WW2 1940 photo of UK minesweeper HMS SPHINX after bomb hit

$12.00 CAD

– Sold Out

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Photo on North Sea of minesweeper HMS Sphinx after bomb hit from German aircraft. Front end of ship damaged.

Left border of photo has date and coordinates.

Label on back:

H.M.S. SPHINX after being hit by a German bomb on 3rd February, 1940

Written below label:

Copy neg # F3252 A

Paper is bit curved.

13 x 13 cm // 5” x  5 ¼”

(Red text is an electronic watermark that is not physically part of the photo for sale)

 

HMS Sphinx was a Halcyon-class minesweeper of the British Royal Navy, which was commissioned in 1939, just prior to World War II. During the war she served in the North Sea until bombed and wrecked on 2 February 1940.

Sphinx was commissioned in July 1939, and assigned to the 5th Minesweeping Flotilla, based at Dover as part of the Nore Command. The flotilla carried out minesweeping in the English Channel and the North Sea until December, when it was transferred to Rosyth.

On the morning of 2 February 1940 the Flotilla was minesweeping in the Moray Firth, 15 miles north of Kinnaird Head, when it came under attack by German aircraft. Sphinx was hit by a bomb, which penetrated the foredeck and exploded, killing five men. The crippled ship was taken under tow but eventually capsized.

WIKIPEDIA