Qualla: HMS Hardy (H87)

HMS Hardy (H87): Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bohuslen, CC BY-SA 4.0. Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee had been told there were six German destroyers in Narvik, possibly more. The Admiralty left the decision to him. He chose to attack. Before dawn on 10 April 1940, Hardy led four of her sister destroyers down the Ofotfjord through a blinding snowstorm, straight into a harbour full of enemy warships. What followed was one of the most ferocious destroyer actions of the Second World War -- and the engagement that earned Warburton-Lee a posthumous Victoria Cross, the first to be awarded in the conflict.

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Image: Bohuslen | CC BY-SA 4.0

HMS Hardy (H87): From Birkenhead to the Spanish Civil War

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Royal Navy official photographer, Public domain. Hardy was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead, laid down on 30 May 1935, launched on 7 April 1936, and commissioned on 11 December of that year. At a cost of 278,482 pounds excluding armament, she was the flotilla leader of the H-class destroyers -- slightly larger and better-eq...

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Image: Royal Navy official photographer | Public domain

HMS Hardy (H87): Hunting Raiders in the South Atlantic

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bohuslen, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the Second World War began in September 1939, Hardy was in Malta. By October she had been transferred to Freetown, Sierra Leone, joining Force K to hunt German commerce raiders preying on Allied shipping in the South Atlantic. It was unglamorous but essential work -- the Kri...

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Image: Bohuslen | CC BY-SA 4.0

HMS Hardy (H87): Dawn Attack on Narvik

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Manxruler, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 9 April 1940, Germany invaded Norway. The Admiralty ordered Warburton-Lee to take his flotilla up the Ofotfjord and attack German shipping in Narvik. Hardy led Havock, Hunter, Hotspur, and Hero through the narrow fjord in a surprise dawn attack on 10 April, emerging from a sno...

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Image: Manxruler | CC BY-SA 4.0

HMS Hardy (H87): The Price of Courage

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bohuslen, CC BY-SA 4.0. As Hardy and her consorts withdrew westward after their second attack, three German destroyers engaged them from behind. Then two more appeared ahead, crossing the T of the British formation -- the worst tactical position a naval force can face. Hardy's forward guns were knocked ...

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Image: Bohuslen | CC BY-SA 4.0

HMS Hardy (H87): Aftermath at Skjomen Fjord

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Motacilla, CC BY-SA 4.0. Of Hardy's crew, 139 men made it ashore, though 26 were seriously wounded. The dead were eventually buried at Haakvik cemetery in Narvik, where their graves remain today. Hardy herself did not stay where she had been beached. A rising tide lifted her off the shore, and the abando...

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Image: Motacilla | CC BY-SA 4.0