Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

Leander Class Light Cruiser HMS Achilles pictured alongside Aotea Quay, Wellington, during the late 1930s. Launched at Cammell Laird Shipyard.Merseyside in 1932, she joined the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy in 1936. Following the formal establishment of the Royal New Zealand Navy in October 1941, she became HMNZS Achilles....Photograph courtesy of Sydney Charles Smith.

Leander Class Light Cruiser HMS Achilles pictured at Wellington c1936..She served with the Home Fleet as HMS Achilles from commissioning on October 10th 1933 until she was transferred to the New Zealand division of the RN on March 24th 1936.
Decomissioned and returned to the Royal Navy on September 17th 1946. Sold to India on July 5th 1948 being renamed Delhi. Decommissioned by the Indian Navy on June 30th 1978.

Leander Class Light Cruiser HMS Achilles arrives home to a heroes welcome at Auckland,February 23rd 1940...Image courtesy of the Torpedo Bay Naval Museum.

Leander Class Light Cruiser HMNZS Achilles..1946.

Royal New Zealand Navy - 12th December 2021


On This Day HMNZS Achilles’ guns remember one of our finest hours.

On this day in 1939 in the first naval battle of WWII, the cruisers HMS Ajax, Exeter and Achilles (the last of which was from the New Zealand Division) took on German armoured cruiser KMS Admiral Graf Spee off the mouth of River Plate close to the coast of Uruguay in South America.

See - https://nzdf.mil.nz/news/on-this-day-th ... ver-plate/

After the destruction of Admiral Graf Spee, Leander Class Light Cruiser of the New Zealand Division of the RN, HMS Achilles is pictured on entry to Waitematā Harbour, Auckland on February 23rd 1940.

Leander Class Light Cruiser HMS Achilles pictured on entry to Lyttleton Harbour on November 15th 1936.