Difference between revisions of "HMS London"

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=== Survivability and armour ===
 
=== Survivability and armour ===
 
{{Specs-Fleet-Armour}}
 
{{Specs-Fleet-Armour}}
''Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.''
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<!-- ''Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.'' -->
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Compared to her predecessor the Norfolk, the London has a 88.9 mm main belt, compared to the Norfolk's 25 mm. This is a very welcome change, but it doesn't amount to much. The machinery is slightly better protected, but the rest of the hull above the waterline has no armour at all (aside from a tiny 38 mm plate to protect the steering gears), and neither does the enormous superstructure. The London is a massive glass cannon, and should be played with caution. The one saving grace of the London's survivability is the very safe location of the London's magazines. They are well underwater and protected by a 100 mm plate inside the ship. Catastrophic ammunition detonations from cruiser-calibre guns are extremely rare, and even battleships may struggle to slip a shell into the right spot.
  
 
=== Mobility ===
 
=== Mobility ===
 
{{Specs-Fleet-Mobility}}
 
{{Specs-Fleet-Mobility}}
''Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.''
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<!-- ''Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.'' -->
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The mobility on the London is nothing to write home about. Capable of 60 km/h, 1 km/h slower than the Norfolk, the London still has the same top speed of nearly every WW2-era heavy cruiser. The manoeuvrability is also nothing exceptional. She'll get the job done, but she won't do it faster than any other cruiser.
  
 
{{NavalMobility}}
 
{{NavalMobility}}
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=== Primary armament ===
 
=== Primary armament ===
 
{{Specs-Fleet-Primary}}
 
{{Specs-Fleet-Primary}}
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<!-- ''Provide information about the characteristics of the primary armament. Evaluate their efficacy in battle based on their reload speed, ballistics and the capacity of their shells. Add a link to the main article about the weapon: <code><nowiki>{{main|Weapon name (calibre)}}</nowiki></code>. Broadly describe the ammunition available for the primary armament, and provide recommendations on how to use it and which ammunition to choose.'' -->
 
{{main|8 inch/50 Mark VIII (203 mm)}}
 
{{main|8 inch/50 Mark VIII (203 mm)}}
  
''Provide information about the characteristics of the primary armament. Evaluate their efficacy in battle based on their reload speed, ballistics and the capacity of their shells. Add a link to the main article about the weapon: <code><nowiki>{{main|Weapon name (calibre)}}</nowiki></code>. Broadly describe the ammunition available for the primary armament, and provide recommendations on how to use it and which ammunition to choose.''
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HMS London retains the 8"/50 Mark VIII guns seen on previous British heavy cruisers. As with the others, the guns are reasonably accurate, although at long ranges the dispersion will start to show itself. The shortest achievable reload time is 12 seconds, which is quite fast by heavy cruiser standards. There is no first-stage ammunition stowage, so the reload rate will always remain quick no matter how much ammunition is remaining.
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There are two shells available, an HE shell and a researchable SAPCBC shell. The HE shell performs as can be expected from heavy cruiser HE - solid against light targets, but unable to significantly damage heavier ships. The researchable SAPCBC shell on the other hand is one of the most powerful shells available to any heavy cruiser, possessing a excellent blend of penetration while also having a massive 5.2 kg bursting charge. This, combined with the quick fire rate, means that London's damage output is nothing short of exceptional, and if you are left to your own devices, you can inflict massive damage upon the enemy team. However, the lack of a proper AP shell also means the London will struggle against heavy targets, such as battleships.
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HE is used as the stock shell, while SAPCBC can be researched immediately after purchasing the ship. It is recommended to get the SAPCBC quickly, but only after basic survivability modifications.
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{{:8 inch/50 Mark VIII (203 mm)/Ammunition|8 inch HE, 8 inch Mark I.B. SAPCBC}}
  
 
=== Secondary armament ===
 
=== Secondary armament ===
 
{{Specs-Fleet-Secondary}}
 
{{Specs-Fleet-Secondary}}
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<!-- ''Some ships are fitted with weapons of various calibres. Secondary armaments are defined as weapons chosen with the control <code>Select secondary weapon</code>. Evaluate the secondary armaments and give advice on how to use them. Describe the ammunition available for the secondary armament. Provide recommendations on how to use them and which ammunition to choose. Remember that any anti-air armament, even heavy calibre weapons, belong in the next section. If there is no secondary armament, remove this section.'' -->
 
{{main|4 inch/45 Mark XVI (102 mm)}}
 
{{main|4 inch/45 Mark XVI (102 mm)}}
  
''Some ships are fitted with weapons of various calibres. Secondary armaments are defined as weapons chosen with the control <code>Select secondary weapon</code>. Evaluate the secondary armaments and give advice on how to use them. Describe the ammunition available for the secondary armament. Provide recommendations on how to use them and which ammunition to choose. Remember that any anti-air armament, even heavy calibre weapons, belong in the next section. If there is no secondary armament, remove this section.''
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The London has four twin 4" turrets behind the funnels, able to bring two to bear for a broadside. They are the same guns found on the Hunt-class and V-class destroyers. In terms of their ability to damage surface targets, their utility is extremely limited, especially compared to American 5" cruiser secondaries, which will outclass the British 4"s in every way. However, when it comes to downing planes, the London's secondaries will do the job reasonably well. Four shells are available: HE, HE-TF, HE-VT, and SAP. HE is the stock shell, while the rest must be researched. Getting the HE-VT first as a tier III modification to bolster the London's long-range AA is advisable, as the rest are not very useful. After finishing more important modifications, get SAP in case the guns ever must be used against surface targets. Save the HE-TF as one of the last modifications you research, as it is simply redundant when the HE-VT is available.
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{{:4 inch/45 Mark XVI (102 mm)/Ammunition|4 inch HE, 4 inch SAP, 4 inch HE-TF, 4 inch HE-VT}}
  
 
=== Anti-aircraft armament ===
 
=== Anti-aircraft armament ===
 
{{Specs-Fleet-AA}}
 
{{Specs-Fleet-AA}}
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<!-- ''An important part of the ship's armament responsible for air defence. Anti-aircraft armament is defined by the weapon chosen with the control <code>Select anti-aircraft weapons</code>. Talk about the ship's anti-air cannons and machine guns, the number of guns and their positions, their effective range, and about their overall effectiveness – including against surface targets. If there are no anti-aircraft armaments, remove this section.'' -->
 
{{main|2pdr QF Mk.VIII (40 mm)|QF Mark VII (40 mm)|20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mk.II (20 mm)|20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mark V (20 mm)}}
 
{{main|2pdr QF Mk.VIII (40 mm)|QF Mark VII (40 mm)|20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mk.II (20 mm)|20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mark V (20 mm)}}
  
''An important part of the ship's armament responsible for air defence. Anti-aircraft armament is defined by the weapon chosen with the control <code>Select anti-aircraft weapons</code>. Talk about the ship's anti-air cannons and machine guns, the number of guns and their positions, their effective range, and about their overall effectiveness – including against surface targets. If there are no anti-aircraft armaments, remove this section.''
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Of the three County-class cruisers in game, the London's AA outshines them all. Compared to her predecessor, the Norfolk, which has just enough AA to protect herself and ward off enemy planes, the London's AA can truly be called fitting for a late-war cruiser. The most powerful guns are the octuple 40 mm Pom-Poms, one located to each side of the forward funnel. These guns output a staggering amount of shells, and can easily mow down any aircraft or light ship. They are supplemented by four 40 mm QF Mk VII guns, two per side. In addition, the London has eight twin 20 mm Oerlikon turrets, and four single Oerlikons. The extensive AA coverage makes the London a very challenging target to bomb.
  
 
=== Additional armament ===
 
=== Additional armament ===
 
{{Specs-Fleet-Additional}}
 
{{Specs-Fleet-Additional}}
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<!-- ''Describe the available additional armaments of the ship: depth charges, mines, torpedoes. Talk about their positions, available ammunition and launch features such as dead zones of torpedoes. If there is no additional armament, remove this section.'' -->
 
{{main|Mk.IX (533 mm)}}
 
{{main|Mk.IX (533 mm)}}
  
''Describe the available additional armaments of the ship: depth charges, mines, torpedoes. Talk about their positions, available ammunition and launch features such as dead zones of torpedoes. If there is no additional armament, remove this section.''
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The London continues to use the 533 mm Mk.IX wet-heater torpedoes seen on other British cruisers, in one quadruple launcher per side. They are a welcome improvement over the antiquated steam turbined Mk.V torpedoes seen on earlier cruisers, but are still unexceptional weapons, with subpar speed and no access to reserves. It's best to retain them as last ditch weapons to expend when being forced into a brawl. Other than those scenarios, you may as well play like you don't have torpedoes.
  
 
== Usage in battles ==
 
== Usage in battles ==
''Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).''
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<!-- ''Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).'' -->
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The London's main playstyle revolves around its two defining characteristics - its devastating SAP round, its quick reload, and its awful protection. The London is a true glass cannon, and you should play it as such. Position yourself into places where you can continuously pound enemy cruisers and destroyers with firepower, while they either unable to hit you or are preoccupied with an ally. The longer you can fire unmolested by the enemy, the better. However, this does not mean camping is a good strategy - at ranges around 10km, the inaccuracy of the main guns starts to show. Thus, you must figure out how to work your way into closer-range engagements. Playing the London to its fullest requires toeing a careful line - you must keep your guns firing as often and as effectively as possible, while also not dying in the process. Having map knowledge helps a lot when it comes to achieving this. Use cover to get in close, while being aware of where enemies are likely to appear. Find defensive positions near caps, where you can camp while also providing support to your team's frontline. However, do not push into the cap yourself unless it is an emergency and the ownership of the cap will decide the game, or the area is completely clear! By covering your team and letting more durable ships push the cap, you will be far more useful than if you rushed into the cap yourself and were sunk.
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It is also useful to have knowledge of your enemies. Know which ships pose the biggest threats, and how you can sink them before they can sink you. When fighting an Omaha, hit their engines and ammunition, if fighting an Admiral Graf Spee, dodge their shells while destroying their turrets and ammunition hoists, when fighting battleships, pray he shoots somebody else, etc. Knowing the ideal way to fight any enemy you face is key to preserving your ship, which allows you to keep your firepower in action for longer.
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All in all, the London is a challenging ship to play, as the weak armour, poor gun arcs, and absolutely enormous stature make her a very vulnerable ship. However, in the hands of an experienced captain, her advantages can be pushed, her vulnerabilities diminished, and blow by blow, her firepower will win battles.
  
 
=== Pros and cons ===
 
=== Pros and cons ===
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* Very effective anti-air defences
 
* Very effective anti-air defences
* 8 inch guns are useful for sinking cruisers and destroyers
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* Excellent main battery
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** Great fire rate for a heavy cruiser (4-5 RPM, depending on crew skill)
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** Devastating SAP shells with high penetration and high bursting charge
 
* Ammunition is stored under the water line and is well protected
 
* Ammunition is stored under the water line and is well protected
 
* Carries torpedoes which are useful in close range encounters
 
* Carries torpedoes which are useful in close range encounters
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* Guns lack AP shells to deal with battlecruisers and battleships
 
* Guns lack AP shells to deal with battlecruisers and battleships
* No bridge protection, losing control is very common in this ship
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* No bridge protection and enormous superstructure, losing control is very common in this ship
* Lacks deck armour against plunging shells
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* Armour is hardly present at all
* Armour is weak against battleship-calibre guns
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** 89 mm belt armour won't hold up to enemy fire
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** Majority of hull is unarmoured
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** Lacks deck armour against plunging shells
 
* Outgunned by battleships, battlecruisers, and some American heavy cruisers
 
* Outgunned by battleships, battlecruisers, and some American heavy cruisers
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* Mildly inconvenient gun arcs
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* Lacks a floatplane, which most other same-rank cruisers have
  
 
== History ==
 
== History ==
 
<!-- ''Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: <nowiki>https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History</nowiki>) and add a link to it here using the <code>main</code> template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <code><nowiki><ref></ref></nowiki></code>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <code><nowiki><references /></nowiki></code>. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under <code><nowiki>=== In-game description ===</nowiki></code>, also if applicable).'' -->
 
<!-- ''Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: <nowiki>https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History</nowiki>) and add a link to it here using the <code>main</code> template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <code><nowiki><ref></ref></nowiki></code>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <code><nowiki><references /></nowiki></code>. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under <code><nowiki>=== In-game description ===</nowiki></code>, also if applicable).'' -->
 
