Dido Class Cruiser 1942 - 1946
Launched - 6th September 1941
Ship Yard - Cammell Laird ( Birkenhead )
Commissioned - 8th August 1942
Decommissioned - 1946
HMS Argonaut was completed in the August of 1942 at Cammell Laird shipyard Birkenhead . She was the last of the 11 Dido Class Light Cruisers to be built during the war.
The ships main armaments were five 5.25″ guns three forward turrets and two aft. The ship also had six 21″ torpedo tubes and depth charges. Her wartime complement was 550 crew plus two ships mascots Maiski the Dog who joined in Murmansk in October 1942 and then Minnie the Cat who joined in Hebburn-on-Tyne in December 1943.
HMS Argonaut and her company were adopted by the City of Coventry after HMS Coventry the Ceres Class Light Cruiser had been sunk in September 1942 off the cost of Egypt by German JU-87 dive-bombers. Coventry ’s Councilors and Citizens kept in touch with the ship throughout the war.
Argonauts first mission was as part of the Home Fleet. She set sail under the Command of Captain Longley-Cook from Scapa Flow in Scotland on October 13th 1942 and headed for Spitzbergen a Norwegian island in the Artic Circle here Argonaut disembarked a number of 3.7″ Naval Guns and a detachment of Norwegian Soldiers who were to set up a gunnery position to harass Axis shipping in the area.
On leaving Spitzbergen she continued East to Murmansk in Russia to deliver essential spare parts to for the Allied bombers that had been flown there by British and Australian pilots to be used by the Russians. Three crew members were lost overboard on the convoy due to the very rough weather experienced. One of the crew members lost is remembered at the Lawford Memorial in Bedfordshire it reads “Leonard Douglas Brereton – Able Seaman P/JX157102 HMS Argonaut RN died Friday 16 th October 1942, aged 21. Son of William and Lily Brereton of Lawford Beds. Commemorated Portsmouth Naval Memorial panel 03 column 2.
The pilots of the bombers returned on board Argonaut to Scapa Flow most of whom were sea sick. On the October 30th 1942 Argonaut sailed from again from Scapa Flowthis time in company with HMS Nelson, HMS Renown, and HMS Duke of York along with 11 Destroyers the convoy was joined by two Aircraft Carriers HMS Illustrious and HMS Formidable. After a short stop over in Gibraltar the ship was to form part of Force H under the flag of Vice-Admiral Sir Neville Syfret. Force H would assist in the Allied invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch.)
Argonaut did not form part of the main invasion force but was dispatched to the Mediterranean to act as a decoy and try and entice the French F lee t out of Oran . It was also thought that the Axis F lee t would intercept the Argonaut’s false signals and be diverted from the landings and Force H.
In December of 1942 she joined Force Q and on December 1st as part of the 12th Cruiser Squadron in company with two other Cruisers HMS Aurora and HMS Sirius plus the Destroyers HMS Quentin and HMAS Quiberon she was engaged in an hour long battle with the enemy, the squadron sank the Italian Destroyer Folgore plus four Troopships they also damaged the Destroyer da Recco and a Torpedo-boat that were on passage to North Africa as re-enforcement’s for Rommel’s Campaign. On the way back to base the Squadron came under heavy air attack and HMS Quentin was sunk by torpedoes dropped by German torpedo aircraft the survivors were picked up by HMAS Quiberon.
On the December 13th Argonaut joined HMS Aurora, HMS Eskimo and HMS Quality and left Bone to intercept another Axis convoy however delays in setting sail meant they missed the convoy. On December 14th 1942 HMS Argonaut was hit by two torpedoes from the Italian Submarine Mocenigo and was badly damaged with both her bow & stern blown off. Three members of her crew were killed by the explosion. The ship made its way to Gibraltar via Algiers using only two of its four propellers. In Gibraltar a make shift bow was made which proved to be useless. The Germans were certain that the Argonaut had been sunk and reported it on German Radio. The National Savings Committee announced that the City of Coventry had raised £2,250,000 to replace the Argonaut after the announcement by the Axis.
