HMS Gurkha (F20)

HMS Gurkha (L20/F20) was a destroyer that saw active service in the Norway Campaign in 1940, where she was sunk.

Gurkha served with the 4th Destroyer Flotilla (the first of the two Tribal-class flotillas) in the Mediterranean where she was involved in exercises and port visits until the outbreak of war. In September 1939, Gurkha was one of a group ships assigned to monitor Italian naval activity in the Red Sea. In October, 1939 the flotilla was reassigned to the Home Fleet, on escort duty from Portland and Scapa Flow, and in the Humber Striking Force. She attacked and sank the enemy German submarine GS U-53 (1939) south of the Faroe Islands on 23 February 1940.

Gurkha was part of a naval force that was attacked by German Ju-88 and He-111 bombers as it withdrew from the planned attack on Bergen, during the German invasion of Norway. In an attempt to obtain better firing conditions, Gurkha moved away from the mutual protection of the naval force. She then became an easy target for concentrated air attack and soon was stopped and sinking. The crew were rescued by the cruiser HMS Aurora (12) and Gurkha sank in the North Sea, south-west of Bergen in Norway on 9 April 1940 with the loss of 15 of her crew, the first British destroyer to be sunk by air attack.