1929 HMS EXETER. One of the most celebrated British war ships of the Second World War, thanks to her heroic role in the fight with the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spec off the mouth of the River Plate in 1939.
A UNIQUE SHIP
HMS Exeter she was in a class of her own was essentially very similar to the York, launched the previous year, but with her beam increased marginally, and with her twin funnels set vertically. She was the last heavy cruiser (that is, with 8in (203mm) guns) ever constructed for the Royal Navy, though a stretched version, 25 feet longer overall, and with a fourth turret, was designed but never laid down. HMS Exeter was built at Devon port Dockyard; laid down on 1 August 1928, she was launched on 18 July 1929 and commissioned on 23 July 1931. She was sunk in the Java Sea on 1 March, 1942.
THE ARMAMENT OF THE EXETER
The ships main armament was her six 8in (203mm) Mk VIII guns, the same as those fitted to all the other British heavy cruisers of the between- the-wars period, but in mounts which limited them to a maximum elevation of 50 degrees and with a range of 27,000 yards (13.3nm; 24.7km). Her prime anti-aircraft defences were four 6in (102mm) guns in high-aspect mounts; twin 2pdr pom-poms with which she was fitted on construction were removed in 1933. After the Graf Spee fight her secondary battery was replaced by eight 4in (102mm) guns, and two 8-barrelled pom-poms were added. She mounted six torpedo tubes in two banks of three.
TECHNICAL DATA
Type: Heavy cruiser
Machinery: 4-shaft geared turbines producing a total of 80,000shp
Dimensions (overall): Length, 174.25mm (575ft); beam, 177m (58ft}
Displacement: 8400t standard; 1 0,500t deep load
Draught: 6.2m (2025fr)
Complement: 630
