Argonaut in her war (dazzle) colours, November 1943 just after repairs at thePhiladelphia Navy Yard
History
United Kingdom
Name	Argonaut
Builder	Cammell Laird Shipyard (Birkenhead,UK)
Laid down	21 November 1939
Launched	6 September 1941
Commissioned	8 August 1942
Out of service	6 July 1946
Reclassified	In reserve from 1946 to 1955
Identification	Pennant number: 61
Fate	Scrapped, 19 November 1955
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Dido-classlight cruiser
Displacement	5,600 tons standard 6,850 tons full load
Length	485 ft (148 m) pp 512 ft (156 m) oa
Beam	50.5 ft (15.4 m)
Draught	14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion	Parsons geared turbines Four shafts Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers 62,000 shp (46 MW)
Speed	32.25knots (59.73 km/h; 37.11 mph)
Range	2,414 km (1,303 nmi; 1,500 mi) (1,500 miles) at 30 knots 6,824 km (4,240 miles) at 16 knots
Complement	480
Armament	10 (5×2)5.25 in (133 mm) dual purpose guns 4 ×20 mm (0.8 in) single guns 8 (2×4)2 pdr (40 mm) pom-poms quad guns 2 ×21-inch (533 mm) tripleTorpedo Tubes
Armour	Belt: 3 in (76 mm) Deck: 1 in (25 mm) Magazines: 2 in (51 mm) Bulkheads: 1 in (25 mm)

HMSArgonaut was aDido-classcruiser of the BritishRoyal Navy which sawactive service during theSecond World War. Constructed at theCammell Laird shipyard,Birkenhead,Argonaut was laid down in 1939, launched in September 1941, and formally commissioned into service on 8 August 1942.^[1]

She saw service in the Mediterranean in 1942, and was badly damaged on 14 December. After being repaired she took part inOperation Overlord, the Normandy Landings, andOperation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France, before serving as an escort carrier group flagship.

After the war she was laid up andscrapped in 1955.

During October and November 1942,Argonaut served as part ofOperation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. The cruiser formed part ofForce H, based in Gibraltar and commanded byVice AdmiralSir E.N. Syfret. It was charged with guarding the landings against possible attack fromItalian orVichy French naval forces.^[2] HMSArgonaut, in particular, was dispatched on a diversionary mission into the Mediterranean.^[1]

In December 1942Argonaut joined the newly formedForce Q, commanded by Rear AdmiralCecil Harcourt, with the mission of disrupting German–Italian convoys on the Tunisian coast. In addition toArgonaut, Force Q included the cruisersAurora andSirius, and the destroyersQuentin andHMAS Quiberon.

On 1 December,Argonaut and the other ships in Force Q took part in theBattle of Skerki Bank – attacking and largely destroying an Italian convoy. While the Axis forces lost four troop ships and the destroyerFolgore the Allies emerged from the engagement intact. On the following day, the German Air Force sank HMSQuentin westward ofCap Serrat.^[3]

On 14 December 1942,Argonaut was heavily damaged when theItalian submarine Lazzaro Mocenigo struck the cruiser with two torpedoes from a spread of four,^[4] causing serious damage. The bow and stern sections of the cruiser were effectively blown off and the steering wrecked. Though only three crew members were killed, the damage was so severe that German authorities mistakenly believed theArgonaut had been sunk.^[1] The ship was patched up and limped toAlgiers for more temporary repairs. It then sailed for the United States, where it underwent a seven-month reconstruction, completed in November 1943.

When theArgonaut returned to the UK, it was refitted and received the new Type 293 and 277 radars. It took part in bombardment duties onD-Day under the command of Captain Longley. It also supported the Allied invasion of Southern France,Operation Dragoon, before seeing duty as an escort carrier flagship.

Subsequently, the ship conducted a sweep of the Aegean Sea, sinking a number of small Axis craft, before sailing east to the Indian Ocean, whereArgonaut joined theBritish Pacific Fleet in 1945. After the war, she was laid up on return to the UK in 1946 and saw no further service before being scrapped in 1955.

• Campbell, N.J.M. (1980). "Great Britain". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.).Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. New York: Mayflower Books. pp. 2–85.ISBN 0-8317-0303-2.
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969].Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing.ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Friedman, Norman (2010).British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing.ISBN 978-1-59114-078-8.
• Raven, Alan & Roberts, John (1980).British Cruisers of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 0-87021-922-7.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005).Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Whitley, M. J. (1995).Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Cassell.ISBN 1-86019-874-0.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHMS Argonaut (61).

• HMSArgonaut at naval-history.net
• World War II cruisers
• HMS Argonaut at Uboat.net
• http://www.hmsargonaut.co.uk

• Dido-class cruisers
• Ships built on the River Mersey
• 1941 ships
• World War II cruisers of the United Kingdom
• Maritime incidents in December 1942

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from December 2017
• Use British English from December 2017
• Commons category link is on Wikidata