HMS Lively was an L-class

L and M class destroyer

The L and M class was a class of sixteen destroyers which served in the British Royal Navy during World War II. The ships of the class were launched between 1939 and 1942.-Design details:...

 destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

.
She served during the Second World War, and was sunk in the Mediterranean in an air attack on 11 May 1942.

Commissioned in 1941 she was briefly active in British waters, sailing in the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

, but was soon reassigned to the Mediterranean, where she was active as part of the Mediterranean Fleet, and Force K

Force K

Force K was the designation for three British Royal Navy task forces during World War II. The first Force K operated from West Africa in 1939. The second and third Force Ks operated from Malta in 1941-1943.-First Force K:...

, based at Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

. Lively played a role in escorting several convoys to and from the island, as well as intercepting enemy supply convoys to North Africa. She took part in the First

First Battle of Sirte

The First Battle of Sirte was fought between the British Royal Navy and the Regia Marina during the Mediterranean campaign of the Second World War. The engagement took place on 17 December 1941, southeast of Malta, in the Gulf of Sirte...

 and Second Battles of Sirte

Second Battle of Sirte

The Second Battle of Sirte was a naval engagement in which the escorting warships of a British convoy to Malta frustrated a much more powerful Regia Marina squadron. The British convoy was composed of four merchant ships escorted by four light cruisers, one anti-aircraft cruiser, and 17 destroyers...

, and was damaged on a number of occasions in air and surface attacks. She was eventually sunk off Tobruk

Tobruk

Tobruk or Tubruq is a city, seaport, and peninsula on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District and has a population of 120,000 ....

 in May 1942 while attempting to intercept an enemy convoy.

Construction and commissioning

Lively was ordered on 31 March 1938 from Cammell Laird

Cammell Laird

Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century.- Founding of the business :The Company...

, of Birkenhead

Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...

 as part of the 1937 Programme. She was laid down on 20 December 1938, launched on 29 January 1941, and commissioned on 20 July 1941. Her initial armament was altered slightly during construction in 1940, and she became one of four ships of her class to be rated as anti-aircraft destroyers.

North Sea and Mediterranean

After working up in July 1941, Lively was assigned to Western Approaches Command

Western Approaches Command

Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches was the commander of a major operational command of the Royal Navy during World War II. The admiral commanding, and his forces, sometimes informally known as 'Western Approaches Command,' were responsible for the safety of British shipping in the Western...

 in August, and was based at Greenock

Greenock

Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

. One of her first duties was to deploy from Scapa Flow

Scapa Flow

right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...

 on 22 August with and the cruiser to escort the damaged French submarine Rubis

Rubis (1931)

The Rubis was a Saphir-class minelaying submarine which served in the French Navy and Free French Navy during the Second World War...

 back to Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

. In September she was assigned to the 4th Destroyer Flotilla based at Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

, where she was one of the destroyers assigned to screen the aircraft carrier

Aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

 , and other capital ships, making deliveries of aircraft to Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

. On 24 September she sailed from Gibraltar as part of the escort for Ark Royal, and the battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

s , and , which were supporting Operation Halberd

Operation Halberd

-Summary:During World War II, Operation Halberd was a British naval operation in September 1941 to escort a convoy from Gibraltar to Malta....

. The ships came under air attack which left Rodney slightly damaged, but the destroyers were able to drive off the enemy aircraft. While returning to Gibraltar on 30 September, the ships were attacked by the Italian submarine Adua. Lively supported the hunt for her, which eventually sank the Adua.

Malta and convoys

Lively remained at Gibraltar until being assigned to Force K

Force K

Force K was the designation for three British Royal Navy task forces during World War II. The first Force K operated from West Africa in 1939. The second and third Force Ks operated from Malta in 1941-1943.-First Force K:...

 in October and despatched to escort Force H

Force H

Force H was a British naval formation during the Second World War. It was formed in 1940 to replace French naval power in the western Mediterranean that had been removed by the French armistice with Nazi Germany....