=== The Treaty Cruiser ===
 
=== The Treaty Cruiser ===
The 1921 Washington Treaty conference aimed to prevent war between the major naval powers by restricting warship construction. It decided that cruiser displacement should be limited to a maximum of 10,000 tons per ship. Britain had set the pace by constructing the ''Hawkins'' class – the most modern and capable cruisers of their time – which displaced close to 10,000 tons. It was known that the USA and Japan would soon match, and probably exceed, them, building 10,000-ton cruisers with 8-inch guns (the ''Hawkins''-class ships carried 7.5-inch main guns). The British answer was heavy cruisers of the County class, constructed in three batches that were to be armed with 8-inch guns and would be fast with long range. At the end of 1923, the British administration gave the building of eight County-class cruisers known as ''Kent'' class (''Kent'', ''Suffolk,'' ''Cumberland,'' ''Berwick,'' and ''Cornwall''), with two extras (''Australia'' and ''Canberra'') for the Royal Australian Navy. They were laid down between July 1924 and September 1925 and completed between July 1927 and July 1928. Next came the ''London'' class (''London,'' ''Devonshire,'' ''Shropshire,'' and ''Sussex''), laid down between March 1926 and February 1927 and completed between January and September 1929.
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The County class, named after regional areas of Great Britain, was the largest class of heavy cruisers of the Royal Navy. Under the 1924 Washington treaty limits, they had a standard load under 10,000 tons and four twin-turrets with eight pieces of 8 inches (203 mm) guns in total. Limited by the regulation, the County class had little protection on the main belt with only 1 inch (25 mm) but a completed armour box (1-4 inches) covering the magazine parts. The 8" gun was new to the Royal Navy; it had a high muzzle velocity of 3,150 ft/sec (960 m/s) and a range of 20 miles (32 km). It was a very accurate gun and was the smallest gun in the RN to require mechanical handling of the shell and charge - the shell weighed 256 lbs (116 kg). The guns could elevate to 65° and under director control could sustain a firing rate of 4 rounds per minute.<ref name="Brown" />
[[File:Cruiser London being launched at Portsmouth.png|thumb|362x362px|Cruiser London being launched at Portsmouth in September 1927.]]
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The most obvious difference between the ''London'' and ''Kent'' classes was the removal of a protective bulge on the waterline, which forced a modified hull design that increased length by 2 feet 8 inches and incorporated internal bulges. Their high freeboard meant they were, in most weather, dry ships and could keep up a good rate of knots even in heavy seas. The beam of the ''Kent'' was 2 feet 5 inches wider than the ''London''. HMS ''London''<nowiki/>'s displacement was 9,850 tons (standard) and 13,315 tons (full load). She was 632 feet 8 inches in length, with a 66-foot beam and a draught of 20 feet 9 inches. Propulsion was provided by Parsons geared turbines and eight Admiralty three-drum boilers. HMS ''London'' could carry 3,190 tons of oil and achieve more than thirty-two knots. In addition to eight 8-inch main guns and four 4-inch high-angles, ''London'' also had four 2-pounder guns and eight 21-inch torpedo tubes. The bridge and the foremast of the ''London''-class cruisers were set further aft to allow B turret to fire abaft the beam without blasting the bridge.
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Considering the operating environment in remote stations and the duty of being a quick reaction force in hot zones, they had significant autonomy and a large hull for overseas consistency and stability in bad weather, as well as comfort equipment like air conditioning for tropical areas.
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Ordered in 1925, HMS London, the first of the second block of County-class heavy cruisers, was laid down on 22 February 1926, launched 14 September the following year and completed 5 February 1929 in Portsmouth. The installed engines were manufactured by Fairfield Shipbuilders and Engineers of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
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Compared to the first block, the Kent class, the London class removed a protective bulge on the waterline, which forced a modified hull design that increased length by 2 feet 8 inches and incorporated internal bulges for torpedo protection. The command superstructure was also moved further back and funnels lengthened to prevent interference from smoke.
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=== The 1930s ===
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Entering service in early 1929, HMS London was sent to the Mediterranean, where she became the flagship of the First Cruiser Squadron and operated until March 1939. Her first notable task was to quell the uprising on Cyprus in 1931. The British had administered the island since 1878, and gave the status of a crown colony in 1925. However, that status irritated the Greek Cypriots who sought for an eventual union with Greece.<ref name="Klapsis" />
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In 1931, the local administration decided to raise tax to cover a local budget deficit, which triggered a severe reaction among Greek Cypriots. On 21 October, more than 5,000 Greek Cypriots rallied on the island. They stripped the British flag, besieged Government House and burned it.
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The Royal Navy was asked to aid the civil powers. HMS London and her sister ship Shropshire as well as two destroyers were sent to suppress the uprising. On 24 October, London landed groups of Royal Marines and armed sailors to protect government offices. The protestors hurled verbal abuse at London<nowiki/>'s marines and sailors, waving the Greek flag in their faces and throwing stones, to make the marines and sailors lose their cool and open fire in the hope that Greece might intervene militarily. But the British held fire. On 25 October, the revolt leaders were arrested, and the protests gradually fizzled out in the following days, marking a successful end to London<nowiki/>'s first mission.
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On 18 July 1936, the Fascist General Franco led an uprising by twelve military garrisons on mainland Spain and five in Spanish Morocco, igniting the Spanish Civil War. The Royal Navy was involved from the beginning of the conflict. Soon after the war had started, HMS London with her sister ship Devonshire were on station at Gibraltar. On 22 July, London was tasked with evacuating British civilians in Barcelona.
  
=== HMS London in the 1930s ===
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London stayed at Barcelona until 22 August when HMS Shropshire replace her role for evacuation. During the period, more than 1,800 civilians were evacuated via HMS London. After that, London received a refit in Portsmouth in November, during which four additional high-angle 4-inch guns were fitted. At the end of 1936, HMS London was tasked with hunting down gunrunners in Western Mediterranean. Although her aircraft found a suspicious-looking vessel that might be a gunrunner, the cruiser failed to catch them. In 1937, London was called back to Britain for the coronation of King George VI.
For her first overseas deployment, HMS ''London'' was sent to the Mediterranean, where she became the flagship of the First Cruiser Squadron and activated in the following years. Trouble was brewing on the island of Cyprus in the early 1930s and soon boiled over into insurrection. It had been granted Crown Colony status in 1925, after being taken from the Turks and occupied by British forces in the First World War. Its position in the eastern Mediterranean made it an ideal base from which to provide additional security for British interests in the Middle East, such as the Suez Canal and Palestine. A strategically vital oil pipeline terminated at Haifa, and the island was also an important staging post for travelers heading to Britain's empire in Asia. Having cast off the hated Turks, Greek Cypriots were angry and frustrated at being prevented by British rule from uniting with their ethnic homeland of Greece. A decision by the Crown Colony administrators to raise taxes stoked the fires of resentment. On 21 October 1931, a mob gathered and marched on the Governor's residence. They burned it to the ground and then went on the rampage when the police belatedly intervened.
 
  
The Royal Navy was asked to aid the civil powers, with HMS ''London'' and her sister ship HMS ''Shropshire'' sent to suppress the uprising in company with the destroyers HMS ''Acasta'' and ''Achates''. At Larnaca, HMS ''London'' landed armed shore parties of Royal Marines and sailors to protect government offices. They found the local population still defiant and capable of violence. The protestors hurled verbal abuse at ''London''<nowiki/>'s marines and sailors, waving the Greek flag in their faces. Stones rained down on the helmets of the British, but they held firm. The rioters were trying to make the marines and sailors lose their cool and open fire in the hope that Greece might protest and even intervene militarily. In the early hours of 25 October, the revolt leaders were arrested by troops and police. They were taken by boat to ''London'' and ''Shropshire'', where they were held in the cruisers' wardrooms' convivial surroundings. The detainees were given every hospitality, including good food and drink. A few stiff whiskies helped steady the nerves of those still a little shocked at being hauled from their beds in the wee small hours. The seizing of the leaders took the steam out of the revolt, and the British warships were soon able to depart the island's harbours, leaving a job well done behind them.
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=== 1939 - 1941 ===
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With war clouds gathering fast in the late 1930s and naval construction restrictions being discarded equally rapidly, the Admiralty decided to reconstruct the County Class cruisers for better preparations in future combat. HMS London was the first and only one of the County class to rebuild and modernize completely. She entered Chatham in March 1939, and the rebuild proved complex and lasted until February 1941.
  
On 18 July 1936, the Fascist General Franco led an uprising by twelve military garrisons on mainland Spain and five in Spanish Morocco. Most of southern Spain fell to the Fascists, and outside forces intervened to stoke the fires of conflict – the Germans and Italians on the Fascist side and Russia on the Republican government side. Thousands of British passport holders were at the mercy of various warring factions, and the UK government responded by sending warships, including HMS ''London'', to evacuate them from danger, using Barcelona and Valencia as points of embarkation. The ship stopped at Malta for supplies and then went on to Barcelona in company with the Devonshire. On 22 July, the cruiser was secured by her stern to the Mole in Barcelona harbor and the ship received reports from ashore saying the city was now quiet after savage fighting.
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Significant modifications were added during the reconstruction. A new 4-inch (102 mm) armour belt was added to the waterline to cover the machinery spaces. A series of radars, including Type 279 for air warning and Type 284/285 for fire control, were installed. Most notably, a brand-new enlarged superstructure with aircraft hangars replaced the original command tower to provide more space and comfort for operations in bad weather. The newly added superstructure also changed the arrangement of funnels from three to only two. Besides, two twin high-angle 4-inch guns and additional 2-pounder AA guns were added to the ship. The significant increase in displacement after modernization resulted in increased structural stresses on the hull. During subsequent service, these stresses, together with the harsh serving environment in the Arctic, were most likely to have been the cause of the leakages in fuel and feed water systems during later service.
{{Quote|…one regiment of Fascists was annihilated in a square, being mown down by concealed rifle fire.}}
 
  
As ''London'' waited for the evacuees to start arriving, the situation grew more volatile. On 23 July, a bomb from an aircraft landed near a British warship patrolling the Straits of Gibraltar. HMS ''London'' was informed that Barcelona's British Colony of 1,000 people, including many nuns, was to be evacuated. By midnight on 23 July, only 200 people had turned up, with forty of them being immediately sent to Marseilles aboard the destroyer HMS ''Douglas'', which had come alongside ''London'' to take them off.
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During the reconstruction, German bombers targeted Chatham frequently, and air raids often interrupted the work, delaying London<nowiki/>'s progress. The cruiser was finally commissioned for service with the Home Fleet on 7 February 1941.
  
At the beginning of August, the Italian and Swiss governments ordered all their nationals out of Spain. ''London'' was flooded with desperate people, and Commander Wright gave up his cabin to a refugee family, ending up sleeping on the upper deck by X-turret. ''London'' was told on 7 August that she would stay another fifteen days in Barcelona. After returning to Gibraltar, she was to head back to Portsmouth for a refit that was due to commence in November, during which she was to receive four more high-angle 4-inch guns. By mid-August, it was apparent to Captain Wright that an increasing number of the 'British' refugees were bogus:
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On 5 March, HMS London left Chatham, heading north to join the Home Fleet in Scapa Flow. After arriving at Scapa, London participated in fleet exercises for practising main and sub calibre gunnery, air defence, and testing new radar equipment. London also played a role as a simulated cruiser target for battleships of Home Fleet.
{{Quote|13 August…. The 'British' folk leaving Spain nowadays are not good speakers of English!}}
 
  
On 22 August, HMS ''London'' was pleased to note that HMS ''Shropshire'' had arrived in Barcelona to relieve herself. Between 23 July and 29 July, 839 refugees were evacuated via HMS ''London'', and a further 1,000 were sent to safety between 30 July and 21 August.
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On 2 April, London left Scapa Flow with the carrier HMS Argus, which was being used to transport fighter planes to the Mediterranean. The cruiser escorted Argus to a position near Gibraltar, where she handed the duty to HMS Sheffield from Force H.
  
At the end of 1936, HMS ''London'' was tasked with hunting down gunrunners in Western Mediterranean. Her aircrafts located a suspicious-looking vessel that could well have been a gunrunner, but the cruiser caught up after five hours of hard steaming, only to discover that it was not the suitable quarry at all. In 1937 HMS ''London'' was called back to Britain for celebrating the coronation of King George VI and another major refit.
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HMS London spent some time with the battleship King George V keeping watch on Brest to prevent the breakout of German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The two German ships had stayed in France since February 1941 and would be there for another year. London<nowiki/>'s next mission was escorting slow convoys out of Sierra Leone, during which she had to conduct circuitous movements around the six-knot merchant ships to adapt to their slow speed.
  
=== The Reconstruction ===
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On 12 May, London carried 600 Army soldiers from England to Gibraltar. The consistent high speed and plentiful space made the cruiser an ideal ship for transportation, and it would conduct more such operations throughout the rest of the war. After offloading her passengers at Gibraltar, London stayed in port for a few days, as she was due to return to Britain carrying soldiers going home on leave. Together with the cruiser HMS Edinburgh, she provided escort for a UK-bound convoy, carrying evacuees from Gibraltar. During her time in Gibraltar, Italian aircraft tried to bomb the port but missed. London<nowiki/>'s AA guns went to engage, but the planes were too far away to shoot down. Sailing north from Gibraltar on 23 May, London encountered a Vichy French ship that she stopped and searched.
With war clouds gathering fast in the late 1930s and naval construction restrictions being discarded equally rapidly, the decision was taken to reconstruct the County-class cruisers to make them more capable ships. HMS ''London'' was the first, paying off into refit at Chatham in March 1939. Her ambitious rebuild proved complex and lasted until February 1941. Among the significant modifications were a new waterline armour belt and bridge superstructure, additional 4-inch guns, new hangars and aircraft catapult (the original had been fitted in 1932), and new engines. Her top speed was to remain more than thirty-two knots, and she would be able to do twenty-four knots using just half her boilers. Having started her life with a displacement of 9,850 tons (standard) and 13,315 tons (deep load), by the end of the refit, HMS ''London''<nowiki/>'s tonnage was 11,015 tons (standard) and 14,578 tons (deep load). The severe changes in ''London''<nowiki/>'s silhouette included removing one of her funnels, with the new catapult occupying space between the remaining two. Grouped around the aft funnel were the new 4-inch guns, in twin mountings, with pom-pom anti-aircraft weapons (sixteen 2-pounders) on the hangar roofs and machine guns fitted on top of X and B turrets. Post refit, HMS ''London'' carried eight 21-inch torpedoes in quadruple mountings on the upper deck and had depth charges. The onset of hostilities between Britain and Germany in September 1939 meant the remaining County-class cruisers were too busy to be rebuilt along the same lines as ''London''. And, as we will see later, it was just as well, for ''London''<nowiki/>'s rebuild would not stand up to the strain of war service.
 
[[File:HMS London after rebuild.png|thumb|356x356px|The ''London''<nowiki/>'s lines were altered dramatically by her major rebuild.]]
 
During the reconstruction, German bombers targeted Chatham frequently and air raids often interrupted the work, delaying ''London''<nowiki/>'s progress. The cruiser was finally commissioned for service with the Home Fleet on 7 February 1941.
 
  
On 5 March HMS ''London'' left Chatham. Waiting for her in the familiar waters of the Channel were magnetic mines sown by the Germans and E-boats keen to pounce on her. The cruiser indulged in some simple deception to ensure she got away from Chatham safely, heading for Tilbury instead of going straight out to sea to avoid German spies and scout planes. Leaving the Thames on 6 March, on her way north, HMS ''London'' passed a couple of sinking ships which had been unlucky, falling victim to mines or E-boats.
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Shortly before 5 p.m., on 24 May, London received an immediate order to take over shadowing duties, searching the German battleship Bismarck, which was cornered and destroyed on 27 May, leaving HMS London re-ordered to search for German supply ships in the central and southern Atlantic.
  
After arriving at Scapa Flow, ''London'' embarked on an energetic program of work up exercises. These included sub-calibre and full calibre shoots with her main guns at targets and also throw off shoots. The latter entailed her guns having their controls set to throw off shells by a cable's length (200 yards) astern, even though the weapons were aimed right at the target ship. ''London'' was soon on the receiving end of this all too realistic gunnery exercise technique, when she acted as a target for the battleship Rodney's 16-inch guns. Among other battlewagons the ''London'' provided a target for, were ''King George V'', ''Hood'' and ''Prince of Wales''.
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On 31 May, HMS London called in at Bathurst, Gambia, to land some of the troops embarked at Gibraltar. HMS London sailed again that afternoon, hunting for German supply ships. On 4 June at 07° 35' N – 31° 29' W, London found the German supply ship Esso Hamburg, a 17,000-ton fuel tanker, which had in fact refuelled the Prinz Eugen on the morning of 28 May. On 5 June, HMS London found another German supply ship, Egerland, flying the Panamanian flag. To prevent her from scuttling herself, London opened fire on her at a very long range, setting the ship on fire. The vessel's crew set scuttling charges and abandoned ship, with several boatloads of Germans taken aboard the already crowded London.
  
On 2 April, the ''London'' left Scapa to rendezvous with the carrier HMS Argus, which was being used to ferry fighter planes to the Mediterranean. The cruiser escorted Argus to a point 300 miles west of Lisbon where she was turned over to the care of HMS Sheffield.
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HMS London headed to Sierra Leone to offload her passengers, and for part of the way, she helped escort a convoy heading in the same direction. London left the convoy on 7 June and went ahead.
[[File:Slow convoy to Sierra Leone.png|thumb|351x351px|Slow convoy to Sierra Leone, as pictured from HMS ''London''.]]
 
