Sunken WWII Royal Navy ship found off Norway
The wreck of a Royal Navy destroyer sunk by the German navy in 1940 has been discovered 305 metres under the icy waters of a Norwegian fjord. HMS Hunter went down on 10 April 1940 with the loss of more than 100 lives. The ship had remained unlocated and undisturbed until the Norwegian Minehunter HNOMS TYR located her earlier this week.
HNOMS TYR was participating in a large multinational exercise, Exercise Armatura Borealis, involving the Royal Navy, Royal Norwegian Navy and the Royal Netherlands Navy along with ships from Spain, Belgium and Germany when she discovered the sunken vessel by using her echo sounder.
On dispatching her remote operated submersible to investigate, it became clear that this was the long lost HMS Hunter, which sunk after fighting during the Battle of Narvik; an action that would result in the first Victoria Cross of WWII being awarded.
HMS Hunter was an H-Class Destroyer of 1,880 Tonnes, armed with 4.7inch (119mm) guns and 2 x 4 Torpedo Tubes. She had a crew of approximately 145 at the time of sinking. She was sunk at approx 0530 hrs GMT with 110 killed on board. The Germans lost four destroyers during the first Battle of Narvik, whilst the Allies lost HMS Hunter and HMS Hardy.
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