HMS Exeter (68)

Uncommon card · No. 182526

HMS Exeter was the second and last York-class heavy cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the late 1920s, and the last heavy cruiser the Royal Navy would ever build. Aside from a temporary deployment with the Mediterranean Fleet during the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–1936, she spent the bulk of the 1930s assigned to the Atlantic Fleet or the North America and West Indies Station. When World War II began in September 1939, the cruiser was assigned to patrol South American waters against German commerce raiders. Exeter was one of three British cruisers that fought the German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, later that year in the Battle of the River Plate. She was severely damaged during the battle, and she was under repair for over a year. After repairs were completed the ship spent most of 1941 on convoy escort duties before she was transferred to the Far East after the start of the Pacific War in December. Exeter was generally assigned to escorting convoys to and from Singapore during the...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Tomlin, H W (Lt), Royal Navy official photographer, Public domain