HMS ''London'' spent some time with the battleship ''King George V'' keeping watch on Brest to ensure the German battlecruisers ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' remained bottled up. The two German heavy ships had taken refuge at the French naval port in February 1941 and would be there for another year. Relieved of this duty, ''London''<nowiki/>'s next mission was escorting slow convoys out of Sierra Leone. This was difficult for the ship to deal with, as the merchant vessels could do little more than six knots and she tended to wallow at such a slow speed. To relieve the tedium, and provide a means of boosting the confidence of the merchant ships, HMS ''London'' ran up and down the convoy lines at twenty-two knots, then took a circuitous route, before going back to the center.
 
  
On 12 May, at a UK port, ''London'' embarked soldiers who were being taken south to Gibraltar. The generous internal proportions of the County-class cruisers made them ideal troop carriers. After offloading her 600 Army passengers at Gibraltar, ''London'' stayed in port for a few days, as she was due to return to Britain carrying soldiers going home on leave. Together with the cruiser HMS Edinburgh, she was also to provide escort for a UK-bound convoy that included the liner SS ''Arundel Castle'', carrying evacuees from Gibraltar. Shortly before the cruiser left, Italian aircraft tried to bomb the Rock, but hit a nearby Spanish town by mistake, killing a number of people. ''London''<nowiki/>'s AA guns went to action stations but the planes were too far away to shoot down. Sailing north from Gibraltar, on 23 May, ''London'' encountered a Vichy French ship that she stopped and searched.
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On 6 July, HMS London left Sierra Leone and four days later came across another Vichy French merchant ship that was boarded and searched. On 24 July, London was suddenly called back to England from Gibraltar for searching for a new German raider in North Atlantic. Soon, London was deployed to Iceland for further operation.
  
=== Hunt for Bismarck, and all the troubles ===
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The high seas raider alert proved to be a false alarm and, after loitering off Iceland for a short while, London came down to Scapa Flow, arriving on 23 July. In the following two months, London was assigned to multiple convoy-escorting missions near Home waters until 22 September, when London was selected for VIP transport. Her mission was to carry a group of American and British government officials, military persons, and business tycoons to Archangel in the far north of Russia to discuss the Lend-Lease agreement and other cooperation in the war.
Shortly before 5 P.M., on 24 May, ''London'' received a order to take over shadowing duties, searching for the German battleship ''Bismarck'', which was cornered and destroyed on 27 May, leaving HMS ''London'' re-ordered to search for German supply ships in the central and southern Atlantic.
 
  
On 31 May, HMS ''London'' called in at Bathurst, Gambia, to land some of the troops embarked at Gibraltar. They were grateful to escape the confines of the cruiser, but not exactly pleased at being further away from Britain than when they had started. Their chances of spending their leave with their families looked rather slim. HMS ''London'' sailed again that afternoon, heading for a rendezvous on 3 June with the destroyer HMS ''Brilliant'', which would be her hunting partner. The following day at 07° 35' N – 31° 29' W, the two British warships found their first German supply ship, the 17,000 tons ''Esso Hamburg'', which had, in fact, refueled the ''Prinz Eugen'' on the morning of 28 May. The oil transfer had been curtailed when the German cruiser's lookouts spotted smoke on the horizon.
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Covered by the bad weather in the Arctic region, London maintained a high speed on her way to Russia to prevent reconnaissance or attacks from German U-boats and Luftwaffe. HMS London deposited her precious cargo at Archangel on 27 September. To hide from being bombed, London left Archangel on 28 September, and waited for the diplomats to return. During this time, she escorted a UK-bound convoy, which had been the first Arctic convoy journey of the war. On 2 October, London returned to Archangel to pick up the VIPs.
[[File:Smoke rises from the sinking Esso Hamburg.png|thumb|Smoke rose from the sinking German supply vessel ''Esso Hamburg''.]]
 
The British ships soon set the German supply ship on fire and picked up surviving German sailors. But the ''Esso Hamburg'' was being very stubborn, so HMS ''Brilliant'' fired a torpedo into the supply ship, which failed to go off. Next, she poured fire from her 4.7-inch guns into the German vessel, which caught fire and sank. Unfortunately, the huge pillar of smoke from burning oil curling up into the sky was a perfect warning sign for any other German vessels lurking in that stretch of ocean.
 
  
On 5 June HMS ''London'' found the supply ship, ''Egerland'', which was flying the Panamanian flag. In an effort to prevent her from scuttling herself ''London'' opened fire on her at a very long range and the shot went through her bridge and set her on fire. The German vessel's crew set scuttling charges and abandoned ship, with several more boatloads of Germans taken aboard the already crowded ''London''. Many of the new POWs were U-boat crews who had been waiting for submarines to turn up.
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=== 1942 ===
[[File:Sailors taken POW from the German vessel Egerland.png|thumb|Prisoners from the ''Egerland'' on ''London''<nowiki/>'s quarterdeck.|left]]
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HMS London returned to England for another refit from November 1941 to January 1942 to fix the cracks in the upper deck and leaking around the machinery spaces caused by the previous reconstruction.
Blessed with enough able-bodied sailors to keep her underway, HMS ''London'' headed to Freetown in Sierra Leone to offload her passengers and for part of the way she helped escort a convoy heading in the same direction. ''London'' left the convoy on 7 June and went ahead.
 
  
During a brief stay in port, the ''London'' offloaded the remainder of her British troops onto HMS ''Norfolk'', which was heading back to the UK, while the Germans were sent to prison camps. Back at sea, HMS ''London'' resumed her search for German supply vessels. On 12 June the ''Friedrich Breme'' had been sunk by the cruiser HMS ''Sheffield'' while, on 15 June, the Lothringen had been located and destroyed by planes from the carrier ''Eagle'' assisted by the cruiser ''Dunedin''. Six days later, close to the equator, HMS ''London'' found the Babitonga, another German supply ship. As it appeared the small German merchant ship posed no threat, ''London''<nowiki/>'s off watch sailors were allowed to come up onto the upper deck to watch her being sunk.
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In early February, London completed her refit, and she sailed for Iceland, from where she would conduct "Patrol White", a series of patrols preventing German raiders in the northern areas, typically the Denmark Strait and Norwegian Sea. For London, it would mean many months in the Arctic. The combination of endlessly severe wind, gale-whipped waves, and extremely low temperature created a difficult environment in the Arctic and pushed London and her crews to their limits. Even with her high freeboard, the icing on the upper deck and superstructure is still a usual sight in the Patrol White.
[[File:The Babitonga's scuttling charges explode..png|thumb|The ''Babitonga''<nowiki/>'s scuttling charges explode.]]
 
No more German supply ships were located and so London returned to Freetown to offload her prisoners. By this time some of London's sailors had gone down with malaria and venereal disease, the latter contracted from consorting with prostitutes in Sierra Leone.
 
  
On 6 July, HMS ''London'' left Freetown and four days later came across another Vichy French merchant ship that was boarded and searched. Two weeks later, during a visit to Gibraltar, ''London'' was suddenly called back to home waters. Steaming at top speed for several days, the cruiser was needed to help contain another German surface raider believed to be readying herself for a breakout into the Atlantic.
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In mid-February, HMS London became the flagship of the First Cruiser Squadron, including her sister ship HMS Norfolk, the only two available heavy cruisers remaining in Home Fleet. The expanded scale of war meant the Royal Navy had to dispatch the already depleted fleet to the Far East while the new ships were still under construction. Luckily, the US Navy Task Force 39.1, including battleship USS Washington, two heavy cruisers, and a flotilla of destroyers, joined the escort for arctic convoy to relieve the British. At that time, Anglo-American naval operations were frequently mounted to sink the German battleship, Tirpitz.
  
The high seas raider alert proved to be a false alarm and, after loitering off Iceland for a short while, ''London'' came down to Scapa Flow, arriving on 23 July. The cruiser only spent a week in the Orkneys before sailing for Greenock, in the mouth of the Clyde on Scotland's west coast, where her crew were awarded some much-needed shore leave. Following this, ''London'' was assigned as escort to a convoy that contained a number of large troop ships bound for North Africa via the Cape. On 10 August, just south of the Azores, ''London'' was relieved of escort duty by another cruiser and headed back to the UK, arriving at Scapa Flow eight days later. After another visit to Greenock, ''London'' was ordered north again to Iceland, arriving at the Hvalfjord on 2 August.
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On 7 March, London returned to Iceland from a Patrol White for refuelling but immediately put to sea under urgent orders of the Admiralty, traveling all night at high speed on action stations as German battleship Tirpitz left Trondheim and headed north early that day in search of convoy PQ12. In the following day, London joined the strike force with the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, which launched a wave of torpedo bombers to Tirpitz. Unfortunately, none of the torpedoes caused damage to the German battleship. Tirpitz was able to seek refuge in the Vestfjord unharmed. London kept patrolling in the Norwegian Sea until early April when she returned Scapa Flow for supply and fueling.
  
In late September 1941, HMS ''London'', now back at Scapa, went on a journey that would add a new dimension to war in the North Atlantic. She received orders to embark on an Anglo-US diplomatic mission that was to be taken to Archangel in the far north of Russia. The final destination of this important group was the Kremlin in Moscow, to draw up an agreement with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for cooperation against Germany.
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On 28 April, HMS made a sortie from Scapa to cover the convoy PQ15 and QP11, together with HMS King George V, Nigeria, and Victorious, as well as USS Washington, Wichita, and Tuscaloosa, alongside some destroyers. The Home Fleet Task Force sailed along the convoy between Norway and Iceland: London and three other cruisers closely around the merchant ships, while the battleships guard in the distance for Germany warships.
[[File:HMS London ploughs through heavy seas in the Denmark Strait..png|thumb|452x452px|HMS ''London'' ploughs through heavy seas in the Denmark Strait.]]
 
The Anglo-American mission to Moscow left Scapa Flow aboard HMS ''London'' on 22 September. The cruiser carried Lord Beaverbrook, the Canadian newspaper tycoon who Churchill had made his supply minister, as Britain's chief negotiator, with two British Army generals, Air Ministry officials and secretaries making up the rest of the UK party. The Americans were led by business tycoon and diplomat Averell Harriman, who had been sent to Britain by President Roosevelt to oversee administration of the Lend-Lease agreement. The weather during the voyage turned out to be calm and the Germans failed to find the London, which had sailed without escorts. She deposited her precious cargo at Archangel on 27 September, having sailed through the White Sea and thirty miles up the broad River Dvina. From Archangel airport the delegation flew directly to Moscow.
 
  
On 28 September, ''London'' left Archangel, which was not a good place to hang around as it was being bombed regularly. To kill time, until the diplomats were ready to be picked up for the journey home, the cruiser accompanied a UK-bound convoy of half a dozen ships. A month earlier they had made the first Arctic convoy journey of the war – codenamed Operation Dervish. Now they were carrying timber back to the UK. German aircraft flying from airfields in Finland could be heard hunting for the convoy throughout the time ''London'' was with it. Handing over convoy escort duties to HMS ''Shropshire'' on 2 October, the London turned around and headed back to Archangel for picking up VIPs.
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On April 29, the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer was reported to be at sea, but she turned around without attacking the convoy. On the following day, the Luftwaffe's bombers attacked the convoy. London provided air defence with both her main and secondary batteries. The Luftwaffe continued the attack on May 1, and the cruisers provided essential air defence for the convoy. London, in particular with her radar-guided high angle 4-inch guns, claimed shooting down six Ju 88s.
  
=== '''The Strain in the North, The Disaster of PQ17, and the rest of 1942''' ===
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HMS London was back at Scapa Flow by May 5 and nothing much happened for the following nine days until May 14, when London left Scapa with battleship Duke of York, aircraft carrier Victorious, and a flotilla of destroyers in an attempt to rescue cruiser HMS Trinidad, which was badly damaged by German bombers on her way to Russia. After emergency repairs in Murmansk, Trinidad headed for the Scapa on May 13, accompanied by four destroyers. However, German aircraft spotted Trinidad late in the evening of May 14 and demobilized Trinidad in the following strike. The ship was abandoned and sunk by escorting destroyers on May 15.
HMS ''London'' returned to Palmers on the Tyne, where she received a refit from November 1941 until January 1942. It was the major reconstruction that made ''London'' brittle and prone to cracking. The armor belt and other additions had added so much weight and were so inflexible that reports were received of leaking rivets and cracks in the upper deck, particularly around the boiler room uptakes.
 
  
On leaving refit the ''London'' duly headed back to Scapa. After working up in early February, she sailed for Iceland and straight out on a dreaded Patrol White, which stands for a series of patrols for preventing German raiders in northern area.
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On June 27, HMS London, alongside HMS Norfolk, USS Tuscaloosa, and USS Wichita, participated in the escort of the PQ17 convoy from Iceland. Similar to PQ15, the cruisers provided close-range escorts for the convoy. The cruisers were five miles in front, zig-zagging to reduce the risk of being hit by torpedoes. By July 1, although London and other cruisers sent their aircraft for anti-submarine patrol, the convoy was spotted by a U-boat. The Germans were planning a combined offensive involving U-boats, bombers, and surface units. On July 3, battleship Tirpitz and heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper sortied from Altenfjord, pocket battleship Scheer and heavy cruiser Lützow sortied in the far north of Norway.
  
For ''London'' it would mean many months in the Arctic, with the cruiser pushed to the limits of her construction and her sailors to the edge of human endurance. The Denmark Strait, between Iceland and Greenland, was a key patrol area where cruisers based in Iceland, including HMS ''London'', would loiter, waiting for attempts by German capital ships to break out into the Atlantic. As happened with the ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'', the cruisers would be expected to tail the enemy, fixing their position for air strikes by carrier planes and subsequent destruction by Royal Navy battleships. In terms of weather, Patrol White was possibly the worst duty of the entire war for British cruisers
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Meanwhile, PQ17 was under attack from bombers and U-boats. In the early hours of July 4, a single plane shot out of a fog bank and dropped its torpedo, hitting a cargo vessel and damaging her so badly she had to be scuttled. Later the same day, a group of torpedo-bombers attacked and sank another merchant ship. Just under an hour later, more than thirty German aircraft attacked the convoy again. Several were shot down, but two more ships were damaged. London contributed to the air defence with her AA guns, helping to disrupt the torpedo bombers.
  
The next few months were a living hell of Patrol White with the occasional respite of convoy escort work. The fury of the Arctic winter in those turbulent waters between Iceland and Greenland almost defies the imagination. Even with her high freeboard, the big cruiser was still powerless in the face of the savage forces of nature. It was more than a full gale at sea, it was nearer to a great roaring battlefield, with ships blowing across it like scraps of newspaper.
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By the evening of July 4, the Admiralty was confident that Tirpitz was in the Altenfjord. The increasing volume of German signals traffic seemed to indicate that something was about to happen. In the early hours of July 4, the Admiralty had advised London, the flagship of the cruisers, to stay with the convoy until it was level with North Cape (25° East).
[[File:Ice coats HMS London's forecastle..png|thumb|382x382px|Ice coats HMS ''London''<nowiki/>'s forecastle.]]
 
