HMS Dorsetshire (
pennant numberIn the modern Royal Navy, and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth, ships are identified by pennant numbers...
40) was a
heavy cruiserThe heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range, high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 203mm calibre . The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, although the term 'heavy cruiser' only came into formal use in 1930...
of the
County classThe County class was a class of heavy cruisers built for the British Royal Navy in the years between the First and Second World Wars. They were the first post-war cruiser construction for the Royal Navy and were designed within the limits of the Washington Naval Conference of 1922...
of the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
, named after the
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
countyA county is a land area of local government within a country. A county may have cities and towns within its area. Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count .Counts are called earls in post-Celtic Britain, Ireland and France—the term is from Old...
(now usually known as
DorsetDorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town has been Dorchester since at least 1305, situated in the south of the county at . Between its extreme points Dorset measures from east to west and north to south, and has an area of...
). She was launched on 29 January 1929 at
Portsmouth DockyardHer Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth , is one of three operating bases for the Royal Navy . Portsmouth naval base is located on the eastern shore of Portsmouth Harbour and is part of the city of Portsmouth and is situated north of the Solent and Isle of Wight...
,
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. In
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, she was commanded by Captain Augustus Agar V.C.
Interwar
Upon commissioning she became the
flagshipA flagship is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, a designation given on account of being either the largest, fastest, newest, most heavily armed or, for publicity purposes, the best known. In military terms, it is a ship used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships...
of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron. In 1931 she was part of the Atlantic Fleet during the
Invergordon MutinyThe Invergordon Mutiny was an industrial action by around a thousand sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet, that took place on 15 September-16 September 1931...
but the incident was brought to a close before her crew joined the
mutinyMutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly-situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an existing authority...
. From 1933 until 1936 she served on the Africa Station. In 1936 she received a refit, and the following year she joined the
China StationThe China Station was a historical formation of the British Royal Navy.-Description:Its responsibilities generally covered the coasts of China and its navigable rivers, the western part of the Pacific Ocean, and the waters around the Dutch East Indies...
.
The Atlantic and South Africa
In December 1939, a couple months after war was declared, Dorsetshire
, with other Royal Navy heavy units, was sent to Uruguay in pursuit of GermanNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
surface raider pocket battleship (heavy cruiserThe heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range, high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 203mm calibre . The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, although the term 'heavy cruiser' only came into formal use in 1930...
) Admiral Graf Spee
The Admiral Graf Spee was one of the most famous German naval warships of World War II, along with the Bismarck. Her size was limited to that of a cruiser by the Treaty of Versailles, but she was much more heavily armed than a cruiser due to innovative weight-saving techniques employed in her...
, in the aftermath of the Battle of the River PlateThe Battle of the River Plate was the first major naval battle in World War II. The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee had been commerce raiding since the start of the war in September...
. Dorsetshire
left Simonstown, South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
on 13 December, and was still in transit on 17 December when the Germans scuttled the Graf Spee.
She operated in the Atlantic for a short while, and in February 1940, she intercepted the German supply freighter Wakama
, which was promptly scuttled by her crew. On 2 March 1940 Dorsetshire
left the Falklands with wounded sailors from the cruiser HMS Exeter
HMS Exeter was a York class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy that served in World War II. She was laid down on 1 August 1928 at the Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth, Devon. She was launched on 18 July 1929 and completed on 27 July 1931...
, en route to Cape TownCape Town is the second most populous city in South Africa, and the largest in land area, forming part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. It is the provincial capital of the Western Cape, as well as the legislative capital of South Africa, where the National Parliament and many...
via Tristan da CunhaTristan da Cunha is a remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying from the nearest land, South Africa, and from South America. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da...
, where the islanders were supplied with stores. On the 11th, the wounded and the prisoners from the German freighter were put ashore.
Dorsetshire
then returned to the UK, arriving at PlymouthPlymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
on 25 May. She spent less than a week here, departing again for FreetownFreetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country and with a population of 1,070,200. The city is the economic and financial center of Sierra Leone...
at the end of the month. In June, she set out from Freetown to follow the French battleship Richelieu
The Richelieu was a battleship of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She served during World War II, on the Vichy Regime side, notably fending off an Allied attempt on Dakar, and later with Allied forces in the Indian Ocean in 1944 and 1945...
which had left DakarDakar is the capital city of Senegal, located on the Cape Verde Peninsula, on the country's Atlantic coast. It is Senegal's largest city. Its position, on the western edge of Africa , is an advantageous departure point for trans-Atlantic and European trade; this fact aided its growth into a major...
for CasablancaCasablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean...
. The Richelieu
was eventually ordered to return to Dakar by her admiral, François DarlanFrançois Darlan was a French naval officer. Darlan rose through the French Navy, ultimately becoming Admiral of the Fleet, and was a major figure of the Vichy France regime during World War II....
. Dorsetshire continued to monitor French Naval Forces off Dakar throughout July. On 4 September, she was dry-docked at
DurbanDurban is the third most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. It is the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal and is famous as the busiest port in Africa. It is also a major centre of tourism due to the city's warm subtropical climate and...
