HMS Activity was an
escort carrier that served with the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom
during the Second World War. After the war, she
was sold into merchant service as the MV Breconshire, serving for
over 20 years until scrapped in 1967.
Royal Navy
HMS
Activity was built at Caledon shipyards in Dundee. When construction
started in 1940 she was intended to become the refrigerated cargo
ship Telemachus for the Alfred Holt Line. In February 1941, she was
taken over by the Ministry of War Transport and renamed Empire
Activity. In January 1942, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty
for conversion to an escort carrier, now named HMS Activity and
carrying pennant number D94. Following her launch in May 1942 and
completion in August of that year, Activity worked up at Lamlash
before going to Rosyth for rectification of defects. Entering
service on 1 January 1943, Activity initially operated as a deck
landing training carrier. Activity operating in this rôle until
October 1943 when she was sent to Liverpool for a refit before
entering active service.
After her refit, Activity took part in convoy escort duties in the
North Atlantic. Activity embarked 819 Naval Air Squadron on 12. January 1944, and began escort duties on the 29. January as part of
the Second Escort Group. Activity was involved in the escort
of convoys OS 66, KMS 40, ON 222, NS 28, SL 147, MKS 38, HX 277, KMS
43 and MKF 29 in the period to March 1944. Following this, Activity
moved to the Arctic, escorting convoy JW 58 to Murmansk. Her
aircraft,together with those from Tracker, were responsible for the
sinking of U-boat U-288, and U-355, as well as damaging U-362, U-673
and U-990. The return convoy RA 58 reached its destination without
loss.
In May 1944, Activity spent some time at a shipyard on the Clyde for
defect rectification before rejoining the Second Escort Group for
escort duties. Activity escorted convoys OS 78, KMS 52, SL 158, MKS
49, OS 78, KMS 52, AL 159, MKS 50, SL 162, MK 53, KMF 33, MKF 33, OS
86, KMS 60, SL 167 and MKS 58.
In August 1944, Activity was designated as a ferry carrier. She
transported aircraft, personnel and supplies to Trincomalee, Ceylon,
arriving on 23 October 1944 and returning via Gibraltar, where she
joined convoy MKF 36 back to the United Kingdom. Activity spent some
time in a Clyde shipyard in December 1944 for defect rectification,
after which she was reallocated to the East Indies Fleet and given a
new pennant number, R301. She sailed with convoy KM 39 on 29 January
1945, arriving in Colombo on 20 February. Whilst en route to Sydney,
Activity rescued the 92 survivors from SS Peter Silvester, an
American liberty ship which had been sunk by U-862 on 6 February
1945, the last Allied ship sunk by enemy action in the Indian Ocean.
Survivors from Peter Silvester were landed at Fremantle and Activity
then continued her journey to Sydney.
Activity departed Sydney on 24 March, bound for Colombo for duty
ferrying aircraft from Cochin to Colombo. After the end of the war,
Activity was sent to Singapore to support the reoccupation of
Singapore. She loaded ex-POWs and other passengers and sailed for
Trincomalee on 15 September. Activity arrived home on the Clyde on
20 October 1945, and was then de-stored and placed in the Reserve
Fleet. She was placed in the Category B Reserve on 30 January 1946,
and sold to Glen Lines on 25 March 1946 for conversion to a merchant
ship.
Merchant Navy
Activity was converted to a Glenearn class merchant ship by Palmers
of Hebburn-on-Tyne, and renamed Breconshire, entering service with
Glen Line in September 1947. She was the
second Glen Line ship to be named Breconshire. She measured 9,061
gross register tons. She remained in service until April 1967,
sailing from Kobe to Mihara for scrapping, arriving there on 24
April 1967. |