HNoMS Svenner was a Royal Norwegian Navy destroyer during the Second World War. She was built for the Royal Navy as the S-class destroyer HMS Shark but on completion was lent to the Norwegian Armed Forces in exile. Svenner was sunk off Sword, one of the Allied landing zones in Normandy, at dawn on 6 June 1944 while supporting the British Army Normandy landings. It was the only Allied ship to be sunk by the Kriegsmarine during the morning of the invasion.

Description

Svenner displaced 1710 LT at standard load and 2530 LT at deep load. She had an overall length of 362 ft, a beam of 35 ft and a deep draught of 14 ft. She was powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by two Admiralty three-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of 40000 shp and gave a maximum speed of 36 kn. Svenner carried a maximum of 615 LT of fuel oil that gave her a range of 4675 nmi at 20 kn. Her complement was 170 officers and ratings. The ship was armed with four 45-calibre 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mark XII guns in dual-purpose mounts. For anti-aircraft (AA) defence, Svenner had one twin mount for Bofors 40 mm guns and four twin 20 mm Oerlikon autocannon. She was fitted with two above-water quadruple mounts for 21 in torpedoes. Two depth charge rails and four throwers were fitted for which 70 depth charges were provided.

Construction and career

The ship was launched on 1 June 1943 as the Royal Navy ship HMS Shark (G03), but when she was commissioned in the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1944, she was rechristened HNoMS Svenner, after the Svenner island group in Larvik, Norway. The ship was hit by two torpedoes fired from one of two German torpedo boats, either GERMAN TORPEDO BOAT Jaguar or GERMAN TORPEDO BOAT Möwe of the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla operating out of Le Havre, that managed to get within firing range. Svenner was the only Allied ship to be sunk by German naval activity on the morning of 6 June. She was struck amidships, exploded, broke in two and sank very quickly. Casualties were 1 British and 32 Norwegian crewmen killed, and 185 (15 wounded) rescued from the crew of 219. The anchor from Svenner was recovered in 2003, and now forms 'The Svenner Memorial' at Sword. The memorial can be found approximately 100 yards on the sea-side of the coast road at Hermanville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France.