In mid-February, HMS ''London'' became flagship of the First Cruiser Squadron. The big worry, above all others, was the ''Tirpitz'' and in early March 1942, when the depleted Home Fleet – sapped of strength by the need to replace ships lost in the Mediterranean and maintaining a presence in the Indian Ocean to counter the Japanese – was only able to field the battleship King George V, battlecruiser ''Renown'', aircraft carrier HMS ''Victorious'', several cruisers (including ''London'') and a mixed bag of destroyers against the German Battleship.  
 
  
On 1 March, convoy PQ12, consisting of sixteen merchant ships, had set sail from Iceland, with QP8, made up of fifteen supply vessels, coming in the opposite direction from the Kola Inlet. They were given the initials PQ (for Russian bound) and QP (for UK bound) in honor of a naval officer who helped organize them in the Admiralty, Commander P.Q. Roberts. A Luftwaffe scout plane sighted PQ12 on 5 March, when it was less than 100 miles south of Jan Mayen Island and the Germans decided to mount a foray by the ''Tirpitz''. Hitler, who was keeping his heavy ships on a tight leash following the loss of ''Graf Spee'' and ''Bismarck'' and the damage to the ''Prinz Eugen'', reluctantly gave permission. So, ''Tirpitz'', with a trio of destroyers as her screen, left Trondheim and headed north. HMS ''London'' had returned to Hvalfjord from a Patrol White on 7 March and was taking on fuel, and immediately put to sea under urgent orders of the Admiralty, travelling all night at high speed. 
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At the Admiralty in London, the latest deciphered German signals revealed the German had mistaken HMS London for a King George V-class battleship, sailing in company with three escorting destroyers. Because of her rebuilt superstructure and the relatively huge hull, London<nowiki/>'s silhouette was different from any other British cruisers. The foggy weather also made it hard for the scout plane to correctly identify HMS London. The presence of British battleships or aircraft carriers certainly made the Germans cautious. As in the example of PQ12, the airstrike from HMS Victorious halted the engagement of Tirpitz. However, in the Admiralty's view, if the convoy continued on its way, it would be harassed by enemy U-boats and aircraft. Any enemy heavy ships would most likely be encountered east of North Cape, beyond the effective range of Home Fleet. The enemy would need no more than ten hours to reach the convoy, and could return to safety in less than that time. Hence, the decision was made to scatter the convoy, with the intention of minimizing the greater losses anticipated from a surface attack compared with those inflicted by U-boats and aircraft.<ref name="Vego" />
[[File:London's distinctive one-off lines.png|left|thumb|379x379px|''London''<nowiki/>'s distinctive one-off lines.]]
 
Shortly after 10 a.m. the following day, The British submarine that spotted Tirpitz was the Seawolf, loitering off Trondheim and her sighting report allowed Admiral John Tovey, the Home Fleet Commander-in-Chief, to steam hard for an interception somewhere south of PQ12's position. Most important of all were the Albacore torpedo-bombers of ''Victorious''. But progress was slow, as the weather was dreadful. It was so bad that British scout planes could not find the ''Tirpitz'' to fix her for a strike and the Germans failed to find PQ12. Giving up, Tovey sailed his force south to a position parallel with Trondheim, hoping ''Victorious'' would be able to launch a strike as the ''Tirpitz'' returned to her lair. At dawn on 9 March, the carrier launched two of her aircraft on an air search, with the scouting aircraft discovering the German battleship sixty miles off the Norwegian coast, heading for the Vestfjord. At around 9 a.m. a British strike force of more than a dozen Albacores arrived and scored two hits on ''Tirpitz'', for the loss of two aircraft. Unfortunately, the torpedoes were defective and, with the Home Fleet's battleships still too far away to intervene, the ''Tirpitz'' was able to seek refuge in the Vestfjord unharmed. While the Home Fleet failed in its attack on the ''Tirpitz'', at least both PQ12 and QP8 got through with light casualties and Hitler was so alarmed by such a close call that he barred any further sorties by ''Tirpitz'', unless the British carrier had been located and destroyed. HMS ''London'', together with her upset crews, had to continue their daily patrol again.
 
  
HMS ''London'' was again beginning to buckle under the strain. As a result of all the modifications she leaked like a sieve; water was always coming through into the oil tanks, contaminating the oil tanks.  
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In the evening of July 4, the Admiralty sent orders to Admiral Hamilton, who was in charge of First Cruiser Squadron on HMS London.
  
The German Kriegsmarine had its own problems with oil. On top of Hitler's restrictions on battleship and heavy cruiser movements, there was a shortage of fuel. The Germans therefore restricted themselves to launching eight U-boats, three destroyers and Ju88 bombers against PQ13 in late March.
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At 9:11 p.m. on the cruiser's bridge, the first signal arrived. Marked 'MOST IMMEDIATE', it said:<ref name="Churchill" />
  
On 28 April HMS London left Scapa in company with ''King George V'', the USS ''Washington'', USS ''Wichita'', USS ''Tuscaloosa'' and HMS ''Nigeria'' together with HMS ''Victorious'' and a brace of destroyers. This Home Fleet task force patrolled between Norway and Iceland to cover PQ15 and QP11. The latter left the Kola Inlet on 28 April, with a close escort led by the cruiser HMS ''Edinburgh''.
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{{Quote|CRUISER FORCE WITHDRAW TO THE WESTWARDS AT HIGH SPEED}}
  
On 29 April the pocket battleship ''Admiral Scheer'' was reported to be at sea but she turned around without attacking the convoy or giving the Home Fleet enough time to find and sink her. The heavy escort force linked up with PQ15 on 30 April and the following day the Germans made a determined attack on the cruiser squadron. Because the cruisers’ job was to hover just over the horizon, waiting for a surface warship threat rather than providing close anti-aircraft cover, the Luftwaffe's bombers ignored them, choosing to concentrate on the merchant ships. But on 1 May, the cruisers, and London in particular, came in for some special attention. Action stations were called at 10 a.m. and the London's sailors dutifully went to their allocated positions throughout the ship for air defense, in which the escort team claim shooting down six Ju88s.
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Twelve minutes later, another equally alarming signal hit HMS London:
[[File:USS Washington, reinforced the Royal Navy's Home Fleet.png|thumb|420x420px|The American battleship USS ''Washington'', reinforced the Royal Navy's Home Fleet in the Spring of 1942.]]
 
At the same time, it was a chaos for the Royal Navy, the ''King George V'' rammed one of her escorting destroyers, and was damaged by the smaller warship's depth charges going off as she was crushed. Meanwhile, Edinburgh had been torpedoed on 30 April but survived and turned back for Murmansk, but on 2 May her luck ran out when three German destroyers attacked, one of them putting another torpedo into her. British destroyers came to the cruiser's aid but she was so badly damaged by now that she had to be abandoned and scuttled. The German destroyer ''Hermann Schoemann'' was also scuttled, having suffered fatal damage during the fight with Edinburgh. In the meantime, QP11 linked up with London and the other Home Fleet ships, managing to get through to Iceland with the loss of only one of thirteen merchant ships. Three of PQ15's merchant ships were lost, with the other twenty-two reaching Murmansk.
 
  
HMS ''London'' was back at Scapa Flow by 5 May and nothing much happened for nine days until May 14, when London left with ''Duke of York'', ''Victorious'' and flotilla of destroyers in an attempt to HMS ''Trinidad'', which was badly damaged in the battle before, limping home from Russia.
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{{Quote|IMMEDIATE… OWING TO THREAT FROM SURFACE SHIPS, CONVOY IS TO DISPERSE AND PROCEED TO RUSSIAN PORTS}}
  
However, their mission was already in vain. After temporary repairs in Murmansk, Trinidad set out for the UK on 13 May, with a close escort provided by four destroyers, and four other cruisers providing more distant support. But German aircraft caught Trinidad late in the evening of 14 May. Following at least two bomb hits which caused an uncontrollable fire, Trinidad was abandoned, with one of the escorting destroyers sending her to the bottom with a torpedo in the early hours of 15 May.
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This was followed, at 9.36 p.m., by the signal that has gone down as one of the most notorious in naval history:
  
The loss of ''Edinburgh'' and ''Trinidad'', together with the growing numbers of torpedo bombers and undiminished German surface threat, persuaded the Admiralty that convoys should be suspended during the perpetual daylight of the Arctic summer. But Russia was still under the most serious pressure from the Wehrmacht, which was preparing to mount a big thrust into the Caucasus towards Stalingrad. Also, more and more American merchant ships packed with essential war supplies were queuing up to come across to Iceland on the way to Russia, with President Roosevelt telling Winston Churchill there could be no delays.
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{{Quote|MOST IMMEDIATE. CONVOY IS TO SCATTER}}
  
On 27 June, HMS ''London'', as the flagship of First Cruiser Squadron, alongside HMS ''Norfolk'', USS ''Tuscaloosa'', and USS ''Wichita'', participated the escort of PQ17 convoy from Iceland. By 1 July the convoy was past Jan Mayen Island, with the first U-boats sighted on the same day and attacked by escorting destroyers. The cruiser force was keeping just over the horizon where it was enthusiastically engaged in depth-charging submarine contacts. The cruisers’ aircraft, including London's Walrus seaplanes, were sent up on Anti-Submarine Warfare patrols to provide more air cover. The weather was calm, with fine blue skies, but there were the usual patches of fog, caused by the warm Gulf Stream hitting the cold polar water and random ice.
+
On the night of 4 July, HMS London and the other warships sped away from the dismissing convoy. The destroyers and cruisers continued a nightmare dash at high speed through the fog and a sea scattered with icebergs. As the cruisers and destroyers sped on, the communicators in London read with mounting horror the signals from PQ17 merchant ships as they were ripped apart by aircraft and U-boats. Captain of HMS London offered to go back, but Rear Admiral Hamilton reminded him that his ships were low on oil and had lost their fuel ship somewhere in the scattered convoy.<ref name="Ballantyne" />
  
German spies had been able to pass on considerable detail about PQ17's composition and a pack of eleven U-boats had been assembled to attack it. In fact, the Germans were planning something special a concerted offensive involving U-boats and bombers backed up by a heavy ship sortie. Codenamed Rosselsprung, or Knight's Move, it had been outlined for Hitler on 1 June, when he was told it would involve ''Tirpitz, Lützow, Hipper'' and ''Scheer'' attacking PQ17 once it reached the Barents Sea around 5 July.
+
The rest was an absolute disaster for the convoy. On 5 July, 14 of 34 merchant ships were sunk or demobilized by air strikes and U-boats. In the following week, nine more merchantmen were sunk or abandoned. Ultimately only eleven merchant ships reached their intended destination two British, seven American, and two Russian. The destruction of PQ17 triggered a series of consequences in all aspects. For the Royal Navy, the arctic convoy was held until September when a new tactic was planned for escorting convoy.
  
The German Naval Staff was confident of evading the Home Fleet and anticipated great success, but Hitler reminded his admirals that HMS ''Victorious'' had to be found and destroyed before the battle group could leave harbour. But if the big ships remained where they were the plan would be totally unfeasible – they would never catch up with the convoy. So, the Kriegsmarine persuaded the Führer to allow ''Tirpitz'' and ''Hipper'' to move up to the Vestfjord, and ''Scheer'' and ''Lützow'' to the Altenfjord, in the far north of Norway, prior to the green light being given. The admirals also persuaded Hitler the operation could proceed in safety if the ''Victorious'' and Allied battleships had been confirmed as too far away to intervene before the convoy was destroyed. However, during the move north on 3 July the ''Lützow'' ran aground, as did three destroyers escorting ''Tirpitz''. Robbed of a pocket battleship and left with a reduced escort force, the Germans decided to concentrate their battle group in the Altenfjord.
+
HMS London returned to Scapa on 8 July and stayed there until September 1942 when the arctic convoys was restarted, then she moved to Hvalfjord. London had departed Hvalfjord on 14 September in company with Norfolk, Sussex, Cumberland, and Sheffield, together with destroyers to escort the convoy PQ18. The British cruiser force patrolled between Bear Island and Spitzbergen, coming to within 700 miles of the North Pole.
  
Meanwhile PQ17 was passing just to the north of Bear Island, U-boat contacts were coming in thick and fast and air attacks were growing in intensity. At 3 p.m. a wave of two dozen German bombers came over but, because of a layer of low cloud, the attackers were forced to drop theirdeadly payloads through it and all the bombs missed. A U-boat fired three torpedoes at the Tuscaloosa, but they all went wide.
+
PQ18 suffered ten out of forty merchant vessels sunk while QP14, coming the other way, lost three out of fifteen supply ships. Two British warships were also lost. At the same time, the Germans paid a high price, losing forty aircraft and three U-boats. After that, HMS London provided covers for QP15, a convoy returning to the UK.
  
In the early hours of 4 July, a single plane shot out of a fog bank…and dropped its fish hitting a cargo vessel and damaging her so badly she had to be scuttled. At 5.15 p.m. a gaggle of torpedo-bombers came winging over smooth seas and sank another merchant ship. Just under an hour later more than thirty German aircraft were greeted with a storm of fire from the escorting warships and merchantmen. Several were shot down but two more ships were mortally wounded. London contributed to the air defence with her 8-inch guns, helping to disrupt an attack by Heinkel torpedo bombers, but on the whole the cruisers had to content themselves with being spectators.
+
=== 1943 ===
 +
HMS London kept on her station in the arctic area until 17 November, when she returned Scapa and was nominated for refit in Tyne shipyard. She sailed up the Tyne to Middle Dock at North Shields for another refit. The refit lasted five months and involved considerable strengthening for cracks and repairing leaks of oil tanks. A new surface warning radar, Type 273, and fire control radar, Type 282, for 40 mm cannons were added. The cruiser's aircraft launch gear was removed, and seven additional 20 mm cannons (eight single 20 mm cannons had been fitted during the previous refit, in place of her machine guns). By 4 May 1943, HMS London was back at Scapa Flow and on sea trials before resuming convoy escort work and patrols in the Denmark Strait.
  
By the evening of 4 July, the Admiralty was confident that ''Tirpitz'' was in the Altenfjord and it also knew about the imminent foray, thanks to intelligence sources in Sweden. The increasing volume of German signals traffic seemed to indicate that something was about to happen and in the early hours of 4 July the Admiralty had advised Rear Admiral Hamilton, aboard ''London'', that he should stay with the convoy until it was level with North Cape (25° East).
+
London spent some time in Scapa for training. In early July, she was deployed with HMS Belfast and HMS Kent with destroyers in diversionary moves around Norway to distract attention away from the Allied landings in Sicily by reinforcing Hitler's fear about an invasion of Norway. Around the same time, London took part in Operation Holder, convoying supplies, personnel, and mail to Royal Navy bases in north Russia. On 9 July, London returned to Scapa and resumed interception duties to prevent the breakout of German warships for attacks on Atlantic convoy in the following months.
  
