HMS Legion (G74)

(Casualty List)

Navy: Royal Navy
Type: Destroyer
Class: L 
Pennant: G 74, F74
Built by: Hawthorn Leslie & Co. (Hebburn-on-Tyne, U.K.) 
Ordered: 31 Mar, 1938 
Laid down: 1 Nov, 1938 
Launched: 26 Dec, 1939 
Commissioned: 19 Dec, 1940 
Complement: 224
Lost: 26 Mar, 1942 Damaged, beached. and sunk by aircraft bombs at Central Malta.
 
History: The Polish destroyers Piorun, Garland and the British destroyer HMS Legion conduct an offensive patrol against enemy submarines. However, no U-boat was encountered.

14 Apr, 1941
HMS Rodney, HMS Legion, Piorun and Garland composed the escort of two troop ships heading from Iceland to the Clyde.

30 Sep, 1941
Around 1030hours on 30 September 1941 the Italian submarine Adua (offsite link) was sunk north-west of Algiers by the British destroyers HMS Gurkha and HMS Legion.

13 Nov, 1941
On this day the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was torpedoed by U-81 off Gibraltar and sank. The HMS Legion stopped alongside the Ark Royal to pick up sailors, a very famous photo shows documents this moment.

13 Dec, 1941
The Italian light cruisers Alberico da Barbiano and Alberto di Giussano were torpedoed and sunk off Cape Bon by the Royal Navy destroyers HMS Sikh, HMS Maori, HMS Legion and the Dutch destroyer HrMs Isaac Sweers on a supply mission to Tripoli.