HMS Sabre (1918)

HMS Sabre was an Admiralty S-Class destroyer of the Royal Navy launched in September 1918 at the close of World War I. Built in Scotland by Alex Stephens, and completed by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Govan. Commissioned for Fleet service in 1919, she was the first Royal Navy ship to carry this name.

After the war new destroyer designs were introduced, and many S Class destroyers were scrapped. By the late 1930s HMS Sabre had been de-militarised for use as a target ship. With the outbreak of WWII she was returned to service in 1939 despite her age and unsuitability for deployment in the Atlantic.

Ship Modifications
In late 1940 Sabre was modified as an escort. Equipped with 14-charge pattern depth-charge arrangements, both the after 4" guns and the torpedo tubes were landed, one 12pounder (AA) and 8-.5" (AA) (2x4) were added. Radar type 286 and later 291 were added. Later in the war four single 20mm (AA) mountings eventually supplanted the .5" AA mountings.

World War II
At the outbreak of war Sabre (Lt Cdr B Dean) was part of the Home Fleet based at Scapa Flow, as a TB Target and PV ranging vessel. In 1939 she was deployed for convoy defence in Western Approaches. On 13 October 1939 while at Rosyth HMS Sabre was heavily damaged when rammed by the armed merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay. Sabre was under repair to 6 May 1940.

Operation Dynamo (27 May - 4 June 1940)

Part of the 22nd Destroyer Flotilla, HMS Sabre was conspicuous in the evacuation of British and French soldiers from the beaches of beaches at Malo-Les-Bains and the harbour mole during the Dunkirk evacuation. During nine days and nights of the evacuation, despite being damaged in an air attack, Sabre made ten round trips to Dunkirk. An example of her activity at this time:


 * In the early hours of 28 May, three ships boats from HMS Sabre picked up 100 men in two hours, from the beaches at Malo-Les-Bains to the east of the harbour mole. Then it was full speed to Dover with a turnaround of only 58 minutes, and the ship was back again at the Dunkirk harbour mole at 11.00am, where they loaded a further 800 men. Departing at 12.30pm, by now the ships weight had increased considerably, lowering her propeller draft. This meant because of the falling tide and a defective echo sounder, Lieutenant-Commander Dean had to slowly edge her passage through the shallows. She arrived back in Dover at 6.20pm. Refuelled, she was back to the Dunkirk mole at 10.30pm, the third trip of the day. This time, the ship stayed for only 35 minutes picking up another 500 troops.

Finally on Tuesday 4 June just after two in the afternoon the Admiralty announced the end of Operation Dynamo. All together an armada of over 860 ships including 39 destroyers had taken part in the evacuation of troops from the beaches and harbour. The Admiralty calculated the total British and Allied troops landed in England amounted to 338,226 troops rescued.

HMS Sabre had made more round trips than most and brought back to Dover a total of 5,765 soldiers – amongst the highest number for any individual ship. Lieutenant-Commander Dean was awarded a DSO –Distinguished Service Order on 6 June. HMS Sabre’s midshipman ‘Teddy’ Archdale was mentioned in despatches. (Edward Archdale went on to become a distinguished gunnery officer in the submarine HMS Unbroken (P42)).

Operation Ariel (15 – 25 June 1940)

After Dunkirk there were still Allied forces to be evacuated from other French ports along the coast westward so the navy had further work to do. ‘Operation Cycle' launched on 10 June rescued some 11,000 from the Channel port of Le Havre. Then on the 12th HMS Sabre was deployed to help with the evacuation of still more British and Allied forces in ‘Operation Ariel’ from the rest of France. It began with the evacuation of Cherbourg and continued for the next ten days, moving south to St Nazaire, Bordeaux and right down to the Franco-Spanish border. Sabre was sent to Alderney the northerly island amongst the Channel Islands on 23 June and helped evacuate around 1,400 islanders to safety in Weymouth. The final Allied evacuation of France ended on 25 June. By that time a further 215,000 servicemen and civilians had been saved, however although successful, Operations 'Aerial' and 'Cycle' never captured the public's imagination like ‘Operation Dynamo’.

