HMS Cricket served in Mesopotamia and the Russian Civil War before joining the China Station. Transferred to the Mediterranean Inshore Squadron in 1940, she was crippled by Italian aircraft in 1941. The Royal Navy declared her a constructive total loss and stripped her for spares. Her hulk later became an RAF target off Cyprus, where the wreck remains accessible to divers. The career shows both the utility and the air vulnerability of an old shallow-draft gunboat.
Notable Point · 31:21-32:15
HMS Cricket's air attack, write-off, and wreck off Cyprus
HMS Cricket moved from China to Mediterranean inshore duty before an Italian air attack left a wreck that still survives off Cyprus.