HMS Ajax (22)

History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Ajax
Builder	Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down	7 February 1933
Launched	1 March 1934
Commissioned	3 June 1935[1]
Recommissioned	11 January 1938
Decommissioned	February 1948
Identification	Pennant number: 22
Motto	Nec Quisquam Nisi Ajax (Latin: "None but Ajax [can overcome Ajax]")[2]
Fate	Scrapped in 1949
General characteristics
Class and type	Leander-class light 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 nmi (10,610 km; 6,590 mi) at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement	peacetime 550 wartime 680
Sensors and 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 (4x2)[3] BL 6-inch (150 mm) Mk XXIII guns[4] 4 × QF 4-inch (100 mm) Mk V guns 12 × Vickers .50 machine guns 8 × 21-inch (530 mm) torpedo tubes By 1945: 8 (4x2) 6 in (152 mm) 8 (4x2) QF 4-inch (100 mm) Mk XVI guns 16 × 40 mm Bofors guns 8 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (quadruple mounts)
Armour	4 in (102 mm) main belt 2.5 in (64 mm) ends 1.25 to 2 in (32 to 51 mm) deck 1 in (25 mm) turrets
Aircraft carried	One catapult-launched Fairey Seafox, replaced by a Supermarine Walrus
Service record
Operations:	River Plate 1939 Mediterranean 1940–41 Matapan 1941 Greece 1941 Crete 1941 Malta Convoys 1941 Aegean 1944 Normandy 1944 South France 1944[2]

HMS Ajax was a Leander-class light cruiser which served with the Royal Navy during World War II. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, the Battle of Crete, the Battle of Malta and as a supply escort in the siege of Tobruk. This ship was the eighth in the Royal Navy to bear the name. In February 1942, she was adopted by the civil community of Halifax, West Yorkshire.