Rescuing evacuated children from SS Volendam, (30 August - 1 September 1940)

September 1940 HMS Sabre was detailed to meet the first slow Atlantic convoy, as it approached the United Kingdom from Canada. A Finnish merchant ship, ‘Elle’ 3,868 tons was torpedoed at 04.25hrs on the 28th and Sabre joined the hunt for the German U-boat (U-101) without success. Then two days later, during the evening of 30 August off Malin Head Sabre helped rescue the survivors of a torpedoed (by German submarine U-60) Dutch ship the 15,434 ton Holland America line, ‘SS Volendam’. She was in an outward bound convoy OB-205 for Canada, carrying 879 passengers and 273 crew members. This included 320 children with their escorts under the Children's Overseas Reception Board scheme some as young as five, together with 286 other passengers. They were taken to various west coast ports in Scotland. (Volendam did not sink, and was eventually taken in tow by the rescue tug HMS Salvonia (W 43) and beached on the Isle of Bute. Repaired in 1941 she returned to war service).

In January 1941 (Lt.Cdr. B. Dean, RN) is badly injured in heavy seas and Sabre puts into Larne, Northern Ireland.

At 19.54 hours on 31 Dec 1941, the British Motor Tanker ‘Cardita’, 8,237 tons (Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co Ltd), a straggler from convoy HX-166, en route Curaçao to Shellhaven (Thames Estuary), was torpedoed by U-87 110 miles 307° from St. Kilda. The vessel foundered in 59°42N/11°58W on 3 January 1942. 27 crew members were lost. The master (Master John Osmond Evans) and 16 crew members and six gunners were picked up by the HMS Onslow (G17) and ten crew members by HMS Sabre (H 18) (Lt Peter W. Gretton OBE DSC) and landed at Reykjavík, Iceland.

March 1942 after a successful ‘Warship Week’ National Savings campaign Sabre was adopted by the civil community of Bebington, in Cheshire, the same month she was detached for escort of Russian Convoy PQ13 (Arctic convoys) during initial stage of passage to Iceland in NW Approaches.

For most of the war she was attached to 1st Escort Group based at Liverpool and then 21st Escort Group for convoy defence in NW Approaches.

1943 Deployed for Atlantic convoy defence, 1944 Atlantic convoy defence and support based in Iceland, 1945 Deployed for coastal convoy defence in Home waters

At the end of WWII Sabre was place on the disposal list and sold to be broken up for scrap in November 1945, arriving at the breaker’s yard at Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth in 1946.

Commanders 1937 - 1945
Lieutenant-Commander Brian Dean, DSO, (15 Nov 1937 – 11 Jan 1941)

He was born in 1895 in Valletta, Malta into a naval family. He was cadet at the Royal Naval Colleges Osborne House in the Isle of Wight and Dartmouth. He served as a midshipman and later a Sub Lieutenant in various ships including HMS Lion (1910) during WWI. His first command was HMS Boyne in the North Sea and Icelandic waters in the early 1930s. He was in command of HMS Sabre from November 1937, until he was retired from sea in January 1941 following a fractured skull sustained in heavy seas. Whilst recovering he served ashore in various appointments at Combined Operations bases in the United Kingdom including HMS James Cook (shore establishment Glen Caladh Castle, Scotland), until 1946.

Lieutenant Sir Peter William Gretton, DSC, (11 Jan 1941 – 11 Feb 1942)

Peter Gretton was born in 1912 in Surrey his father was an Army officer. He attended Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth, and during the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII was a successful convoy escort commander. He eventually rose to become Fifth Sea Lord and retired as a vice admiral before entering university life as a Bursar and academic. He wrote several books on his sea experiences.

Lieutenant Reginald Lacey Caple, DSC, (11 Feb 1942 - Jul 1943)

He was born in Portsmouth in 1912. He was became a Sub. Lieutenant in 1934, and a Lieutenant in 1936, he was awarded the DSC in 1940, and promoted Lieutenant-Commander In 1944 and mentioned in Despatches the same year. He retired 9 Feb 1957.

T/A/ Lieutenant-Commander (Reginald Charles Howard), The Hon. Grenville Howard, RNVR (Jul 1943 - Jun 1944)

He was born in 1909, the Son of Henry Molyneux Paget Howard, 19th Earl of Suffolk. In 1938 he joined RNVR Supplementary Reserve attached to London Division. In 1939 he was appointed T/ Lieutenant and served on HMS Punjabi (F21) and HMS Malcolm (D19) before joining Sabre. He retired 7 Sep 1964, and later served as Member of Parliament (MP) for St Ives from 1950 until he stood down at the 1966 general election.

Lieutenant Thomas Cumming, (Jun 1944 - Oct 1945)

He was appointed a Lieutenant in Jan 1939 and Lieutenant-Commander Jan 1947. He retired: 16 Feb 1948.