A History of HMS ACTIVITY

Laid down on February 1st 1940 as the refrigerated cargo carrier TELEMACHUS for the Alfred Holt Line at Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering, Dundee, Scotland. In February 1941 the TELEMACHUS was taken over by the Ministry of Transport to become EMPIRE ACTIVITY but in January 1942 she was further requisitioned by the Admiralty for conversation to an escort aircraft carrier. She was launched on May 30th 1942 and completed in August of that year. She was commissioned on September 29th 1942 as HMS ACTIVITY, pennant number D94, under the command of Captain Guy Willoughby.

Fitting out and working up: October – December1942

ACTIVITY sailed for Rosyth to complete her fitting out, arriving there on October 9th; she was officially completed five days later and shortly after sailed for the Clyde to begin her work up at Lamlash, commencing November 3rd. ACTIVITY returned to the Clyde on December 20th to undergo p post work-up defect corrections.

Deck landing Training duties: January – October 1943

HMS. ACTIVITY initially operated as a Deck Landing Training carrier, reporting for duty with Western Approaches Command on January 1st 1943. She was to operate in the training role until October 4th 1943 when she arrived in Liverpool for a three month refit before commencing operational service.  She was to remain a part of Western Approaches Command on completion of the work and began her post refit work up in the Clyde on January 12th 1944, embarking the Swordfish aircraft of 819 naval air squadron.

 

Two views of HMS Activity operating the Wildcats of 833 squadron.

Trade Protection Duties, Western Approaches: January – February 1944

On January 29th ACTIVITY began her first tour of convoy escort deities, the first of ten operations providing air cover for convoys in the Western Atlantic and Bay of Biscay. She formed part of the 2nd Escort Group, under the command of Captain Walker, with sloops STARLING, KITE, MAGPIE, WILD GOOSE and WOODPECKER, and accompanied by the escort carrier NAIRANA escorted convoys OS66 and KMS40 from January 29th; ON222 and NS28 from February 2nd; SL147 and MKS38 from February 7th; HX277 on the 11th; KMS43 and OS69 from the February 24th, After a short restoring stop over at Gibraltar 6th – 9th March she Sailed with convoy MKF29 bound for the Clyde.

Trade Protection Duties, Russian Convoy: March – Aptil 1944

ACTIVITY’s next duty was to escort the round trip convoys JW/RA58 to Murmansk, Northern Russia in company with the CVE HMS TRACKER, departing Loch Ewe, Western Scotland on March 26th 1944. ACTIVITY re-embarked 819 squadron operating 3 Swordfish and 7 Wildcats for this operation; these together with 846 squadron’s 7 Wildcats on board TRACKER managed to destroy 6 German reconnaissance planes during this operation. Her aircraft akso assisted in sinking the U288 on 3 April 1944; U-288 was sunk in the Barents Sea south-east of Bear Island, Norway, in position 73.44N, 27.12E. The attack was a combined depth charge and rocket attack by Swordfish of ACTIVITY's 819 Sqdn and Avengers & Wildcats of 846 Sqdn from HMS TRACKER. They also and participated in sinking U-355 and damaging U-362, U-673 & U-990. The destruction of the six reconnaissance aircraft made it impossible for the submarines to receive accurate position information about the convoy’s whereabouts and scuppered a carefully laid trap. Part of the out bound convoy of 48 merchant vessels was the warship USS MILWAUKEE being delivered to the Russian Navy under Lend-lease agreements. All vessels reach Murmansk without loss. The return convoy, RA58, arrived at Loch Ewe on April 7th without incident. During the round trip ACTIVITY's aircraft completed a total of 67 flying hours.

Trade Protection Duties, Western Approaches: May – August 1944

At the beginning of May ACTIVITY entered a Clyde shipyard for a further period of defect rectification, returning to convoy duties on the 23rd when she rejoined 2EG for another tour in the western Atlantic approaches. ACTIVITY was to cover 16 convoys between May 23rd and August 21st 1944; OS78 and KMS52 from 23rd May; SL158 and MKS 49 from 28th May; OS78 and KMS52 again on June 2nd; SL 159 and MKS50 from June 3rd, continuing on to the Clyde arriving on June 10th. Covered SL162 and MK53 from June 20th and returned to the Clyde on July 11th. Escorted KMF33 to Gibraltar, departing July 19th, and returned to the Clyde with MKF33 on August 4th; covered convoys OS86 and KMS60 from August 11th, and SL167 and MKS58.on the 21st before returning to the Clyde.

