HMS Bittern
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Bittern | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | sloop-of-war | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | Royal Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | World War II, Norwegian Campaign | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Nearest coast | Norway | Natural Earth (public domain) |
| Position | 64.4667, 11.5000 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Bittern was a Bittern-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Although the last to be completed she was the name ship of her class, replacing an earlier Bittern which had been re-named before launch. Bittern was laid down on 27 August 1936 by J. Samuel White, of Cowes, Isle of Wight, launched on 14 July 1937 and completed on 15 March 1938.
She served in Home waters and off the coast of Norway during the Second World War. She took part in the ill-fated Namsos Campaign of 1940, where she was used to defend Allied troop ships entering and leaving Namsos harbour from submarine attacks. The harbour came under regular air attack by the Luftwaffe, and on 30 April, Bittern was spotted by a squadron of Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers. Bittern came under repeated attack from 0700 hours. She was hit and severely damaged, being set on fire by a bomb dropped from Oberleutnant Elmo Schäfer's aircraft belonging to I./StG 1. Nearby Allied ships came alongside and took the survivors off. When this had been completed, Bittern was sunk by a torpedo from the destroyer Janus.
In 2011 it was reported that the ship has started to leak some of its roughly 200,000 litres (44,000 imp gal; 53,000 US gal) of oil.
Location
- Recorded position: 64.4667, 11.5000 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: Norway
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article HMS Bittern (L07) (revision 1374944218), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- HMS Sceptre 42 km
- U-622 1943 · 125 km
- U-92 1945 · 127 km
- MS Rigel 1944 · 156 km
Other wrecks of the World War II
- HMS Thetis 1918
- Admiral Graf Spee 1939
- HMS Blanche 1939
- HMS Duchess 1939
- HMS Rawalpindi 1939
- HMS Seahorse 1939
- SS Binnendijk 1939
- SS Fanad Head 1939
- Stanbrook 1939
- U-12 1939
All 599 wrecks of the World War II →
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Norway