page_title: HMS Tartar (F43)
section_title: Mediterranean
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Tartar (F43) / Construction and career / Mediterranean
caption_attribution_description: IWM caption&#160;: Salerno, 9 September 1943 (Operation Avalanche): The British destroyer HMS Tartar (F43) puts up an anti-aircraft barrage with her 4.5 inch (sic.) AA guns to protect the invasion force from attack by enemy aircraft. Comment&#160;: Tartar's anti-aircraft guns at this time were twin 4-inch Mk XVI in "X" position.
context_page_description: HMS Tartar was a Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that saw service in most of the naval theatres of World War II. She had an eventful career, eventually receiving the nickname 'Lucky Tartar' due to her numerous escapes from dangerous situations. She was one of only four from the sixteen Royal Navy-operated Tribal-class destroyers to survive the war.
context_section_description: In August 1942 Tartar was assigned to support Royal Navy operations in the Mediterranean. She took part in Operation Pedestal as part of the escort. The convoy came under air and submarine attacks from 11 August after it was sighted by the Italian submarine Uarsciek. On 12 August Tartar carried out depth charge attacks to drive off the Italian submarine Granito, and together with the destroyer Lookout drove off the Italian submarine Emo. After the destroyer Foresight was damaged in an air attack, Tartar took her in tow, and attempted to bring her to Gibraltar. On the way she was the target of an unsuccessful attack by the German submarine U-73 on 13 August, and after that it was decided that attempts to save Foresight were hopeless. Tartar took off Foresight's crew, then scuttled her with a torpedo.  After the culmination of Operation Pedestal, Tartar sailed to rejoin the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow.
  On her return in September, she formed part of the escort for Convoy PQ 18 and then Convoy QP 14. In October she returned to the Mediterranean to support Operation Torch, the allied landings in North Africa. During this deployment, from 8 November to 30 November, she screened fleet units and convoys, and carried out anti-submarine patrols. She was then attached to Force Q at Algiers, where she was assigned to intercept enemy supply convoys and escort allied convoys.  She carried out these duties into February 1943, despite coming under attack on numerous occasions. On 28 April 1943 Tartar carried out an attack on E-boats near Marrettimo, Algeria, and on 7 May she deployed with other destroyers of the Mediterranean Fleet to blockade the Cape Bon area to intercept craft attempting to evacuate enemy personnel from Tunisia.
  In June, she was supporting operations off Pantellaria, and in July was escorting convoys as part of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. On 11 July she rescued some 200 survivors from the hospital ship Talamba, which had been sunk by German air attack off the beach head. On 12 July Tartar sank the ammunition ship Baarn, which was on fire after being damaged in air attacks. On 13 July she took the damaged destroyer Eskimo in tow to Malta, after Eskimo had been damaged by air attacks. In August she supported the Allied invasion of Italy, by covering the landings at Calabria, and later the landings at Salerno. On 19 September Tartar provided gunfire support during a German counter-attack, and subsequently came under attacks from radio-controlled glider bombs  She returned to the UK at the end of October and spent the last months of 1943, and January and February 1944, under refit at Devonport.
caption: Salerno, 9 September 1943 (Operation Avalanche): HMS Tartar puts up an anti-aircraft barrage with her 4.7-inch AA guns to protect the invasion force from attack by enemy aircraft.
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