RN Cruisers: Dido Class

[Brian James]

Dido Class Light AA Cruiser HMS Euryalus pictured at Teneriffe in 1953.

[jbryce1437]

Many thanks Brian.
The Dido Class of eleven cruisers: Argonaut, Bonaventure, Charybdis, Cleopatra, Dido, Euryalus, Hermione, Naiad, Phoebe, Scylla and Sirius
had a sub group of five cruisers: Bellona, Black Prince, Diadem, Royalist and Spartan.



Dido Class

argonaut 1941[1].jpg

bonaventure (1940) at speed,pt.side.jpg

charybdis-(1942)-pt.bow.jpg

cleopatra[1].jpg

hms dido malta.jpg

hms euryalus at malta no date.jpg

hermione gibraltar 1941.jpg

Naiad.jpg

hms phoebe entering malta no date.jpg

hms scylla during ww2 undated.jpg

hms sirius,sailing from malta,dated 151946.jpg

Bellona sub class

hms bellona,during ww2,dated 15101943,on trials.jpg

hms black prince,during ww2.jpg

diadem44-cruiser.jpg

HMS%20Royalist%20Malta[1].jpg

spartan-(1943)-under-tow ply.jpg

[DaveH]

Beautiful ships Jim ........ My wife's dad went down with the Charybdis , my Uncle served on Dido in the Med before joining Black Swan and I operted with Bellona several times in the Med Fleet in the 50's . They looked the part and played hard .

Daveh

[Brian James]

Lead Ship,Light AA Cruiser HMS Dido pictured fitting out at Cammell Laird Shipyards at Birkenhead,Merseyside prior to her commissioning in 1940.Dido's keel was laid down on October 26th 1937,she was launched on July 18th 1939 and commissioned on September 30th 1940 at Birkenhead. Following her commissioning, Dido was sent to Scapa Flow for working up in September 1940. Part of this included high-speed sweeps off Fair Isle and Greenland. Immediately after this, Dido's first mission, in November 1940, was to escort the Aircraft Carrier Furious to West Africa, ferrying aircraft.
Dido then spent four months on convoy duty in the Atlantic before running supplies to Malta where she joined the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet in April 1941. In May of that year Dido was sent to Crete and assisted in the evacuation of the British forces. On May 29th 1941 Dido was badly damaged by bombs whilst taking troops from Crete to Alexandria.
From July to November 1941, Dido was sent to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City for a refit.The first three months of 1942 were spent on convoy escort duty between Alexandria and Malta but in March that year, Dido took part in a bombardment of Rhodes. A week later Dido joined the Cruisers Cleopatra, Penelope, Carlisle, and Euryalus under the command of Rear Admiral Philip Vian at the Second Battle of Sirte,rejoining the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet in December 1941.In April 1943, Dido returned to Liverpool for a 3-month refit before rejoining the Western Mediterranean squadron. The next month was spent taking part in diversionary bombardments against North Sicily during the landings. Dido was then used as an Anti-Aircraft Guard for invasion bases at Palermo and Bizerte. On September 12th 1943, Dido escorted 600 troops to Taranto where the Italian Fleet surrendered. From Taranto, Dido went to Sorrento where she took part in the shelling to support troops. October and November 1943 saw Dido back in Alexandria for another refit.
On return to service, Dido spent time in Malta and Taranto before taking part in a diversionary action off Civitavecchia in support of the landing at Anzio. August 1944 saw Dido supporting the Allied landings in France. In September 1944, Dido returned to the UK.In October 1944, Dido escorted a convoy to Russia before supporting Carrier strikes off Norway. In April 1945, Dido escorted Apollo, Orwell, and Obedient to the North Kola Inlet to lay mines.
Dido's last mission in the war was to go to Copenhagen, firing the last naval shot in the war in Europe on the way, for the surrender of the German Kriegsmarine which was signed aboard Dido. After the signing, Dido escorted the German cruisers Prinz Eugen and Nürnberg to Wilhelmshaven.She was subsequently decommissioned and sold for scrap to Thos W Ward and scrapped at Barrow-in-Furness in 1957.

[jbryce1437]

A lovely photo Brian, with all those chains and cables I don't think she was going to stray too far from the quayside.

Jim

[timlewin]

some from my file mostly from others who have sent them to me. Bellona was TTL's last commission at the end of the war or just post war, they were sent to Russia to collect a consignment of gold. This was packed in ammunition boxes which, as no one had ever seen a gold bar before, they managed to drop to look at the contents. When they arrived back in Scotland the gold was loaded into a railway wagon under tight security that then sat in a siding for two days.

Later Belllona suffered a minor mutiny before being transferred to the Royal NZ Navy, later returned. I believe a couple of other went this was too.

Scylla was the flagship of Admiral "Uncle Bob" Burnett for PQ18 and di sterling service in the Arctic where AA fire was essential.

[timlewin]

some from my file mostly from others who have sent them to me. Bellona was TTL's last commission at the end of the war or just post war, they were sent to Russia to collect a consignment of gold. This was packed in ammunition boxes which, as no one had ever seen a gold bar before, they managed to drop to look at the contents. When they arrived back in Scotland the gold was loaded into a railway wagon under tight security that then sat in a siding for two days.

Later Belllona suffered a minor mutiny before being transferred to the Royal NZ Navy, later returned. I believe a couple of other went this was too.

Scylla was the flagship of Admiral "Uncle Bob" Burnett for PQ18 and did sterling service in the Arctic where AA fire was essential.

[timlewin]

a few more Bellona photos, these are from TTL's box of old pictures so from when he joined in '45; and the letter to him from Adm. Burnett after PQ18/QP14

[Brian James]

My ol' ship early in her career...Dido Class Light AA Cruiser HMS Royalist in September 1943, soon after her completion.

[Brian James]

A nice overhead view of Dido Class Light AA Cruiser HMS Argonaut on high speed trials off Birkenhead c1942.
On December 14th 1942, Argonaut was heavily damaged when the Italian Marcello Class Submarine RM Lazzaro Mocenigo struck the Cruiser with two torpedoes from a spread of four,causing serious damage. The bow and stern sections of the Cruiser were effectively blown off and the steering wrecked. Though only three crew members were killed, the damage was so severe that German authorities mistakenly believed the Argonaut had been sunk.She was patched up and limped to Algiers for more temporary repairs. She then sailed for the United States where she underwent a seven-month reconstruction, completed in November 1943.
When she returned to the UK, she was refitted and received the new Type 293 and 277 radars. She took part in bombardment duties on D-Day under the command of Captain Longley. She also supported the Allied invasion of Southern France, Operation Dragoon, before seeing duty as an Escort Carrier flagship.
Subsequently, the ship conducted a sweep of the Aegean Sea, sinking a number of small Axis craft, before sailing east to the Indian Ocean where Argonaut joined the British Pacific Fleet in 1945. After the war, she was laid up on return to the UK in 1946 and saw no further service before being scrapped in 1955.