HMS Dorsetshire

HMS Dorsetshire was built at Portsmouth Dockyard, launched 29th January 1929 and completed 30th September 1930. She was part of a class of two ships which included HMS Norfolk. She carried a seaplane in 1931 and had a catapult added in 1932. At the outbreak of the Second World War, HMS Dorsetshire served in the East Indies in 1939, then the South Atlantic in 1940 - 1941. She took part in the final action against the Bismarck, firing 254 shells and three torpedoes of which two finally sank the German battleship. In 1942 HMS Dorsetshire went to the Eastern Fleet and was bombed by Japanese aircraft west of Ceylon and sank, 5th April 1942.

His Majesty’s Dockyard Portsmouth launched this County class heavy cruiser on 29 January 1929 and she entered service in the Royal Navy on 30 September 1930. In 1931 she was part of the Atlantic Fleet during the Invergordon Mutiny but the incident ended before her crew joined the mutiny. In December 1939, a couple months after the declaration of war, DORSETSHIRE, with other Royal Navy heavy units, went to Uruguay in pursuit of German surface raider pocket battleship ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE, in the aftermath of the Battle of the River Plate. DORSETSHIRE left Simonstown South Africa heading for the River Plate on 13 December but had not arrived when the Germans scuttled the ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE.

In late May 1941, DORSETSHIRE was one of the ships which engaged the German battleship BISMARCK in the North Atlantic. On 27 May DORSETSHIRE torpedoed BISMARCK, after repeated aircraft attacks and naval gunfire had crippled the battleship. BISMARCK’s crew had already begun the process of scuttling the ship, which then sank rapidly. DORSETSHIRE was able to recover only 110 of BISMARCK’s crew from the sea, before leaving the scene to evade a suspected U-boat. On 21 November 1941, DORSETSHIRE took part in sinking the raider ATLANTIS. She also intercepted the German supply ship PYTHON on 1 December 1941, which was refuelling U-boats in the South Atlantic. Both submarines dived, and one of them fired torpedoes at DORSETSHIRE which missed. The crew of PYTHON scuttled their ship.

In 1942 DORSETSHIRE joined the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean. Japanese dive-bombers attacked DORSETSHIRE and her sister ship CORNWALL 320 km southwest of Ceylon on 5 April 1942. Ten bombs hit DORSETSHIRE and she sank quickly; CORNWALL sank about ten minutes later. Of DORSETSHIRE's crew, 234 men died in the attack; more than 500 survived in the water or on rafts and were picked up by the cruiser ENTERPRISE and the destroyers PALADIN and PANTHER the next day.

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HMS Dorsetshire Artwork Collection
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