Trafford

H.M.S. Punjabi was screening capital ships of the Home Fleet that were
providing distant cover for the PQ Convoys.  They were keeping a close
eight cables away in foggy conditions so as not to lose touch with the
Flagship, but as the fog thickened they closed up to four cables distance. 
 Punjabi was the second ship in the starboard column with H.M.S. Martin &
H.M.S. Marne astern of her.  The starboard leader closed in towards the
battleships and Punjabi turned to follow, but lost sight of it.  Suddenly
the H.M.S. King George V travelling at 25 knots loomed out of the fog and
crashed into the port side of Punjabi just aft of the engine room and
sliced straight through her hull.   Punjabi's stern sank almost immediately
and as it went down the primed, ready to use, depth charges went off,
injuring many of the crew who were already in the water.   Its forward
section sank more slowly and 205 crew were rescued.    Many men were picked
unconscious out of the water, but could not be revived.
She sank at 13.45hrs on 01/05/42, east of Iceland, in position 66.00N
08.00W.    It was a Tribal Class Destroyer of which 16 were built between
1936 & 1939.   They had a displacement of 1,870 tons and a complement of
220 personnel. The K.G.V.  was damaged by the explosion of the depth
charges and remained out of service for several months afterwards.  From
calculating the above, presumably only 15 crew were lost - a figure that
could easily have been a great deal higher.