HMS Grenville ( R97 ) HMS " Grenville " , pennant number R97 , was the second ship of this name to serve with the Royal Navy in World War II . HMS " Grenville " and seven other U class destroyer s were ordered as part of the Emergency Programme . She was launched at Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd . , Wallsend - on - Tyne on 12 October 1942 and commissioned on 27 May 1943 . The Royal Navy ' s practice had been to name all destroyers of a class with names starting with the class letter , in this " U " . However , the Royal Navy had reverted to an earlier practice of naming the flotilla leader after a promoninent historical seaman , in this case after Vice Admiral Sir Richard Grenville , an Elizabethan soldier and sailor . Active service . In late August 1943 , " Grenville " and the Canadian destroyer HMCS " Athabaskan " formed the force covering anti - submarine sweeps by the Canadian 5th Support group , off north - west Spain . These ships were attacked by eighteen Dornier Do 217 s using Henschel Hs293 A - 1 glider bombs . " Athabaskan " was heavily damaged and HMS " Egret " was sunk with the loss of 194 of her crew . After this , the u - boat hunt was abandoned . Later on , in September and October , " Grenville " was involved in a series of blockade runner sweeps along the French coast ( Operation " Tunnel " ) . On 4 October , she joined in an action with enemy destroyers in which she was hit and suffered a small number of casualties . Later in October , during another of these sweeps , Grenville was with the cruiser and other destroyers in another , more disastrous , Operation " Tunnel " action against a blockade runner off the north coast of Brittany . In this operation , the cruiser HMS " Charybdis " and destroyer HMS " Limbourne " were sunk by German " Elbing " - class torpedo boat s . In November , " Grenville " joined the 24th Destroyer Flotilla and the Mediterranean Fleet . In the Mediterranean , she supported the Anzio landings , sunk an E - boat and destroyed a train near San Giorgio on the Adriatic Sea . On December 3 , she was ordered to refuel , arriving immediately after the Air raid on Bari , a Mustard gas disaster . In May 1944 , " Grenville " returned to Britain and in June took part in the landings in Normandy . At the end of 1944 , after a refit on the Humber , she left for the Indian Ocean where she joined operations against the Japanese . In January 1945 , " Grenville " and three other " U " class destroyers forming the 26th Destroyer Flotilla , escorted the British carrier force ( Task Force 63 ) that became the British Pacific Fleet . After raids against Japanese installations on Sumatra , TF63 left for Okinawa , via Sydney , where there were air strikes on Japanese airfields in support of Operation Iceberg . Later , " Grenville " participated in the final raids on the Japanese home islands . Post - war . Near the end of the Pacific war , several allied warships began to relay Australian programmes to surrounding areas on shortwave . " Grenville " was one of these heard relaying the commercial programmes from 2KY Sydney in January 1946 . HMS " Grenville " was used as an air training target vessel in October 1951 . She collided with the Italian ship " Alceo " , off Start Point , Devon . Three crewman on the " Grenville " died and another four were listed as missing . In 1953 - 54 , she was extensively converted and re - armed into a Type 15 frigate . She was subsequently fitted with a third mast carrying experimental air - search radar , prior to its operational use in " Invincible " class aircraft carriers . She attended Portsmouth Navy Days in 1967 . In 1970 she was again present at Portsmouth Navy Days , at the time she was a trials Ship for the Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment ( ASWE ) . " Grenville " was paid off in 1974 and laid up in Portsmouth before being scrapped in 1983 .