HMS PENELOPE

HMS Penelope Papercraft

HMS Penelope was an Arethusa-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built by Harland & Wolff (Belfast, Northern Ireland); her keel was laid down on 30 May 1934. She was launched on 15 October 1935, and commissioned 13 November 1936. On wartime service with Force "K", she was holed so many times by bomb fragments that she acquired the nickname "HMS Pepperpot". At the outbreak of World War II she was with the 3rd Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean, having arrived at Malta on 2 September 1939. Home Fleet

Penelope and her sister ship Arethusa were reallocated to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron in the Home Fleet and arrived at Portsmouth on 11 January 1940. On 3 February she left for the River Clyde en route to Rosyth. She arrived on 7 February, and operated with the 2nd Cruiser Squadron on convoy escort duties, and in April and May 1940, she took part in the Norwegian operations. On 11 April Penelope ran aground off Fleinvær while hunting German merchant ships entering the Vestfjord. Her boiler room was flooded and she was holed forward. The destroyer Eskimo towed her to Skjelfjord where an advanced base had been improvised. Despite air attacks, temporary repairs were made and she was towed home a month later. She arrived at Greenock in Scotland on 16 May 1940 where additional temporary repairs were carried out, before proceeding on 19 August to the Tyne for permanent repairs.

After repairs and trials were completed in August 1941, Penelope reappeared as 'a new ship from the water line down'. She returned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron at Scapa Flow on 17 August 1941. On 9 September she left Greenock escorting the battleship Duke of York to Rosyth. Later that month she was employed in patrolling the Iceland - Faroes passage to intercept enemy surface ships. On 6 October 1941 Penelope left Hvalfjord, Iceland, with another battleship, King George V, escorting the aircraft carrier Victorious for the successful Operation "E.J.", an air attack on enemy shipping between Glom Fjord and the head of West Fjord, Norway. The force returned to Scapa Flow on 10 October 1941.