John Stanley Holmes
- Family History
- Military history
- Extra information
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Son of Horace Stanley Holmes and Lillian Holmes; husband of Hilda Holmes, of Hucknall, Nottinghamshire
PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL Panel 81, Column 2
HMS Janus
HMS Janus was a Javelin or J-class destroyer commissioned 5th August 1939. Janus served in the North Sea until May 1940 and had participated in over 20 convoy duties in that time. From May 1940 Janus began Mediterranean duties with the 14th Destroyer Flotilla in Alexandria. She participated in the Battle of Calabria in July 1940 and the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941, and in the action off Sfax in April 1941.
On 23 January 1944 Janus was struck by one Fritz X guided bomb dropped by a German He 111 torpedo bomber and sank off the Anzio beachhead in western Italy (according to another version, she was sunk by Henschel Hs 293 glider bomb or a conventional torpedo – see Fritz X article). It took a mere twenty minutes for Janus to sink. 94 men were rescued by HMS Laforey and smaller craft but 158 were lost including Leading Seaman John Holmes from Hucknall and Able Seaman George Redwood from Nottingham. (Wikipedia)
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