HMSGriffin (H31) was aG-classdestroyer, built for theRoyal Navy in the mid-1930s. InWorld War II she took part in theNorwegian Campaign of April–May 1940 and theBattle of Dakar in September before being transferred to theMediterranean Fleet in November. She generally escorted larger ships of the Mediterranean Fleet as they protectedconvoys against attacks from the Italian Fleet.Griffin took part in theBattle of Cape Matapan in March 1941 and theevacuations of Greece andCrete in April–May 1941. In June she took part in theSyria-Lebanon Campaign and was escorting convoys and the larger ships of the Mediterranean Fleet until she was transferred to theEastern Fleet in March 1942.

Griffin in 1936
History
United Kingdom
Name	Griffin
Namesake	Griffin
Builder	Vickers-Armstrongs,Barrow-in-Furness, UK
Cost	£248,518
Laid down	20 September 1934
Launched	15 August 1935
Commissioned	6 June 1936
Motto	Dentibus ac rostro (Latin : "With teeth and beak")
Fate	Transferred toCanada, 1 March 1943
Canada
Name	Ottawa
Namesake	Ottawa River
Acquired	By purchase, 1 March 1943 Gifted, 15 June 1943
Commissioned	7 April 1943
Decommissioned	May 1945
Identification	Pennant number: H31
Honours and awards	Atlantic, 1939-45 Normandy, 1944 English Channel, 1944 Biscay, 1944
Fate	Sold forscrap, August 1946
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	G-classdestroyer
Displacement	1,350long tons (1,370 t) (standard) 1,883 long tons (1,913 t) (deep load)
Length	323 ft (98.5 m)
Beam	33 ft (10.1 m)
Draught	12 ft 5 in (3.8 m)
Installed power	3Admiralty 3-drum boilers 34,000 shp (25,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts, 2 gearedsteam turbines
Speed	36knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range	5,530 nmi (10,240 km; 6,360 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	137 (peacetime), 146 (wartime)
Armament	4 × single4.7 in (120 mm) guns 2 × quadruple0.5 in (12.7 mm) machine guns 2 × quadruple21 in (533 mm)torpedo tubes 20 ×depth charges, 1 rail and 2 throwers

Griffin saw no action in the JapaneseIndian Ocean raid in April, but was escorting convoys for most of her time in theIndian Ocean. In June she returned to the Mediterranean to escort another convoy to Malta inOperation Vigorous. Beginning in November 1942, she was converted to anescort destroyer in theUnited Kingdom and was transferred to theRoyal Canadian Navy on 1 March 1943. The ship, now renamed HMCSOttawa, was assigned to escort convoys in theNorth Atlantic until she was transferred in May 1944 to protect the forces involved with theNormandy Landings. Working with other destroyers,Ottawa sank three German submarines off the French coast before she returned to Canada for a lengthy refit. After the end of the European war in May 1945 she was used to bring Canadian troops until she waspaid off in October 1945.Ottawa was sold forscrap in August 1946.

Griffin displaced 1,350 long tons (1,370 t) atstandard load and 1,883 long tons (1,913 t) atdeep load. She had anoverall length of 323 feet (98.5 m), abeam of 33 feet (10.1 m) and adraught of 12 feet 5 inches (3.8 m). She was powered byParsons gearedsteam turbines, driving two shafts, which developed a total of 34,000shaft horsepower (25,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 36knots (67 km/h; 41 mph). Steam for the turbines was provided by threeAdmiralty 3-drum boilers.Griffin carried a maximum of 470 long tons (480 t) offuel oil that gave her a range of 5,530nautical miles (10,240 km; 6,360 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). Her complement was 137 officers and men in peacetime,^[1] but in increased to 146 in wartime.^[2]

The ship mounted four 45-calibre4.7-inch (120 mm) Mark IX guns in single mounts. Foranti-aircraft (AA) defence,Griffin had two quadruple Mark I mounts for the0.5 inch Vickers Mark IIImachine gun. She was fitted with two above-water quadrupletorpedo tube mounts for21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes.^[1] Onedepth charge rail and two throwers were fitted; 20 depth charges were originally carried, but this increased to 35 shortly after the war began.^[3]

