This is the story of the L (Laforey) Class destroyer HMS Lively, she was launched in Birkenhead on the 28th of January 1940 and after working up in the Clyde started operating with the other ships of her class from Scapa Flow. She was then sent to the Mediterranean as part of the escort for Convoy WS 11. After becoming attached to Force H at Gibraltar she was transferred to Force K operating from Malta, tasked with intercepting the Italian convoys supplying Rommel’s Afrika Korps in the Western Desert. As a direct result of Force K’s actions Axis aircraft were restricted to flying just one sortie per day due to lack of fuel and the Afrika Korps was forced to retreat to shorten their vulnerable supply lines.

Adopted by the Surrey town of Guildford HMS Lively took part in the escort of several of the vital Malta convoys and was involved, with the other ships of Force K, in the Second Battle of Sirte, during which a much heavier Italian force was forced to retreat away from Convoy MW 10 which had left Alexandria to re-supply the beleaguered island of Malta. HMS Lively was also involved in the fierce fighting against the sustained Axis air attacks on the convoy before it finally reached Malta. The destroyer was finally lost to a German air attack some 100 miles North East of Tobruk on the 10th of May 1942. Included in the book are the names of those lost with the ship and the places where they are commemorated.