The crippled and sinking leader of the escort, the Italian destroyer Luca Tarigo, was able to launch two torpedoes at the Mohawk in manual mode. On the morning of April 16th, 1941, the 14th Flotilla attacked an Italian convoy near Tunisia. As part of the 14th destroyer flotilla, Mohawk participated in the defeat of the Italians at Cape Matapan, where destroyers sank the heavily damaged cruisers Pola and Zara, after rescuing the remnants of their crews. During World War II, the destroyer began active combat service in Norwegian waters and then in the Mediterranean against the Italian fleet. Before WWII started, the destroyer performed training, diplomatic and civilian missions in the Mediterranean Sea.Īfter the war began, Mohawk went back to her native waters, where on October 16th, 1939, during the first Luftwaffe raid on the British Isles, she suffered from a nearby bomb explosion, fragments of which killed 15 crew members and mortally wounded the captain. Immediately after construction, Mohawk joined the destroyer flotilla in the Mediterranean.
Like all destroyers of the series, the Mohawk differed from most ships of her class in high firepower of the main calibre and good torpedo armament, while maintaining a displacement under the London Treaty - no more than 1,850 tons. The destroyer Mohawk was laid down as one of the Tribal class destroyers on July 16th, 1936 at the Southampton shipyard.