Beginning in mid-1940, her anti-aircraft armament was increased although when exactly the modifications were made is not known. The rear set of torpedo tubes was replaced by a3-inch (76.2 mm) (12-pounder) AA gun and the quadruple .50-calibre Vickers mounts were replaced by20-millimetre (0.8 in) Oerlikonautocannon. Two more Oerlikon guns were also added in the forward superstructure.^[1]

Griffin was laid down byVickers-Armstrongs Naval Construction Works atBarrow-in-Furness on 20 September 1934, launched on 15 August 1935, and completed on 6 March 1936. Excluding government-furnished equipment such as armament, she cost £248,518.^[4]Griffin joined hersisters and was assigned to the1st Destroyer Flotilla of the Mediterranean Fleet upon commissioning. She escorted theocean liner SSStrathnaver between Malta andAlexandria in theMunich Crisis in September 1938. She then escorted thelight cruiserArethusa on her voyage toAden. She collided with the target destroyerShikari on 2 February 1939 and her repairs were completed five days later.^[5]

On 3 September 1939Griffin was in Alexandria and still assigned to the 1st Destroyer Flotilla. In October she was transferred to home waters. On 7 October she was escorting the 7,289 GRTtroop shipMohamed Ali El-Kebir fromAvonmouth bound forGibraltar when the German submarineU-38 torpedoed the troop ship in theWestern Approaches about 230 nautical miles (430 km) west ofBloody Foreland inIreland. 96 people were killed butGriffin attacked and chased away the submarine with depth charges and then rescued 766 survivors, whom she landed atGreenock on theFirth of Clyde on 9 October.^[6]

She rejoined her flotilla atHarwich in November, where they patrolled theNorth Sea and escorted local convoys.^[5] She rescued survivors from her sisterGipsy after that ship struck amine off Harwich on 21 November.^[7] She was damaged the same month and was under repair until 6 December. In preparation for the Norwegian Campaign,Griffin was transferred to theHome Fleet atScapa Flow in April 1940.^[5]Griffin escorted thecapital ships of the Home Fleet as they sortied into the North Sea on 7 April and continued that duty for the next several weeks.^[8]

On 26 April,Griffin and the destroyerAcheron captured the GermantrawlerSchiff 26, bound forNarvik with a cargo that included guns, mines and ammunition. She was disguised as the DutchPolares and armed with one gun and two torpedo tubes. Crewmen aboard the trawler failed to properly dispose of some of her code documents when she was boarded fromGriffin. The recovered material allowedBletchley Park to retrospectively break 6 days of naval Enigma codes. Whilst not operationally useful, this was the first break of the code and gaveAlan Turing essential information on how Enigma was used, so allowing methods to be developed for future breaks. This was the first of several similar captures that were essential for the continued Allied breaking of the naval Enigma codes.^[9]

Griffin evacuated British and French troopsfrom Namsos, and rescued survivors from the destroyerAfridi after she was sunk byJunkers Ju 87Stukadive bombers on 3 May. TheStukas also attackedGriffin, without success.^[10]Griffin was then transferred to the13th Destroyer Flotilla of theNorth Atlantic Command at Gibraltar.^[11] She escorted the capital ships ofForce H in the Battle of Dakar on 23 September, but was not engaged.^[12] On 20 October, with her sistersGallant andHotspur, she sank theItalian submarine Lafolè offMelilla.^[11]Griffin escorted thebattleshipBarham and the cruisersBerwick andGlasgow inOperation Coat in early November as they joined the Mediterranean Fleet.Griffin herself was transferred to the14th Destroyer Flotilla in Alexandria and took part in the inconclusiveBattle of Cape Spartivento on 27 November inOperation Collar.^[13]

InOperation Excess,Gallant struck a mine offPantellaria on 10 January 1941 andGriffin rescued most of the survivors.^[14] In February 1941 she was transferred to theRed Sea where she escorted theaircraft carrierFormidable in the latter's operations in support of themilitary offensive in Italian Somaliland ("Operation Canvas").^[15]Griffin escorted the capital ships of the Mediterranean Fleet in the Battle of Cape Matapan on 28–29 March. With her sisterGreyhound, she attacked some of the Italian destroyers, but lost them when they passed through their ownsmokescreen.^[16]Griffin, the Australian destroyerStuart, and thegunboatGnat bombarded Axis positions nearSollum in northwestern Egypt on 15 April.

