait.{{Harvnb|Rohwer|Hümmelchen|1992|p=107}} Tenedos and the Australian cruiser {{HMAS|Hobart|D63|2}} left Singapore, threatened by advancing Japanese forces, for Batavia on 2 February. On 3 February, the two ships rescued survivors from the merchant ship Norah Muller,{{#tag:ref|Possibly called Nora Moller.{{cite web|last1=Swiggum|first1=S.|last2=Kholi|first2=M.|title=The Ships: Moller & Co.|work=TheShipsLists|date=5 August 2009|url=http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/moller.shtml|access-date=2 August 2015}}|group=lower-alpha}} which had been sunk by Japanese bombers in the Bangka Strait, Tenedos picking up 13 and Hobart 57.{{cite web|last=Kindell|first=Don|title=Naval Events, February 1942 (Part 1 of 2): Sunday 1st – Saturday 14th|work=British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day|publisher=Naval-History.net |url=http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4202-42FEB01.htm|access-date=2 August 2015}}{{Harvnb|Gill|1957|pp=560–561}} In late February 1942, Japanese forces prepared to invade Java. Vice Admiral Conrad Helfrich, commander of Allied naval forces in the Dutch East Indies, ordered Tenedos, together with the cruisers Hobart, {{HMS|Danae|D44|2}} and {{HMS|Dragon|D46|2}} and the destroyer Scout, forming the Allied Western Force, to sail from Batavia towards Bangka Island and Belitung in search of Japanese forces, while most of the rest of the available forces in the region were sent to reinforce Rear Admiral Karel Doorman's squadron. When Doorman's force was defeated at the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February, the Western Force, including Tenedos, escaped through the Sunda Strait to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), picking up refugees from Padang on 1 March, and reaching Colombo between 5 and 6 March.{{Harvnb|Rohwer|Hümmelchen|1992|pp=126–127}}{{cite web|last=Kindell|first=Don|title=Naval Events, February 1942 (Part 2 of 2): Sunday 15th – Saturday 28th|work=British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day|publisher=Naval-History.net |url=http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4202-42FEB02.htm|access-date=2 August 2015}}

In April 1942, the Japanese launched a raid into the Indian Ocean by its fast carrier forces. A RCAF Catalina flying boat spotted the Japanese fleet 350 miles south-east of Ceylon on 4 April and radioed a sighting report before being shot down. Thus warned, all shipping in Colombo and Trincomalee harbours was ordered to leave port and disperse to avoid the impending Japanese attack.{{Harvnb|Shores|Cull|Izawa|1993|pp=393–394}}{{Harvnb|Rohwer|Hümmelchen|1992|p=132}} Tenedos, however, was under repair in Colombo harbour and unable to leave, and was sunk with the loss of 33 officers and men by Japanese bombers when they attacked on 5 April.{{cite web|last=Kindell|first=Don|title=Naval Events, April–December 1942|work=British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day|publisher=Naval-History.net |url=http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4204-44APR-DEC.htm|access-date=7 August 2015}}{{cite web|title=Eastern Fleet - April to June 1942|work= Admiralty War Diaries of World War 2|publisher=Naval-History.net |url=http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWD-EF1942a.htm|access-date=7 August 2015}}{{harvnb|Middlebrook|Mahoney|2001|p=321}} The wreck was removed in February 1944 by HM salvage vessel Salviking.{{Cite web|url=http://www.historicalrfa.org/rfa-salviking-ships-details|title = RFA Salviking}}

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|last=Barnett|first=Correlli|title=Engage the Enemy More Closely: The Royal Navy in the Second World War|year=2000|publisher=Classic Penguin|location=London|isbn=0-141-39008-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Norman|title=British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War|year=2009|publisher=Seaforth Publishing|location=Barnsley, UK|isbn=978-1-84832-049-9}}
• {{cite book|editor-last1=Gardiner|editor-first1=Robert|editor-last2=Gray|editor-first2=Randal|title=Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921|year=1985|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=London|isbn=0-85177-245-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Gill|first=G. Hermon|title=Volume I – Royal Australian Navy, 1939–1942|series=Australia in the War of 1939–1945|year=1957|publisher=Australian War Memorial|location=Canberra, Australia |url=https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1070207/ }}
• {{cite book|last=Lenton|first=H. T.|title=Navies of the Second World War: British Fleet & Escort Destroyers Volume One|year=1970|publisher=Macdonald & Co.|location=London|isbn=0-356-02950-6}}
• {{cite book|last1=Middlebrook|first1=Martin|last2=Mahoney|first2=Patrick|title=Battleship: The Sinking of the Prince Of Wales and the Repulse|year=2001|publisher=Classic Penguin|isbn=0-14-139119-7}}
• {{cite book|last1=Rohwer|first1=Jürgen|last2=Hümmelchen|first2=Gerhard|title=Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945|year=1992|publisher=Greenhill Books|location=London|isbn=1-85367-117-7}}
• {{cite book|last1=Shores|first1=Christopher|last2=Cull|first2=Brian|last3=Izawa|first3=Yasuho|title=Bloody Shambles: Volume One: The Drift to War to the Fall of Singapore|year=1992|publisher=Grub Street|location=London|isbn=0-948817-50-X}}
• {{cite book|last1=Shores|first1=Christopher|last2=Cull|first2=Brian|last3=Izawa|first3=Yasuho|title=Bloody Shambles: Volume Two: The Defence of Sumatra to the Fall of Burma|year=1993|publisher=Grub Street|location=London|isbn=0-948817-67-4}}
• {{cite book|last=Smith|first=Peter C.|title=Into the Minefields: British Destroyer Minelaying 1916–1960|year=2005|publisher=Pen & Sword Maritime|location=Barnsley, UK|isbn=1-84415-271-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Whitley|first=M. J.|title=Destroyers of World War Two: An Illustrated Encyclopedia|year=2000|publisher=Cassell & Co.|location=London|isbn=1-85409-521-8}}

{{coord|6|57|17|N|79|51|20|E|display=title}}

• [http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-10DD-07T-Tenedos.htm Naval-History.net - HMS Tenedos]

{{S class destroyers (1917)}}

{{April 1942 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tenedos (H04)}}

Category:S-class destroyers (1917) of the Royal Navy

Category:Ships built on the River Tyne

Category:1918 ships

Category:World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom

Category:World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom

Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean

Category:Destroyers sunk by aircraft

Category:Maritime incidents in April 1942

Category:Ships sunk by Japanese aircraft