HMS Splendid entered service in August 1942 and was lost in April 1943, giving her a brief operational career. On her early patrols she repeatedly tried to torpedo enemy submarines, part of the Royal Navy's continuing effort to develop submarine attacks against other submarines. She fired six torpedoes at a suspected German U-boat without success, sank an anti-submarine schooner with gunfire, and then missed an Italian submarine with six more torpedoes. Her last torpedo was in an aft tube that could not be reloaded at sea. She used it against a convoy escort, intending to surface and attack the merchant ships with her gun if the destroyer was disabled. Although she damaged that escort, two additional destroyers made the proposed gun attack too dangerous. With no torpedoes left, Splendid subsequently sank Favorita by gunfire. A claimed hit against another convoy on 14 December appears doubtful, but HMS Sahib and HMS Unruffled sank its merchant ships a few hours later.
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HMS Splendid's torpedo economy and surface gun actions
Splendid's early Mediterranean patrols combined repeated torpedo attacks on submarines with deck-gun attacks when ammunition and escort strength allowed.