2nd Clarinet
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In Memory - HMS Naiad11th March 1942.
On the 11th March 1942, the following members of the Royal Marines Band Service gave their lives while serving onboard HMS Naiad.
Musician D.F. Page.
I have posted below, the circumstances of that day.
HMS Naiad was a Dido-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy.
She was built by Hawthorn Leslie and Company (Hebburn-on-Tyne, UK), with the keel being laid down on 26 August 1937.
She was launched on 3 February 1939, and commissioned 24 July 1940.
She initially joined the Home Fleet and was used for ocean trade protection duties.
As part of the 15th Cruiser Squadron she took part in operations against German raiders following the sinking of HMS Jervis Bay in November 1940.
In December and January she escorted convoys to Freetown, but at the end of January 1941 was back in northern waters when she briefly sighted the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau south of Iceland as the German ships were in the course of breaking out into the Atlantic (Operation Berlin).
By May 1941 Naiad was with Force H on Malta convoy operations, and Flagship of the 15th Cruiser Squadron.
She participated in the Crete operations and then operated against Vichy French forces in Syria, where, together with HMS Leander, she engaged the French destroyer Guépard.
The remainder of her service was in the Mediterranean, mostly connected with the continual attempts to resupply Malta.
Deployed with HMS DIDO and HMS EURYALUS as Force B to intercept an enemy supply convoy off Tripoli without success.
The ship searched later for a damaged Italian cruiser but no contact was made.
During the ships return return to Alexandria, was torpedoed on starboard side amidships by U565 off Sollum, Crete.
Ship capsized and sank in 35 minutes.
582 of ships company survived with 86 lost.
To those named above and the ships company who also died…..R.I.P.
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