Missing.jpg
Image:missing.jpg
|
| Career
| 
|
| Ordered:
|
|
| Laid down:
| 18 October 1924
|
| Launched:
| 16 March 1926
|
| Commissioned:
| 23 February 1928
|
| Decommissioned:
| 1946
|
| Recommissioned:
| 1951
|
| Fate:
| Sold for scrap 1959
|
| Struck:
|
|
| General Characteristics
|
| Displacement:
|
|
| Length:
|
|
| Beam:
|
|
| Draught:
|
|
| Propulsion:
|
|
| Speed:
|
|
| Range:
|
|
| Complement:
|
|
| Armament:
|
|
| Armour:
|
|
| Radar:
|
|
| Aircraft:
|
|
| Motto:
|
|
HMS Cumberland, the fifteenth ship of that name was a County class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy that saw action during the Second World War.
Overview
Cumberland served on the China Station with the 5th Cruiser Squadron until 1938.
At the start of the Second World War in 1939, Cumberland was assigned to Force G, the South American Division. At the start of December she was forced to self-refit in the Falkland Islands, thus depriving the force of their strongest unit. Without her, HMS Exeter, Ajax and Achilles engaged the German raider Admiral Graf Spee in the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December. Cumberland received a garbled indication that a contact was being made and moved north to reinforce, arriving at the River Plate at 22:00 14 December, after steaming for 34 hours. The Graf Spee had put into neutral Montevideo and Cumberland along with Ajax and Achilles (Exeter having been heavily damaged) patrolled of the estuary, resulting in the Graf Spee scuttling herself on 17 December.
Cumberland won battle honours in North Africa 1942,
In October 1941 Cumberland joined the 1st Cruiser Squadron Home Fleet escorting the Russian Convoys until January 1944, winning the battle honour Arctic 1942-1943
Cumberland as then transferred to the Far East, 4th Cruiser Squadron Eastern Fleet. She won the battle honours Sabang 1944 and Burma 1945.
She returned to the United Kingdom on 12 November 1945 and transported troops until June 1946, when she was placed in reserve. She remained in reserve until 1949. She was then refitted at Devonport (1949-1951) as a trials cruiser, and used 1951-1959 for the testing of new equipment.
For the 1956 film The Battle of the River Plate, Cumberland played fellow County class cruiser HMS Exeter and herself.
Cumberland was laid up for a second time in January 1959 and was broken up by Cashmore, Newport, arriving there on 3 November 1959.
| 