However, the Admiralty's final orders for PQ17 had ultimately incorporated both the scatter option and the possibility of it being turned back to lead the German surface ships within striking distance of the Home Fleet. On the afternoon of 4 July, Admiral Tovey, now with the Home Fleet somewhere between Iceland and Bear Island, advised the First Cruiser Squadron that it could leave PQ17 before reaching 25° East, indicating that the threat from major German surface units was receding. Hamilton replied that he would leave the convoy late on the evening of 4 July after refueling his destroyers. Shortly before 7 p.m., ''London'' received a signal from the Admiralty instructing the First Cruiser Squadron to stay with the convoy. 
+
In October 1943, HMS London was sent on a special mission to waters around the island of Spitzbergen, far to the north of Iceland, where it was suspected the Germans were maintaining a secret radio intercept station. The cruiser sailed around the island but failed to find any such station.
  
Rear Admiral Hamilton was not impressed by the contradictory attitudes of his two masters, but he knew that, even though Tovey was the man on the spot with excellent operational instinct, the Admiralty was tapping in to a steady flow of intelligence. He felt that the best course of action would be for his squadron to stay with the convoy until the exact disposition of the German surface ships was known. Despite instructions not to attack major German surface ships, Hamilton had decided that he would have a go if a heavy cruiser or pocket battleship came over the horizon. If his squadron encountered either ''Scheer'', ''Hipper'' or even ''Lützow'' on their own, he would split his force and attack from four directions – a tactic similar to that employed by the cruisers Exeter, Achilles and Ajax against the ''Graf Spee'' in 1939. If there were two German heavy ships then ''London'' and ''Norfolk'' would attack one, while the Americans would attack the other. If ''Tirpitz'' appeared then ''London'' and the other cruisers would, as instructed, hang back and try and lead her towards the Home Fleet. As Hamilton pondered these options in his cabin aboard London, the convoy was coming under sustained attack from German aircraft. That evening a British and an American merchant ship were sunk and a Russian tanker damaged, with three German aircraft shot down. 
+
Late in the same month, the cruiser helped escort a convoy of five US-built minesweepers and six metal-hulled motor launches to Murmansk. For London, service in the Arctic was coming to a close as she was about to receive orders for another diplomatic mission, this time carrying members of the Prime Minister's staff to Egypt. In early November, she was tasked to Plymouth to pick up the mission members, ending London<nowiki/>'s activity in the Arctic.
  
The cruisers were five miles in front, zig-zagging to reduce the risk of being hit by torpedoes, but as the enemy aircraft were concentrating as usual on the merchant ships, the London relaxed her state of alert.
+
Arriving at Plymouth on 10 November, HMS London carried members of the Prime Minister's staff, while Churchill himself sailed to Egypt for the Cairo conference in the battlecruiser HMS Renown. London also loaded the 'Stalingrad Sword,' a gift from King George VI to the people of Stalingrad that celebrated the great victory over the Germans. It had been carried from Plymouth to Egypt by HMS London before being put on the plane with the British delegation.
  
At the Admiralty in London the latest deciphered German signals revealed the enemy had mistaken HMS ''London'' for a King George V Class battleship, sailing in company with three escorting destroyers. Because of her one-off rebuild, the ''London''<nowiki/>'s silhouette was like no other cruiser's and, unless scout plane crews were warned of her presence with the convoy, it was an easy mistake to make. The First Sea Lord was briefed by a member of his staff about the likely implications of this mistaken sighting and other factors that might create caution in the Kriegsmarine's high command. It was pointed out that the PQ12 experience would have made the Germans very wary of risking ''Tirpitz'' at sea without knowing for certain where ''Victorious'' was. In fact, unknown to the British, floatplanes from the American cruisers had been mistaken for Albacores from the British carrier. However, the person who briefed the First Sea Lord did know that Royal Navy and Russian submarines staking out the Altenfjord had not seen the Tirpitz emerge. But when Admiral Pound asked for a cast iron assurance that the Tirpitz was still in the Altenfjord it could not be provided. 
+
London stayed at Alexandria during the Cairo conference, and in early December, set out on the journey home carrying VIP passengers. Arriving at Gibraltar on 13 December, London left for the UK four days later for troop transportation. On 21 December, she arrived in the Clyde, disembarked her passengers, and two days later sailed for Rosyth to undergo another refit, during which four twin 20 mm guns were fitted to reinforce the AA defence.
  
On the bridge of HMS ''London'', Rear Admiral Hamilton was suggesting that the break in enemy attacks provided an opportunity for a quick bite to eat.
+
=== 1944 ===
 +
In early February 1944, HMS London was back on the Clyde for mail and new drafts of sailors. By then, the Admiralty had decided to deploy her for service in Eastern Fleet. On 13 March, London arrived at Colombo, one of the two major British naval bases in Ceylon, and, four days later, transferred to the other, Trincomalee.
  
Within seconds of the food arriving on the cruiser's bridge the first signal arrived. Marked ‘MOST IMMEDIATE’ it said: 
+
On 21 March, as a member of the British fleet, London participated in Operation Diplomat, which was a naval training operation between Royal Navy and US Navy. The operations aimed to practice operational procedures and tactics that the British Pacific fleet would use. On 27 March, London met the US Task Group 58.5. In the following month, London was assigned to Task Force 70 for Air Rescue duty for aircraft carriers. On 19 April, the task force attacked the island of Sabang with no serious opposition from the Japanese. London provided close covers to carriers during attacks on Sabang. On 24 April, the Task Force returned to Trincomalee for resupply.
  
{{Quote|…one regiment of Fascists was annihilated in a square, being mown down by concealed rifle fire.}}
+
On 30 April, HMS London was assigned to Task Force 67 with her sister ship HMS Suffolk. The fleet sailed to Exmouth Bay, Western Australia for Operation Transom, an air raid marking the return of the British fleet in the Pacific. London was reassigned to Task Force 66 on 15 May to provide escorts for aircraft carriers during the airstrike on the Japanese-held Surabaya. She accompanied British aircraft carriers for the rest of May until they returned to Trincomalee.
  
The time was 9.11 p.m. and twelve minutes later another equally alarming signal hit the HMS London: IMMEDIATE… OWING TO THREAT FROM SURFACE SHIPS, CONVOY IS TO DISPERSE AND PROCEED TO RUSSIAN PORTS.  
+
On 12 September, after a period of fleet exercises, London arrived at Bombay, where she entered dry dock for hull cleaning and essential maintenance. Thirteen days later, London left Bombay, carried out some gunnery practice, and headed for Ceylon. She was to join Task Group 63.2 to escort aircraft carrier for a bombardment mission in mid-October against Car Nicobar in the Nicobar Islands, north of Sumatra. London contributed to air defence on 19 October, when the fleet shot down seven Japanese torpedo bombers in total.
  
 This was followed, at 9.36 p.m., by the signal that has gone down as one of the most notorious in naval history:
+
=== 1945 ===
 +
In early 1945, HMS London provided convoy escorts in the Indian ocean. On 8 April 1945, London joined the British East Indies Fleet's Task Force 63 for another bombardment mission. The warships were left in two groups, with London in Group One alongside HMS Queen Elizabeth, the French battleship Richelieu and destroyers. Group Two included the escort carriers Khedive and Emperor, the cruiser Cumberland and the destroyers Virago and Venus.
  
MOST IMMEDIATE. CONVOY IS TO SCATTER. 
+
On 11 April, London and battleships carried out a bombardment on coastal artillery at Sabang. In the following week, London provided close escorts for carrier operations until TF63 returned to Trincomalee on 18 April.
  
{{Quote|13 August…. The 'British' folk leaving Spain nowadays are not good speakers of English!}}
+
On 13 May, London set sail for Simonstown naval base in South Africa where she was dry-docked for a refit, in which a barrage fire control radar (Type 283) and new surface warning radar (Type 277) were added on the ship. HMS London returned to her duty in early August of 1945, preparing for an amphibious assault in southern Malaya. But the operation was canceled on 15 August, just at the same time when Japan surrendered. After Japan surrendered, on 28 August, HMS London arrived in Sabang to disarm the local Japanese garrison and received charts of the Japanese minefields off Malaya and Singapore from the Japanese delegation.
 +
 
 +
On 14 October, at Colombo, London embarked around 400 passengers and 200 bags of mail and the following morning set sail for home, arriving at Sheerness three weeks later. By 9 November, HMS London returned her home at Chatham marking the end of her story in WWII.
 +
 
 +
London might have come through the Second World War unscathed and unnoticed, but ahead lay her sternest test under fire and it would make headlines around the world.
 +
 
 +
=== After the war ===
 +
Prior to joining the Royal Navy Reserve, HMS London was used as troop transport from UK to Colombo (26 Nov 1945), Sydney (19 Jan 1946) and after a brief refit in Devonport, to Singapore (May 1946). She returned to Plymouth in late June that year.
 +
 
 +
But by the end of 1946, London was refitted for further service in the Far East as she was the only modernized 8-inch gun cruiser in Royal Navy. The refit was completed in 1947. After working up, the cruiser joined the 5th Cruiser Squadron at Royal Navy China Station in Hong Kong to protect British interests and civilians in the Eastern waters.
 +
 
 +
During her final deployment, the most notable event was the attempt to rescue HM Sloop Amethyst, known as the Yangtze Incident, from 20 April to 21 April 1949.
 +
 
 +
After World War Two, a Chinese civil war broke out between the nationalists led by Chiang Kai Shek, who were bitter enemies of the Communists led by Mao Tse Tung. By mid-April 1948, the Communists were a short distance from Nanking, the capital of the Nationalist Government, and were building up forces to cross the Yangtze River. To demonstrate protection for British subjects in Chinese waters, the Royal Navy was asked to maintain at least one large ship (cruiser size) with two smaller ships in Shanghai and one small ship at Nanking.
 +
 
 +
On 17 April 1949, London sailed from Hong Kong to Shanghai. At that time, frigates Amethyst and Black Swan were stationed at Shanghai and destroyer Consort at Nanking. The Naval Attaché at Nanking advised that the Communist army would attempt to cross the Yangtze River on 21 April, and British ships should avoid any involvement. On 20 April, Amethyst came to relieve Consort at Nanking, and at 9:30 a.m., Amethyst was under artillery fire from the north bank. The frigate's bridge and machinery room were hit by shells, causing the frigate to lose control and beached on Rose Island.<ref name="Hughes" />
 +
 
 +
On 20 April, HMS London, flying the flag of Vice-Admiral Madden, was approaching the mouth of the Yangtze River bound for Shanghai on a flag-showing visit. During the forenoon, London was receiving information from Amethyst that she was attacked by unexpected fire and demobilized. The Admiral ordered the frigate, Black Swan, to join London and decided to weigh anchor on 21 April and proceed upriver with Black Swan to rescue Amethyst.
 +
 
 +
In the early morning of the following day, London and Black Swan moved upriver. The British ships anchored off at 8:00 a.m., as Amethyst managed to move out of Rose Island. Admiral Madden called Amethyst to rejoin the fleet. But, due to the death of the navigator and damage to charts, Amethyst was unable to set the correct heading. In this case, London and Black Swan weighed anchor again at 10:26 a.m. and moved up the river. In less than a few minutes, the Communists opened fire on London and Black Swan with large-calibre howitzers and small-calibre cannons. London counterattacked with her main guns and secondary armaments. The large-calibre batteries were easy to spot and destroy, while smaller calibre weapons were well concealed and difficult to hit. At some time before 11:00 a.m., a howitzer shell hit the bridge, injuring the captain. At that time, considering the low possibility of escorting Amethyst under heavy fire and increasing damage on the ship, Admiral Madden decided to withdraw at 11:04 a.m. London and Black Swan turned back and arrived in Shanghai later that day.
 +
 
 +
London had been under fire for 48 minutes in an overall period of 3 hours.<ref name="Dalrymple" /> In that period, London fired 155 rounds of 8-inch, 449 rounds of 4-inch, and more than 2,600 small calibre AA guns. Among London<nowiki/>'s crew, 13 people are dead and 59 people wounded, of whom two died later. Amethyst would make her escape in three months.
 +
 
 +
After some temporary repairs in Shanghai, HMS London departed on 14 June, heading south to Singapore, where she spent a few weeks. On 18 June, London left Singapore and on her way to the UK. She arrived in Chatham on 8 September. By the end of 1949, she received an inspection to determine if she could serve further after an overall refit. However, London<nowiki/>'s ageing machinery and construction meant it would be too expensive to keep in service. She was placed on the Disposal List and laid up at Falmouth before sale to BISCO for demolition by T W Ward on 3 January 1950. The ship went to Barrow-in-Furness under tow and arrived at the breaker's yard on 22 January. Work on demolition was completed later that year.
  
 
=== [[wt:en/news/6626-development-hms-london-anticipated-calibre-en|Devblog]] ===
 
=== [[wt:en/news/6626-development-hms-london-anticipated-calibre-en|Devblog]] ===
 
The County-class cruisers, also known as the A-Type cruisers, were the first British cruiser vessels to be developed in the interwar period of the 1920s. Their design being heavily influenced by the restrictions imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty, meant that British shipbuilders had to find compromises during development in order to comply with the treaty as well as to meet the requirements of the Royal Navy for a ship capable of trade route protection.
 
The County-class cruisers, also known as the A-Type cruisers, were the first British cruiser vessels to be developed in the interwar period of the 1920s. Their design being heavily influenced by the restrictions imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty, meant that British shipbuilders had to find compromises during development in order to comply with the treaty as well as to meet the requirements of the Royal Navy for a ship capable of trade route protection.
  
This resulted in the creation of a ship design with good cruising range and adequate firepower, but very light armour protection in order to stay within treaty restrictions. The orders for the first ships were placed in the mid 1920's and construction began in 1924.
+
This resulted in the creation of a ship design with good cruising range and adequate firepower, but very light armour protection in order to stay within treaty restrictions. The orders for the first ships were placed in the mid 1920s and construction began in 1924.
  
HMS London (C69) was laid down in February 1926 and commissioned into service in January 1929 as the lead ship of the second batch of County-class cruisers to be built, known as the London subclass. During the 1930's, HMS London took part in a goodwill visit to Venice and assisted in the evacuation of civilians from Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, before being sent to drydock for refit in 1939.
+
HMS London (C69) was laid down in February 1926 and commissioned into service in January 1929 as the lead ship of the second batch of County-class cruisers to be built, known as the London subclass. During the 1930s, HMS London took part in a goodwill visit to Venice and assisted in the evacuation of civilians from Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, before being sent to drydock for refit in 1939.
  
 
In 1941, HMS London took part in the hunt for the battleship Bismarck, after which the ship was once again dry-docked for repairs. The following year, HMS London assisted in escorting several convoys in the Atlantic, after which she was assigned to South African waters in 1943, before joining the Eastern Fleet. HMS London continued serving in the postwar years, during which the ship got involved in an incident in Chinese waters in 1949 which left it heavily damaged. Being deemed uneconomical for repairs, HMS London was sold for scrap in January 1950.
 