She took part in the evacuation of British, Australian and New Zealand troops from Greece at the end of April. On 25 April a German air attack crippled the Dutch troop shipPennland, whichGriffin had been escorting toMegara^[17] to evacuate Allied troops.Griffin rescued about 300 survivors,^[18] sankPennland by gunfire,^[17] and took the survivors to Crete.^[18] On 27 AprilGriffin rescued 50 survivors from the destroyersDiamond andWryneck, which had been sunk by German aircraft in theSea of Crete.^[19]

Griffin again escorted the capital ships of the Mediterranean Fleet as they covered a convoy from Alexandria to Malta on 8 May.^[20] In the evacuation of Crete at the end of May,Griffin evacuated 720 men fromSouda Bay.^[11]

DuringOperation Exporter, the ship escorted the Australian light cruiserPerth as she bombardedVichy French positions inLebanon on 2 July.^[21]Griffin escorted convoys to and fromTobruk from July to November.^[11] On 25 November she was escorting the battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet whenBarham was torpedoed byGerman submarine U-331. She escorted the light cruiserNaiad when that ship bombardedDerna in early December^[22] and was transferred to the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla later that month.^[11]Griffin escorted convoys to Malta in January and February 1942.^[23] until she was transferred to theEastern Fleet in theIndian Ocean in late February.^[11]Griffin was assigned to Force A of the fleet in the Indian Ocean raid by the Japanese in early April 1942. She returned to the Mediterranean to take part inOperation Vigorous, another convoy from Alexandria to Malta, in June.^[24] She rejoined the Eastern Fleet afterwards and escorted convoys there until ordered home to begin conversion to an escort destroyer in September.^[11]

Work on the conversion began on 2 November inSouthampton^[11] and included the removal of two 4.7-inch guns and the 12-pounder AA gun, and their replacement with aHedgehoganti-submarine mortar forward and additional depth charges aft.Type 286 and271 radar sets were fitted, as well as additional 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns.^[25] While still refitting, on 1 March 1943,Griffin was transferred to theRoyal Canadian Navy, and commissioned on 20 March, four days before her conversion was finished. The ship was renamedOttawa on 10 April to commemorate an earlierHMCS Ottawa which had been sunk. After working up atTobermory, she sailed for Canada, and was gifted to the Canadians on 15 June.Ottawa became the senior ship of Escort Group C5 which worked betweenSt. John's, Newfoundland, andDerry,Northern Ireland until May 1944 when she became the senior ship of the 11th Escort Group. The 11th consisted of the Canadian destroyersKootenay,Chaudière,Gatineau, andSt. Laurent and were tasked to protect the invasion forces for D-Day. On 6 July 1944,Ottawa,Kootenay, and the BritishfrigateStatice sankU-678 offBeachy Head,Sussex.Ottawa andChaudière sankU-621 on 16 August nearLa Rochelle and two days later they sankU-984 west ofBrest.^[11]

Ottawa was refitted in St. John's between 12 October 1944 and 26 February 1945. On 11 March she collided with the CanadianminesweeperStratford offHalifax and was under repair until 30 April. After the end of the war in May she ferried Canadian troops back to Canada until she was paid off on 31 October.Ottawa was sold to the International Iron and Metal Company in August 1946 and subsequently broken up.^[11]

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• Haarr, Geirr H. (2010).The Battle for Norway: April–June 1940. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 978-1-59114-051-1.
• Haarr, Geirr H. (2009).The German Invasion of Norway, April 1940. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 978-1-59114-310-9.
• Kahn, David (1996).Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-boat Codes, 1933-1945. London: Arrow Books.ISBN 0-09-978411-4.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005).Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh (2000).Enigma : the Battle for the Code. New York: J. Wiley.ISBN 978-1620456347.
• Stephen, Martin (1988).Sea Battles in Close-Up: World War 2. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 0-87021-556-6.
• Whitley, M. J. (1988).Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 0-87021-326-1.

• Crabb, Brian James (2021).Operation Demon: The story of the evacuation of British Commonwealth troops from mainland Greece and the tragic loss of the Dutch troopship Slamat and HM destroyers Diamond and Wryneck in April 1941. Portishead: Angela Young.ISBN 978-1-527271-01-2.
• Winser, John de D (1999).B.E.F. Ships Before, At and After Dunkirk. Gravesend: World Ship Society.ISBN 0-905617-91-6.