Norfolk in wartime camouflage. As she still has an X turret, this photo is pre-1944.
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name: | HMS Norfolk |
Builder: | Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd, Govan |
Laid down: | 8 July 1927 |
Launched: | 12 December 1928 |
Commissioned: | 30 April 1930 |
Identification: | Pennant number: 78 |
Honours and awards: |
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Fate: | Sold for scrapping on 3 January 1950 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | County-class heavy cruiser |
Displacement: |
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Length: | 632 ft 9 in (192.86 m) |
Beam: | 66 ft (20 m) |
Draught: | 18 ft (5.5 m) |
Installed power: | 80,000 shp (60,000 kW) |
Propulsion: |
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Speed: | 31.5 kn (36.2 mph; 58.3 km/h) |
Range: | 12,000 nmi (14,000 mi; 22,000 km) at 12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h) |
Complement: | 710 private ship, 819 war |
Armament: |
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Aircraft carried: | 2 × Supermarine Walrus flying boats (operated by 700 Naval Air Squadron) |
HMS Norfolk was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy; along with her sister ship Dorsetshire, she was part of a planned four-ship subclass. She served throughout the Second World War.
She was laid down in July 1927 at Govan by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd and launched on 12 December 1928. She was commissioned on 30 April 1930.
In September 1931, Norfolk was part of a mutiny that later became known as the Invergordon Mutiny. She later served with the Home Fleet until 1932 and then went to the America and West Indies Station between 1932 and 1934. From 1935-1939, she served on the East Indies Station before coming home to refit in 1939, being still in dockyard hands when war was declared.
At the outbreak of war in 1939, Norfolk deployed with the 18th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet, and was involved in the chase for the German small battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, along with the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer. She was soon receiving numerous repairs for damage that she had received, not to mention vital modifications to the ship. Her first repairs were carried out in Belfast, after damage from a near-miss by a torpedo from U-47, the submarine responsible for sinking the battleship Royal Oak at Scapa Flow.