HMS Hardy

Navy:	The Royal Navy
Type:	Destroyer
Class:	V
Pennant:	R 08
Built by:	John Brown Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd. (Clydebank, Scotland)
Laid down:	14 May, 1942
Launched:	18 Mar, 1943
Commissioned:	14 Aug, 1943
Complement:	179
Lost:	30 January 1944, (c 73-40'N,24-30'E) Artic Ocean,60 miles south of Bear island. U-957 (Schaar) fired two homing Gnats. Whilst on escort for UK/Russian convoy JW.56B
History:	At 03.46 and 03.54 hours on 30 January 1944, U-957 (Schaar) fired two Gnats at the escorts of the convoy JW-56B and heard two detonations, which were claimed by Schaar as hits on two destroyers, but they were end-of-run detonations. At 03.57 hours, U-278 (Franze).fired a Gnat, which struck HMS Hardy. This hit was observed and claimed by U-957 and also by U-472 (Forstner), which had fired a Gnat at 03.57 hours, but missed the HNoMS Stord. At 04.20 hours, U-957 (Schaar) fired a spread of three FAT torpedoes at two corvettes, which laid stopped (probably the destroyer HMS Venus rescuing survivors from the torpedoed destroyer HMS Hardy) and heard one detonation after four minutes, but no destroyer had been hit at this time. HMS Hardy had been seriously damaged and had to be sunk by a coup de grâce by HMS Venus. This detonation was heard by U-601 (Hansen), which thought that her Gnat, fired at 05.24 hours had hit this destroyer. The U-boat then crossed the sinking position of HMS Hardy and sighted an oil slick and debris.