HMS Phoebe (43)

HMS Phoebe at anchor on completion
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Phoebe
Builder:	Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company (Govan, Scotland)
Laid down:	2 September 1937
Launched:	25 March 1939
Commissioned:	27 September 1940
Decommissioned:	14 March 1953
Out of service:	14 March 1951
Fate:	Scrapped, Arrived at Blyth on 1 August 1956 to be scrapped by Hughes Bolckow
Notes:	Pennant number 43
General characteristics
Class and type:	Dido-class light cruiser
Displacement:	5,600 tons standard 6,850 tons full load
Length:	485 ft (148 m) pp 512 ft (156 m) oa
Beam:	50.5 ft (15.4 m)
Draught:	14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion:	Parsons geared turbines Four shafts Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers 62,000 shp (46 MW)
Speed:	32.25 knots (60 km/h)
Range:	2,414 km (1,500 miles) at 30 knots 6,824 km (4,240 miles) at 16 knots 1,100 tons fuel oil
Complement:	480
Armament:	Original configuration: 8 (4x2) 5.25-inch (133 mm) guns, 1 x 4.0 in (102 mm) gun, 8 (2x4) 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) machine guns 12 (3x4) 2-pounder (40 mm) anti-aircraft guns 6 (2x3) 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes Late 1942 - Mid 1943 configuration: 8 x 5.25 in (133 mm) dual guns, 11 x 20 mm (0.8 in) single guns, 3 x 2 pdr (37 mm/40 mm) pom-poms quad guns, 6 (2x3) 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes Mid 1943 - 1945 configuration: 8 x 5.25 in (133 mm) dual guns, 4 x 20 mm (0.8 in) single guns, 6 x 20 mm (0.8 in) twin power-operated guns, 3 x 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors Mk III quad guns, 2 x 21 in (533 mm) triple Torpedo Tubes.
Armor:	Original configuration: Belt: 3 inch, Deck: 1 inch, Magazines: 2 inch, Bulkheads: 1 inch.

HMS Phoebe was a Dido-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company (Govan, Scotland), her keel was laid down on 2 September 1937. She was launched on 25 March 1939, and commissioned on 30 September 1940.

Phoebe's first six months were spent in the Home Fleet, escorting troop convoys on the first stage of their long voyage via the Cape to the Middle East. In April 1941 she was transferred to the 7th Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean. Enemy-held territory here was to keep the British Fleet busy for the next two and half years, and Phoebe was to have her fair share of the action. One of her first operations was the evacuation of troops from Greece and Crete, which was followed quickly by the Syria landings and transporting troops to and from Tobruk, where she was torpedoed by an Italian plane and went to the USA for repair. The damage she sustained put her out of action for eight months.

Phoebe returned to the Mediterranean in the summer of 1942 to escort the last heavily opposed convoy to Malta.

On 23 October 1942, Phoebe was torpedoed by the German submarine U-161 off the Congo Estuary, while on passage to French Equatorial Africa. Her route was from Simonstown in South Africa to Freetown Sierra Leone, but the ship had to refuel at Pointe Noire. Two U-boats (U-161 and U-126), were patrolling that area at the time.