In 1941, HMS London took part in the hunt for the battleship Bismarck, after which the ship was once again dry-docked for repairs. The following year, HMS London assisted in escorting several convoys in the Atlantic, after which she was assigned to South African waters in 1943, before joining the Eastern Fleet. HMS London continued serving in the postwar years, during which the ship got involved in an incident in Chinese waters in 1949 which left it heavily damaged. Being deemed uneconomical for repairs, HMS London was sold for scrap in January 1950.
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== Media ==
 
== Media ==
 
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<!-- ''Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.'' -->
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;Skins
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* [https://live.warthunder.com/feed/camouflages/?vehicle=uk_cruiser_london Skins and camouflages for the {{PAGENAME}} from live.warthunder.com.]
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<gallery mode="packed" heights="150">
 
<gallery mode="packed" heights="150">
 
File:HMS London WTWallpaper 01.jpg|
 
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</gallery>
 
</gallery>
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;Videos
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{{Youtube-gallery|0-YjdmEjnkQ|'''HMS London & HMS Kent - Double Flipped Review''' - ''Flipped StuG''}}
  
 
== See also ==
 
== See also ==
 
''Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:''
 
''Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:''
 
 
* ''reference to the series of the ship;''
 
* ''reference to the series of the ship;''
 
* ''links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.''
 
* ''links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.''
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* ''topic on the official game forum;''
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=== References ===
 
=== References ===
<references />
+
;Citations
 
+
<references>
=== Works Cited ===
+
<ref name="Ballantyne">Ballantyne, I. (2002). ''HMS London: Warships of the Royal Navy''. Casemate Publishers.</ref>
 +
<ref name="Churchill">Churchill, W. (1951). ''The Second World War-Volume 4: The Hinge of Fate''. Rosetta Book LLC.</ref>
 +
<ref name="Brown">Brown, D. K. (2012). ''Nelson to Vanguard: Warship Design and Development 1923 1945''. Seaforth Publishing.</ref>
 +
<ref name="Dalrymple">Dalrymple, Gordon. & Stewart, Neil. (2011). ''HMS London in the River Yangtze 20 & 21 April 1949.'' Monograph No.170.</ref>
 +
<ref name="Klapsis">Klapsis, A. (2009). Between the Hammer and the Anvil. The Cyprus Question and Greek Foreign Policy from the Treaty of Lausanne to the 1931 Revolt.</ref>
 +
<ref name="Hughes">Hughes, W.R.N..(1979). HMS Amethyst - the Yangtse Incident 1948. Naval Historical Review.</ref>
 +
<ref name="Vego">Vego, M. (2016). The Destruction of Convoy PQ17: 27 June–10 July 1942. ''Naval War College Review'', ''69''(3), 83-142.</ref>
 +
</references>
  
 +
;Bibliography
 +
* Anderson, P. (2019). British Government Maritime Evacuations in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939. ''War in History'', ''26''(1), 65-85.
 +
* Beesly, P. (1990). Convoy PQ 17: A study of intelligence and decision‐making. ''Intelligence and National Security'', ''5''(2), 292-322.
 
* Chen, C. (2007, May). Heavy Cruiser London. Retrieved November 17, 2020, from <nowiki>https://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=326</nowiki>
 
* Chen, C. (2007, May). Heavy Cruiser London. Retrieved November 17, 2020, from <nowiki>https://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=326</nowiki>
 +
* Colledge, J. J., & Warlow, B. (2010). ''Ships of the Royal Navy: The complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th century to the present''. Casemate/Greenhill.
 
* Helgason, G. (1995). HMS London (69). Retrieved November 17, 2020, from <nowiki>https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/1178.html</nowiki>
 
* Helgason, G. (1995). HMS London (69). Retrieved November 17, 2020, from <nowiki>https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/1178.html</nowiki>
 +
* Irving, D. J. C. (1968). ''The Destruction of Convoy PQ. 17''. Cassell.
  
 +
{{ShipManufacturer Portsmouth}}
 
{{Britain heavy cruisers}}
 
{{Britain heavy cruisers}}

Latest revision as of 04:55, 24 March 2024

Rank VI USSR | Premium | Golden Eagles
Su-25K Pack
uk_cruiser_london.png
GarageImage HMS London.jpg
HMS London
AB RB SB
5.7 5.7 5.7
Research:89 000 Specs-Card-Exp.png
Purchase:300 000 Specs-Card-Lion.png
Show in game

Description

The County-class, HMS London (69), 1945 is a rank IV British heavy cruiser with a battle rating of 5.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.97 "Viking Fury".

General info

Survivability and armour

Armourfront / side / back
Citadel25 / 89 / 35 mm
Main fire tower25 / 25 / 25 mm
Hull25 mm (steel)
Superstructure8 mm (steel)
Number of section9
Displacement13 315 t
Crew793 people

Compared to her predecessor the Norfolk, the London has a 88.9 mm main belt, compared to the Norfolk's 25 mm. This is a very welcome change, but it doesn't amount to much. The machinery is slightly better protected, but the rest of the hull above the waterline has no armour at all (aside from a tiny 38 mm plate to protect the steering gears), and neither does the enormous superstructure. The London is a massive glass cannon, and should be played with caution. The one saving grace of the London's survivability is the very safe location of the London's magazines. They are well underwater and protected by a 100 mm plate inside the ship. Catastrophic ammunition detonations from cruiser-calibre guns are extremely rare, and even battleships may struggle to slip a shell into the right spot.

Mobility

Speedforward / back
AB70 / 29 km/h
RB60 / 25 km/h

The mobility on the London is nothing to write home about. Capable of 60 km/h, 1 km/h slower than the Norfolk, the London still has the same top speed of nearly every WW2-era heavy cruiser. The manoeuvrability is also nothing exceptional. She'll get the job done, but she won't do it faster than any other cruiser.

Mobility Characteristics
Game Mode Upgrade Status Maximum Speed (km/h) Turn Time (s) Turn Radius (m)
Forward Reverse
AB Stock ___ ___
Upgraded 70 29
RB/SB Stock ___ ___
Upgraded 60 25

Modifications and economy

Repair costBasic → Reference
AB11 261 → 14 650 Sl icon.png
RB10 929 → 14 218 Sl icon.png
Total cost of modifications78 400 Rp icon.png
134 700 Sl icon.png
Talisman cost1 700 Ge icon.png
Crew training87 000 Sl icon.png
Experts300 000 Sl icon.png
Aces1 100 Ge icon.png
Research Aces520 000 Rp icon.png
Reward for battleAB / RB / SB
450 / 600 / 100 % Sl icon.png
172 / 172 / 172 % Rp icon.png
Modifications
Seakeeping Unsinkability Firepower
Mods new ship hull.png
Dry-Docking
Research:
3 100 Rp icon.png
Cost:
5 300 Sl icon.png
200 Ge icon.png
Mods new ship rudder.png
Rudder Replacement
Research:
3 500 Rp icon.png
Cost:
6 000 Sl icon.png
230 Ge icon.png
Mods new ship screw.png
Propeller Replacement
Research:
3 300 Rp icon.png
Cost:
5 700 Sl icon.png
210 Ge icon.png
Mods new ship engine.png
Engine Maintenance
Research:
6 400 Rp icon.png
Cost:
11 000 Sl icon.png
410 Ge icon.png
Mods ship damage control crew.png
Damage Control Division
Research:
3 100 Rp icon.png
Cost:
5 300 Sl icon.png
200 Ge icon.png
Mods ship fire control crew.png
Fire Division
Research:
3 500 Rp icon.png
Cost:
6 000 Sl icon.png
230 Ge icon.png
Mods engine smoke screen system.png
Smokescreen
Research:
3 500 Rp icon.png
Cost:
6 000 Sl icon.png
230 Ge icon.png
Mods ship anti fragmentation protection.png
Shrapnel Protection
Research:
3 300 Rp icon.png
Cost:
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New Pumps
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Ammo Wetting
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Anti-Air Armament Targeting
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Auxiliary Armament Targeting
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Primary Armament Targeting
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Torpedo Mode
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Armament

Primary armament

4 х Turret2 x 8 inch/50 Mark VIII cannon
Ammunition300 rounds
Vertical guidance-3° / 70°

HMS London retains the 8"/50 Mark VIII guns seen on previous British heavy cruisers. As with the others, the guns are reasonably accurate, although at long ranges the dispersion will start to show itself. The shortest achievable reload time is 12 seconds, which is quite fast by heavy cruiser standards. There is no first-stage ammunition stowage, so the reload rate will always remain quick no matter how much ammunition is remaining.

There are two shells available, an HE shell and a researchable SAPCBC shell. The HE shell performs as can be expected from heavy cruiser HE - solid against light targets, but unable to significantly damage heavier ships. The researchable SAPCBC shell on the other hand is one of the most powerful shells available to any heavy cruiser, possessing a excellent blend of penetration while also having a massive 5.2 kg bursting charge. This, combined with the quick fire rate, means that London's damage output is nothing short of exceptional, and if you are left to your own devices, you can inflict massive damage upon the enemy team. However, the lack of a proper AP shell also means the London will struggle against heavy targets, such as battleships.

HE is used as the stock shell, while SAPCBC can be researched immediately after purchasing the ship. It is recommended to get the SAPCBC quickly, but only after basic survivability modifications.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
1,000 m 2,500 m 5,000 m 7,500 m 10,000 m 15,000 m
HE HE 62 62 62 62 62 62
Mark I.B. SAPCBC SAPCBC 274 248 209 178 153 119
Shell details
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Velocity
(m/s)
Projectile
mass (kg)
Fuse delay
(s)
Fuse sensitivity
(mm)
Explosive mass
(TNT equivalent) (kg)
Ricochet
0% 50% 100%
HE HE 855 116.1 0 0.1 10 79° 80° 81°
Mark I.B. SAPCBC SAPCBC 855 116.1 0.025 9 5.2 48° 63° 71°

Secondary armament

4 х Turret2 x 4 inch/45 Mark XVI cannon
Ammunition400 rounds

The London has four twin 4" turrets behind the funnels, able to bring two to bear for a broadside. They are the same guns found on the Hunt-class and V-class destroyers. In terms of their ability to damage surface targets, their utility is extremely limited, especially compared to American 5" cruiser secondaries, which will outclass the British 4"s in every way. However, when it comes to downing planes, the London's secondaries will do the job reasonably well. Four shells are available: HE, HE-TF, HE-VT, and SAP. HE is the stock shell, while the rest must be researched. Getting the HE-VT first as a tier III modification to bolster the London's long-range AA is advisable, as the rest are not very useful. After finishing more important modifications, get SAP in case the guns ever must be used against surface targets. Save the HE-TF as one of the last modifications you research, as it is simply redundant when the HE-VT is available.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
1,000 m 2,500 m 5,000 m 7,500 m 10,000 m 15,000 m
4 inch HE HE 20 20 20 20 20 20
4 inch SAP SAP 102 85 64 48 38 30
4 inch HE-TF HE-TF 20 20 20 20 20 20
4 inch HE-VT HE-VT 20 20 20 20 20 20
Shell details
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Velocity
(m/s)
Projectile
mass (kg)
Fuse delay
(s)
Fuse sensitivity
(mm)
Explosive mass
(TNT equivalent) (g)
Ricochet
0% 50% 100%
4 inch HE HE 811 15.88 0 0.1 1,550 79° 80° 81°
4 inch SAP SAP 811 17.35 0.015 5 600 47° 60° 65°
4 inch HE-TF HE-TF 811 15.88 0 0.1 1,550 79° 80° 81°
Proximity-fused shell details
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Velocity
(m/s)
Projectile
mass (kg)
Fuse delay
(m)
Fuse sensitivity
(mm)
Arming
distance (m)
Trigger
radius (m)
Explosive mass
(TNT equivalent) (g)
Ricochet
0% 50% 100%
4 inch HE-VT HE-VT 811 15.88 0 0.1 274 18 1,550 79° 80° 81°

Anti-aircraft armament

4 х Turret40 mm QF Mark VII gun
Ammunition2000 rounds
Belt capacity4 rounds
Fire rate160 shots/min
2 х Turret8 x 40 mm 2pdr QF Mk.VIII automatic cannon
Ammunition17920 rounds
Belt capacity56 rounds
Fire rate200 shots/min
8 х Turret2 x 20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mark V autocannon
Ammunition3600 rounds
Belt capacity60 rounds
Fire rate450 shots/min
4 х Turret20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mk.II autocannon
Ammunition1800 rounds
Belt capacity60 rounds
Fire rate450 shots/min

Of the three County-class cruisers in game, the London's AA outshines them all. Compared to her predecessor, the Norfolk, which has just enough AA to protect herself and ward off enemy planes, the London's AA can truly be called fitting for a late-war cruiser. The most powerful guns are the octuple 40 mm Pom-Poms, one located to each side of the forward funnel. These guns output a staggering amount of shells, and can easily mow down any aircraft or light ship. They are supplemented by four 40 mm QF Mk VII guns, two per side. In addition, the London has eight twin 20 mm Oerlikon turrets, and four single Oerlikons. The extensive AA coverage makes the London a very challenging target to bomb.

Additional armament

Setup 18 x 533 mm Mk.IX wet-heater torpedo
Main article: Mk.IX (533 mm)

The London continues to use the 533 mm Mk.IX wet-heater torpedoes seen on other British cruisers, in one quadruple launcher per side. They are a welcome improvement over the antiquated steam turbined Mk.V torpedoes seen on earlier cruisers, but are still unexceptional weapons, with subpar speed and no access to reserves. It's best to retain them as last ditch weapons to expend when being forced into a brawl. Other than those scenarios, you may as well play like you don't have torpedoes.

Usage in battles

The London's main playstyle revolves around its two defining characteristics - its devastating SAP round, its quick reload, and its awful protection. The London is a true glass cannon, and you should play it as such. Position yourself into places where you can continuously pound enemy cruisers and destroyers with firepower, while they either unable to hit you or are preoccupied with an ally. The longer you can fire unmolested by the enemy, the better. However, this does not mean camping is a good strategy - at ranges around 10km, the inaccuracy of the main guns starts to show. Thus, you must figure out how to work your way into closer-range engagements. Playing the London to its fullest requires toeing a careful line - you must keep your guns firing as often and as effectively as possible, while also not dying in the process. Having map knowledge helps a lot when it comes to achieving this. Use cover to get in close, while being aware of where enemies are likely to appear. Find defensive positions near caps, where you can camp while also providing support to your team's frontline. However, do not push into the cap yourself unless it is an emergency and the ownership of the cap will decide the game, or the area is completely clear! By covering your team and letting more durable ships push the cap, you will be far more useful than if you rushed into the cap yourself and were sunk.

It is also useful to have knowledge of your enemies. Know which ships pose the biggest threats, and how you can sink them before they can sink you. When fighting an Omaha, hit their engines and ammunition, if fighting an Admiral Graf Spee, dodge their shells while destroying their turrets and ammunition hoists, when fighting battleships, pray he shoots somebody else, etc. Knowing the ideal way to fight any enemy you face is key to preserving your ship, which allows you to keep your firepower in action for longer.

