HMS Achilles (70)
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Achilles |
| Namesake: | Achilles |
| Builder: | Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, England |
| Laid down: | 11 June 1931 |
| Launched: | 1 September 1932 |
| Commissioned: | 10 October 1933 |
| Out of service: | Loaned to Royal New Zealand Navy 1 October 1936 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: 70 |
| Honours and awards: |
River Plate 1939 |
| Fate: | Sold to Indian Navy 5 July 1948 |
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New Zealand
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| Name: | HMNZS Achilles |
| Commissioned: | 1 October 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | 17 September 1946 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: 70 |
| Honours and awards: |
Guadalcanal 1942-43, Okinawa 1945 |
| Fate: | Returned to Royal Navy 17 September 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Leander-class light cruiser |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 555.5 ft (169.3 m) |
| Beam: | 56 ft (17 m) |
| Draught: | 19.1 ft (5.8 m) |
| Installed power: | 73,280 shaft horsepower (54,640 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 32.5 knots (60 km/h) |
| Range: | 5,730 nmi (10,610 km; 6,590 mi) at 13 kn (24 km/h) |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
3 in magazine box 1 inch deck 1 inch turrets |
| Aircraft carried: |
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3 in magazine box 1 inch deck
HMNZS Achilles was a Leander-class light cruiser which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy in the Second World War, the second of five in the class. Originally constructed by the Royal Navy, she was loaned to New Zealand in 1936 before formally joining the new Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, alongside HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter and notable for being the first Royal Navy cruiser to have fire control radar, with the installation of the New Zealand-made SS1 fire-control radar in June 1940.
After Second World War service in the Atlantic and Pacific, she was returned to the Royal Navy. She was sold to the Indian Navy in 1948 and recommissioned as INS Delhi. She was scrapped in 1978.
She was the second of five ships of the Leander-class light cruisers, designed as effective follow-ons to the York class. Upgraded to Improved Leander-class, she could carry an aircraft and was the first ship to carry a Supermarine Walrus, although both Walruses were lost before the Second World War began. At one time she carried the unusual DH.82 Queen Bee which was a radio-controlled unmanned aircraft, normally used as a drone.
Achilles was originally built for the Royal Navy, and was commissioned as HMS Achilles on 10 October 1933. She would serve with the Royal Navy's New Zealand Division from 31 March 1937 up to the creation of the Royal New Zealand Navy, into which she was transferred in September 1941 and recommissioned HMNZS Achilles. Her crew was approximately 60 per cent from New Zealand.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Achilles began patrolling the west coast of South America looking for German merchant ships, but by 22 October 1939 she had arrived at the Falkland Islands, where she was assigned to the South American Division under Commodore Henry Harwood and allocated to Force G (with Exeter and Cumberland).
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Wikipedia