HMS NUBIAN


 
In October 1938, NUBIAN'S completion was delayed when it was suggested that she be used in still-water rolling tests. The original idea was to place a ten ton weight on the side of the ship, then suddenly remove it with a crane. During the momentum of righting, measurements could be taken. This plan was eventually discarded as it was deemed to be dubious in nature. Gunsights were late in arriving so NUBIAN was last to join her flotilla at Malta on 2nd February 1939. She served in HMS COSSACK'S division which was preparing for war during the Albanian Crisis, cruising the eastern Mediterranean, and practicing fleet and flotilla maneuvers. When war began, she was employed on convoy escort and contraband control in that area.

After having turbine problems corrected at Southhampton, England NUBIAN was called on to carry out balloon trials at Spithead at the end of October 1939. It was hoped that towing a kite balloon would discourage low level air attack. The `Nubians' concluded that the trials were successful as most coastal convoys began flying `barrage' balloons. At the end of 1939, NUBIAN reported to Scapa Flow and then to her base at Rosyth, England. Here, she started duties as a Norwegian convoy escort and was also actively involved in the Norwegian campaign. This was her first of many battle honours awarded -- NORWAY 1940.

By 14th May 1940, NUBIAN arrived in Alexandria ,Egypt to join the 14th Destroyer Flotilla. The war against Italy began on 10/11 June and the Fleet carried out sweeps in the eastern Mediterranean and along the North African coast. While screening WARSPITE off the Toe of Italy, the Italian Navy engaged in a skirmish in which the Italians withdrew. NUBIAN was awarded her second battle honour . When she and other British ships destroyed an enemy convoy in the Straits of Otranto, another battle honour was awarded.

Here is a complete list of battle honours for HMS Nubian:

Norway 1940
Calabria 1940
Mediterranean 1940, 1941 and 1943
Libya 1940
Malta Convoys 1941
Matapan 1941
SFAX 1941
Greece 1941
Crete 1941
Sicily 1943
Salermo 1943
Arctic 1944
Burma 1945

NUBIAN left the United Kingdom in January 1945 on her way to Alexandria in an effort to make her more hospitable for the tropics. Sailing to the Indian Ocean, she rendezvoused with HMS TARTAR and HMS ESKIMO. Jointly, the three ships helped the British Army clear the Japanese out of their small Burmese coastal fortifications. After the war ended, NUBIAN and TARTAR arrived home by way of the Mediterranean. For a while, NUBIAN served as a Reserve Fleet accommodation ship alongside Whale Island, Portsmouth England. By 1948 she was empty and lifeless. Condemned as a target vessel in Loch Striven, she was eventually scrapped at Briton Ferry, England on 25th June 1949.
 


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Oct 20/07