ORIGINAL WWII NAVY WARSHIP PHOTO HMS OPPORTUNE DESTROYER

Description

HMS
Opportune
(G80)
HMS
Opportune
was an
O-class
destroyer
of the
Royal Navy
. She was ordered from
John I. Thornycroft & Company
,
Woolston
on 3 September 1939 for the 1st Emergency Flotilla. She was commissioned on 14 August 1942. She was the second Royal Navy ship borne
Opportune
.
She served throughout the
Second World War
, mainly as an escort ship for convoys, and remained with the Royal Navy until the mid-1950s
Service history
Convoy Duty 1942
Enemy action affected
Opportune
before she was even completed, as German bombing in 1940 severely damaged the shipyard and enemy action delayed the delivery of components. It was for these reasons that her completion was delayed until 1942.
When she was eventually launched, she was with the
17th Destroyer Flotilla
with the
Home Fleet
. During trials, she assisted in escorting convoy PW-202 to
Bristol
.
Her first real duty was escorting the
Arctic convoy
PQ-18 to the
Russian
port at
Murmansk
. On 20 September, she was required to assist the destroyer
Somali
which had been torpedoed by the German
U-boat
U-703
. Although the stricken ship was already being assisted by
Ashanti
, and although destroyers
Eskimo
,
Intrepid
and the
naval trawler
Lord Middleton
were also on hand to assist the ship, the gales and rough seas proved too much for her and she sank on 24 September.
Opportune
helped transport some of
Somali
's survivors to
Scapa Flow
.
Operation Torch
In October 1942,
Opportune
escorted
Fleet Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham
on board the
cruiser
Scylla
to
Gibraltar
in preparation for
Operation Torch
, the invasion of
North Africa
. In preparation for the landings, she carried out three days of
anti-submarine
patrols in the
Mediterranean Sea
. On the day of the invasion itself, she was deployed as the escort for part of
Force H
and supported their role in the operation.
After ten days, she returned to Home Waters, escorting the
battleship
Duke of York
and
aircraft carrier
Victorious
to Scapa Flow.
En route
,
Fairey
Swordfish
and
Albacore
aircraft from the carrier
Victorious
attacked the U-boat
U-517
. It was damaged and forced to surface, upon which its crew were taken prisoner by
Opportune
. The U-boat later sank, while 52 survivors of the 53-strong crew were taken to
Greenock
for transport to a
prisoner-of-war camp
.
Convoy Duty 1943
She resumed her Arctic convoy escort role after arriving at Scapa Flow and continued in this capacity from December 1942 through to March 1943. During this period, she escorted convoy JW-53 through extremely tough weather and earned salvage money when she rescued the stricken
merchantman
John H. B. Latrobe
from a German
minefield
.
In March,
Opportune
was assigned to the 5th Support Group for
Atlantic convoy
defence. Just over a month after being reassigned, on 25 April, she helped sink the U-boat
U-203
with the destroyer
Pathfinder
and aircraft from the carrier
Biter
. On 12 May, she once again attacked a U-boat, this time
U-456
which was never seen again and is presumed to have been sunk. She continued in the Atlantic convoy defence duties as well as fleet duties in the Northwest Approaches for some months. On 14 September, this included escorting the
Prime Minister
to
Canada
for the
Québec Conference
of 1943.
In October 1943,
Opportune
was part of Operation Leader, escorting several Royal Navy ships and the US aircraft carrier
USS
Ranger
in attacks on German positions in
Bodø
,
Norway
.
Sinking
Scharnhorst
[
"Gentlemen, I hope that if any of you are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, you will command your ship as gallantly as
Scharnhorst
was commanded to-day"
Admiral Fraser
, after his victory in the
Battle of North Cape
.
In December, she was once again escorting convoys to the Soviet Union through the long Arctic nights. When, on 25 December, the
German battleship
Scharnhorst
was reported to be
hunting convoy JW-55B
,
Opportune
was deployed to join the battle. She was present at the
Battle of North Cape
, when
Scharnhorst
came under repeated fire from numerous Royal Navy warships. The German ship proved a tough opponent, and although she was outnumbered, outgunned and blinded by a direct hit to her radar, she managed to elude her pursuers for many hours. Most of the British
capital ships
had fired all of their torpedoes so the destroyers
Opportune
,
Musketeer
,
Virago
and
Matchless
closed in and fired a total of nineteen torpedoes at
Scharnhorst
, scoring six hits. The ship finally keeled over and sank. The relentlessness of
Scharnhorst
's fight was noted and respected by the victorious British commanding officers.
Normandy Landings
In the new year, she was once again in Arctic convoy escort duty until March, when she was deployed in counter
E-boat
operations in preparation for the
Normandy Landings
, which would take place a few months later. She still escorted Arctic convoys, but she was being prepared for the invasion. In April, when she was recalled for a boiler clean and minor re-fit, she was permanently assigned to Task Force 27 in the
English Channel
.
During a disastrous
full scale rehearsal
of the
Utah Beach landing
on 28 April,
Opportune
engaged German E-boats which had sighted and engaged eight US landing craft on their way to the
Slapton Sands
. The E-boats escaped after deploying a
smokescreen
, but over 638 US servicemen were killed in their attack. Many casualties were
US Army
personnel who were not properly trained and had difficulties with the
life-jackets
and other equipment, and drowned whilst awaiting rescue. The disaster nearly caused D-day itself to be cancelled, as it was thought some ten soldiers with full knowledge of the operation could have been captured by the Germans, it was only the subsequent discovery of their bodies which saved the operation.
The actual landings on 6 June were much less eventful.
Opportune
patrolled in the eastern stretches of the English Channel, guarding against a German naval attack. She didn't encounter a single hostile boat, although she did engage E-boats in July and August, while supporting operations in
France
.
Convoy Duty 1944 & 45
After the successful invasion of Normandy,
Opportune
was once again deployed to convoy defence in the Arctic and minelaying roles. She was occasionally deployed with Force 3 in operations off Norway. These duties continued into 1945 and through to the end of the war.
Postwar career
Opportune
remained in service after
VJ Day
and deployed at
Portsmouth
for submarine training and Local Flotilla duties until 1950. She then refitted and joined the
Nore
Local Flotilla. The ship was placed in Reserve at
Chatham Dockyard
in November 1952. Transferred to Portsmouth in July 1953 she went on the Disposal List the next year. After sale to
BISCO
in November 1955 she arrived in tow at
Milford Haven
on 25 November to be broken-up by
Thos W Ward
.
Dimensions:8x10
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