HMS Hereward ( H93 ) HMS " Hereward " ( H93 ) , named after Hereward the Wake , was an H - class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the mid - 1930s . She was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet before and the ship spent four months during the Spanish Civil War in mid - 1937 in Spanish waters , enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict . When World War II began in September 1939 , the ship was in the Mediterranean , but was shortly transferred to the South Atlantic Command to hunt for German commerce raiders and blockade runner s , capturing one of the latter in November . " Hereward " was transferred to the Home Fleet in May 1940 and rescued Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands after the Germans had invaded . The ship was transferred back to the Mediterranean Fleet later that month , and escorted convoys to Malta as well as escorting the larger ships of the fleet . She sank an Italian submarine in December before sinking the Italian torpedo boat " Vega " the following month . " Hereward " participated in the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941 and helped to evacuate Allied troops from Greece in April . In May the ship sank several small ships of a German convoy attempting to land troops on Crete . Later that month , she was bombed and sunk by German dive bomber s as she was evacuating Allied troops from Crete . Her survivors were rescued by Italians and they became prisoners of war . Description . " Hereward " displaced at standard load and at deep load . The ship had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines , driving two shafts , which developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . Steam for the turbines was provided by three Admiralty 3 - drum water - tube boilers . " Hereward " carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave her a range of at . The ship ' s complement was 137 officers and men in peacetime , but this increased to 146 in wartime . The ship mounted four 45 - calibre 4 . 7 - inch ( 120 mm ) Mk IX guns in single mounts . For anti - aircraft ( AA ) defence , " Hereward " had two quadruple Mark I mounts for the 0 . 5 inch Vickers Mk III machine gun . She was fitted with two above - water quadruple torpedo tube mounts for 21 - inch torpedoes . One depth charge rail and two throwers were fitted ; 20 depth charges were originally carried , but this increased to 35 shortly after the war began . Beginning in mid - 1940 , the ship ' s anti - aircraft armament was increased , although when exactly the modifications were made is not known . The rear set of torpedo tubes was replaced by a 12 - pounder AA gun . Service . The ship was laid down by the High Walker Yard of Vickers Armstrong at Newcastle - on - Tyne on 28 February 1935 , launched on 10 March 1936 and completed on 9 December 1936 . Excluding government - furnished equipment like the armament , the ship cost £249 , 591 . She tested the twin - gun mounted intended for use on the destroyers in January – March 1937 at Gibraltar . It was removed at the end of the trials and her two forward guns were replaced immediately afterwards . The ship was then assigned to the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla of the Mediterranean Fleet and began patrolling Spanish waters in the Mediterranean enforcing the Non - Intervention Agreement during the Spanish Civil War . " Hereward " was refitted in Malta from 30 September to 30 October 1937 and again a year later , this time in Portsmouth Dockyard in June – July 1939 and she returned to the Mediterranean afterwards . " Hereward " was transferred to Freetown to hunt for German commerce raiders in the South Atlantic with Force K in October . The ship and her sisters , , , and , rendezvoused with the battlecruiser , the aircraft carrier , and the light cruiser on 17 December . They refueled in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , before proceeding to the estuary of the River Plate in case the damaged German pocket battleship attempted to escape from Montevideo , Uruguay , where she had taken refuge after losing the Battle of the River Plate . " Hereward " captured the German blockade runner " Uhenfels " on 5 November . The ship was based at Trinidad from 20 November to 23 January 1940 and blockaded the German merchant ship " Arauca " in Port Everglades , Florida whilst based there . She escorted the battleship to Halifax , but suffered weather damage en route that required three weeks for repairs . " Hereward " then escorted the light cruiser to the UK as the latter carried the ashes of John Buchan , Governor General of Canada , home . She required further repairs at Portsmouth upon arrival and missed the Battles of Narvik in April . " Hereward " escorted ships into Scheveningen , Netherlands on 11 May to evacuate British citizens after the Germans invaded the previous day . She evacuated Queen Wilhelmina and her family from the Netherlands on 13 May , and was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet a few days later . The ship arrived at Alexandria on 24 May and began escorting convoys and larger ships of the fleet . " Hereward " participated in the Battle of Calabria in July 1940 , where she was hit by splinters from a near - miss of the Italian battleship . The ship escorted a convoy during Operation Collar and then fired at retreating Italians in Cyrenaica after the Battle of Sidi Barrani . Together with her sister , she sank the on 13 December . " Hereward " escorted the battleship s of the Mediterranean Fleet as they bombarded Valona on 19 December and then sortied into the North Atlantic when Convoy WS - 5A reported that it had been attacked by the on 25 December . She escorted three of the convoy ' s ship to Gibraltar on 29 December . The ship participated in Operation Excess in early January 1941 and sank the Italian torpedo boat on 10 January with a torpedo in the Strait of Sicily . Together with the destroyer and the gunboat , " Hereward " landed commandos on the island of Kastelorizo as part of Operation Abstention , but they were overwhelmed by an Italian counter - attack . Only a few survivors were taken off two days later . The ship participated in the Battle of Cape Matapan in early March 1941 and the evacuation of Greece in April 1941 . She sank a number of fishing boats transporting German troops to Crete on 21 May and helped evacuate the Allied garrison of Heraklion on 29 May . Later that day she was attacked by German Junkers Ju 87 " Stuka " dive bombers and hit by one bomb just in front of her forward funnel . She turned towards the nearby coast of Crete , but was sunk by further attacks . Four officers and 72 crewmen were killed , but the 89 survivors were rescued by Italian MAS torpedo boats and taken prisoner .