HMS Shropshire was a Royal Navy (RN) heavy cruiser of the London sub-class of s. She is the only warship to have been named after Shropshire, England. Completed in 1929, Shropshire served with the RN until 1942, when she was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) following the loss of sister ship . Commissioned as HMAS Shropshire, the ship remained in RAN service until 1949, and was sold for scrap in 1954.
Design
Shropshire was one of four heavy cruisers built to the London design of the s. The cruiser had a displacement of 9,830 tons at standard load, was long overall, long between perpendiculars, and had a beam of .
The propulsion system consisted of eight Yarrow-type boilers, which fed Parsons geared turbines. These generated 80,000 shaft horsepower, which was fed to the ship's four diameter propellers. The cruiser could reach speeds of up to , with as the designated economical speed. At economical speed, she could travel .
Armament
The cruiser's initial armament consisted of eight BL 8 inch Mk VIII naval guns in four twin turrets, four single QF 4 inch Mk V naval guns and four single QF 2 pounder naval guns (or pom-poms) for anti-aircraft defence, four 3-pounder guns, and a number of smaller calibre guns for point defence. During the 1930s, two 0.5-inch machine guns were added to the point defence armament.
Shortly before transfer to the RAN in 1943, Shropshire underwent a refit. Although the main armament was unchanged, the 4-inch guns were upgraded to twin mountings, while the anti-aircraft armament was replaced with eighteen 20 mm Oerlikon guns (seven twin mountings and four single mountings) and two QF 2-pounder Mark VI eight-barrelled pom-poms. The 3-pounder guns were deleted, while two quadruple-tube launchers for 21-inch torpedoes and several depth charge chutes were installed. During the same refit, the cruiser ceased operating its seaplane, and the aircraft catapult was removed.
In 1945, during a refit in Sydney, Shropshires armament changed again. The torpedo tubes and depth charge throwers were stripped from the ship, and the entire Oerlikon outfit was replaced by fifteen single 40 mm Bofors guns. By February 1946, six of the Bofors guns had been removed, with the cruiser's armament settling into its final configuration.
Construction
Construction of the cruiser was ordered on 17 March 1926. Shropshire was laid down at the shipyard of William Beardmore and Company, at Dalmuir, Scotland on 24 February 1927. She was launched by Violet Herbert, Countess of Powis, on 5 July 1928. Completed on 12 September 1929, the cruiser was commissioned into the RN on 24 September 1929.
The ship's name was chosen by First Lord of the Admiralty William Bridgeman, whose constituency was located in the county of Shropshire. Shropshire is the only ship of the RN or RAN to carry the name. The ship's badge takes the leopard's face from the arms of the Shropshire County Council.
Operational history
RN service
After post-commissioning workups, Shropshire was assigned to the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the British Mediterranean Fleet in November 1929. During 1935 and 1936, the cruiser was involved in the British response to the Abyssinia Crisis. Shropshire was also present for the Spanish Civil War, and between 22 August and 16 September 1936, supported the evacuation of refugees from Barcelona. She remained in the Mediterranean (apart from returning to the United Kingdom for refits) until the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, at which point the cruiser was reassigned to the South Atlantic for trade protection patrols.
On 9 December 1939, Shropshire intercepted the German merchant Adolf Leonhardt, which was scuttled by her own crew. The cruiser returned to Britain for a refit in early 1940, before proceeding to the Indian Ocean, where she was employed on convoy cover duties between Cape Town-Durban-Mombassa and Aden. She also participated in the campaign against Italian Somaliland during 1941, bombarding both Mogadishu and Kismayu during the advance of the South African Army from Kenya to Abyssinia, and sinking the Italian vessel Pensilvania off Mogadishu on 13 February. She remained in the South Atlantic, undergoing a refit at Simon's Town between March and June 1941, then came home in October 1941 for a further major refit at Chatham between October 1941 and March 1942 before returning to the South Atlantic until the end of the year, when she was recalled to Chatham prior to transfer to the RAN.
The cruiser earned the RN battle honours "Atlantic 1941" and "Arctic 1941" for her wartime service.