Cherie's Place

I was asked by Welshcakes what the second photograph in my Armed Forces Day post represented.  I was just in the middle of this post with some basic information on the memorial, when I had an email alert telling me that I had a comment on my previous post.  The comment was from Tom, whose description is far better than mine was going to be (Thank You Tom ):

The 2nd picture is a partial detail from The Destroyer Memorial Monument.  It was unveiled on 14th November 2007 by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. The memorial is sited alongside the preserved WW11 destroyer HMS Cavalier, which is a memorial to the 11,000 men from 142 Royal Navy destroyers  that were lost in that conflict.  On the reverse of the memorial the names of those ships are listed.

I had the honour to represent shipmates at the 1st Armed Forces Day Parades in Chatham, as a Standard Bearer.

The first picture here shows the full Memorial monument from the front and the next two pictures show different views of HMS Cavalier.

HMS Cavalier was one of nenety-six war emergency destroyers built for th Royal Navy during the Second World War.  awarded the Battle Hohour ‘Arctic 1945′ for operations off horthern Norway and in support of the homeward-bound Russioan convoy RA64, Cavalier later operated in the Western Approaches undertaking duties which included the high-speed escort of the liners-turned-troopships RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth.

Following the end of the war in Europe, Cavalier was allocated to the British Pacific Fleet.  After a major refit, Cavalier returned to service in 1957 to undertake extensive Cold-War and peacekeeping duties.  Cavalier paid off at Chatham in 1972 as the Royal Navy’s last operational Second World War destroyer.  She is now preserved by the HMS Cavalier (Chatham) Trust, as a memorial to the 142 Royal Navy destroyers sunk during the Second World War with a loss of over 11,000 men.

Tags: Chatham Docks, Defence Matters, HMS Cavalier, Royal Navy, The Destroyer Memorial Monument, WW11