HMS Bulldog Trivia Quiz

Answer: Spanish Civil War

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Great Britain and France established an embargo on the supply of arms to both sides of that conflict, though not always successfully. Ships of the Royal Navy, including HMS Bulldog, cruised Spanish waters as part of the attempt to enforce the blockade.

The three incorrect choices all took place, or began, in the following decade, after the Second World War had begun, and in two cases, after it had ended.

Answer: Aircraft carrier

HMS Glorious began life during World War I as a battlecruiser, and was converted to the role of aircraft carrier during the 1920s, recommissioning in 1930. In 1939 she was operating in the Mediterranean, with HMS Bulldog acting as "plane guard", which involved the recovery of aircraft and crews after ditching.

Glorious was sunk in Norwegian waters by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisnau in June 1940.

Answer: Minelayers

The mission was thwarted when the force was intercepted by German E-boats (torpedo boats) before they could make contact with the minelaying vessels. HMS Kelly, another destroyer, was damaged by a torpedo, and Bulldog took her in tow to Hebburn, where Kelly had been built, for repair. Bulldog herself suffered damage during the tow which necessitated repairs.

HMS Kelly was Lord Louis Mountbatten's ship, and her story formed the basis for Noel Coward's wartime movie masterpiece "In Which We Serve" (1942).

Answer: Enemy aircraft

The initial damage, in June, was caused by multiple hits from enemy aeroplanes off the coast of France. Temporary repairs by her own crew allowed Bulldog to reach Portsmouth, where she once again suffered some damage during an air raid in August of that year.

She also suffered a fatal casualty when the commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander J.P. Wisden, died of wounds suffered during that raid, a few days later.

Answer: Enigma machine and codebooks

Operating under the command of Commander Joe Baker-Cresswell, who also commanded the 3rd Escort Group, HMS Bulldog and other ships of the group engaged with U-boats whilst escorting a convoy near Iceland. The flower class corvette, HMS Aubretia, had forced U-110 to the surface with depth charges, after which Balme and his party boarded the vessel, and realised that the Enigma coding machine and codebooks might be important.

This perception proved to be correct, as the acquisition of the Naval Enigma and accompanying codes were of great value to the codebreakers at Bletchley Park.

Answer: Distinguished Service Cross (DSC)

For his part in the affair, Balme received the DSC, along with two other officers. Baker-Cresswell and the captain of Aubretia both were made companions of the Distinguished Service Order, and three ratings received the DSM. No CGMs were awarded, but fourteen officers and men were Mentioned in Despatches.

Answer: Bismarck

Little more than a week after the boarding of U-110, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen broke out into the Atlantic, setting off one of the classic sea chases of the war. On 21st May Baker-Cresswell in Bulldog along with the rest of the Escort Group had rendezvoused with a homeward-bound convoy near Iceland. When word came that HMS Hood had been sunk by Bismarck, Baker-Cresswell was prepared to engage the enemy with torpedoes, if ordered to do so, but it never came to that. Bulldog was ordered to remain with the convoy and Bismarck altered course and met her fate a few days later.

Of the incorrect choices, Tirpitz never ventured into the Atlantic, and Graf Spee had been scuttled in 1939, after the Battle of the River Plate. Altmark was Graf Spee's support ship.

Answer: Invasion of North Africa (Torch)

Operation Torch was a successful joint British and American effort to land troops in Morocco and Algeria, in what was then Vichy French territory, thus opening a second front in North Africa. Bulldog's role in escorting ships from Britain was small but vital.

Husky came in 1943, and Shingle in 1944. Mincemeat occurred in 1942, but was an exercise in disinformation, involving a corpse, misleading documents and Spanish fishermen, all in a successful attempt to mislead the enemy into thinking that it was Sardinia (and not Sicily) that would be the target of invasion.

Answer: U-719 sank with all hands

HMS Bulldog, by now commanded by Lieutenant Commander Charles Walker RN, engaged U-719 at a position northwest of Ireland, and succeeded in sinking the enemy with hedgehogs. Hedgehogs were mortar projectors that shot out ahead of the ship and exploded in the water to the detriment of the submarine that was occupying that space.
Convoy duty in those years had included trips with Arctic convoys to Murmansk, as well as warmer runs to Freetown in Sierra Leone, in western Africa.

Answer: Guernsey, Channel Islands

When the Allies swept across Europe after D-Day, and especially in the spring of 1945, the Channel Islands were bypassed, and remained under German occupation until the very end of the war. On May 9th the surrender of the German garrison of Guernsey was accepted aboard HMS Bulldog. Similar ceremonies took place in Jersey aboard other ships.

At the end of 1945 HMS Bulldog was approved for scrapping, and met this fate in January 1946.