DIDO CLASS

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Ship                                      Builder                     Laid Down         Launched                   Completed

 Bonaventure                             Scotts                         30 Aug 37                19 Apr 39                          24 May 40

 Naiad                                   Hawthorne Leslie            26 Aug 37                 3 Feb 39                            24 Jul 40

 Phoebe                                Fairfield                            2 Sep 37                    25 Mar 39                          27 Sep 40

 Dido                                     Cammell Laird                 26 Oct 37                   18 Jul 39                             30 Sep 40

 Euryalus                              Chatham Dky                  21 Oct 37                    6 Jun 39                             30 Jun 41

 Hermione                             Stephens                         6 Oct 37                     18 May 39                          25 Mar 41

 Sirius                                    Portsmouth Dky             6 Apr 38                    18 Sep 40                            6 May 42

 Cleopatra                             Hawthorne Leslie          5 Jan 39                      27 Mar 40                           5 Dec 41

 Charybdis                            Camell Laird                   9 Nov 39                     17 Sep 40                           3 Dec 41

 Scylla                                    Scotts                            19 Apr 39                     24 Jul 40                            12 Jun 42

 Argonaut                             Cammell Laird               21 Nov 39                    6 Sep 41                              8 Aug 42

Specification 

Displacement: 5,710 tons standard and 6, 970 tons full load

Dimensions: length 156.3 m (512 ft); beam 15.4 m (50 ft 6 in); draught 5.3 m ( 1 7 ft 3 in)

Propulsion: Parsons geared turbines delivering 64,000 shp (47725 kW) to four shafts

Speed: 32.25 kts

Armour: belt 76 mm (3 in); deck 35 mm ( 1 in); turrets 25-38 mm ( 1-1.5 in); barbettes 13-19 mm (0.5-0.75 in); conning tower 25 mm ( 1 in) 

Armament: eight 133-mm (5.25-in) DP, eight or 12 2-pdr AA, and 12 20-mm AA guns, plus six 533-mm (21-in) torpedo tubes 

Complement:535

NOTES

An increasing awareness of the threat from aerial attack was apparent in the warship design programmes just before World War II. Besides, for instance, rebuilding some of its older cruisers as AA ships, the Royal Navy acquired the 16-strong 'Dido' class in two groups for close defence work. Only a little larger than the 'Arethusa' class cruisers, the original 1 1 ships had a lean, elegant appearance, beautifully proportioned. They had no secondary armament, the main battery being 10 133-mm (5.25-in) guns in the twin mountings developed as a secondary weapon for the 'King George V' class battleships. These were light enough to permit three superimposed mountings forward, though in later years the proliferation of tophamper resulted in the landing of the upper, or Q mounting.

The last five ships, labelled 'lmproved Dido' class ships, had eight gun fits from the start, with shorter vertical funnels and sturdier masts. These modifications did nothing for their looks but the ships certainly served much farther a field, even for Arctic convoy escort, whereas the earlier ships were used mainly in the Mediterranean. In the latter theatre they were superb and, though HMS Spartan of the later group was sunk by glider bomb attack off Anzio, none was destroyed by direct air attack.

It could not be claimed that the 133mm (5.25-in) weapon was the ideal dual-purpose gun, for it was rather on the light side for surface engagements against the protected ships of the day yet too heavy for effective use against aircraft, with too slow a rate of fire and reaction. In the post-war fleet the 'Dido' class ships proved of little more use to the Royal Navy than the equivalent 'Atlanta' class, did to the US Navy, and most of them had been scrapped by the end of the 1950s. Wartime losses were HMS Charybdis HMS Hermione, HMS Bonaventure, HMS Naiad and HMS Spartan.