HMS Hyperion

HMS Hyperion (H97)

Navy:	Royal Navy
Type:	Destroyer
Class:	H
Pennant:	H 97
Built by:	Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd. (Wallsend-on-Tyne, U.K.):
Ordered:	5 Sep, 1934
Laid down:	26 Mar, 1935
Launched:	8 Apr, 1936
Commissioned:	3 Dec, 1936
Complement:	145
Lost:	22 Dec, 1940 Mined and heavily damaged when she ran into the Italian minefield 4.AN off Pantellaria, southwest of Sicily. An attempt was made by HMS Ilex to tow her to safety but this failed. Hyperion was later sunk by HMS Janus.

History:	19 Dec, 1939 The large German passenger ship Columbus (32581 BRT) is intercepted some 320 miles east of Cape Hattaras, USA by HMS Hyperion. To prevent her capture the ship was scuttled by it's own crew. 19 Jul, 1940 Action off Cape Spada; The Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney and the British destroyers HMS Hasty, HMS Havock, HMS Hero, HMS Hyperion and HMS Ilex were on a sweep into the Aegean Sea. They were sent to intercept two reported Italian cruisers. In the action that followed, the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni is halted off Cape Spada, at the north west tip of Crete, by Sydney's gunfire. Later she was finished off with torpedoes from the destroyers. The Italian light cruiser Giovanni delle Bande Nere manages to escape. 14 Dec, 1940 The Italian submarine Naiade was sunk near Bardia by the British destroyers HMS Hyperion and HMS Hereward.