uboat.net

Allied Warships

HMS Recruit (J 298)

Minesweeper of the Algerine class

NavyThe Royal Navy
TypeMinesweeper
ClassAlgerine 
PennantJ 298 
Built byHarland & Wolff Ltd. (Belfast, Northern Ireland) 
Ordered 
Laid down20 Apr, 1943 
Launched26 Oct, 1943 
Commissioned14 Jan, 1944 
End service 
Loss position
 
History

HMS Recruit in company with the 7th Mine Sweeping Flottilla led the massive invasion fleet from Portsmouth Roads across the channel to the Normandy beach-heads. The flotilla commander {MSF7} Captain George Nelson in HMS Pelorus was inspirational if only in name.

Operated in the Red Sea during 1947-1948.

Scrapped in September 1965.

Commanding Officers:
T/Cdr. G.E.W.W. Bayly, RNVR
8 December 1943 – 9 November 1944

A/Cdr. Andrew Edward Doran, DSC, RN
9 November 1944 - still in command in October 1945 according to the Navy List 


Noteable events involving Recruit include:

22 Feb, 1945
The German submarine U-300 was sunk in the North Atlantic west of Cadiz, in position 36º29'N, 08º20'W, by depth charges and gunfire from the British minesweepers HMS Recruit (A/Cdr. A.E. Doran, DSC, RN) and HMS Pincher (T/A/Lt.Cdr. C.B. Blake, RNVR) and the British armed yacht Evadne (A/T/Lt.Cdr. N.H. Richards, RNR). (see map)


Return to the Allied Warships section