HMS Norfolk (78)

	; HMS Norfolk (78)
Overview
Type	Heavy cruiser
Shipyard	Fairfield Shipbuilders , Govan
Keel laying	July 8, 1927
Launch	December 12, 1928
Commissioning	April 30, 1930
Whereabouts	sold for scrapping on January 3, 1950
Technical specifications
displacement	Standard: 10,035 ts; Maximum: 13,420 ts
length	610 ft (190 m)
width	66 ft (20 m)
Draft	16 ft (4.9 m)
crew	710 (standard), 819 (war)
drive	8 Yarrow steam boiler ; Brown-Curtis steam turbines; on 4 drive shafts ; 80,000 SHP ;
speed	Max. 31.5 kn
Range	12,000 nm at 12 kn
Armament	4 × 2 BL 8 inch (203 mm L / 50) Mk.VII; 4 × 2 QF 4-inch Flak Mk XVI (102 mm L / 45) (4 * 2); 16 × Ordnance QF 2-Pfünder- (40-mm) - Flak (2 * 8); 2 Supermarine Walrus aircraft;

The HMS Norfolk was a heavy cruiser of the County class of the Royal Navy . The cruiser built at Fairfield in Govan near Glasgow was accepted on May 1, 1930 as the first ship in the third group of this class. During the Second World War , the cruiser was awarded the Battle Honors Atlantic 1941, Bismarck Action 1941, North Africa 1942, Arctic 1943, Norway 1943 and North Cape 1943.

She was laid down on July 8, 1927 and launched on December 12, 1928. After commissioning, the ship served in the British Home Fleet . In 1931 the crew took part in the Invergordon mutiny . From 1932 she was first in the Caribbean , then from 1935 on the East Indies station . In 1939 it returned to the UK for overhaul, where it was at the start of World War II .

The Norfolk was one of the ships that the German battleship Bismarck encountered during the Rhine exercise . As the flagship of Rear Admiral Frederic Wake-Walker , she and her sister ship Suffolk had the task of shadowing the Bismarck and bringing heavy units to combat the battleship, which ultimately succeeded. In 1943 she was part of the escort of the Northern Sea Convoy JW 55B , during which she was involved in the naval battle off the North Cape with the German battleship Scharnhorst , in which the Scharnhorst was sunk.

On June 7, 1945, the Norfolk brought King Haakon VII of Norway and his family back to their homeland from exile in Britain.

In 1949 she was removed from the list of active ships and sold for scrapping in 1950.

Web links

Commons : HMS Norfolk (78) - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

HMS Norfolk at U-boat.net