HMS Loch Fada was the lead ship of the s of the British Royal Navy, built by John Brown & Company of Clydebank, Scotland, and named after Loch Fada in the Inner Hebrides.
The ship was laid down on 8 June 1943, launched on 14 December, and commissioned in April 1944. She was attached to Captain Johnny Walker's 2nd Escort Group which was detailed to guard the Western Approaches of the British Isles. After the war she was attached to the Londonderry Flotilla until 1952.
Recommissioned in 1955, she operated in the Persian Gulf. After a period of fishery protection after the first "Cod War" between Great Britain and Iceland she served in the Far East from 1962, and supported operations during the Indonesian Confrontation. After decommissioning in 1969 she was used as a testbed in the development of Sea Wolf surface-to-air missiles, and was finally scrapped in 1970.
Service history
thumb|left|Loch Fada in April 1944, around the time she was commissioned
thumb|left|Loch Fadas [[Squid (mortar)|squid anti-submarine launchers, 1944 (IWM)]]
World War II
Commissioned in April 1944 Loch Fada joined the 2nd Escort Group at Plymouth in June after sea trials, and was deployed with the Group in anti-submarine operations during the Normandy landings ("Operation Neptune"). She took part in the sinking of the on 31 July, and also of and in early August. The Group was then released from anti-submarine operations and transferred to Derry to support of convoy defence in the North-West Approaches for the rest of the year.
In January 1945 the Group was deployed in the South-Western Approaches for anti-submarine support. On 27 February Loch Fada was involved in the sinking of the U-boat using depth charges near Penzance, Cornwall. Two hours earlier, U-1018 had attacked convoy BTC 81 about seven miles from Lizard Point, Cornwall (at ). A torpedo hit the Norwegian freighter which sank within a few minutes, resulting in the death of five of the freighter's Norwegian crew, a 16-year-old British cabin boy, Thomas Boniface, and two British Royal Navy gunners, (part of the DEMS gun crew) including former professional footballer Charlie Sillett.
After the German surrender in May 1945 the Group was transferred to the Home Fleet to support of the re-occupation of Norway.
Eastern Fleet, 1962–1967
Loch Fada returned to service in June 1962 assigned to the 3rd Frigate Squadron of the Far East Fleet. She arrived at Colombo in October and was deployed in the Indian Ocean, calling at Diego Garcia and Malé, Maldives. From December until February 1963 she was deployed off Borneo to support of military operations during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation (the Konfrontasi). In March and April 1963 Loch Fada was deployed for a patrol in Pacific, calling at Manus in the Admiralty Islands, Suva in Fiji, Phoenix Island and Guam, before calling at Hong Kong and then several ports in Japan. She returned to Borneo in June to support military operations and on piracy patrol for the rest of the year.