HMS Terror (I03)

HMS Terror was an Erebus-class monitor built for the Royal Navy in 1915-16 at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan, Scotland.

The Erebus-class monitors were of 7200 LT displacement, 405 ft long, with a maximum speed of 12 kn produced by reciprocating engines with two shafts, and a crew of 223. The ship's main armament consisted of two 15 in main guns in a single forward turret. This turret had been built as a spare for HMS Furious (47).

The original secondary armament of two 6 in mounts was soon replaced by eight 4 in guns in single mounts and two 3 in anti-aircraft guns, also in single mounts. Between the wars the 4 in low angle guns were replaced by anti-aircraft mounts and the 3 in guns by eight 0.50 in anti-aircraft Vickers machine guns in two quadruple mounts.

The class mostly served in the Naval Gunfire Support (NGS) role.

World War I
Terror joined the Dover Patrol in August 1916 and operated against German forces on the coast of occupied Belgium. On 19 October 1917, she was torpedoed by German motor torpedo boats off Dunkirk. There were no casualties and the ship was beached before being towed back to Portsmouth. The damage took three months to repair. In April 1918, Terror was in the Long Range Bombardment force for the Zeebrugge raid with her sister ship Erebus and destroyers Termanent, Truculent, and Manley. On 27 September, Terror, along with her sister ship Erebus, provided gunnery support for the Fourth Battle of Ypres. In the early 1920s, she was used for gunnery trials against several old warships including SMS Baden and HMS Superb (1907).

World War II
At the outbreak of war in 1939, Terror was based at Singapore, supporting the defences of the major naval base there, and had to be recalled to serve in theatres closer to home. She mainly served in the Mediterranean Theatre during the Second World War. After first using her anti-aircraft armament to help defend Malta against the first Italian Regia Aeronautica air attacks on 11 June 1940, Terror played an important part in Operation Compass, the British assault against the Italian Tenth Army in Libya.

During the successful advance by the Western Desert Force (later to become the 8th Army "Desert Rats"), Terror bombarded Italian land forces and fortifications, amongst others the fortified port of Bardia in eastern Libya, firing 660 rounds from her main guns. The ship also served as a water carrier for the advancing British and Commonwealth army.

Terror was subjected to diving attacks by German Junkers Ju 88 bombers on 22 February 1941 after leaving Benghazi. She was badly damaged by near misses and abandoned by her crew. Although taken under tow, she sank off Derna, Libya before reaching  the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet base at Alexandria, Egypt.