Loss
On 29 June, Waterhen and HMS Defender were making the run to Tobruk when they were attacked off Sollum by Axis aircraft. The 12 German and 7 Italian Ju-87 dive bombers heavily damaged the Australian destroyer (although the only casualty was a wound from a flying can of bully beef). Defender took Waterhen in tow, but at 13:50 on 30 June 1941, the destroyer rolled over and sank. She was the first ship of the Royal Australian Navy to be lost by enemy action in World War II.
The ship earned three battle honours for her wartime service: "Libya 1941", "Greece 1941", and "Crete 1941".
Read more about this topic: HMAS Waterhen (D22)
Famous quotes containing the word loss:
“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“The greatest dangers have their allurements, if the want of success is likely to be attended with a degree of glory. Middling dangers are horrid, when the loss of reputation is the inevitable consequence of ill success.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“We feel public misfortunes just so far as they affect our private circumstances, and nothing of this nature appeals more directly to us than the loss of money.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)