, which was delivering aircraft to Malta. She was then based out of Malta, and on 8 November she sailed with and the cruisers and to intercept an enemy supply convoy in the central Mediterranean. The convoy was brought to action on 9 November, and the Battle of the Duisburg Convoy

Battle of the Duisburg Convoy

The Battle of the Duisburg Convoy was fought on the night of 8–9 November 1941 between an Italian convoy sailing to Libya with supplies for the Italian Army, civilian authorities in Libya, and the Afrika Corps and a British Naval squadron which intercepted it...

 broke out between the British attackers and the Italian escorts. During the battle all seven of the merchants and one of the escorts, the destroyer Fulmine were sunk.

Another convoy was detected near Malta by aircraft later in the month, and Force K put to sea again on 23 November to intercept it. The following day the convoy, consisting of the German supply ships Maritza and Procidas, and two escorting Italian torpedo boats, was attacked and both merchants sunk. On 1 December the Italian troop transport Adriatio was sunk by Aurora and Penelope, with some survivors being rescued by Lively. Later that day the damaged Italian tanker Irido Mantovani, which was being towed by the destroyer Alvise da Mosta, was intercepted, and both ships sunk.

On 5 December Lively joined the cruisers and and the destroyers and in escorting the supply ship Breconshire from Malta to Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

, and then joining the Breconshire on her return leg from Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

 carrying supplies on 16 December. The following day they moved into the range of an Axis supply convoy being escorted by several Italian capital ships, and the First Battle of Sirte

First Battle of Sirte

The First Battle of Sirte was fought between the British Royal Navy and the Regia Marina during the Mediterranean campaign of the Second World War. The engagement took place on 17 December 1941, southeast of Malta, in the Gulf of Sirte...

 broke out. Lively took part in the confusing exchange, before being detached to escort the Breconshire and several other warships into Malta. She returned to sea on 18 December with Aurora, Penelope and Neptune, and the destroyers , and in an attempt to intercept an Italian supply convoy, but on 19 December the force ran into a minefield and Neptune and Kandahar were sunk and Aurora and Penelope were damaged.

Lively spent January and February escorting relief convoys to and from Malta, before sailing with a force to locate a reported damaged Italian cruiser on 9 March. The force came under air attack on 11 March, with the cruiser being sunk by a torpedo. Lively helped to rescue survivors. On 22 March Lively became involved in the Second Battle of Sirte

Second Battle of Sirte

The Second Battle of Sirte was a naval engagement in which the escorting warships of a British convoy to Malta frustrated a much more powerful Regia Marina squadron. The British convoy was composed of four merchant ships escorted by four light cruisers, one anti-aircraft cruiser, and 17 destroyers...

, carrying out torpedo attacks and being damaged when a 15 inch shell exploded alongside. Detached to sail to Tobruk

Tobruk

Tobruk or Tubruq is a city, seaport, and peninsula on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District and has a population of 120,000 ....

 the following day, she suffered further damage from air attacks, but reached the port. Lively sailed from Tobruk to Alexandria in April, and then rejoined her flotilla after repairs had been completed.

Sinking

On 10 May she sailed from Alexandria with , and to intercept an enemy supply convoy off the North African coast. The force was ordered to return if spotted by enemy aircraft, as there was only limited allied air cover available. On 11 May the British force came under heavy air attack, with Lively being dive-bombed and sunk 100 miles north east of Tobruk, with the loss of 77 of her crew. Jervis and Jackal were both damaged in these attacks, with Jackal having to be scuttled by Jervis after attempts to tow her failed. Jervis took on board survivors from both Lively and Jackal, and returned them to Alexandria. Despite a wartime career lasting less than a year since her commissioning, she won five battle honours: Atlantic 1941, Mediterranean 1941

Mediterranean Theatre of World War II

The African, Mediterranean and Middle East theatres encompassed the naval, land, and air campaigns fought between the Allied and Axis forces in the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and Africa...

, Malta Convoys 1941-2

Malta Convoys

The Malta Convoys were a series of Allied supply convoys that sustained the besieged island of Malta during the Mediterranean Theatre of the Second World War...

, Libya 1942, and Sirte 1942

Second Battle of Sirte

The Second Battle of Sirte was a naval engagement in which the escorting warships of a British convoy to Malta frustrated a much more powerful Regia Marina squadron. The British convoy was composed of four merchant ships escorted by four light cruisers, one anti-aircraft cruiser, and 17 destroyers...

.