HMS Southampton
By the late 1930s the Japanese and American Navies were buidling large cruisers carrying fifteen 6-inch guns in triple turrets. Britain's initial response was the eight ships of the Southampton Class, fitted with twelve 6-inch in triple turrets, with armor protection greatly increased relative to earlier cruisers, with a 3 to 4-inch belt.
Of the Southampton's three were lost; the Manchester, which had been the last cruiser to appear in the Far East in white and buff before the war, was torpedoed by an Italian motor-torpedo-boat in 1942. The Southampton had previously been lost to German aircraft during the most ferociously attacked of the Malta convoys in January 1941, while the Gloucester succumbed to the same enemy during the expensive operations resulting in the loss of Crete.
Of the rest, the Sheffield had a distinguished war record which included taking part in the sinkings of the Bismark and Scharnhorst and she was at the Barents Sea action on 31st December 1942, when she arrived in time to save Sherbrooke's heroic destroyers and drive off, with the Jamaica, the German cruisers Hipper and Lutzow; an action that sickened Hitler of his surface forces. The Sheffield continued after the war to be the last of her class and was scrapped in 1967. The Glasgow, with the Enterprise, engaged German destroyers in a running action in bad weather in late December 1943 and sank three of them. The two cruisers were under air attack at the same time. The Liverpool, which had her bows blown off by an aerial torpedo in 1940, was repaired but torpedoed again in June 1942 and remained out of servce until October 1945. The Birmingham distinguished herself in the bombardments of the Korean War of 1950 to 1952.
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