HMS Delhi (D47)
HMS Delhi after refit, fitted with 5 inch/38 calibre guns
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Delhi |
| Ordered: | July 1917 |
| Builder: | Armstrong Whitworth |
| Laid down: | 29 October 1917 |
| Launched: | 23 August 1918 |
| Commissioned: | June 1919 |
| Identification: | pennant number D47 |
| Fate: | 22 January 1948 - Sold for scrap |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Danae-class cruiser |
| Displacement: | 4,927 tons standard (4,850 tonnes) |
| Length: | 445 ft (136 m) p/p |
| Beam: | 46 ft 6 in (14.17 m) |
| Draught: | 14.4 ft (4.4 m) mean |
| Propulsion: | 2 × Brown Curtis geared steam turbines = 40,000 shp (30,000 kW) |
| Speed: | 29 kn (54 km/h; 33 mph) |
| Range: | 6,700 nmi (12,400 km; 7,700 mi) |
| Complement: | 450-469 |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
Main belt = 3–1.5 in (76–38 mm) Decks = 1 in (25 mm) Conning tower = 3 in (76 mm) |
Main belt = 3–1.5 in (76–38 mm) Decks = 1 in (25 mm)
HMS Delhi was a Danae-class cruiser that served with the Royal Navy in the Baltic and in World War II. She was laid down in 1917 (launched in 1919) and scrapped in 1948 after war service in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
In 1918-19 she served in the British campaign in the Baltic.
HMS Delhi was cruising the Caribbean in the early 1930s and thus used in a deterrent role in the Carib War.
HMS Delhi was based at Malta at the time of the Spanish Civil War. The cruiser picked up refugees from Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona and Valencia, where she was straddled by aerial bombs and by gunfire from the Nationalist heavy cruiser Canarias.
In World War II she was initially assigned to operate in home waters, in the North Sea and off the Scandinavian coast. Here she captured the German merchant Rheingold, and intercepted the German merchant Mecklenburg east of Iceland. Mecklenburg's crew scuttled the merchant vessel before she could be captured.
From May to December, 1941 Delhi was refitted as an anti-aircraft cruiser at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This refit included 5 inch/38 calibre gun barrels originally intended for the US destroyer USS Edison, and were hand-picked by Edison's commanding officer, but were ordered transferred to Delhi by President Roosevelt himself. With her new dual purpose main armament, she took part in a number of Allied landings in the Mediterranean, (Sicily, Salerno and Algiers). On 20 November 1942 Delhi was damaged by enemy action in Algiers Bay when her stern was blown off by Italian aircraft, whilst she was making smoke to protect the fleet. She returned to Britain and was under repair until April 1943.
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