All in all, the London is a challenging ship to play, as the weak armour, poor gun arcs, and absolutely enormous stature make her a very vulnerable ship. However, in the hands of an experienced captain, her advantages can be pushed, her vulnerabilities diminished, and blow by blow, her firepower will win battles.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Very effective anti-air defences
  • Excellent main battery
    • Great fire rate for a heavy cruiser (4-5 RPM, depending on crew skill)
    • Devastating SAP shells with high penetration and high bursting charge
  • Ammunition is stored under the water line and is well protected
  • Carries torpedoes which are useful in close range encounters
  • Decent speed for a heavy cruiser

Cons:

  • Guns lack AP shells to deal with battlecruisers and battleships
  • No bridge protection and enormous superstructure, losing control is very common in this ship
  • Armour is hardly present at all
    • 89 mm belt armour won't hold up to enemy fire
    • Majority of hull is unarmoured
    • Lacks deck armour against plunging shells
  • Outgunned by battleships, battlecruisers, and some American heavy cruisers
  • Mildly inconvenient gun arcs
  • Lacks a floatplane, which most other same-rank cruisers have

History

The Treaty Cruiser

The County class, named after regional areas of Great Britain, was the largest class of heavy cruisers of the Royal Navy. Under the 1924 Washington treaty limits, they had a standard load under 10,000 tons and four twin-turrets with eight pieces of 8 inches (203 mm) guns in total. Limited by the regulation, the County class had little protection on the main belt with only 1 inch (25 mm) but a completed armour box (1-4 inches) covering the magazine parts. The 8" gun was new to the Royal Navy; it had a high muzzle velocity of 3,150 ft/sec (960 m/s) and a range of 20 miles (32 km). It was a very accurate gun and was the smallest gun in the RN to require mechanical handling of the shell and charge - the shell weighed 256 lbs (116 kg). The guns could elevate to 65° and under director control could sustain a firing rate of 4 rounds per minute.[1]

Considering the operating environment in remote stations and the duty of being a quick reaction force in hot zones, they had significant autonomy and a large hull for overseas consistency and stability in bad weather, as well as comfort equipment like air conditioning for tropical areas.

Ordered in 1925, HMS London, the first of the second block of County-class heavy cruisers, was laid down on 22 February 1926, launched 14 September the following year and completed 5 February 1929 in Portsmouth. The installed engines were manufactured by Fairfield Shipbuilders and Engineers of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Compared to the first block, the Kent class, the London class removed a protective bulge on the waterline, which forced a modified hull design that increased length by 2 feet 8 inches and incorporated internal bulges for torpedo protection. The command superstructure was also moved further back and funnels lengthened to prevent interference from smoke.

The 1930s

Entering service in early 1929, HMS London was sent to the Mediterranean, where she became the flagship of the First Cruiser Squadron and operated until March 1939. Her first notable task was to quell the uprising on Cyprus in 1931. The British had administered the island since 1878, and gave the status of a crown colony in 1925. However, that status irritated the Greek Cypriots who sought for an eventual union with Greece.[2]

In 1931, the local administration decided to raise tax to cover a local budget deficit, which triggered a severe reaction among Greek Cypriots. On 21 October, more than 5,000 Greek Cypriots rallied on the island. They stripped the British flag, besieged Government House and burned it.

The Royal Navy was asked to aid the civil powers. HMS London and her sister ship Shropshire as well as two destroyers were sent to suppress the uprising. On 24 October, London landed groups of Royal Marines and armed sailors to protect government offices. The protestors hurled verbal abuse at London's marines and sailors, waving the Greek flag in their faces and throwing stones, to make the marines and sailors lose their cool and open fire in the hope that Greece might intervene militarily. But the British held fire. On 25 October, the revolt leaders were arrested, and the protests gradually fizzled out in the following days, marking a successful end to London's first mission.

On 18 July 1936, the Fascist General Franco led an uprising by twelve military garrisons on mainland Spain and five in Spanish Morocco, igniting the Spanish Civil War. The Royal Navy was involved from the beginning of the conflict. Soon after the war had started, HMS London with her sister ship Devonshire were on station at Gibraltar. On 22 July, London was tasked with evacuating British civilians in Barcelona.

London stayed at Barcelona until 22 August when HMS Shropshire replace her role for evacuation. During the period, more than 1,800 civilians were evacuated via HMS London. After that, London received a refit in Portsmouth in November, during which four additional high-angle 4-inch guns were fitted. At the end of 1936, HMS London was tasked with hunting down gunrunners in Western Mediterranean. Although her aircraft found a suspicious-looking vessel that might be a gunrunner, the cruiser failed to catch them. In 1937, London was called back to Britain for the coronation of King George VI.

1939 - 1941

With war clouds gathering fast in the late 1930s and naval construction restrictions being discarded equally rapidly, the Admiralty decided to reconstruct the County Class cruisers for better preparations in future combat. HMS London was the first and only one of the County class to rebuild and modernize completely. She entered Chatham in March 1939, and the rebuild proved complex and lasted until February 1941.

Significant modifications were added during the reconstruction. A new 4-inch (102 mm) armour belt was added to the waterline to cover the machinery spaces. A series of radars, including Type 279 for air warning and Type 284/285 for fire control, were installed. Most notably, a brand-new enlarged superstructure with aircraft hangars replaced the original command tower to provide more space and comfort for operations in bad weather. The newly added superstructure also changed the arrangement of funnels from three to only two. Besides, two twin high-angle 4-inch guns and additional 2-pounder AA guns were added to the ship. The significant increase in displacement after modernization resulted in increased structural stresses on the hull. During subsequent service, these stresses, together with the harsh serving environment in the Arctic, were most likely to have been the cause of the leakages in fuel and feed water systems during later service.

During the reconstruction, German bombers targeted Chatham frequently, and air raids often interrupted the work, delaying London's progress. The cruiser was finally commissioned for service with the Home Fleet on 7 February 1941.

On 5 March, HMS London left Chatham, heading north to join the Home Fleet in Scapa Flow. After arriving at Scapa, London participated in fleet exercises for practising main and sub calibre gunnery, air defence, and testing new radar equipment. London also played a role as a simulated cruiser target for battleships of Home Fleet.

On 2 April, London left Scapa Flow with the carrier HMS Argus, which was being used to transport fighter planes to the Mediterranean. The cruiser escorted Argus to a position near Gibraltar, where she handed the duty to HMS Sheffield from Force H.

HMS London spent some time with the battleship King George V keeping watch on Brest to prevent the breakout of German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The two German ships had stayed in France since February 1941 and would be there for another year. London's next mission was escorting slow convoys out of Sierra Leone, during which she had to conduct circuitous movements around the six-knot merchant ships to adapt to their slow speed.

On 12 May, London carried 600 Army soldiers from England to Gibraltar. The consistent high speed and plentiful space made the cruiser an ideal ship for transportation, and it would conduct more such operations throughout the rest of the war. After offloading her passengers at Gibraltar, London stayed in port for a few days, as she was due to return to Britain carrying soldiers going home on leave. Together with the cruiser HMS Edinburgh, she provided escort for a UK-bound convoy, carrying evacuees from Gibraltar. During her time in Gibraltar, Italian aircraft tried to bomb the port but missed. London's AA guns went to engage, but the planes were too far away to shoot down. Sailing north from Gibraltar on 23 May, London encountered a Vichy French ship that she stopped and searched.

Shortly before 5 p.m., on 24 May, London received an immediate order to take over shadowing duties, searching the German battleship Bismarck, which was cornered and destroyed on 27 May, leaving HMS London re-ordered to search for German supply ships in the central and southern Atlantic.

On 31 May, HMS London called in at Bathurst, Gambia, to land some of the troops embarked at Gibraltar. HMS London sailed again that afternoon, hunting for German supply ships. On 4 June at 07° 35' N – 31° 29' W, London found the German supply ship Esso Hamburg, a 17,000-ton fuel tanker, which had in fact refuelled the Prinz Eugen on the morning of 28 May. On 5 June, HMS London found another German supply ship, Egerland, flying the Panamanian flag. To prevent her from scuttling herself, London opened fire on her at a very long range, setting the ship on fire. The vessel's crew set scuttling charges and abandoned ship, with several boatloads of Germans taken aboard the already crowded London.

HMS London headed to Sierra Leone to offload her passengers, and for part of the way, she helped escort a convoy heading in the same direction. London left the convoy on 7 June and went ahead.

On 6 July, HMS London left Sierra Leone and four days later came across another Vichy French merchant ship that was boarded and searched. On 24 July, London was suddenly called back to England from Gibraltar for searching for a new German raider in North Atlantic. Soon, London was deployed to Iceland for further operation.

The high seas raider alert proved to be a false alarm and, after loitering off Iceland for a short while, London came down to Scapa Flow, arriving on 23 July. In the following two months, London was assigned to multiple convoy-escorting missions near Home waters until 22 September, when London was selected for VIP transport. Her mission was to carry a group of American and British government officials, military persons, and business tycoons to Archangel in the far north of Russia to discuss the Lend-Lease agreement and other cooperation in the war.

Covered by the bad weather in the Arctic region, London maintained a high speed on her way to Russia to prevent reconnaissance or attacks from German U-boats and Luftwaffe. HMS London deposited her precious cargo at Archangel on 27 September. To hide from being bombed, London left Archangel on 28 September, and waited for the diplomats to return. During this time, she escorted a UK-bound convoy, which had been the first Arctic convoy journey of the war. On 2 October, London returned to Archangel to pick up the VIPs.

1942

HMS London returned to England for another refit from November 1941 to January 1942 to fix the cracks in the upper deck and leaking around the machinery spaces caused by the previous reconstruction.

In early February, London completed her refit, and she sailed for Iceland, from where she would conduct "Patrol White", a series of patrols preventing German raiders in the northern areas, typically the Denmark Strait and Norwegian Sea. For London, it would mean many months in the Arctic. The combination of endlessly severe wind, gale-whipped waves, and extremely low temperature created a difficult environment in the Arctic and pushed London and her crews to their limits. Even with her high freeboard, the icing on the upper deck and superstructure is still a usual sight in the Patrol White.

In mid-February, HMS London became the flagship of the First Cruiser Squadron, including her sister ship HMS Norfolk, the only two available heavy cruisers remaining in Home Fleet. The expanded scale of war meant the Royal Navy had to dispatch the already depleted fleet to the Far East while the new ships were still under construction. Luckily, the US Navy Task Force 39.1, including battleship USS Washington, two heavy cruisers, and a flotilla of destroyers, joined the escort for arctic convoy to relieve the British. At that time, Anglo-American naval operations were frequently mounted to sink the German battleship, Tirpitz.

On 7 March, London returned to Iceland from a Patrol White for refuelling but immediately put to sea under urgent orders of the Admiralty, traveling all night at high speed on action stations as German battleship Tirpitz left Trondheim and headed north early that day in search of convoy PQ12. In the following day, London joined the strike force with the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, which launched a wave of torpedo bombers to Tirpitz. Unfortunately, none of the torpedoes caused damage to the German battleship. Tirpitz was able to seek refuge in the Vestfjord unharmed. London kept patrolling in the Norwegian Sea until early April when she returned Scapa Flow for supply and fueling.

On 28 April, HMS made a sortie from Scapa to cover the convoy PQ15 and QP11, together with HMS King George V, Nigeria, and Victorious, as well as USS Washington, Wichita, and Tuscaloosa, alongside some destroyers. The Home Fleet Task Force sailed along the convoy between Norway and Iceland: London and three other cruisers closely around the merchant ships, while the battleships guard in the distance for Germany warships.

On April 29, the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer was reported to be at sea, but she turned around without attacking the convoy. On the following day, the Luftwaffe's bombers attacked the convoy. London provided air defence with both her main and secondary batteries. The Luftwaffe continued the attack on May 1, and the cruisers provided essential air defence for the convoy. London, in particular with her radar-guided high angle 4-inch guns, claimed shooting down six Ju 88s.

HMS London was back at Scapa Flow by May 5 and nothing much happened for the following nine days until May 14, when London left Scapa with battleship Duke of York, aircraft carrier Victorious, and a flotilla of destroyers in an attempt to rescue cruiser HMS Trinidad, which was badly damaged by German bombers on her way to Russia. After emergency repairs in Murmansk, Trinidad headed for the Scapa on May 13, accompanied by four destroyers. However, German aircraft spotted Trinidad late in the evening of May 14 and demobilized Trinidad in the following strike. The ship was abandoned and sunk by escorting destroyers on May 15.

On June 27, HMS London, alongside HMS Norfolk, USS Tuscaloosa, and USS Wichita, participated in the escort of the PQ17 convoy from Iceland. Similar to PQ15, the cruisers provided close-range escorts for the convoy. The cruisers were five miles in front, zig-zagging to reduce the risk of being hit by torpedoes. By July 1, although London and other cruisers sent their aircraft for anti-submarine patrol, the convoy was spotted by a U-boat. The Germans were planning a combined offensive involving U-boats, bombers, and surface units. On July 3, battleship Tirpitz and heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper sortied from Altenfjord, pocket battleship Scheer and heavy cruiser Lützow sortied in the far north of Norway.

Meanwhile, PQ17 was under attack from bombers and U-boats. In the early hours of July 4, a single plane shot out of a fog bank and dropped its torpedo, hitting a cargo vessel and damaging her so badly she had to be scuttled. Later the same day, a group of torpedo-bombers attacked and sank another merchant ship. Just under an hour later, more than thirty German aircraft attacked the convoy again. Several were shot down, but two more ships were damaged. London contributed to the air defence with her AA guns, helping to disrupt the torpedo bombers.

By the evening of July 4, the Admiralty was confident that Tirpitz was in the Altenfjord. The increasing volume of German signals traffic seemed to indicate that something was about to happen. In the early hours of July 4, the Admiralty had advised London, the flagship of the cruisers, to stay with the convoy until it was level with North Cape (25° East).

At the Admiralty in London, the latest deciphered German signals revealed the German had mistaken HMS London for a King George V-class battleship, sailing in company with three escorting destroyers. Because of her rebuilt superstructure and the relatively huge hull, London's silhouette was different from any other British cruisers. The foggy weather also made it hard for the scout plane to correctly identify HMS London. The presence of British battleships or aircraft carriers certainly made the Germans cautious. As in the example of PQ12, the airstrike from HMS Victorious halted the engagement of Tirpitz. However, in the Admiralty's view, if the convoy continued on its way, it would be harassed by enemy U-boats and aircraft. Any enemy heavy ships would most likely be encountered east of North Cape, beyond the effective range of Home Fleet. The enemy would need no more than ten hours to reach the convoy, and could return to safety in less than that time. Hence, the decision was made to scatter the convoy, with the intention of minimizing the greater losses anticipated from a surface attack compared with those inflicted by U-boats and aircraft.[3]

In the evening of July 4, the Admiralty sent orders to Admiral Hamilton, who was in charge of First Cruiser Squadron on HMS London.

