HMS Boadicea (H65)

HMS Boadicea was a built for the Royal Navy that saw service during World War II until she was sunk on 13 June 1944 while supporting the invasion of Normandy.

Building
Authorised in the 1928 ship building programme Boadicea was built at the Hawthorn Leslie & Company Limited yard at Hebburn-on-Tyne. She was laid down on 11 July 1929, launched on 23 September 1930 and completed on 7 April 1931.

Service history
Boadicea was commissioned at Portsmouth on the 2 June 1931 and joined the 4th Destroyer Flotilla. Her pre-war service was in the Mediterranean between 1931 and 1936. Following a refit at Portsmouth in 1936 she rejoined the 4th Destroyer Flotilla until the B-class destroyers were replaced with the.

At the outbreak of the Second World War Boadicea was attached to the 19th Destroyer Flotilla based at Dover during which time her role was the escort of troopships. Her earliest major engagement of the war was in support of the evacuation of the 51st Highland Division from Le Havre in June 1940. During this action she was extensively damaged and needed to return to Portsmouth for repair. In 1942 and 1943 she served on Arctic convoys to Russia: PQ-15,QP-12, JW-51-A, JW-53, JW-57, JW-58, RA-53, RA-57, RA-58 and RA-59.

In November 1942 she served in support of Operation Torch: the Allied invasion of French North Africa. When the troop ship RMS Viceroy of India was torpedoed off Oran on 11 November 1942 Boadicea took her in tow, and when the troop ship sank the destroyer rescued 540 survivors.

Boadicea was sunk on 13 June 1944 while escorting a convoy of merchant ships in convoy EBC-8 from Milford Haven in support of the Normandy invasion. Only 12 of her crew of 188 survived. She may have been hit by an Hs 293 air-to-surface missile launched by a German Do 217. However, official British reports attribute the sinking to a torpedo launched by a Ju 88 aircraft which disguised itself in a formation of RAF Beaufighters.

The ship is included on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

Her wreck is 16 mi south west of the Isle of Portland at 50.47°N, -2.49167°W in 53 m of water. Her bow is blown off forward of the engine rooms. Her stern section is upright and reasonably intact. The wreck site is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.