Rare color photo of HMAS Perth, date unknown. HMS Leander (Devonport 1931) was commissioned first with the the Royal Navy, as HMS Leander in march 1933 but joined Achilles in the New Zealand Division. She received a distress signal on 19 November 1941 from Straat Malakka signalling she was chased by an unknown merchant raider. The Leander class was a class of eight light cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s that saw service in World War II. “Ch. The tragedy went on as the derving, powerless cruiser hit afourth mine, which was devastating. "[32] It was stated on 1 August 1882, that "the Amphion is being advanced satisfactorily at Pembroke, while the Leander, Arethusa, and Phaeton are promised to be delivered within the year by the contractor, a promise which was renewed within a few days of the present time." After service with the Royal Navy NZ division she joined in 1937, and in September 1941 was transferred to the newly-formed Royal New Zealand Navy. Sailors hear tale of gallantry at airport, DOD’s Autonomous Vessel Sails Through Transit Test, Participates in Exercise Dawn Blitz, BAR Technologies focuses on decarbonisation, CNO Asks Fleet for Moment of Silence in Honor of USS Indianapolis 75th Anniversary, Castor class coastal patrol vessels of the Belgian Navy (plus PHOTO GALLERY #36). But in great lines: Ajax and Achilles were famously the sailors of the Exeter at the Battle of Rio de la Plata against the German pocket battleship Graf Spee. We are pushing on the Leanders, and we have laid down a fourth Leander at Pembroke, to occupy the spare time of the 200 extra men who are working on the iron-clads…"[13]. Chesneau, Roger, and Eugene M. Kolesnik, eds. Back in the Mediterranean, Neptune spotted first the Italian fleet at the battle of Calabria (9 July 1940) and was hit during the exchange by the Giuseppe Garibaldi. ", 20 ft 8 in (6.30 m) aft, 19 ft 6 in (5.94 m) forward. The ship was laid down on 8th September that year and launched on 24th September 1931 She was the 5th RN ship to carry the name, introduced in 1780 for a 4th Rate and last used for a cruiser in 1882 which was sold in 1920. (Note the way that the engine room establishment officers are not listed with the officers. She was back in the pacific in September 1941. They were named after corvette until the last cruiser was decommissioned more than a century later. These guns were used by the Leander, Amphion, Arethusa, ‘Town’ superclass, Crown Colony, Minotaur, while the postwar Neptune (cancelled) and Tiger (Converted) embarked on the fully automated QF Mark N5. "See Leander class frigate for the later frigate class of the same name.". She covered several convoys to Malta with the 7th Cruiser Squadron and was air attacked several times. HMNZS Leander (75) (Returned to the Royal Navy as HMS Leander) Royal Navy (more on Royal Navy) HMS Ajax (22) HMS Leander (75) HMS Neptune (20) Lost on 19 Dec 1941: HMS Orion (85) 6 Light cruisers of the Leander class. HMS Leander, the 7289-ton (standard displacement) lead ship of a class of five light cruisers, was built at Devonport, England. The Leander-class light cruisers were designed in the late 1920s under the influence of the York-class heavy cruisers. Achilles seen from Ajax, en route for the River Plate, 1939. I hear the Leander herself was rather unlucky in that after a brief Mediterranean sortie, she was sent to the Pacific and badly torpedoed by a Sendai class light cruiser of the IJN - and that was it for her war career, but her crew were transferred to the crown colony class light cruiser HMS Gambia, which replaced the Leander as the NZ component of the Royal Navy. She later joined the East Indies Station and red sea squadron with HMS Liverpool. After 5 minutes of fierce fighting her main armament was mostly disabled but she was partly masked by the smoke caused by her multiple fires. SLNSW 12967 Regatta on the Sydney Harbour Naval destroyers in background.jpg 1,400 × … past midnight with 353 lost. During the battle she acted as flaghsip of Force G (Commodore Henry Harwood). She had to limp back to Espiritu Santo escorted by two US destroyers. LEANDER CLASS The Leander class was influenced by the York-class heavy cruiser, and was an attempt to better provide for the role of commerce protection. Also they carried two quadruple banks each side of standard 21-in TTs. Leander Class Cruiser (1931) From The Dreadnought Project. Built in the 30s and served in WW2 and some of them were sold to the Australian , New Zealand and Indian navies. They also received from 1941 2 quadruple bofors 40 mm carriages. HMS Orion circa 