HMS Neptune (20)

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	24 September 1931
Launched:	31 January 1933
Commissioned:	12 February 1934
Fate:	Sunk 19 December 1941 by mines off Tripoli
General Characteristics
Displacement:	7,175 tons 9,740 tons full load
Length:	554.9 ft (169.1 m) overall
Beam:	56 ft (17.1 m)
Draught:	19.1 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion:	4 shaft Parsons geared turbines; 6 Admiralty 3-drum boilers 72,000 shp
Speed:	32.5 knots maximum
Range:	573 nautical miles at 13 knots
Complement:	550 (prewar)
Armament:	8 × Mk XXIII 6 inch guns (4x2) 4 × QF 4 inch guns {4x1) 12 × 0.5 in Vickers machine guns 8 × 21 inch torpedo tubes
Aircraft:	1 Fairey Seafox; 1 catapult
Motto:	Regnare est servire

The HMS Neptune was a Leander class light cruiser which served with the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom during World War II.

The Neptune was the fourth ship of its class and was the ninth Royal Navy vessel to carry the name Neptune. Built by Portsmouth Dockyard, the vessel was laid down 24 September 1931, launched 31 January 1933, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 12 February 1934 with pennant number 20.

[edit] History

Neptune participated in the battle of Calabria, on 9 July 1940, during which she was hit by Italian light cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi. The 6 inch shell splinters damaged her floatplane beyond repair, its wreckage being thrown to the sea.

Later in the war, she led Force K, a raiding squadron of cruisers. Their task was to intercept and destroy German and Italian convoys en route to Libya. The convoys were supplying Rommel's Afrika Korps in North Africa with troops and equipment.

Force K was sent out on 18 December to intercept a convoy bound for Tripoli. Neptune, leading the line, struck mines during the stormy night of 19 December/20 December 1941. The other cruisers, the Aurora and Penelope also struck mines. Reversing out of the minefield, Neptune struck a third mine, taking off her propellors and leaving her dead in the water. The Aurora was down to 10 knots and needed to turn back for Malta immediately but the destroyers Kandahar and Lively were sent into the minefield to attempt a tow. The former struck a mine, and Neptune signalled for them to keep clear. The Neptune then hit a fourth mine and capsized. The immobile Kandahar drifted away. She was awash behind her funnel come the morning and further down and listing as well by that night, but her remaining 178 officers and crew were taken off by HMS Jaguar sent from Malta. The Jaguar then torpedoed the Kandahar to finish her. Some thirty of Neptunes crew of 767 got into a raft, but only one was still alive when picked up five days later by an Italian torpedo boat.