Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

And not forgetting these stalwarts of the past, the County Class heavy cruiser.
Norfolk was one of eleven County class heavy cruisers, comprising four sub-classes; Kent, London, Norfolk and York.

a good time to remember Norfolk, this year marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of North Cape in which she played a key role. In the first skirmish between the cruisers after Belfast "found" Scharnhorst by radar Norfolk managed to put an 8" shell through Scharnhorst's radar crippling her ability to see where the enemy might be in the dark and blizzard conditions. Norfolk did not have flashless cordite, unlike the 6" cruisers, so was an easy mark for return fire and indeed she was hit with casualties and damage. Her gunnery officer was Michael Pollock, later to go on to top rank in the RN. Before the convoys set out back to UK he had a pint or two with my father, his junior by half a ring, who was first Lt. of Ashanti having been her gunnery officer. Post war our families lived next to each other in Hayling Island, my father and MP used to take the ferry, a 40' open motor boat from Hayling to Gosport every morning.

Norfolk's sister Devonshire went on to be the cadet training cruiser post war and was immortalised as HMS Barsetshire in John Winton's very funny book "We joined the Navy"...

tim

Well done You Tim , I noticed it amongst some of Chalky's Photos and thought it must have some importance but was not aware of what it was so thank you for crossing the "T's" Tim , [sorry for pun]

The wreck of Lead Ship,Heavy Cruiser HMS York lies in Suda Bay in 1941.
York was disabled at Suda Bay in Crete by two Italian explosive Motorboats of the Italian Regia Marina Assault Flotilla Decima Flottiglia MAS, launched by the Destroyers RM Crispi and RM Sella on March 26th 1941; the two old Destroyers were fitted with special cranes to operate assault craft. Six motorboats entered the bay and attacked three targets in pairs; the first was York, second the tanker Pericles and last another ship at anchor. Three of the attacking boats had various problems, either mechanical or human, due to the extreme temperature conditions, but the other three successfully attacked their targets. Two motorboats, packed with 330-kilogram (730 lb) charges in the bows, struck York amidships, flooding both boiler rooms and one engine room. Two seamen were killed.All Italian sailors survived the attack and fell into British hands. York was run aground to prevent her from sinking.The Submarine HMS Rover was used to supply electrical power to operate the Cruiser's guns for Anti-Aircraft defence, until Rover was severely damaged by air attack and had to be towed away for repairs.On May 18th, further damage was inflicted by German bombers and the ship was damaged beyond repair. Her main guns were wrecked by demolition charges on May 22nd 1941 when the Allies began to evacuate Crete. York's wreck was salvaged in February 1952 by an Italian Shipbreaker and towed to Bari to be broken up in March.

Thank you for such a detailed report Brian , and what a sad end to such a fine ship .

I wonder did the Italians mount any similar attacks of that type or was it a one off that went belly up

here is one of Norfolk at sea, and another of an unidentified county in peacetime colours, anyone able to name that ship?

Not really and are you sure its a county Class with two aft turrets Tim or what looks to be two as I cant enlarge it unlike Norfolk

someone will know! I like the Norfolk picture though, a real ship at sea photo

Heres another Question that has often bugged me to Tim ..........in this shot of Norfolk the lower hull plating is a darker colour than the row of plating above it , and this is evident in many types of the larger three funnel ships .......for instance the Abeil class minelayers amongst others .

In the case of Manxman I attributed it to the extensive mid repairs following her damage in action , so could this be a singular cause i.e. did Norfolk have the middle plating replaced for instance .

the colour difference was I think camouflage to make the hull appear lower in the water and thus further away, quite a few ship had this pattern so it probably had an AP number, someone will know!