Action off Plymouth

29 November 1940, English Channel, off Plymouth

German success; Javelin crippled

From Brest, the German 5th Destroyer Flotilla raided the Channel in the autumn of 1940, laying mines and attacking coastal shipping. Hans Lody, Richard Beitzen and Karl Galster had sunk a tug and a barge off the Cornish coast when, at dawn on 29 November, they were caught by the 5th Destroyer Flotilla under Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten in Javelin, with Jupiter, Jackal, Jersey and Kashmir. The Germans fired their torpedoes and turned for home. Two from Hans Lody hit Javelin, blowing off her bow and stern; 45 of her crew were killed. The Germans escaped to Brest. Javelin, with only 155 feet of her hull left, was towed into Plymouth and spent almost a year being rebuilt.