HMS Express (H61) was an E class

E and F class destroyer

The E and F class was a class of 18 destroyers of the Royal Navy that served during the Second World War. Three ships were later transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy, one to the Royal Hellenic Navy and one to the Dominican Navy. Launched in 1934, they served in the Second World War. Nine were lost...

 destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She was one of 18 'E' and 'F'

E and F class destroyer

The E and F class was a class of 18 destroyers of the Royal Navy that served during the Second World War. Three ships were later transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy, one to the Royal Hellenic Navy and one to the Dominican Navy. Launched in 1934, they served in the Second World War. Nine were lost...

 class destroyers to be built.

She was launched on 29 May 1934. She had an overall length of 100 m, displacement of 1,375 tons, and a maximum speed of 35.5 knots (66 km/h). Her design was similar to the 'C' and 'D'

C and D class destroyer

The C and D class was a group of 14 destroyers built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. As in previous years, it was originally intended to order a complete flotilla comprising eight destroyers—plus a flotilla leader as the ninth unit—in each year. However, only four ships—plus a leader—were...

 classes of 1931, but with an improved hull

Hull (watercraft)

A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...

 form, modified bridge

Bridge (ship)

The bridge of a ship is the room or platform from which the ship can be commanded. When a ship is underway the bridge is manned by an OOW aided usually by an AB acting as lookout...

, three boiler

Boiler

A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...

 rooms instead of two, and 4.7 inches (119.4 mm) guns that could elevate to 40 degrees (vs. 30 degrees on earlier classes). She cost approximately £GBP 300,000 to build.

She and her sister Esk were fitted as minelayers. Unlike the others of the class, Esk and Express had tripod mainmasts and carried their ship's boats on the foredeck.

Minelaying Duty

On the outbreak of war in September 1939 during the Invasion of Poland

Invasion of Poland (1939)

The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...

, Express was assigned to the 20th (Minelaying) Destroyer Flotilla, initially based at Portsmouth before moving to Immingham

Immingham

Immingham is a town in North East Lincolnshire, located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary...

 on the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

. Express spent the first year of the war laying defensive minefields in British waters and offensive minefields off enemy coasts with the 20th Flotilla.

In September 1939 she took the Duke

Duke of Windsor

The title Duke of Windsor was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937 for Prince Edward, the former King Edward VIII, following his abdication in December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a residence of English monarchs since the Norman Conquest, is...

 and Duchess of Windsor from Portsmouth to Cherbourg.

In late May 1940, Express was one of several dozen destroyers ordered to help evacuate the British Expeditionary Force

British Expeditionary Force (World War II)

The British Expeditionary Force was the British force in Europe from 1939–1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force....

 from Dunkirk

Battle of Dunkirk

The Battle of Dunkirk was a battle in the Second World War between the Allies and Germany. A part of the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and allied forces in Europe from 26 May–4 June 1940.After the Phoney War, the Battle of...

, and was one of the first to arrive and begin taking troop

Troop

A troop is a military unit, originally a small force of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron and headed by the troop leader. In many armies a troop is the equivalent unit to the infantry section or platoon...

s off the beaches. Later troops were taken off from Dunkirk harbour. The Express and the destroyer Shikari were the last ships to leave Dunkirk with troops before the evacuation ended on June 4th. She brought out 2,795 troops over the course of the evacuation. She was damaged by bombing, but was hastily repaired-in-process to continue taking part in the Dunkirk evacuation.

On 31 August 1940, she left Immingham

Immingham

Immingham is a town in North East Lincolnshire, located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary...

 to lay an offensive mine field

Naval mine

A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...

 off the coast of the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. During the night, Express struck a mine

Naval mine

A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...

