Cornwall HMS

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Cornwall.
 

Cornwall at anchor, 1929

History
United Kingdom

Name:
Cornwall

Namesake:
Cornwall

Builder:
Devonport Dockyard (Plymouth)

Laid down:
9 October 1924

Launched:
11 March 1926

Completed:
8 May 1928

Identification:
Pennant number: 56

Fate:
Sunk by Japanese carrier aircraft, 5 April 1942

General characteristics (as built)

Class and type:
County-class heavy cruiser

Displacement:

• 9,850 long tons (10,010 t) (standard)
• 13,520 long tons (13,740 t) (deep load)

Length:
630 ft (192.0 m)

Beam:
68 ft 5 in (20.9 m)

Draught:
20 ft 6 in (6.2 m)

Installed power:
80,000 shp (60,000 kW)

Propulsion:

• 4 shafts, Parsons geared steam turbines
• 8 Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers

Speed:
31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph)

Range:
13,300 nmi (24,600 km; 15,300 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)

Complement:
784

Armament:

• 4 × twin 8-inch (203 mm) guns
• 4 × single QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mk V anti-aircraft (AA) guns
• 4 × single 2-pounder (40 mm) AA guns
• 2 × quadruple 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes

HMS Cornwall, pennant number 56, was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Kent sub-class built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1920s. The ship spent most of her pre-World War II career assigned to the China Station. Shortly after the war began in August 1939, she was assigned to search for German commerce raiders in the Indian Ocean. Cornwall was transferred to the South Atlantic in late 1939 where she escorted convoys before returning to the Indian Ocean in 1941. She then sank the German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin in May. After the start of the Pacific War in December 1941, she began escorting convoys until she was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in March 1942. The ship was sunk on 5 April by dive bombers from three Japanese aircraft carriers during the Indian Ocean Raid