HMSOrion
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMSOrion
Builder	Devonport Dockyard
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 & type	Leander-classlight 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 & 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[1] ×BL 6 inch Mk XXIII naval guns[2] 4 ×4-inch (102 mm) guns 12 ×0.5 in machine guns 8 × 21 intorpedo 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) mainbelt 2.5 in (64 mm) ends 1.25 to 2 in (32 to 51 mm)deck 1 in (25 mm)turrets
Aircraft carried	Onecatapult-launched aircraft Original type was aFairey Seafox (K8571 shown in a 1937 photograph,[3] and K8573 in a 1938 photograph) Catapult and aircraft later replaced withSupermarine Walrus

HMSOrion was aLeander-classlight cruiser which served with distinction in theRoyal Navy during theSecond World War. She received 13 battle honours, a record only exceeded byHMS Warspite and matched by two others.

Orion was built byDevonport Dockyard inPlymouth with machinery fromVickers-Armstrong inNewcastle-on-Tyne.Orion was commissioned on 18 January 1934, for service with theHome Fleet but she was transferred to theAmerica and West Indies Station, based at theRoyal Naval Dockyard onIreland Island, in theImperial fortresscolony ofBermuda, in 1937 where she was with the 8th Cruiser Squadron. She arrived at Bermuda on the 3rd of September, 1937. Around 19:15 on the 21st of September, while exercising off Bermuda,Orion was ordered, in response to a request from the United States Consul for assistance, to make its way towards the position of the sail training shipUSSAnnapolis, four hundred miles from Bermuda at 35 degrees North and 54 degrees West.

Cadet Robert Hugh Quinn, aboardAnnapolis, required an immediate operation for appendicitis and the 7 knot speed ofAnnapolis would not enable it to reach Bermuda in time. The two ships were in sight of each other by 0858 on the 22nd of September. After Captain Hines of theAnnapolis came aboard to meet with the captain ofOrion, HRG Kinahan,Orion set off for Bermuda by 1038 with the American cadet, entering through the Narrows channel at night and arriving at the dockyard at 0246 on the 23rd of September, from where Quinn was delivered to the Royal Naval Hospital.

On the 27th of October, 1937, the Flag of the America and West Indies Station was transferred toOrion whenHMS York was sent toTrinidad due to civil unrest there, leaving theCommander-in-Chief atAdmiralty House, Bermuda.Orion remained temporary flagship until HMSYork returned on the 21st of November, 1937. On the 15th of November, the ocean linerMVReina del Pacifico, which operated betweenLiverpool andValparaíso,Chile, via Bermuda, the West Indies and thePanama Canal, stopped at Bermuda on its way to Chile with the body of formerPrime MinisterRamsay MacDonald who had died aboard on the 9 November. MacDonald's body was transferred to the navy for return toPlymouth. All of the cruisers of the station were away from Bermuda at that moment except forOrion andHMSApollo. AsApollo was undergoing a refit at the dockyard, it would have fallen toOrion to deliver MacDonald's body, but as flagship she could not leave the station.Apollo was consequently hurried through her refit instead.

Orion was tasked with the memorial service for MacDonald, whose body was taken aboard the Royal Navy tugSandboy once theReina del Pacifico was in Bermudian waters and landed on Front Street in theCity of Hamilton along with the dockyard Chaplain, the Orion's Chaplain, an Honour Guard, sentries and coffin bearers. MacDonald's coffin was borne on a gun carriage to theChurch of England'sCathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, in a procession that included the ship's company ofOrion and a detachment of theSherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), serving in theBermuda Garrison and based atProspect Camp. At the cathedral,Arthur Browne, theBishop of Bermuda, conducted the memorial service, which was followed by alying in state. The following day, the procession was repeated back to theSandboy which bore MacDonald's body toApollo at the dockyard, which departed Bermuda for Plymouth at 1100, also carrying MacDonald's daughter, Miss Sheila MacDonald.^[4][5]Orion conveyed the ashes ofLord 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 asJohn Tovey'sflagship. She took part in the bombardment ofBardia, and theBattle of Calabria in July 1940. Late in that month, she sank the small Greek freighterErmioni which was ferrying supplies to the Italian-heldDodecanese islands.^[6] During the rest of 1940 she escorted Malta convoys and transported troops to Greece. In the early part of 1941 she was in theCrete andAegean areas and was also at theBattle of Cape Matapan in March 1941.

During an attack on a German convoy headed for Crete on 22 May, she was damaged in a duel with its escort, the Italian torpedo boatLupo. On 29 May 1941, during the evacuation of Crete, she was bombed and badly damaged while transporting 1900 evacuated troops.^[7] Around 360 people died, of whom 100 were soldiers.Orion reported damage from friendly fire as the cruisers tried to hitLupo. 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 JuneOrion sailed for passage to Simonstown, South Africa via Aden for temporary repairs and then sent to theMare Island Naval Shipyard inVallejo, California for major repairs.^[8]

Orion's repairs were completed in March 1942 and she returned initially toPlymouth where newradar was installed. During mid 1942, she was widely employed, in home waters and on convoy escort duties to Africa and the Indian Ocean.^[8]

Orion returned to the Mediterranean in October 1942. This time she was with the 15th Cruiser Squadron. She was involved in convoy escort duties and supported the army in theinvasion of Sicily. She spent most of the rest of the war around the Mediterranean.James Gornall the former English first-class cricketer, promoted to Captain in 1941 was placed in command of her in 1943. She also took part in theNormandy Landings in June 1944, where she fired the first shell.

Orion was involved in theCorfu Channel Incident in 1946, a conflict between Britain andAlbania involving the navigation of British ships in the channel between the Greek island ofCorfu and the Albanian coast.

Orion ended service in 1947, was sold for scrap to Arnott Young (Dalmuir, Scotland) on 19 July 1949 and was scrapped in August 1949.

• Atlantic 1939;
• Calabria 1940, Mediterranean 1940-43-44;
• Malta Convoys 1941, Matapan 1941, Greece 1941, Crete 1941;
• Sicily 1943, Salerno 1943;
• Aegean 1944, Anzio 1944, Normandy 1944, South France 1944.

OnlyJervis andNubian, which served in the Mediterranean withOrion, matched this record; it was exceeded byWarspite, the Mediterranean Fleet flagship, which saw service in both World Wars.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHMS Orion (85).

• Brown, David K. (1987). Lambert, Andrew (ed.). "Ship Trials: Tests Against Cruisers".Warship (42):106–108.ISSN 0142-6222.
• Campbell, John (1985).Naval Weapons of World War Two. Naval Institute Press.ISBN 0-87021-459-4.
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969].Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing.ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.OCLC 67375475.
• Friedman, Norman (2010).British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing.ISBN 978-1-59114-078-8.
• Lenton, H. T.; Colledge, J. J. (1968).British and Dominion Warships of World War Two. Doubleday and Company.
• Raven, Alan & Roberts, John (1980).British Cruisers of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 0-87021-922-7.
• Rippon, P. M. (1994). "2: Ship Construction".Evolution of Engineering in the Royal Navy: 1939–1992. Vol. II. Institute of Marine Engineers. pp. 12–15.ISBN 0-907206-47-6.
• 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.

• Leander-class cruisers (1931) of the Royal Navy
• Ships built in Plymouth, Devon
• 1932 ships
• World War II cruisers of the United Kingdom
• Naval ships of Operation Neptune
• Maritime incidents in 1946
• Corfu Channel incident

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