, and on the 20th she arrived back in Simonstown. She sailed for Sierra Leone the next day.
Now operating in the
Indian OceanThe Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by South Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean...
, in November she bombarded Zante in
Italian SomalilandItalian Somaliland was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy from the 1880s until 1941 in the territory of the modern-day Northeast African nation of Somalia.-History:...
. In December she was back in dock at Simonstown, before departing later that month to search for the
German pocket battleship Admiral ScheerAdmiral Scheer was a Deutschland class heavy cruiser which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II.The vessel was named after Admiral Reinhard Scheer...
, which had recently sunk a British refrigerator ship in the South Atlantic. On 18 January 1941, she captured the Vichy French freighter Mendoza
and escorted the ship to Takaradi. By March, she was once again at Simonstown.
The
Bismarck
and Singapore
In late May 1941, the Dorsetshire
was one of the ships which engaged the German battleship Bismarck
The German battleship Bismarck is one of the most famous warships of the Second World War. The lead ship of her class and named after the 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Bismarck displaced more than 50,000 tonnes fully loaded and was the largest warship then commissioned.Bismarck...
in the North Atlantic. On 27 May, the Dorsetshire
was ordered to torpedoThe modern torpedo is a self-propelled explosive projectile weapon, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater toward a target, and designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target...
the Bismarck
, which had by that point been crippled by repeated aircraft and naval attacks. The Dorsetshire
torpedoed the Bismarck
, which then sank rapidly, either from the damage she had received from the British, or from the Bismarck
s crew working to scuttle her. The Dorsetshire
was able to recover only 110 of the Bismarck
's crew from the ocean, before being forced to leave to evade a suspected U-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
.
In September, the Dorsetshire
departed Freetown to cover the five-ship convoy WS-10X which arrived in South Africa from the U.K. with troops in route to the Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. During November/December, a convoy of 10 troop transport ships steamed out from Halifax, CanadaThe City of Halifax was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County, and was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
en-route to Bombay, IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. On 9 December WS-12X arrived in Cape Town, and departed with the Dorsetshire as an escort. This convoy was labelled “12X” instead of “13” in deference to nautical superstition, but to no avail. The entire 18th Division landed at
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
, but it barely had time to get into action before the
capitulation of SingaporeThe Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in South East Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East"...
. The units involved were the 53rd, 54th, and 55th brigades.
Eastern Fleet and sinking
On 21 November 1941, the Dorsetshire
was involved in sinking the German commerce raider Atlantis
The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis , known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 16 and to the Royal Navy as Raider-C, was a converted German Hilfskreuzer of the Kriegsmarine, which, during World War II, travelled more than 161,000 km in 602 days, and sank or captured 22 ships totaling 144,384 tons...
(the "Raider C") that had preyed on Allied shipping. The Dorsetshire
also chanced upon the German supply ship Python
on 1 December 1941, which was refueling U-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s in the South Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
. The U-boats dived, and one of them fired some torpedoes at the Dorsetshire
, but missing her. The crew of the Python
scuttled their ship.
In 1942, the Dorsetshire
was assigned to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian OceanThe Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by South Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean...
. In the Imperial Japanese NavyThe Imperial Japanese Navy , literally Navy of the Empire of Greater Japan was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
's Indian Ocean raidThe Indian Ocean raid was a naval sortie by the Fast Carrier Strike Force of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 31 March to 10 April 1942 against Allied shipping and bases in the Indian Ocean. It was an early engagement of the Pacific campaign of World War II...
, the Dorsetshire
and her sister ship the HMS Cornwall
HMS Cornwall was a County class heavy cruiser of the Kent subclass of the Royal Navy. She was built at Devonport Dockyard , with the keel being laid down on 9 October 1924. She was launched on 11 March 1926, and commissioned 8 May 1928.-History:Upon completion in 1928 Cornwall joined the China...
were attacked by Japanese Navy dive-bombers 320 km southwest of Ceylon on 5 April 1942. The Dorsetshire
was hit by ten bombs and sank stern first at about 13:50 hours. The Cornwall
was hit eight times and sank bow first about ten minutes later. Of the Dorsetshire's
crew, 234 men were killed in the attack; more than 500 survived in the water or on rafts, being picked up by the cruiser HMS Enterprise (D52)HMS Enterprise was one of two Emerald-class light cruisers of the Royal Navy. She was built by John Brown Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd., with the keel being laid down on 28 June 1918. She was launched on 23 December 1919, and commissioned 7 April 1926...
and the destroyers HMS Paladin (G69)HMS Paladin was a P-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during World War II.Following the sinking of the heavy cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire, on April 5 1942, Paladin took part in the rescue operations, and assisted in the recovery of approximately 1,120 men from both...
and HMS Panther (G41)HMS Panther was a P class destroyer of the Royal Navy laid down on 5 March 1940 by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company and launched on 28 May of the following year...
the next day. Captain Agar was among the survivors.
See also
- Augustus Agar
Captain Augustus Willington Shelton Agar, VC, DSO, RN was a noted Royal Navy officer in both World War I and World War II and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.In...
for a more detailed discussion of the circumstances surrounding
Dorsetshires last days.
External links