Ferry Duties: UK to Ceylon and back. August – December 1944

This was the end of ACTIVITY’s role as a convoy protection carrier and was to be redesignated as a ferry carrier sailing from the Clyde on August 27th 1944 bound for the Far East with a cargo of replacement aircraft. She arrived at Trincomalee, Ceylon to unload her aircraft and stores on October 23rd 1944 before returning to the UK via Gibraltar; she joined convoy MKF36 for the final leg, and was to undergo another round of defect rectifications in a Clyde shipyard on December 5th.

Reallocation to the East Indies Fleet: January – August 1945

On completion of this work ACTIVITY was reassigned to the East Indies Fleet as a ferry carrier, her pennant number being redesignated R301. She arrived at Portsmouth dockyard on December 21st (possibly for a 'tropicalisation' refit) before arriving at Belfast on January 18th 1945 to load replacement aircraft. ACTIVITY sailed with convoy KM39 which departed from the Clyde on January 29th.

ACTIVITY arrived in Colombo on February 20th and unloaded her stores and aircraft. She was to make her next ferry run to Sydney, Australia, delivering a load of replacement airframes for use by the British Pacific Fleet. Whilst in the Indian Ocean en route to Australia on February 28th ACTIVITY was involved in the rescue of a party of survivors from the American liberty ship the S.S. PETER SILVESTER. She had been sunk by the German submarine U862 on Tuesday 6th February 1945 at 2215 hours in position 053º 50º south 098º 30º east, 700km from Fremantle, Australia. [The PETER SILVESTER was the last allied ship to be sunk by enemy action in the Indian Ocean.]

Extract from signal raised by Captain E.R. North about the event:

"At approximately 1210 on Wednesday 28th February 1945, ship was steering 132º speed 15 knots, when the Officer of the Watch (Lieutenant L.L.P. Sinclair, M.H.R.) reported sighting an object bearing 123º distance about 8 miles. This at first, had the appearance of the coning tower of a submarine, but, as it appeared to be very lively in the moderate/average sea and swell was running, I considered the subject to be a small boat under sail.

Course was altered at 1220 in order to close and investigate, and the object was soon recognized as a ship’s lifeboat with red sails. The occupants of the boat had seen us, for, about this time they fired off Very lights and red flares. At 1240 I stopped the main engines and placed the ship to windward of the lifeboat which then came alongside, and 20 officers and men from the American S.S. “PETER SILVESTER” were taken on board. At 1308 the lifeboat was cast off and sunk by twin 4 inch, and the ship proceeded on her original course."

The survivors were put ashore at Fremantle on March 3rd, ACTIVITY continuing on to Sydney. ACTIVITY sailed form Sydney on March 24th bound for Colombo, to commence ferrying aircraft between Cochin (S. India) and Colombo.

Repatriation of former PoWs: September – October 1945

After the end of hostilities on August 15th 1945 attention turned to the reoccupation of former British territories held by Japanese forces. ACTIVITY followed behind a force of six CVEs (AMEER, EMPRESS, EMPEROR, HUNTER, KHEDIVE, and STALKER) which sailed to reoccupy Singapore; ACTIVITY departing Colombo on September 1st, arriving off Singapore Island on the 6th. On September 10th HUNTER, KHEDIVE, EMPEROR and STALKER entered Singapore harbour. ACTIVITY was one of 90 ships (including 70 RN and RIN warships, 3 Royal Fleet Auxiliaries, 3 hospital ships and 14 merchant vessels) present in Singapore Roads for the surrender ceremony.

After loading ex-POWs and other passengers she sailed for Trincomalee on the 15th. ACTIVITY was to return to the UK after loading and exchanging passengers in Ceylon, sailing on the 22nd. Upon her arrival at the Clyde on October 20th 1945 she disembarked her passengers, and was de-stored and reduced to Category B reserve in the Clyde on January 30th 1946 but was later pit up for disposal.

Disposal:

She was sold into merchant service on March 25th 1946, purchased by Glen Lines and following conversation to a Glenearn Class merchant vassal by Palmers at Hebburn-on-Tyne she was renamed BRECONSHIRE. She commenced operations in September 1947 in the Far East. She made her final voyage n 20th April 1967 sailing from Kobe en-route to Mihara, Japan where she was to be broken up, starting 24 April 1967

Content revised: July 2008