HMS Shropshire (73)

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Career
Class and type:	County-class heavy cruiser
Name:	HMS Shropshire
Builder:	William Beardmore and Company (Dailmuir, Scotland)
Laid down:	24 February 1927
Launched:	5 July 1928
Commissioned:	12 September 1929
Decommissioned:	23 December 1942
Out of service:	Transferred to Royal Australian Navy
Career
Name:	HMAS Shropshire
Commissioned:	20 April 1943
Decommissioned:	10 November 1949
Fate:	Sold for scrapping, 16 July 1954
General characteristics
Displacement:	9,750 tons standard 13,315 tons full load
Length:	633 ft (193 m)
Beam:	66 ft (20 m)
Draught:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:	Eight Admiralty 3-drum boilers Four shaft Parsons geared turbines 80,000 shp (60 MN)
Speed:	32 knots (59.3 km/h)
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: 8x 8 in (203 mm) Mk VIII dual guns, 4x QF 4 in (102 mm) Mk V single AA guns, 4x 2 pdr (40 mm) single pom-poms, 2x 2 pdr (40 mm) quad pom-poms, 2x 0.5 in quadruple Vickers machine gun mount, 2x quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes. April 1941 - November 1942 configuration: 8x 8 in (203 mm) Mk VIII dual guns, 4x QF 4 in (102 mm) Mk XVI dual AA guns, 2x 2 pdr (40 mm) eight barrel pom-poms, 10x 20 mm (0.8 in) single guns, 2x 0.5 in quadruple Vickers machine gun mount, 2x quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes. November 1942 - April 1944 configuration: 8x 8 in (203 mm) Mk VIII dual guns, 4x QF 4 in (102 mm) Mk XVI dual AA guns, 2x 2 pdr (40 mm) eight barrel pom-poms, 6x 20 mm (0.8 in) single guns, 7x 20 mm (0.8 in) dual guns, 2x 0.5 in quadruple Vickers machine gun mount, 2x quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes. January 1945 - February 1946 configuration: 8x 8 in (203 mm) Mk VIII dual guns, 4x QF 4 in (102 mm) Mk XVI dual AA guns, 2x 2 pdr (40 mm) eight barrel pom-poms, 2x 20 mm (0.8 in) dual guns, 15x 40 mm (1.5 in) Bofors Mk III single guns,
Armour:	1to 4in magazine box protection, 1.375in deck, 1in side-plating,turrets and bulkheads, 4.5in belt, 4internal boiler room sides (added 1936-1940).
Aircraft carried:	One aircraft, one catapult. Three planes used during service; Fairey III, Hawker Osprey, Supermarine Walrus
Motto:	"Floreat Ambo"
Notes:	Pennant number 73

HMS Shropshire (73)^[1] 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. On 9 December, 1939, she intercepted the German merchant Adolf Leonhardt, which was scuttled by her own crew. She then returned to Britain for a refit, before proceeding to the Indian Ocean, where she was employed on convoy cover duties between Cape Town-Durban-Mombassa and Aden. She also participated in the campaign against Italian Somaliland, bombarding both Mogadishu and Kismayu during the advance of the South African Army from Kenya to Abyssinia, and sinking the Italian vessel Pensilvania off Mogadishu on 13 February. She remained in the South Atlantic, undergoing a refit at Simonstown between March and June 1941, then came home in October 1941 for a further major refit at Chatham between October 1941 and February 1942 before returning to the South Atlantic.

Members of the ship's crew watching a torpedo leaving the torpedo tubes mounted amidships during firing trials. One of the cruiser's twin 4 inch gun turrets can be seen

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 recalled from the South Atlantic and paid off at His Majesty's Dockyard Chatham in December 1942, to refit for Australian service. She was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy on 20 April 1943 at HM Dockyard Chatham as HMAS Shropshire. She subsequently saw action during the Battle of Surigao Strait and the Battle of Lingayen Gulf. She might have been renamed HMAS Canberra but for the fact that the United States 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.^[1]

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 the Dutch tug Oostzee in October 1954. She arrived at the Dalmuir yard of the shipbreakers Arnott Young on 20 January 1955.

[edit] References

• Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475. 
• British and Empire Warships of the Second World War, H T Lenton, Greenhill Books, ISBN 1-85367-277-7
• Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-1946, Ed. Robert Gardiner, Naval Institute Press, ISBN 0-87021-913-8
• HMS Shropshire at U-boat.net
• HMAS Shropshire at U-boat.net
• Cruisers of World War II

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^  The pennant numbers 73, 83 [2], and 96 [3] are given for this vessel

[edit] Further reading

• RAN Sea Power Centere page for HMAS Shropshire
• History of the ship as written by Stan Nicholls, an officer crewmember