HMS Gladiolus was a of the Royal Navy, the first ship of her class. She was laid down at Smiths Dock Company on the River Tees on 19 October 1939, launched on 24 January 1940, and commissioned on 6 April 1940. Gladiolus was active in the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II and spent most of her service career on convoy escort duty in the North Atlantic. She was lost in action on 16 October 1941. Service history After commissioning and working up, Gladiolus was assigned to the Western Approaches Escort Force. In her 18 months of service she escorted over 40 convoys, of which over a dozen were attacked; Gladiolus was involved in four major convoy battles, and participated destroying three U-boats. She was engaged in all the duties performed by corvettes; escorting convoys, searching for and attacking U-boats which attacked ships in convoy, and rescuing survivors. On 28 June 1940 she picked up 35 survivors from , that had been torpedoed and sunk by Fritz-Julius Lemp's . Gladiolus was involved in the sinking of the Type I U-boat on 1 July 1940. This was the first U-boat kill by a corvette. U-26 had been heavily damaged by eight depth charges from Gladiolus, as well as bombs from a Short Sunderland aircraft, and subsequently scuttled herself. As one of the early Flowers Gladiolus suffered from the drawbacks of her type; a short forecastle, merchant type bridge, and poor habitability. In October 1940 she went into dock for remedial work and was re-fitted with a longer foc’s’le to improve her habitability. This necessitated ballasting, to avoid pitch problems, and a tilt test, to check stability. These were satisfactory, and she returned to action in January 1941, assigned to one of the new escort groups, 2 EG, led by . In April 1941 Gladiolus involved in the battle for HX 121. On 28 April Gladiolus was sent with the destroyers and to re-inforce HX 121 which was under attack. During the onslaught Gladiolus and the destroyers gained contact and made a series of attacks; it was subsequently shown this was on , which escaped. Douglas also gained a contact and made an attack, but saw no result. On 29 April Gladiolus rescued survivors from Beacon Grange which had been torpedoed by . Later that day she sighted a U-boat on the surface and attacked, being rewarded with a gush