, losing her entire bow up to the bridge. Esk and Ivanhoe then struck mines while trying to go to her assistance. Express was towed back to Britain, having lost 4 officers and 55 ratings. Esk and Ivanhoe were lost. The event became known as the Texel Disaster

Texel Disaster

The Texel disaster took place off the Dutch coast on the night of 31 August 1940 and involved the sinking of two Royal Navy destroyers and damage to a third and a light cruiser...

.

To the Far East

She returned to service in September 1941 as a fleet destroyer.

In October, she was ordered to escort the battleship to the Far East

Far East

The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...

 with her sister where the ships would form the nucleus of a new Eastern Fleet intended to deter Japanese aggression.

On 2 November, the three ships put into Freetown. They arrived at Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

 on 16 November, with the destroyers putting into Simon's Town

Simon's Town

Simon's Town , sometimes spelled Simonstown; is a town in South Africa, near Cape Town which is home to the South African Navy. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula. For more than two centuries it has been an important naval base and harbour...

 Naval Base. They left Cape Town on 18 November and arrived at Colombo

Colombo

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...

, Ceylon, on 28 November, stopping at Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

 and Addu Atoll

Addu Atoll

Addu City is a city in Maldives consisting of the inhabited islands of the southernmost atoll of the archipelago....

 to refuel on the way.

On 29 November, the destroyers and joined at Colombo from the Mediterranean Fleet and the five ships sailed later that day. The ships were joined at sea by the battlecruiser which had sailed from Trincomalee

Trincomalee

Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. It has a population of approximately 100,000 . The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay,...

. The force then set course for Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, where they arrived on 2 December.

Force Z at Singapore

Early in the morning of 8 December (Singapore time), Singapore came under attack by Japanese aircraft. Prince of Wales and Repulse shot back with anti-aircraft fire; no planes were shot down, and the ships sustained no damage. After receiving the reports of the attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

 and invasions of Siam by the Japanese, Force Z put to sea at 1730 hrs. on 8 December. Force Z at this time consisted of the Prince of Wales and Repulse, escorted by the destroyers Electra, Express, , and . At about 1830 on 9 December, the Tenedos was detached to return to Singapore, because of her limited fuel capacity. That night, Electra sighted and reported a flare to the north. This caused the British force to turn away to the southeast. The flare was dropped by a Japanese aircraft over their own ships by mistake, and caused the Japanese force to turn away to the northeast. At this point, the two forces were only about five miles (8 km) apart.

At 2055, Admiral Philips cancelled the operation, and ordered the force to return to Singapore. On the way back, they were spotted and reported by the Japanese submarine I-58. The next morning, 10 December, they received a report of Japanese landings at Kuantan

Kuantan

Kuantan is the state capital of Pahang, the 3rd largest state in Malaysia. It is situated near the mouth of the Kuantan River and faces the South China Sea. If one measures the distance along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, it is located roughly halfway between Singapore and Kota Bharu...

, and Express was sent to investigate the area, finding nothing. That afternoon, Prince of Wales and Repulse were attacked and sunk by 85 Japanese

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

 aircraft off Kuantan

Kuantan

Kuantan is the state capital of Pahang, the 3rd largest state in Malaysia. It is situated near the mouth of the Kuantan River and faces the South China Sea. If one measures the distance along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, it is located roughly halfway between Singapore and Kota Bharu...

. Repulse was sunk by five torpedoes in 20 minutes, and Electra and Vampire moved in to rescue survivors of Repulse, while Express rescued survivors of the Prince of Wales. All told, the three destroyers rescued over 1,000 survivors from the Prince of Wales and Repulse.

She spent 1942 in the Indian Ocean as part of the British Eastern Fleet

British Eastern Fleet

The British Eastern Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy which existed from 1941 to 1971...

 before returning home to refit.

Transfer

In June 1943, she was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy

Royal Canadian Navy

The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

 and rechristened . She served with distinction in the Atlantic

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

.

In 1955, she was struck from the boards and sold for scrap. Her hulk was used with others to form a breakwater at Royston in Vancouver Island. She remained visible for many years, but little now remains of her hull.(2010)