High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! HMS Blanche (H47) was a B-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy around 1930. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, the ship spent considerable time in Spanish waters, enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict. She was attacked, but not damaged, by Nationalist bombers in early 1938 and was subsequently transferred to the Home Fleet. Blanche was sunk by a mine in November 1939, becoming the first British destroyer lost to enemy action in World War II.