HMNZS Achilles

Common card · No. 349278

HMNZS Achilles was a Leander-class light cruiser, the second of five in the class. She served in the Royal New Zealand Navy in the Second World War. She was launched in 1932 as HMS Achilles for the Royal Navy, placed in the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy in 1936, and transferred to the new Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941. As HMS Achilles, with a mix of British and New Zealander crew, she became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate in 1939, alongside HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter and notable for being the first Royal Navy cruiser to have fire control radar, with the installation of the New Zealand-made SS1 fire-control radar in June 1940. After Second World War service in the Atlantic and Pacific, she was returned to the Royal Navy. She was sold to the Indian Navy in 1948 and recommissioned as INS Delhi. She was scrapped in 1978.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Allan C. Green, Public domain