HMS Orion (85)

History

United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Orion
Builder:	Devonport Dockyard/Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	26 September 1931
Launched:	24 November 1932
Commissioned:	18 January 1934
Decommissioned:	1947
Identification:	Pennant number: 85
Fate:	Sold for scrap 19 July 1949
General characteristics
Class and type:	Leander-class light cruiser
Displacement:	7,270 tons standard 9,740 tons full load
Length:	554.9 ft (169.1 m)
Beam:	56 ft (17 m)
Draught:	19.1 ft (5.8 m)
Installed power:	72,000 shaft horsepower (54,000 kW)
Propulsion:	Four Parsons geared steam turbines Six Admiralty 3-drum oil-fired boilers Four shafts
Speed:	32.5 knots (60 km/h)
Range:	5,730 nm at 13 knots
Complement:	Peacetime 550 Wartime 680
Sensors and processing systems:	type 284/286 air search radar type 273/271 surface search type 285 6 inch (152 mm) fire control type 282 40 mm fire control
Armament:	Original configuration: 8 × BL 6 inch Mk XXIII naval guns 4 × 4-inch (102 mm) guns 12 × 0.5 in machine guns 8 × 21 in torpedo tubes In 1945: 8 × 6 in (152 mm) 8 × 4 in (102 mm) 16 × 40 mm 8 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (quadruple mounts)
Armour:	4 in (102 mm) main belt 2.5 in (64 mm) ends 1.25 to 2 in (32 to 51 mm) deck 1 in (25 mm) turrets
Aircraft carried:	One catapult-launched aircraft Original type was a Fairey Seafox catpult and aircraft later replaced with Supermarine Walrus

HMS Orion was a Leander-class light cruiser which served with distinction in the Royal Navy during World War II. She received 13 battle honours, a record only exceeded by HMS Warspite and matched by two others.

Orion was built by Devonport Dockyard (Plymouth, U.K), Vickers-Armstrong (Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK).

Orion was commissioned on 18 January 1934, for service with the Home Fleet but she was transferred to the North America and West Indies Station in 1937 where she was with the 8th Cruiser Squadron. The cruiser conveyed the ashes of Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor-General of Canada, back to England in February 1940.

In June 1940 she was transferred to the Mediterranean, where she was with the 7th Cruiser Squadron as John Tovey's flagship. She took part in the bombardment of Bardia, and the Battle of Calabria in July 1940. Late in that month, she sank the small Greek freighter Ermioni which was ferrying supplies to the Italian-held Dodecanese islands. During the rest of 1940 she escorted Malta convoys and transported troops to Greece. In the early part of 1941 she was in the Crete and Aegean areas and was also at the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941.

In the course of an attack on a German convoy headed for Crete on 22 May, she was damaged in a duel with its escort, the Italian torpedo boat Lupo. On 29 May 1941, during the evacuation of Crete, she was bombed and badly damaged while transporting 1900 evacuated troops. Around 360 lives were lost, of whom 100 were soldiers. After extensive damage control had been undertaken she limped to Alexandria at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), providing a spectacular sight in the harbour with the mast wedged into the ship’s funnel and significant battle damage. On 29 June Orion sailed for passage to Simonstown, South Africa via Aden for temporary repairs and then sent to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California for major repairs.

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