At 9:11 p.m. on the cruiser's bridge, the first signal arrived. Marked 'MOST IMMEDIATE', it said:[4]

Quote icon.png

CRUISER FORCE WITHDRAW TO THE WESTWARDS AT HIGH SPEED

Twelve minutes later, another equally alarming signal hit HMS London:

Quote icon.png

IMMEDIATE… OWING TO THREAT FROM SURFACE SHIPS, CONVOY IS TO DISPERSE AND PROCEED TO RUSSIAN PORTS

This was followed, at 9.36 p.m., by the signal that has gone down as one of the most notorious in naval history:

Quote icon.png

MOST IMMEDIATE. CONVOY IS TO SCATTER

On the night of 4 July, HMS London and the other warships sped away from the dismissing convoy. The destroyers and cruisers continued a nightmare dash at high speed through the fog and a sea scattered with icebergs. As the cruisers and destroyers sped on, the communicators in London read with mounting horror the signals from PQ17 merchant ships as they were ripped apart by aircraft and U-boats. Captain of HMS London offered to go back, but Rear Admiral Hamilton reminded him that his ships were low on oil and had lost their fuel ship somewhere in the scattered convoy.[5]

The rest was an absolute disaster for the convoy. On 5 July, 14 of 34 merchant ships were sunk or demobilized by air strikes and U-boats. In the following week, nine more merchantmen were sunk or abandoned. Ultimately only eleven merchant ships reached their intended destination – two British, seven American, and two Russian. The destruction of PQ17 triggered a series of consequences in all aspects. For the Royal Navy, the arctic convoy was held until September when a new tactic was planned for escorting convoy.

HMS London returned to Scapa on 8 July and stayed there until September 1942 when the arctic convoys was restarted, then she moved to Hvalfjord. London had departed Hvalfjord on 14 September in company with Norfolk, Sussex, Cumberland, and Sheffield, together with destroyers to escort the convoy PQ18. The British cruiser force patrolled between Bear Island and Spitzbergen, coming to within 700 miles of the North Pole.

PQ18 suffered ten out of forty merchant vessels sunk while QP14, coming the other way, lost three out of fifteen supply ships. Two British warships were also lost. At the same time, the Germans paid a high price, losing forty aircraft and three U-boats. After that, HMS London provided covers for QP15, a convoy returning to the UK.

1943

HMS London kept on her station in the arctic area until 17 November, when she returned Scapa and was nominated for refit in Tyne shipyard. She sailed up the Tyne to Middle Dock at North Shields for another refit. The refit lasted five months and involved considerable strengthening for cracks and repairing leaks of oil tanks. A new surface warning radar, Type 273, and fire control radar, Type 282, for 40 mm cannons were added. The cruiser's aircraft launch gear was removed, and seven additional 20 mm cannons (eight single 20 mm cannons had been fitted during the previous refit, in place of her machine guns). By 4 May 1943, HMS London was back at Scapa Flow and on sea trials before resuming convoy escort work and patrols in the Denmark Strait.

London spent some time in Scapa for training. In early July, she was deployed with HMS Belfast and HMS Kent with destroyers in diversionary moves around Norway to distract attention away from the Allied landings in Sicily by reinforcing Hitler's fear about an invasion of Norway. Around the same time, London took part in Operation Holder, convoying supplies, personnel, and mail to Royal Navy bases in north Russia. On 9 July, London returned to Scapa and resumed interception duties to prevent the breakout of German warships for attacks on Atlantic convoy in the following months.

In October 1943, HMS London was sent on a special mission to waters around the island of Spitzbergen, far to the north of Iceland, where it was suspected the Germans were maintaining a secret radio intercept station. The cruiser sailed around the island but failed to find any such station.

Late in the same month, the cruiser helped escort a convoy of five US-built minesweepers and six metal-hulled motor launches to Murmansk. For London, service in the Arctic was coming to a close as she was about to receive orders for another diplomatic mission, this time carrying members of the Prime Minister's staff to Egypt. In early November, she was tasked to Plymouth to pick up the mission members, ending London's activity in the Arctic.

Arriving at Plymouth on 10 November, HMS London carried members of the Prime Minister's staff, while Churchill himself sailed to Egypt for the Cairo conference in the battlecruiser HMS Renown. London also loaded the 'Stalingrad Sword,' a gift from King George VI to the people of Stalingrad that celebrated the great victory over the Germans. It had been carried from Plymouth to Egypt by HMS London before being put on the plane with the British delegation.

London stayed at Alexandria during the Cairo conference, and in early December, set out on the journey home carrying VIP passengers. Arriving at Gibraltar on 13 December, London left for the UK four days later for troop transportation. On 21 December, she arrived in the Clyde, disembarked her passengers, and two days later sailed for Rosyth to undergo another refit, during which four twin 20 mm guns were fitted to reinforce the AA defence.

1944

In early February 1944, HMS London was back on the Clyde for mail and new drafts of sailors. By then, the Admiralty had decided to deploy her for service in Eastern Fleet. On 13 March, London arrived at Colombo, one of the two major British naval bases in Ceylon, and, four days later, transferred to the other, Trincomalee.

On 21 March, as a member of the British fleet, London participated in Operation Diplomat, which was a naval training operation between Royal Navy and US Navy. The operations aimed to practice operational procedures and tactics that the British Pacific fleet would use. On 27 March, London met the US Task Group 58.5. In the following month, London was assigned to Task Force 70 for Air Rescue duty for aircraft carriers. On 19 April, the task force attacked the island of Sabang with no serious opposition from the Japanese. London provided close covers to carriers during attacks on Sabang. On 24 April, the Task Force returned to Trincomalee for resupply.

On 30 April, HMS London was assigned to Task Force 67 with her sister ship HMS Suffolk. The fleet sailed to Exmouth Bay, Western Australia for Operation Transom, an air raid marking the return of the British fleet in the Pacific. London was reassigned to Task Force 66 on 15 May to provide escorts for aircraft carriers during the airstrike on the Japanese-held Surabaya. She accompanied British aircraft carriers for the rest of May until they returned to Trincomalee.

On 12 September, after a period of fleet exercises, London arrived at Bombay, where she entered dry dock for hull cleaning and essential maintenance. Thirteen days later, London left Bombay, carried out some gunnery practice, and headed for Ceylon. She was to join Task Group 63.2 to escort aircraft carrier for a bombardment mission in mid-October against Car Nicobar in the Nicobar Islands, north of Sumatra. London contributed to air defence on 19 October, when the fleet shot down seven Japanese torpedo bombers in total.

1945

In early 1945, HMS London provided convoy escorts in the Indian ocean. On 8 April 1945, London joined the British East Indies Fleet's Task Force 63 for another bombardment mission. The warships were left in two groups, with London in Group One alongside HMS Queen Elizabeth, the French battleship Richelieu and destroyers. Group Two included the escort carriers Khedive and Emperor, the cruiser Cumberland and the destroyers Virago and Venus.

On 11 April, London and battleships carried out a bombardment on coastal artillery at Sabang. In the following week, London provided close escorts for carrier operations until TF63 returned to Trincomalee on 18 April.

On 13 May, London set sail for Simonstown naval base in South Africa where she was dry-docked for a refit, in which a barrage fire control radar (Type 283) and new surface warning radar (Type 277) were added on the ship. HMS London returned to her duty in early August of 1945, preparing for an amphibious assault in southern Malaya. But the operation was canceled on 15 August, just at the same time when Japan surrendered. After Japan surrendered, on 28 August, HMS London arrived in Sabang to disarm the local Japanese garrison and received charts of the Japanese minefields off Malaya and Singapore from the Japanese delegation.

On 14 October, at Colombo, London embarked around 400 passengers and 200 bags of mail and the following morning set sail for home, arriving at Sheerness three weeks later. By 9 November, HMS London returned her home at Chatham marking the end of her story in WWII.

London might have come through the Second World War unscathed and unnoticed, but ahead lay her sternest test under fire and it would make headlines around the world.

After the war

Prior to joining the Royal Navy Reserve, HMS London was used as troop transport from UK to Colombo (26 Nov 1945), Sydney (19 Jan 1946) and after a brief refit in Devonport, to Singapore (May 1946). She returned to Plymouth in late June that year.

But by the end of 1946, London was refitted for further service in the Far East as she was the only modernized 8-inch gun cruiser in Royal Navy. The refit was completed in 1947. After working up, the cruiser joined the 5th Cruiser Squadron at Royal Navy China Station in Hong Kong to protect British interests and civilians in the Eastern waters.

During her final deployment, the most notable event was the attempt to rescue HM Sloop Amethyst, known as the Yangtze Incident, from 20 April to 21 April 1949.

After World War Two, a Chinese civil war broke out between the nationalists led by Chiang Kai Shek, who were bitter enemies of the Communists led by Mao Tse Tung. By mid-April 1948, the Communists were a short distance from Nanking, the capital of the Nationalist Government, and were building up forces to cross the Yangtze River. To demonstrate protection for British subjects in Chinese waters, the Royal Navy was asked to maintain at least one large ship (cruiser size) with two smaller ships in Shanghai and one small ship at Nanking.

On 17 April 1949, London sailed from Hong Kong to Shanghai. At that time, frigates Amethyst and Black Swan were stationed at Shanghai and destroyer Consort at Nanking. The Naval Attaché at Nanking advised that the Communist army would attempt to cross the Yangtze River on 21 April, and British ships should avoid any involvement. On 20 April, Amethyst came to relieve Consort at Nanking, and at 9:30 a.m., Amethyst was under artillery fire from the north bank. The frigate's bridge and machinery room were hit by shells, causing the frigate to lose control and beached on Rose Island.[6]

On 20 April, HMS London, flying the flag of Vice-Admiral Madden, was approaching the mouth of the Yangtze River bound for Shanghai on a flag-showing visit. During the forenoon, London was receiving information from Amethyst that she was attacked by unexpected fire and demobilized. The Admiral ordered the frigate, Black Swan, to join London and decided to weigh anchor on 21 April and proceed upriver with Black Swan to rescue Amethyst.

In the early morning of the following day, London and Black Swan moved upriver. The British ships anchored off at 8:00 a.m., as Amethyst managed to move out of Rose Island. Admiral Madden called Amethyst to rejoin the fleet. But, due to the death of the navigator and damage to charts, Amethyst was unable to set the correct heading. In this case, London and Black Swan weighed anchor again at 10:26 a.m. and moved up the river. In less than a few minutes, the Communists opened fire on London and Black Swan with large-calibre howitzers and small-calibre cannons. London counterattacked with her main guns and secondary armaments. The large-calibre batteries were easy to spot and destroy, while smaller calibre weapons were well concealed and difficult to hit. At some time before 11:00 a.m., a howitzer shell hit the bridge, injuring the captain. At that time, considering the low possibility of escorting Amethyst under heavy fire and increasing damage on the ship, Admiral Madden decided to withdraw at 11:04 a.m. London and Black Swan turned back and arrived in Shanghai later that day.

London had been under fire for 48 minutes in an overall period of 3 hours.[7] In that period, London fired 155 rounds of 8-inch, 449 rounds of 4-inch, and more than 2,600 small calibre AA guns. Among London's crew, 13 people are dead and 59 people wounded, of whom two died later. Amethyst would make her escape in three months.

After some temporary repairs in Shanghai, HMS London departed on 14 June, heading south to Singapore, where she spent a few weeks. On 18 June, London left Singapore and on her way to the UK. She arrived in Chatham on 8 September. By the end of 1949, she received an inspection to determine if she could serve further after an overall refit. However, London's ageing machinery and construction meant it would be too expensive to keep in service. She was placed on the Disposal List and laid up at Falmouth before sale to BISCO for demolition by T W Ward on 3 January 1950. The ship went to Barrow-in-Furness under tow and arrived at the breaker's yard on 22 January. Work on demolition was completed later that year.

Devblog

The County-class cruisers, also known as the A-Type cruisers, were the first British cruiser vessels to be developed in the interwar period of the 1920s. Their design being heavily influenced by the restrictions imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty, meant that British shipbuilders had to find compromises during development in order to comply with the treaty as well as to meet the requirements of the Royal Navy for a ship capable of trade route protection.

This resulted in the creation of a ship design with good cruising range and adequate firepower, but very light armour protection in order to stay within treaty restrictions. The orders for the first ships were placed in the mid 1920s and construction began in 1924.

HMS London (C69) was laid down in February 1926 and commissioned into service in January 1929 as the lead ship of the second batch of County-class cruisers to be built, known as the London subclass. During the 1930s, HMS London took part in a goodwill visit to Venice and assisted in the evacuation of civilians from Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, before being sent to drydock for refit in 1939.

In 1941, HMS London took part in the hunt for the battleship Bismarck, after which the ship was once again dry-docked for repairs. The following year, HMS London assisted in escorting several convoys in the Atlantic, after which she was assigned to South African waters in 1943, before joining the Eastern Fleet. HMS London continued serving in the postwar years, during which the ship got involved in an incident in Chinese waters in 1949 which left it heavily damaged. Being deemed uneconomical for repairs, HMS London was sold for scrap in January 1950.

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External links

References

Citations
  1. Brown, D. K. (2012). Nelson to Vanguard: Warship Design and Development 1923 1945. Seaforth Publishing.
  2. Klapsis, A. (2009). Between the Hammer and the Anvil. The Cyprus Question and Greek Foreign Policy from the Treaty of Lausanne to the 1931 Revolt.
  3. Vego, M. (2016). The Destruction of Convoy PQ17: 27 June–10 July 1942. Naval War College Review, 69(3), 83-142.
  4. Churchill, W. (1951). The Second World War-Volume 4: The Hinge of Fate. Rosetta Book LLC.
  5. Ballantyne, I. (2002). HMS London: Warships of the Royal Navy. Casemate Publishers.
  6. Hughes, W.R.N..(1979). HMS Amethyst - the Yangtse Incident 1948. Naval Historical Review.
  7. Dalrymple, Gordon. & Stewart, Neil. (2011). HMS London in the River Yangtze 20 & 21 April 1949. Monograph No.170.
Bibliography
  • Anderson, P. (2019). British Government Maritime Evacuations in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939. War in History, 26(1), 65-85.
  • Beesly, P. (1990). Convoy PQ 17: A study of intelligence and decision‐making. Intelligence and National Security, 5(2), 292-322.
  • Chen, C. (2007, May). Heavy Cruiser London. Retrieved November 17, 2020, from https://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=326
  • Colledge, J. J., & Warlow, B. (2010). Ships of the Royal Navy: The complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th century to the present. Casemate/Greenhill.
  • Helgason, G. (1995). HMS London (69). Retrieved November 17, 2020, from https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/1178.html
  • Irving, D. J. C. (1968). The Destruction of Convoy PQ. 17. Cassell.


Portsmouth Royal Dockyard
Frigates 
Leopard-class  HMS Leopard
Heavy Cruisers 
County-class  HMS London
Battleships 
Unique ships  HMS Dreadnought
Orion-class  HMS Orion
Iron Duke-class  HMS Iron Duke

Britain heavy cruisers
Hawkins-class  HMS Hawkins
York-class  HMS York
County-class  HMS Kent · HMS London · HMS Norfolk