HMS Cygnet (U38)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Cygnet.

HMS Cygnet anchored in 1943.
History
United Kingdom
Name	Cygnet
Namesake	Cygnet
Ordered	27 March 1941
Builder	Cammell Laird, Birkenhead
Laid down	30 August 1941
Launched	28 July 1942
Commissioned	1 December 1943
Decommissioned	1954
Identification	Pennant number: U38
Fate	Scrapped in 1965
General characteristics
Class and type	Modified Black Swan-class sloop
Displacement	1,350 tons
Length	283 ft (86 m)
Beam	38.5 ft (11.7 m)
Propulsion	Geared turbines two shafts
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h) at 4,300 hp (3,200 kW)
Complement	192 men + 1 Cat
Armament	6 × QF 4 in Mk XVI anti-aircraft guns 12 × 20 mm anti-aircraft guns

HMS Cygnet was a modified Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Cammell Laird, Birkenhead on 30 August 1941, launched on 28 July 1942 and commissioned on 1 December 1943, with the pennant number U38.

Construction and career

After tests and operational commissioning in November 1942 at Tobermory, HMS Cygnet was damaged by an air attack on 9 December, which took her to a commercial shipyard on the Clyde in Scotland until March 1943.

In March 1943, she joined the 2nd Escort Group based in Liverpool and was deployed with the group as part of an escort of a military convoy to Gibraltar on her return to the United Kingdom.

She was transferred in April 1943 to the 7th Escort Group based in Greenock to support convoys threatened with attack by U-Boats in the North Atlantic.

After a passage to the 2nd Escort Group in May 1943 for the protection of the ONS 8 convoy, she returned to the 7th Escort Group in June 1943, Cygnet joined the defence group of military convoys during the passage through the Mediterranean for the planned Allied landings of Sicily as part of Operation Husky.

In early 1944, she joined the Home Fleet and participated in several protections of Arctic convoys as well as the defence of Atlantic convoys.

On 8 April 1944 the Cygnet with the sloop HMS Crane sank the U-962 in the North Atlantic north-west of Cape Finisterre by depth charges.

On 13 April 1944 she was damaged by its grounding on entering Belfast, depriving it of actions during the Normandy landings.

Cygnet resumed the protection of convoys from July 1944 until the end of the war in Europe leaving or arriving from Kola Bay. At the end of May, she was appointed to join the Pacific. She entered a commercial yard in Leith for repairs and improvements for her future theatre of operations until early September, or during sea trials after the refit, she was again damaged by a grounding and had to resume repairs.

The order to leave for the Pacific was cancelled following the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the subsequent surrender of Japan.

Further reading

• Blair, Clay Gardiner (2000). Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted 1942–1945. New York: Modern Library. ISBN 0-679-64033-9.
• Gardiner, Robert Gardiner (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. Conway Maritime Press. p. 456. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Gardiner, Robert Gardiner (1996). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995. US Naval Institute Press. p. 675. ISBN 1-55750-132-7.
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Hague, Arnold (1993). Sloops: A History of the 71 Sloops Built in Britain and Australia for the British, Australian and Indian Navies 1926–1946. Kendal, England: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-67-3.