HMS Bruiser (F127)

HMS Bruiser was built as a Landing Ship, Tank at Harland & Wolff. Launched in October 1942 and commissioned the following March, she saw service as part of the Allied invasion of Italy.

Design and development

Bruiser was the second of the LST Mk.1 class ships, which could carry 13 Churchill tanks, 27 other vehicles and 193 men. It had a high speed even when laden for the assault but did not have a shallow draught, which meant that a long bow ramp had to be added and this took up a lot of room inside the ship.
Bruiser had only two sister ships, as plans to build more in the United States led instead to a simpler though slower design capable of similar capacity but with a much shallower draught.

Service

Bruiser took part in the Salerno landing in 1943. In 1944, she was refitted as a fighter direction ship, for use during the Normandy landings in controlling fighter aircraft by ground-controlled interception. Later in 1944 she took British troops back into Athens in Greece. Bruiser was sold into merchant service in 1946.

Merchant service

Bruiser was sold in 1946 for merchant service as Nilla. In 1951, she was converted to a cargo liner and renamed Silverstar. In 1957, she became Ciudad de Santa Fe and was broken up in Argentina in 1968.