HMS Zealous moored at Gourock
Career
Class and type:	Z-class destroyer
Name:	HMS Zealous
Ordered:	12 February 1942
Builder:	Cammell Laird
Laid down:	5 May 1943
Launched:	28 February 1944
Commissioned:	9 October 1944
Out of service:	Sold to Israel, 15 July 1955
Career
Name:	INS Eilat
Acquired:	15 July 1955
Commissioned:	July 1956
Fate:	Sunk 21 October 1967
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,710 tons
Length:	262.7 ft (80.1 m)
Beam:	35.7 ft (10.9 m)
Propulsion:	Geared turbines two shafts 40,000 hp
Speed:	37 knots
Complement:	186
Armament:	4 х 4.5 inch guns 5 х 40 mm guns 8 х Torpedo tubes

HMS Zealous was a Z-class destroyer of the Royal Navy built in 1944 by Cammell Laird. She served during the Second World War, participating in operations in the North Sea and off the Norwegian coast, before taking part in some of the Arctic convoys. She spent a further ten years in Royal Navy service after the end of the war, before being sold to the Israeli Navy. She entered service with them under the name Eilat. She saw action during the Suez Crisis in 1956, attacking Egyptian ships and was still active by the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967. She was sunk several months after the conflict by missiles launched from several small Egyptian missile boats, a sinking that caused considerable interest around the world in the role of small manoeuvrable missile boats against larger surface combatants.

[edit] Second World War

Zealous was one of four British destroyers of the Home Fleet that rescued 525 Norwegians, who had been hiding from German patrols in caves on the snow covered mountains of Sørøya island, Norway for three months. The rescue involved the destroyers on a daring race 60 miles behind enemy lines. The Norwegians were safely evacuated to the British port of Gourock.

Zealous made two trips from the UK to Russia as part of the Arctic Convoys taking supplies around Norway to Kola. Under the guidance of Commander R.F. Jessel RNDSO she ran the gauntlet of German U-Boats and aircraft.

On 5 April, 1945 she was involved in an attack on a convoy entering the Jøssingfjord on the coast of Norway. One merchant ship was sunk and two were damaged.^[1] When the Germans were on the brink of capitulation, the ship was ordered to Copenhagen. There she was mistaken by excited German soldiers as a German destroyer sent to evacuate them.

[edit] Commissioned as Eilat

Zealous was sold to Israel in 1955 and commissioned into the Israeli Navy as INS Eilat (after the Israeli southern coastal city of Eilat) in July 1956. On 31 October 1956, during the Suez Crisis, Eilat took part in the battle with the Egyptian destroyer Ibrahim al-Awal, the former Hunt-class HMS Mendip, forcing her to retreat. The Egyptian destroyer was then disabled by Israeli aircraft and forced to surrender, later becoming the Haifa in the Israeli Navy.^[2]

Eilat was on patrol during the night of the 11-12 July 1967, when she and two Israeli torpedo boats came across two Egyptian torpedo boats off the Rumani coast. They immediately engaged the vessels and sank both of them.^[3]

Eilat was sunk by four Styx missiles launched by Egyptian missile boats on 21 October 1967 off Port Said in the Sinai. During a routine patrol around 14.5 nautical miles off the Egyptian coast, an Egyptian Komar-class missile boat fired two missiles at the Israeli frigate from within Port Said. The Eilat's radar did not reveal any suspicious activity or movements because the missile boat was still inside the port when the missiles were fired^[4]. Despite evasive action being ordered by the captain when the missiles were detected, the first missile hit the ship just above the waterline at 17:32 hours. Two minutes later, the second missile struck causing additional casualties. While the Eilat began to list heavily, the crew tended to the wounded and engaged in rescue and repair operations while waiting for additional ships of the Israeli Navy to come to her rescue. But around an hour later, a third and fourth Styx missile fired by another Egyptian Komar class missile boat from Port Said harbour, hit the Eilat amidships, causing more damage and further fires. The Eilat sank about 10 minutes later. Out of a crew of 199, 47 were killed and another 91 were wounded.

[edit] Aftermath of the sinking

Though not highly publicized at the time, the sinking had a considerable impact on the Israeli Navy. Israel started to develop plans for ships better suited to missile combat, principally small and efficient ships armed with missiles, able to patrol Israeli shores and undertake offshore operations at high speed, while at the same time able to evade enemy tracking and missiles.^[5] The sinking also proved the effective capability of guided missiles in combat, and was a spur for many navies to continue to develop offensive and defensive strategies to deal with the new weapons.^[6]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475. 
• HMS Zealous at Uboat.net

[edit] External links

• BBC.co.uk - the People's War
• Eilat - The 48th Soul - The story of the Israeli navy ship "Eilat"
• Pdf article

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