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HMS Bellona (63)
HMS Bellona was the name ship of her sub-class of light cruisers for the Royal Navy. She was the first of the fourth group of Dido-class cruisers. Built to a modified design ("Improved Dido") with only four twin 5.25-inch turrets, but with remote power control for quicker elevation and training, combined with improved handling and storage of the ammunition. The light AA was improved over earlier Dido cruisers, with six twin 20mm Oerlikons and three quadruple 40mm "pom pom".
Entering service in late 1943, the cruiser operated during World War II as an escort for the Arctic convoys, and as a jamming ship to prevent the use of radio-controlled bombs and in support of the Omaha Beach landings.
In 1946 the cruiser was loaned to the Royal New Zealand Navy. Although not involved in the 1947 Royal New Zealand Navy mutinies, at the start of the month, 140 sailors elected to not return to the ship in protest at the poor pay and working conditions and how their colleagues had been treated. Fifty-two sailors were eventually marked as deserters while the others were charged with various lesser offences.
Bellona was returned to the Royal Navy in 1956. She did not re-enter service and was scrapped two years later.
She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company (Govan, Scotland), with the keel being laid down on 30 November 1939. She was launched on 29 September 1942 and commissioned on 29 October 1943. All of the Bellona class used the High Angle Control System (HACS) and they were all fitted with Remote Power Control, allowing the HACS to remotely control their 5.25-inch (133 mm) guns.
Bellona was named after the Roman goddess of war. Her motto was 'Battle is our Business'.
Bellona participated in several Arctic convoys supplying the USSR, both before and after the invasion of France. She took over the Channel patrol at the start of 1944 as a replacement for the cruiser Charybdis, which had been sunk off the Channel Islands by torpedo boats in the Battle of Sept-Îles. On arrival at Plymouth, Bellona was fitted with equipment for jamming the radio signals that controlled bombs. Bellona and seven destroyers were involved, including Tartar. The codename for the patrol force was 'Snow White and the seven dwarfs'.
During the day the force anchored in Plymouth Sound, as air defence for Plymouth. At dusk, under cover of darkness and maintaining radio and radar silence, the force would proceed at full speed to the French coast to keep the German Narvik-class destroyers bottled up in Brest. The force would return to Plymouth by daylight. By day the RAF would patrol the Channel and by night, Plymouth.
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HMS Bellona (63) AI simulator
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HMS Bellona (63)
HMS Bellona was the name ship of her sub-class of light cruisers for the Royal Navy. She was the first of the fourth group of Dido-class cruisers. Built to a modified design ("Improved Dido") with only four twin 5.25-inch turrets, but with remote power control for quicker elevation and training, combined with improved handling and storage of the ammunition. The light AA was improved over earlier Dido cruisers, with six twin 20mm Oerlikons and three quadruple 40mm "pom pom".
Entering service in late 1943, the cruiser operated during World War II as an escort for the Arctic convoys, and as a jamming ship to prevent the use of radio-controlled bombs and in support of the Omaha Beach landings.
In 1946 the cruiser was loaned to the Royal New Zealand Navy. Although not involved in the 1947 Royal New Zealand Navy mutinies, at the start of the month, 140 sailors elected to not return to the ship in protest at the poor pay and working conditions and how their colleagues had been treated. Fifty-two sailors were eventually marked as deserters while the others were charged with various lesser offences.
Bellona was returned to the Royal Navy in 1956. She did not re-enter service and was scrapped two years later.
She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company (Govan, Scotland), with the keel being laid down on 30 November 1939. She was launched on 29 September 1942 and commissioned on 29 October 1943. All of the Bellona class used the High Angle Control System (HACS) and they were all fitted with Remote Power Control, allowing the HACS to remotely control their 5.25-inch (133 mm) guns.
Bellona was named after the Roman goddess of war. Her motto was 'Battle is our Business'.
Bellona participated in several Arctic convoys supplying the USSR, both before and after the invasion of France. She took over the Channel patrol at the start of 1944 as a replacement for the cruiser Charybdis, which had been sunk off the Channel Islands by torpedo boats in the Battle of Sept-Îles. On arrival at Plymouth, Bellona was fitted with equipment for jamming the radio signals that controlled bombs. Bellona and seven destroyers were involved, including Tartar. The codename for the patrol force was 'Snow White and the seven dwarfs'.
During the day the force anchored in Plymouth Sound, as air defence for Plymouth. At dusk, under cover of darkness and maintaining radio and radar silence, the force would proceed at full speed to the French coast to keep the German Narvik-class destroyers bottled up in Brest. The force would return to Plymouth by daylight. By day the RAF would patrol the Channel and by night, Plymouth.