John Henry KERMODE ^7,24

   User ID: 21357.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Military Service 1: P/MX 89140 "HMS Harvester": WW 2. Sunk by U-432

• Photos: 3 Navy Ship & Memorial.

HMS Harvester, WW 2

The ship joined the Dunkirk evacuation on 29 May and returned 272 men to Dover during the day.
However, the situation at Dunkirk soon became too dangerous to risk the larger and more modern destroyers,
so Harvester made no attempt to evacuate any troops during daylight hours on 30 May.
This decision was rescinded during the day on 30 May and the ship sailed for Dunkirk on the night of 30/31 May.
En route she was narrowly missed by two torpedoes, but she rescued 1341 men in two trips on 31 May and an additional 576 on 1 June.
Harvester was lightly damaged by strafing German aircraft that same day and required repairs that were made at Chatham.
On 9 June the ship was ordered to Le Havre, France, to evacuate British troops, but none were to be found.
She loaded 78 men at Saint-Valery-en-Caux on 11 June.
Later in the month she escorted ships evacuating refugees and troops from Saint-Nazaire and St. Jean de Luz (Operation Ariel).
From July to September, Harvester was assigned to convoy escort duties with the Western Approaches Command and
she rescued 90 survivors from the armed merchant cruiser Dunvegan Castle in late August.
The ship, together with five other destroyers of the 9th Flotilla, was assigned to Plymouth Command for anti-invasion duties
between 8 and 18 September before returning to her role as an escort vessel.
On 30 October, with help from her sister Highlander, she sank the German submarine U-32.
Harvester rescued 19 survivors from the merchant vessel Silverpine on 5 December and 131 survivors from the Armed Boarding Vessel Crispin on 3 February 1941.
She rescued four survivors from a Royal Air Force Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber four days later.
The ship was refitted at Barrow between 18 March and 18 April and then was assigned to Force H in Gibraltar where she escorted ships during Operations Tiger and Splice in May.
Harvester was transferred to the Newfoundland Escort Force in June as her anti-aircraft capability was believed by Admiral James Somerville to be too weak.
She was assigned to the 14th Escort Group upon her arrival at St. John's on 1 July. The ship was transferred back to the Western Approaches Command three months later and assigned to the 9th Escort Group.
Harvester was converted to an escort destroyer during a lengthy refit at Dundee, Scotland, from 30 January 1942 to 16 April.
She conducted sea trials of her Type 271 radar during May and then resumed her escort duties in the North Atlantic as flagship of Mid-Ocean Escort Force Escort Group B-3.
The ship was refitted at Liverpool between 12 December and 11 February 1943.
Whilst defending Convoy HX 228 on 3 March, Harvester forced U-444 to the surface and then rammed it.
She was badly damaged by the ramming, but she rescued five survivors after the submarine sank.
The next day, Harvester was torpedoed by U-432 and broke in half.
Nine officers and 136 ratings were lost, but the French corvette Aconit rammed and sank U-432 herself and then rescued Harvester's few survivors.