HMS Aurora (12)

Aurora at anchor off Liverpool, April 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Aurora
Builder:	Portsmouth Dockyard
Laid down:	27 July 1935
Launched:	20 August 1936
Commissioned:	12 November 1937
Decommissioned:	April 1946
Identification:	Pennant number: 12
Fate:	Sold on 19 May 1948 to the Nationalist Chinese Navy
Republic of China
Name:	Chung King
Acquired:	19 May 1948
Fate:	Defected to Communist China
People's Republic of China
Name:	Tchoung King
Renamed:	Hsuang Ho (1951) Pei Ching (1951) Kuang Chou
Fate:	Continued in service until mid-1950s
General characteristics
Class and type:	Arethusa-class light cruiser
Displacement:	5,220 tons standard load 6,665 tons full load
Length:	506 ft (154 m)
Beam:	51 ft (16 m)
Draught:	14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion:	Four Parsons geared steam turbines Four Admiralty 3-drum oil-fired boilers Four shafts 64,000 shp
Speed:	32 knots (59 km/h)
Range:	Unknown; 1,325 tons fuel oil
Complement:	500
Armament:	Original configuration: 6 × BL 6-inch (152 mm) guns 4 × QF 4-inch (102 mm) single Mk V AA guns 2 × 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) quadruple machine guns 2 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (triple mount) April 1941 configuration: 3 × 6-inch (152 mm) dual guns 2 × 2-pounder (40 mm) pom-pom quad AA guns 3 × 20 mm Oerlikon single AA guns 2 × 0.5 inch quadruple machine guns 2 × 21-inch (533 mm) triple torpedo tubes. December 1943 configuration: 3 × 6-inch (152 mm) dual guns 2 × 40 mm Bofors quad AA guns 4 × 20 mm Oerlikon dual power-operated AA guns 3 × 20 mm Oerlikon single AA guns 2 × 0.5 inch quadruple machine guns 2 × 21-inch (533 mm) triple torpedo tubes
Armour:	Original configuration: 1 to 3 inches - magazine protection 2.25 inches - belt 1 inches - deck, turrets and bulkheads
Aircraft carried:	One aircraft (later removed)

HMS Aurora was an Arethusa-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built by Portsmouth Dockyard, with the keel being laid down on the 27 July 1935. She was launched on 20 August 1936, and commissioned 12 November 1937.

Aurora served with the Home Fleet from completion as Rear Admiral (D). In September 1939 she was with the 2nd Cruiser Squadron, escorting convoys to Scandinavia and engaged in the hunt for the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. From October 1940 she was commanded by Captain William Gladstone Agnew. After the Norwegian Campaign she participated in the operations hunting the German battleship Bismarck and, with the cruiser Kenya, intercepted one of the German supply ships, Belchen, on 3 June 1941.

Between July and August 1941, as part of Force "K" with the Home Fleet, she was involved in operations to Spitzbergen and Bear Island (Operation Gauntlet). After one of these sorties, in company with the cruiser Nigeria, she intercepted a German troop convoy off Northern Norway, and the German Bremse was sunk. In the autumn she was transferred to the Mediterranean and arrived in Malta on 21 October 1941 to join a new Force "K".