1943; notice the tripod masts and lower ports welded shut. All three ships were sold to the RAN (Royal Australian Navy), Phaeton was renamed Sydney in 1939, Amphion was renamed Perth and Apollo Hobart after a few years of British service under their launch names. The class comprised HMS Leander, HMS Phaëton, HMS Amphion and HMS Arethusa. In the fall of July both her and HMS Neptune were in the Aegean. William Collins Publishers. The rest of the month shel helped evacuating troops when attacked by the luftwaffe and badly hit. At 7000 tons, the five Leanders were designed to do both roles, as economically as possible. Despite her damage she only deplored 12 casualties, and was still able to station off Uruguay with Achilles, soon joined by Cumberland (from the Falklands), until the conclusion. However on 20 July 1943 while en route from Espiritu Santo to join TF 74 she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, destroying an entire section of the port quarter. She was part of the fleet covering convoy MF3 (Operation MB6) when during the night of 11-12 October she intercepted a small Italian force. The Nordenfeld guns are fitted in projecting parts of the topsides, and are so arranged as to give great training and great depression, firing into boats alongside. In 1937 their four single 102 mm guns were replaced by four modern 102 mm Mark XVI in twin mounts. HMS Ajax before the war, circa 1936, HD picture, IMW. They used an horizontal sliding-block with a recoil hydro-pneumatic/hydro-spring 15-in (380 mm) system and mounting dependent traverse and elevation. 1/200 Royal Navy Leander Class 6" Director $ 21.53 by Micro Master. Their 5 pounds (2.27 kg) shell was filled with Lyddite-amatol. Cruisers Leander class Light Cruiser - 4x2 6" guns, 4x2 4" guns, 2x4 21" torpedo tubes Australian light cruisers HMASs Perth, Sydney, and Hobart - 4x2 6" guns, 4x2 4" guns, 2x4 21" torpedo tubes ## Dido class AntiAircraft Light Cruiser - 5x2 5.25" guns, 2x3 21" torpedo tubes - New, 11Jun09. The three ships of the second group were sold to the Royal Australian The intention was to spread this over 14 ships of 6,500 tons each, to be known as the Leander class. 1 of them was lost. In January 1941 after a small refit she was back chasing German merchant raiders on the road to Australia from the red sea. with 950 tons (970 tonnes) of coal and complete with stores and provisions. See Conway's, List of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty#1861 to 1882, Hansard HC Deb 18 March 1881 vol 259 cc1389-90, Hansard HC Deb 2 December 1884 vol 294 c455, Hansard HC Deb 16 March 1882 vol 267 c1102. Originally built as HMS Achilles in Britain in the 1930s, it operated as part of the fleet of the Royal New Zealand Navy, renamed HMNZS Achilles where she operated during World War II. "[19] The opinion of the captain of the Arethusa was that the "engine room complement [was] insufficient by 2 engine room artificers, 2 leading stokers, and 23 stokers. They also lost catapult and crane in 1941 (Ajax-Orion) and 1943 (Leander, Achilles). Her crew at that stage was composed of 60% New Zealanders. Modified Leander-class cruiser (WW2) Based on HMAS Sydney, was one of three modified Leander-class light cruisers operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). As a unit of the New Zealand Division she was deployed on trade protection duties in the South-west Pacific in September 1939, her main task being the escorting of ANZAC troop convoys. I have had good results with 150% (1/1200) and 75% (1/2400). Leander Class Cruiser, free leander class cruiser software downloads, Page 3. Here is a highly detailed model of HMS Ajax, a Leander class cruiser. Destroyers In June 1941 however she was sent to the Mediterranean, against the Vichy French during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign. After missions back and forth from Singapore to Australia, she arrived at Tanjong Priok on 24 February 1942 in the midst of a Japanese air attack. In early 1939 she was deployed in the Pacific, off South America, and back South Atlantic Division, in March. All results related to "cruiser leander-class" found on 80 scale modeling websites and the scalemates kit database. It is said that the other two are built and are almost complete..."[37] This course of action was opposed by W.H. 10 min. Her crew travelled already from May 1939 to join the ship in pitiful conditions among livestock, and during the 1939 New York World’s Fair where they represented Australia a mutiny erupted over discipline, wearing new uniform to get on shore. 