HMS Gazelle (J342)

History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Gazelle (J342)
Namesake	Gazelle
Builder	Savannah Machinery and Foundry Co.
Laid down	2 July 1942 as BAM-17
Launched	10 January 1943
Commissioned	28 July 1943 as HMS Gazelle (J342)
Out of service	December 1946
Fate	Returned to the United States Navy
General characteristics
Class & type	Catherine-class minesweeper
Displacement	890 tons
Length	221 ft 3 in (67.44 m)
Beam	32 ft (9.8 m)
Draft	10 ft 9 in (3.28 m)
Propulsion	Two 1,710shp Cooper Bessemer GSB-8 diesel engines
Speed	18 kts
Complement	105
Armament	One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two twin 40mm gun mounts, two 20mm gun mounts, two depth charge tracks, five depth charge projectors[1]

HMS Gazelle was a Catherine-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy (the Catherine class was the British designation for the United States Navy's Auk-class minesweepers).^[2][3]

In May 1945, as the war drew to a close, a flotilla of eight minesweepers including Gazelle took part in "Operation Cleaver" to clear the German mine barrage off the Skagerrak, making way for a squadron led by the light cruisers Birmingham and Dido with four destroyers to return the Danish government-in-exile to Copenhagen and take the surrender of German warships in Danish waters. The force reached Copenhagen on 9 May, taking control of the German cruisers Prinz Eugen and Nürnberg after their surrender.^[4]