HMS Shropshire (73)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career
HMS Shropshire at Sheerness just before being handed over to the Royal Australian Navy as HMAS Shropshire, April 1943
Built By:	William Beardmore & Co. (Dailmuir, Scotland)
Laid down:	24 February 1927
Launched:	5 July 1928
Commissioned:	12 September 1929
Transferred:	28 December 1942 to the Royal Australian Navy, as a replacement for HMAS Canberra.
Commissioned as HMAS Shropshire	25 June 1943
Decommissioned to reserve:	10 November [1949
Fate:	Scrapped 1955
Pennant:	83
General Characteristics
Type:	Heavy Cruiser
Displacement:	9,750 tons standard; 13,220 tons full load.
Length:	633 ft (192.9 m)
Beam:	66 ft (20.1 m)
Draught:	17 ft (5.1 m)
Propulsion:	8 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 4 shaft Parsons geared turbines (Brown Curtis in Berwick), 80,000 shp.
Speed:	31.5 knots
Range:	4,715 km (2,930 miles) at 31.5 knots, 20,116 km (12,500 miles) at 12 knots ; 3,210 tons fuel oil
Complement:	650 (peace), 820 (war)
Armament:	Original configuration: 4 x 8 in (203 mm) dual guns, 4 x 4 in (102 mm) single AA guns, 4 x 2 pdr (40 mm) single pom-poms, 2 x 2 pdr (40 mm) quad pom-poms, 2 x 0.5 in quadruple Vickers machine gun mount, 2 x quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes. April 1941 - November 1942 configuration: 4 x 8 in (203 mm) dual guns, 4 x 4 in (102 mm) dual AA guns, 2 x 2 pdr (40 mm) eight barrel pom-poms, 10 x 20 mm (0.8 in) single guns, 2 x 0.5 in quadruple Vickers machine gun mount, 2 x quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes. November 1942 - April 1944 configuration: 4 x 8 in (203 mm) dual guns, 4 x 4 in (102 mm) dual AA guns, 2 x 2 pdr (40 mm) eight barrel pom-poms, 6 x 20 mm (0.8 in) single guns, 7 x 20 mm (0.8 in) dual guns, 2 x 0.5 in quadruple Vickers machine gun mount, 2 x quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes. January 1945 - February 1946 configuration: 4 x 8 in (203 mm) dual guns, 4 x 4 in (102 mm) dual AA guns, 2 x 2 pdr (40 mm) eight barrel pom-poms, 2 x 20 mm (0.8 in) dual guns, 15 x 40 mm (1.5 in) Bofors Mk III single guns,
Armour:	Original configuration: 1 to 4 in magazine box protection, 1.375 in deck, 1 in side-plating,turrets and bulkheads, 4.5 in belt, 4 internal boiler room sides (added 1936-1940).
Aircraft:	3 aircraft

HMS Shropshire (73) later HMAS Shropshire was a Royal Navy heavy cruiser of the London sub-class of County class cruisers. She is the only ship to ever be named after Shropshire, England.

Shropshire was laid down at the shipyard of William Beardmore and Company, Limited, at Dalmuir in Scotland on 24 February 1926. She was launched on 5 July 1928 by the Countess of Powis, Baroness D'Arcy de Knayth and completed on 12 September 1929. Shropshire served with the British Mediterranean Fleet until the outbreak of war in September 1939.

[edit] War service and transfer

Her initial service in the Second World War was in operations in the South Atlantic on trade protection duties. She also participated in the campaign against Italian Somaliland.

Following the loss of the Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra, another County class cruiser, during the Battle of Savo Island on 9 August 1942 the British Government approved the transfer of Shropshire to Australia as a replacement. She was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy on 20 April 1943 at Chatham as HMAS Shropshire where she subsequently saw action during the Battle of Surigao Strait and the Battle of Linyagen Gulf. She might have been renamed HMAS Canberra but for the fact that the US had renamed one of their ships as the USS Canberra in tribute.

Shropshire was present at Tokyo Bay on 1945-09-02 for the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender.

HMAS Shropshire remained in service until paid off to reserve on 10 November 1949. She was sold as scrap on 16 July 1954, to Thomas W. Ward Limited of Sheffield in England on behalf of the British Iron and Steel Corporation. Shropshire was towed from Sydney by a Dutch tug, Oostzee, in October 1954. She arrived at the Dalmuir yard of the shipbreakers Arnott Young on 20 January 1955.