HMS Sikh (F82)

HMS Sikh (F82) was a destroyer of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla of the Royal Navy. She was built by Alexander Stephen and Sons in Glasgow and commissioned in 1938. In 1941, while under the command of Commander Stokes, she took part in the sinking of the German battleship GERMAN BATTLESHIP Bismarck in 1941. The night before Bismarck was sunk, she fired a salvo of four torpedoes and claimed a hit after hearing underwater explosions, but actually there were no hits.

Sikh transferred to the Mediterranean serving as part of Force H. On 13 December 1941, Sikh — together with HMS Legion (G74), HMS Maori (F24) and HNLMS Isaac Sweers — sank the Italian cruisers ITALIAN CRUISER Alberico da Barbiano and ITALIAN CRUISER Alberto di Giussano.

On 4 August 1942, Sikh together with HMS Zulu (F18), HMS Croome (L62) and HMS Tetcott (L99) sank the German submarine GS U-372 off Haifa.

On 14 September, Sikh and Zulu landed and then covered Operation Agreement, a commando raid on Tobruk. Sikh was hit and sunk by German Eighty-eight FlaK anti-aircraft batteries — 115 men were lost, and many more were taken prisoner. Zulu was damaged and sunk by bombing the following day.

Books have been written about the disaster: 'Massacre at Tobruk', by Peter C. Smith, ISBN 0-7183-0664-3, and 'Tobruk Commando', by Gordon Landsborough, ISBN 1-85367-025-1. Another book, 'Lower Deck', was written by one of the crew who served on 'B' gun, John Davies. All ships' name were changed as the book was written during the war — Sikh was Skye, and Zulu was Amori.