HMS Ajax
From Our Contribution
 HMS Ajax in Malta Harbour | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | HMS Ajax |
| Owner | British Navy |
| Builder | Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness |
| Launched | 1 Mar 1934 |
| Completed | 12 Apr 1935 |
| In service | 3 Jun 1935 |
| Out of service | February 1948 |
| Reclassified | Leander class light cruiser |
| Fate | scrapped in 1949 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Leander class light cruiser |
| Tonnage | 9,740 max 7,270 normally |
| Length | 554.9 ft (169.1m) |
| Beam | 56 ft (17m) |
| Depth | 19.1 ft (5.8m) |
| Propulsion | 54,000 KW |
| Speed | 32.5 knots (60 km/hr) |
| Capacity | war time crew 680 |
Contents
Remarks
Commissioned for service on the North America, and West Indies stations, but instead was sent to the Mediterranean when completed.Ajax left Portsmouth on June 11, 1935 and cruised the Mediterranean sailing as far as Alexandria, Egypt (where they had a Christmas party), they passed through the Suez Canal. In 1936, it began its South American cruise, starting from Gibraltar, then Bermuda, and through the Panama Canal down the Pacific coast of South America. It crossed the Equator in September 1936. Sailing south off Chile and rounding Argentina, it then visited South Georgia, South Shetlands and the Falklands. It sailed up the Brazilian coast and into the Caribbean Sea, stopping in Trinidad and the Virgin Islands and Bermuda. The ship left Bermuda on June 11, 1937 and sailed the West Indies, arriving at Portsmouth on August 6, 1937[1]
In 1938 she deployed to the West Indies and was there when WW2 commenced. Soon after the war commenced she was part of the force that battled with the German Graf Spee which eventually scuttled itself.
Following a refit in England she joined the Mediterranean based 7th Cruiser Squadron, and regularly saw action, primarily against Italian Naval units. She carried troops from Alexandria to Greece and then assisted in their recovery and transport to Alexandria after Crete had fallen to the German army.
Ajax remained out of action from June 1942 until the end of 1943 while undergoing a refit in England. During the refit, on 1 Jan 1943 a 450 Kg German bomb hit her boiler room during a raid, disabling her. She was also sent to the US for an upgrade in terms of air defense and radar.
As part of Force 'F' Ajax bombarded Gold Beach on D Day during the invasion of Normandy, and she later provide support to other landings in southern France. Following the completion of the war she was assigned to the British Palestine Patrol where she attempted to stop Jewish immigration to Palestine and participated in the Exodus 1947 incident when that ship was escorted back to Germany. She was decommissioned in February 1948, and sent to the breakers in November 1949.
Operations
- River Plate 1939
- Mediterranean 1940–41
- Matapan 1941
- Greece 1941
- Crete 1941
- Malta Convoys 1941
- Aegean 1944
- Normandy 1944
- South France 1944
Soldiers carried
Crete to Alexandria, Egypt 27 - 28 April 1941
- Raymond Eric Gerard Bennett
- ↑ Information provided by Ruth Flaherty of New York and taken from a photo album of her grandfather Sidney Reginald Coombs who was a crew member on the ship's maiden voyage 1935 -1937.