HMS Devonshire (39)

Devonshire at anchor, 1941
History
United Kingdom
Name	Devonshire
Namesake	Devonshire
Builder	HM Dockyard, Devonport
Laid down	16 March 1926
Launched	22 October 1927
Commissioned	18 March 1929
Reclassified	Training ship, 1947
Identification	Pennant number: 39
Motto	Auxilio Divino: 'By the help of God'
Fate	Sold for scrap, 16 June 1954
Badge	On a Field Silver, A Lion rampant Red, armed Blue, crowned Blue
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	County-class heavy cruiser
Displacement	9,850 long tons (10,010 t) (standard) 13,315 long tons (13,529 t) (deep load)
Length	632 ft 8 in (192.8 m)
Beam	66 ft (20.1 m)
Draught	20 ft 9 in (6.3 m)
Installed power	8 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers 80,000 shp (60,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × shafts, 4 × geared steam turbines
Speed	32.25 knots (59.73 km/h; 37.11 mph)
Range	12,500 nmi (23,200 km; 14,400 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	784
Armament	4 × twin 8 in (203 mm) guns 4 × single 4 in (102 mm) AA guns 4 × single 2 pdr (40 mm) AA guns 2 × quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 1 in (25 mm) Decks: 1.375–1.5 in (34.9–38.1 mm) Barbettes: 1 in (25 mm) Turrets: 1 in (25 mm) Bulkheads: 1 in (25 mm) Magazines: 2–4.375 in (50.8–111.1 mm)

HMS Devonshire, pennant number 39, was a County-class heavy cruiser of the London sub-class built for the Royal Navy in the late 1920s. The ship spent most of her pre-World War II career assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet aside from a brief tour with the China Station. She spent the first two months of the Second World War in the Mediterranean until she was transferred to the Home Fleet and became flagship of a cruiser squadron. Devonshire took part in the Norwegian Campaign in mid 1940 and evacuated much of the Norwegian Government in June. Several months later, she participated in the Battle of Dakar, a failed attempt to seize the Vichy French colony of Senegal in September. The ship remained in the South Atlantic afterwards and supported Free French efforts to take control of French Equatorial Africa in addition to searching for German commerce raiders.

Devonshire returned home in early 1941 and briefly rejoined the Home Fleet, during which time she escorted several aircraft carriers as they attacked German forces in Norway and Finland and covered the first convoy to the Soviet Union. Shortly afterwards, the ship was sent to the South Atlantic where she sank the auxiliary cruiser Atlantis. Devonshire was then assigned to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean and supported the Allied invasion of Madagascar in mid-1942. She then spent the next year escorting convoys before returning home to begin a lengthy refit. After it was completed in early 1944, the ship escorted various aircraft carriers for the rest of the war as they attacked targets in Norway.

After the German surrender in May 1945, she sailed to Norway and escorted two surrendered German cruisers from Denmark to the UK. Devonshire then began ferrying British troops home from Australia for the rest of the year. In 1947, the ship was converted into a training ship for naval cadets and served until she was sold for scrap in 1954.