HMS Glasgow (C21)
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid Down: | 16 April 1935 |
| Launched: | 20 June 1936 |
| Commissioned: | 9 September 1937 |
| Decommissioned: | November 1956 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap July 1958 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 11,540 tons |
| Length: | 591.6 ft (180.3 m) |
| Beam: | 62.3 ft (19.0 m) |
| Draught: | 20 ft (6.1 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam turbines, 4 shafts, 4 boilers, 75,000 hp (55.9 MW) |
| Speed: | 32 knots (59 km/h) |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | 750 |
| Armament: | Original Configuration: Twelve 6 inch (150 mm) guns in triple turrets (one aft turret later removed for eight 40 mm Bofors guns) Eight 4 inch (105 mm) guns Eight 40.5 mm guns Eight 0.5 inch (13 mm) machine-guns Six 21 inch (530 mm) torpedo tubes (later removed) |
| Aircraft: | Two Supermarine Walrus aircraft (Removed in the latter part of WWII) |
The seventh HMS Glasgow (21) was built on the Clyde, and was a Southampton-class light cruiser, a sub-class of the Town-class, commissioned in September 1937. She displaced 11,930 tons with a top speed of 32 knots (59 km/h). She was part of the Home Fleet, and escorted the King and Queen to Canada in 1939. She also took a large quantity of gold to Fort Knox as an emergency reserve.
On April 14, 1940, during the Norwegian Campaign in World War II Glasgow, along with HMS Sheffield and ten destroyers landed an advance force of Royal Marines at Namsos to seize and secure the wharves and approaches to the town, preparatory to the landing of a larger Allied force.
Later in the campaign, she transferred King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav of Norway and Norwegian gold reserves when they fled from Molde to Tromsø, escaping the advancing German forces in their country.
Glasgow was then employed as a convoy escort in the Mediterranean Sea and she took part in the Fleet Air Arm raid that crippled the Italian Fleet at Taranto.
In December 1940 she was damaged by torpedoes that put two of her four shafts out of action. This limited her ability to be assigned to missions and it was not until 1942 that she was properly repaired. During Operation Stonewall in late December 1943, Glasgow and the cruiser Enterprise fought a three-hour battle with eleven enemy destroyers of which three were sunk and four damaged with gunfire.
On D-Day, Glasgow led a US Force toward the beaches, providing naval gunfire support to the landing parties.
After the end of the war, she took on Flagship duties of Commander in Chief Fleet East Indies; in 1948 the Flagship of the American and West Indies Station and in 1951 she became the Flagship of the Commander in Chief Mediterranean, Admiral the Earl Mountbatten of Burma. She was broken up in 1958.
See HMS Glasgow for other ships of this name.
| Town-class cruiser |
| Southampton sub class
Birmingham | Glasgow | Newcastle | Sheffield | Southampton |
| Gloucester sub class |
| Edinburgh sub class |
List of cruisers of the Royal Navy |
