HMS Ajax

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