169 m long, 16.97 m wide, 6 m draught (fully loaded). The First Naval Lord, Sir Astley Cooper Key, favoured an enlarged 15 knots (28 km/h) Comus class. However fatefully she was sent to the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) force. In the following engagement, Perth badly damaged an IJN destroyer, but the duels eventually split forces. [16] They also carry three masts, but are not expected to have much sailing power. Their speed is 17 knots… Back in the Mediterranean 15th Cruiser Squadron she coverred the invasion of Sicily and later returned in the home waters to take part in the Normandy Landings. Add to cart. [12] In 1881, it was argued that Britain had fallen behind in cruisers to protect Britain's mercantile marine, which at the time was at least half the world total. Here, a large Japanese force had assembled at Bantam Bay fell on them. Neptune was the fourth ship of its class and was the ninth Royal Navy vessel to carry the name. Built by Portsmouth Dockyard, the vessel was laid down on 24 September 1931, launched on 31 January 1933, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 12 February 1934 with the pennant number "20". In July 1939 before the war broke out, she was transferred to the newly created RAN, recommissioned as HMAS Perth. The First Lord of the Admiralty, William H. Smith, backed the latter. The Leander Class were a four ship cruiser programme ordered by the Admiralty in 1880. "[8], Conway's lists her complement as 278, which appears to be an error. Leander joined the Home Fleet on completion, but in April 1937 was loaned to New Zealand. In total the Australian vessel would cover 7,000 soldiers and civilians aboard a heterogenous flotilla of vessels. Leander— British Tier VI cruiser. Ajax in her fight against Graf Spee, December 13, 1939, at the Rio de la Plat – Old author’s illustration. "The first four ships of a large class laid down for the protection of commerce under Lord Northbrook's board were of the Leander type. HMS Ajax after refit in January 1943, with a classic example of Mediterranean razzle dazzle, HMS Ajax in 1945, with an “atlantic approaches” three tone wavy camouflage, 3D rendition of the Perth (World of Warhips). Compared to the York, their smaller turrets allowed four to be placed in superfiring pairs fore and aft. Ship Plan Format: Clear: HMAS Leander Class Cruisers - 1935 to 1962 quantity. These afforded the following data: Steam in the boilers, 85.35 lbs [588.5 kPa]; vacuum, 25.3 in (640 mm) starboard and 24.8 in (630 mm) port; revolutions, 100; mean pressures, starboard, 43.7 and 11 lb. Five Leander class light cruisers were completed for the Royal Navy in the years 1933-35. They are placed on either side of the upper deck at the fore end of the poop and after end of the forecastle. She met her fate during one of these missions: On 18 December 1941, she took part of a brief fleet engagement, the First Battle of Sirte. The armoured deck was just above the normal waterline at the centre, and sloped down at the sides to protect against shells entering at the waterline.[8]. The next year, HMNZS Achilles was back in Auckland, New Zealand for a refit. They fought in the pacific and the Mediterranean: Perth participated in the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941, joined the pacific and was lost in action at the Battle of Sunda Straitin early 1942 (Guadalcanal). However this sytem was copied on the next class Arethusa. This was solved when QF 4 inch Mk XVI naval gun were provided and replaced them. She stayed in Portsmouth for repairs and modernizations until May 1944, receiving notably dual-purpose twin QF 4 inch Mk XVI guns and new radars and added AA like a quad QF 2 pom poms installed in place of the former X turret. (Just say which you wish on the 'message box' of the online till') She later took part in the Australian campaign against Vichy French forces in Syria, and closely avoided a friendly bombardment by allied aviation. HMS Neptune was a Leander-class light cruiser which served with the Royal Navy during World War II. Though the "Admiralty have been desirous that the money should be spent on the object for which it is voted, but that it has been prevented by a delay with the contractor. [36] By May 1884, it was being "said that the Leander should be completed first; that then a trial of the Leander should be made; and that then it should be ascertained what improvements or alterations ought to be effected in the Arethusa, and the other ships of the same class. , author ’ s HD illustrations of the Leander class 1/72nd frigate.! 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