Dates: 1943 - 1959
HMS Newfoundland was a Colony-class light cruiser built by Swan Hunter and commissioned on 21 January 1943. Complement: 730 (war).
Newfoundland joined the 10th Cruiser Squadron, Home Fleet. Early in 1943 the ship became flagship of the 15th Cruiser Squadron, Mediterranean. On 23 July 1943, during the Sicily Campaign, she was torpedoed. One rating was blown overboard and killed and 6 others were injured
In 1944 the ship was re-commissioned for service in the Far East. While at Alexandria an explosion occurred in the port torpedo tubes which caused severe damage and numerous casualties. The repairs delayed her arrival in the Far East for service with the British Pacific Fleet. Newfoundland supported the landings by the 6th Australian Division at Wewak in New Guinea. On 14 June 1945, as part of a Royal Naval Task Group, strikes were carried out on the Japanese Naval Base of Truk in the Caroline Islands.
Upon the Japanese surrender the Newfoundland landed a party of Royal Marines and sailors to take over the Naval Base at Yokosuka. She was then repatriated British and Commonwealth prisoners of war, eventually arriving in the United Kingdom in December 1946.
Newfoundland was used as a stoker training tender at HMS Raleigh before a refit at Plymouth in 1951. Recommissioned in November 1952, she became flagship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron in the East Indies. She gave fire support to anti-terrorist operations in Malaya.
After supporting nuclear tests at Montebello, Newfoundland encountered the Egyptian (ex-River-class) frigate Domeat South of the Suez Canal in the Red Sea and ordered her to heave to. Domeat refused and opened fire, causing some damage and casualties. Newfoundland, with the destroyer HMS Diana, then opened fire on Domeat and sank her, rescuing 69 survivors from the wreckage. She then returned to the Far East until paid off to the reserve at Portsmouth on 24 June 1959.
Newfoundland was sold to the Peruvian Navy on 2 November 1959, and subsequently renamed Almirante Grau, later Capitan Quinones. She was used as a static training ship in Callao in 1979, and scrapped later that year.
Association:
HMS Newfoundland Association
23 Seaford Road
Aylestone
Leicester LE2 8SQ
E-mail: secretary@hmsnewfoundland.org.uk
Website: http://www.hmsnewfoundland.org.uk/
Forces Reunited Forum Posts involving HMS Newfoundland
" (Ripped from the BBC News Website) British WWI veteran dies aged 108 One of only four surviving British veterans of World War I has died at the age of 108. William Stone, from Watlington in Oxfordshire, was the last British serviceman to have seen active duty in both world wars. Mr ..."
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" First World War veteran William Stone is buried near his home William Stone would have lost count of the number of times he had heard Last Post sounded, from the funerals of old comrades to the Remembrance Sunday parades he attended as one of the last surviving veterans of the First World War. ..."
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"I am trying to get in touch with Leading Tel. Sharky Ward,from the HMS Newfoundland Commission 1956-58, I have seen his name on Forces re-united but have failed to get a response, Can anyone help?
Jock McGinlay"
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