HMS Cossack (F03)

HMS Cossack ( F03/G03/L03 ) was a destroyer of the Tribal class of the Royal Navy. The ship was known for his role in the so-called Altmark incident.

The keel of the ship was on 9 June 1936 on the High Walker Yard of Vickers - Armstrongs in Newcastle -upon- Tyne, on June 8, 1937 was followed by the launching, on 7 June 1938, the commissioning and on 14 June 1938, the final completion.

On February 16, 1940, a prize crew of the ship commanded by Philip S. Vian boarded the German supply ship Altmark in Norwegian Jøssingfjord. It freed 303 prisoners merchantman people whose ships had been applied by the Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic. This seven man the Altmark crew were shot.

A few weeks later, on 13 April 1940 HMS Cossack belonged to the British Association, which penetrated under the leadership of the battleship HMS Warspite in the Ofotfjord up to Narvik and there sank the eight remaining German destroyers in the second naval battle of Narvik and forced to scuttle.

Thereafter, the destroyer was used primarily in the North Atlantic for the detection of suspected German Seehandelsstörer. In May 1941, as part of escorting the convoy WS -8B, the ship was one of the forces that find the German battleship Bismarck and should sink. Five destroyers, including HMS Cossack, were withdrawn on 26 May of the convoy to drive to the Bismarck during the night torpedo attacks. These attacks were unsuccessful, but forced the crew of the German battleship, through the night to stay in full combat readiness. After the sinking of the Bismarck on the following day the crew of the destroyer of the legend took over after the cat aboard the Bismarck.

On 24 October 1941, the ship when accompanying a convoy from Gibraltar to England was severely damaged by a torpedo hit from U 563. A tug tried on 25 October to tow the ship back to Gibraltar, but the line had to be capped at increasingly bad weather the next day. The destroyer sank on October 27, 1941 west of Gibraltar with 159 man crew.