page_title: HMS Charybdis (88)
section_title: Operation Pedestal
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Charybdis (88) / Service / Operation Pedestal
caption_attribution_description: Operation Pedestal, 12 August 1942: HMS Indomitable (92) on fire after being bombed. A Dido-class cruiser, HMS Charybdis (88), is screening the carrier.
context_page_description: HMS Charybdis was a Dido-class cruiser built for the Royal Navy. She served during the Second World War and was sunk with heavy loss of life by German torpedo boats in an action in the English Channel in October 1943.
context_section_description: Operation Pedestal was built around a 15-ship convoy of merchantmen, escorted by a powerful force consisting of two battleships, four aircraft carriers, seven cruisers and twenty six destroyers. The convoy came under heavy air and U-boat attack, sustaining high losses. HMS Eagle was sunk by torpedoes from German submarine U-73, and only five merchant ships, including the damaged tanker SS Ohio, survived to reach Malta. After Eagle's sinking, Charybdis launched a series of depth charge attacks in an unsuccessful hunt for U-73. She then stood by the damaged carrier HMS Indomitable and provided anti-air defence while salvage operations were carried out. On 13 July the taskforce's commander, Admiral Edward Neville Syfret, sent her to join Force X, in company with HMS Eskimo and HMS Somali, as the merchants came under heavy air attack while passing through the Strait of Sicily. Charybdis took the place of the crippled HMS Manchester for this, before returning to Force Z on 14 July and continuing to engage enemy aircraft.
caption: Operation Pedestal: 12 August 1942: HMS Indomitable on fire after being bombed. HMS Charybdis is screening the carrier.
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