History
United Kingdom
Name	HMSLatona
Ordered	23 December 1938
Builder	John I. Thornycroft & Company,Woolston, Hampshire
Laid down	4 April 1939
Launched	20 August 1940
Commissioned	4 May 1941
Identification	Pennant number M76
Motto	Vestigia nostra cavate: 'Beware our tracks'
Honours & awards	Libya 1941
Fate	Sunk on 25 October 1941
Badge	On a Field barry wavy White and Blue, upon a pomme vert a sun in splendour Gold eclipsed by a moon White.
General characteristics
Class & type	Abdiel-classminelayer
Displacement	2,650 tons standard 3,415 tonsfull
Length	418 ft (127 m)
Beam	40 ft (12 m)
Draught	16 ft (4.9 m)
Propulsion	Two shafts Geared turbines four Admiralty 3-drum boilers 72,000 shp
Speed	40 knots (74 km/h)
Complement	242
Armament	6 ×QF 4-inch (100 mm) Mark XVI guns on twin mountsHA/LA Mk.XIX 4 ×QF 2-pounder (40 mm) Mk.VIII on quadruple mount Mk.VII 8 ×0.5-inch (12.7 mm) Vickers machine guns on quadruple mount Mk.I (later up to 12 xOerlikon 20 mm cannons on single mounts P Mk.III or twin mounts Mk.V) 156mines

HMSLatona was anAbdiel-classminelayer of theRoyal Navy. She served briefly during theSecond World War, but was sunk less than six months after commissioning.^[1]

Latona was ordered on 23 December 1938 and was laid down at the yards ofJohn I. Thornycroft & Company, ofWoolston, Hampshire on 4 April 1939.^[2] She was launched on 20 August 1940 as a fast minelayer. She was commissioned on 4 May 1941 but never served in her intended primary role, instead being used in theMediterranean to deliver stores and supplies to the allied armies and garrisons atTobruk andCyprus.^[2]

On being commissionedLatona sailed toScapa Flow to embark stores and extraOerlikon 20 mm cannons for defence against air attacks.^[2] Having completed loading, she sailed for the Mediterranean on 16 May, travelling via theCape of Good Hope and theRed Sea. She arrived atAlexandria on 21 June, joining hersisterAbdiel. The following day they sailed to support military operations in the eastern Mediterranean.Latona’s first assignment was to carryRAF personnel toCyprus to reinforce the garrison there. After successfully carrying this out, she returned to Alexandria on 25 July.^[2]

She sailed again in August in company withAbdiel, the Australian cruiserHobart, and Australian destroyersNapier andNizam to support the garrison atTobruk.^[2] They eventually carried some 6,300 troops to Tobruk and evacuated another 6,100. On 25 October the ships supporting Tobruk came under air attack north ofBardia.Latona, carrying 1,000 Polish troops, was hit in the engine room by a bomb from aJunkers Ju 87 of I./StG1.^[2] This started a fire which soon raged out of control. The destroyersHero andEncounter came alongside to assist and evacuated most of the troops and crew.Latona remained afloat for a further two hours, before the after magazine exploded, sinking the ship. Four officers, 16 crew members and 7 soldiers were killed.^[2]

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969].Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing.ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.OCLC 67375475.

• Nicholson, Arthur (2015).Very Special Ships:Abdiel-Class Fast Minelayers of World War Two. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing.ISBN 978-1-84832-235-6.

• Career of HMSLatona
• HMSLatona at Uboat.net

32°15′N24°14′E / 32.250°N 24.233°E /32.250; 24.233

• Abdiel-class minelayers
• Ships built in Southampton
• 1940 ships
• World War II minelayers of the United Kingdom
• Ships sunk by German aircraft
• Maritime incidents in October 1941
• World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
• Ships built by John I. Thornycroft & Company
• Naval magazine explosions
• Shipwrecks of Libya

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