to form line ahead formation and increase speed to 30 knots. Abdiel was told to act independently, presumably on the assumption that she would soon be left behind. I was fortunate to be on the bridge at the time to see and hear what transpired. As soon as the signal was received, the Captain called the Chief Engineer to him. After a brief discussion concerning the state of the engines and the remaining fuel, speed was increased. As we steamed past the Flotilla Leader we sent the signal ‘Will this do?’ We were already tied up and taking in fuel by the time the destroyers came in.16
With that incident, word of the Abdiel’s capabilities no doubt started getting around the fleet.
The Abdiel and her consorts arrived on the 24th and enjoyed a brief stay in Gibraltar. Orders were received forbidding anyone but naval personnel on deck, but, as the Captain recalled, a ‘considerable addition was made to the Officers and Ship’s Company’, as the ‘passengers entered into the spirit of the game’ and ‘moustaches were shaved off and so on’. The Captain recalled with satisfaction that the ruse was a success, such that when Admiral Somerville came aboard he asked where the passengers had been put.
The ships departed Gibraltar that evening, with Malta as the next port of call. The passage through the Sicilian Channel was delayed for one day due to bad weather and then was made on a brilliant, starlit night. The Captain was surprised that the enemy was silent, as the force, passing within four miles of the island of Pantelleria in line ahead and at 30 knots, presented a wonderful target for shore batteries.
Malta was reached on 28 April. At the time, the island was under heavy bombing and aerial mine attacks and ships were sometimes trapped in the harbour by mines. The Abdiel and the Dido unloaded ‘certain important stores’,17 and then sailed for Alexandria the day they arrived, just as an air raid on Malta developed, giving the Abdiel ‘a wonderful view of what the Malta A/A barrage could produce’. The same day the supply ship Breconshire and the 14th Destroyer Flotilla sailed for the same destination and Mountbatten’s 5th Flotilla was left at Malta.
On the voyage to Alexandria, the force was attacked by Ju 88 twin-engined bombers, which made shallow diving attacks. One plane put a stick of bombs about 150 yards off the Abdiel’s bow and another missed everyone by at least a half a mile. After dark, the Abdiel and Dido were detached to proceed at high speed for Alexandria.18 At 16.00 on 30 April, they reached Alexandria,19 joining the Mediterranean Fleet at a critical moment, shortly after it completed the evacuation of British and Dominion troops from Greece just ahead of the invading Germans and just before start of the battle for Crete. The Abdiel was quickly put to work and on 2 May was sent to Haifa in British-ruled Palestine to load mines.
The Abdiel digs in on the voyage to Alexandria. (National Maritime Museum N 31257)
The Abdiel arrives at Alexandria, 30 April 1941. (National Maritime Museum N 31262)
The C-in-C of the Mediterranean Fleet, Vice Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham, quickly detected the ship’s Achilles heel. On 3 May, he wrote to the First Sea Lord;
I don’t know if you have realised the low endurance of the Abdiel. She can’t lay mines off Lampedusa [an island between Malta and Tunisia] from Alexandria and must refuel at Malta. So our minelaying there also depends on Malta being open. I suggest, if it’s not too late, that the question of fitting extra fuel tanks in the others be studied and, if successful, one of them be sent to replace her in due course.20
Admiral Cunningham could nevertheless see the Abdiel’s worth; just ten days later, in a meeting that discussed the likely invasion of Crete, he pointed out that he had ‘a fast ship, the Abdiel, which could be used to run guns and other urgent equipment into Crete’.21 Cunningham was so enamoured of her speed that one day he signalled her to pass close by at speed, which she did at 35 knots, to have her picture taken. In the coming weeks and months, Admiral Cunningham was able to find some very useful employment for the speedy Abdiel that did not require her to traverse the Mediterranean without refuelling.
On 6 May, the Abdiel went to sea with the Mediterranean Fleet and took station as part of the destroyer screen.22 The Fleet’s sortie was but one part of Operation ‘MD.4’, a complex movement of convoys to Malta and Suda Bay, as well as the running from Gibraltar to Alexandria of the vital ‘Tiger’ convoy of merchant ships to reinforce the British Army in Egypt and warships to reinforce the Mediterranean Fleet.23 On several occasions, the Fleet was heavily bombed and on board the Abdiel it seemed that she was the only target. She had a load of mines on board at the time and everyone on board ‘felt their position somewhat acutely’. One stick of bombs fell right across her bows, but caused her no damage.24 While the Fleet returned to Alexandria, the Abdiel disembarked her mines at Haifa and then made her way to Alexandria. It had been planned to have her lay mines off Lampedusa the night of 10/11 May, but the operation was cancelled due to the uncertainly of her being able to fuel at Malta.25
The Abdiel’s unique minelaying abilities were nevertheless soon put to work. On 17 May, she once again sailed from Alexandria to Haifa to embark mines,26 and received orders to sail from Alexandria to lay two lines of mines inside and at the entrance to the Gulf of Patras between the islands of Levkas and Cephalonia off the western coast of Greece. On the evening of 19 May she departed Alexandria27 to begin Operation ‘Mat One’ and proceeded to the target area at high speed.
On the outbound voyage, two enemy reconnaissance planes sighted the Abdiel, but by the use of diversionary courses she was able to shake them off. To the Captain, the lay was ‘a most eerie performance’, as the entrance to the Gulf of Patras was very hard to find at night and the first mines had to be laid just a quarter of a mile offshore. As the mine doors were opened, the mining party could be heard to mutter, ‘Lord! The Owners almost put us on the _____ beach’. Lieutenant Austen recalled it as a calm, clear night and ‘one had the feeling that even if those ashore did not see us they must hear the plop as the mines were dropped’ and ‘it seemed impossible that we could not be spotted’. No alarm was raised and beginning at 03.28 on 21 May the Abdiel proceeded to lay her 158 mines.
Once the minelaying was completed, the Abdiel made tracks to the south at full speed and was out of sight of land by dawn. It was intended that she would rendezvous with the Mediterranean Fleet to the southwest of Crete, but the fleet was not at the appointed position and the Abdiel continued on her way alone. Once she turned to the east, she became the object of three air attacks, one of them by thirty bombers that dropped everything they had but missed by a mile and a half. On 22 May she returned safely to Alexandria.28
As it turned out, the waters off Cape Dukato were rich with targets for the Abdiel’s mines. At 05.40, a little more than two hours after the first mine hit the water, they claimed their first victim, the old Italian gunboat Pellegrino Matteucci, which was proceeding alone from Brindisi to Patras at a leisurely 7 knots. Of only 630 tons and armed with 76mm guns,29 she sank immediately, her demise marked by a column of smoke. She went down with forty-one of her crew.
The Matteuci’s smoke was soon sighted by a convoy of three Italian tankers, which was escorted by the armed merchant cruiser Brindisi and the old 1811-ton destroyer Carlo Mirabello, armed with eight 4in guns.30 At 06.30, the Mirabello hit another of the Abdiel’s mines, with more flames and smoke the result. The