Repairs were to take place in Philadelphia United States of America this meant crossing the U-boat infested Atlantic so on April 4th 1943 she set sail from Gibraltar with a new Commanding Officer in charge Captain Haynes RN and with her escort HMS Hero on April 7th she arrived in Ponta Delgada on the Portuguese islands of the Azores . Under the World Government Convention Ships engaged in war could shelter in Neutral ports for three days to carry out urgent repairs. When the Argonaut arrived in Ponta Delgada the ships company were surprised to see a German U-Boat along side also under going repairs. On April 8th the Argonaut set sail just a few hours after the German U-boat, HMS Hero carried out an ASW sweep and Argonaut was prepared for an attack by the U-boat but none came. HMS Hero developed problems with her engines and was detached by the Admiralty on April 9th and the Argonaut was left on her own to cross the Atlantic . On April 13th USS Butler was sighted and joined the Argonaut on her voyage. The ships reached Bermuda on April 17th after more repairs on the hull and Argonaut set sail on April 27th under the escort of USS Tumult and USS Pioneer the ships reached the port of Philadelphia on April 30th 1942.
The repairs in Philadelphia completed on November 13th 1943. On returning to Britain in December 1943 Captain Longley-Cook re-joined and Argonaut joined the Home Fleet once again. Argonaut sailed from Greenock on June 4th 1944 in company with HMS Belfast, HMS Diadem, HMS Orion, HMS Ajax and HMS Emerald as the 10th Cruiser Squadron. Argonaut joined in Operation Neptune the naval element of the invasion of Normandy (D Day) with Force K off Gold Beach the ship fired 400 shells on the first day and was struck by an enemy shell that penetrated the quarterdeck and emerged again on the starboard side luckily no one was hurt over all Argonaut fired 4359 shells in support of the land forces.
In August Argonaut was transferred to the Mediterranean for Operation Dragoon under the command of the US Eighth F lee t. Second only to the Normandy Invasion, Operation Dragoon was the controversial Allied invasion of the French Mediterranean coast that came within an eyelash of being scrubbed. Initially, Operation Dragoon was planned to coincide with the D-Day invasion-instead it got “bogged down” over military objectives between the American and British hierarchy. The British wanted to push into the Balkans and beat the Soviets to the prize, but President Roosevelt, seeking re-election saw the “Balkan adventure” as a British postwar interest. All the while Joseph Stalin, the cunning Soviet dictator, backed the U.S. while secretly stalking out that region for himself. In the final analysis, Operation Dragoon was a startling success. It achieved its military goals; it annihilated Hitler’s 19th Army; captured over 100,000 German prisoners; liberated the southern two thirds of France and linked up with the Normandy invasion forces all within 30 days. Yet to his dying day, Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed Operation Dragoon was a blunder that set the stage for Soviet domination for nearly all of Eastern Europe .
In September Argonaut was moved to the Aegean the ship encountered a number of troop carrying boats which Argonaut sank all of the soldiers jumped overboard and Argonaut picked them up as Prisoners of War. Argonaut was then involved in bombarding German positions near to Athens Greece .
In early November she was ordered to Trincoma lee in the East Indies this was the head quarters of South East Asia command and the Eastern Indies fleet under Admiral Lord Louie Mount Batten. Argonaut was assigned to escort duties for Operation Outplank and Meridian that involved bombardment of the oil fields at Palembang in Sumatra . Argonaut was attacked on many occasions by Kamikaze but fortunately no major damage was sustained.
In January 1945 she was ordered to join the British Pacific fleet in Sydney Australia. The British Pacific fleet was the largest ever fleet ever assembled it consisted of a total of 336 ships and 300 aircraft. Captain Longley-Cook left the ship upon his promotion to Vice-Admiral the new Commanding Officer was Captain W.P. McCarthy RN.
In February 1945 Argonaut sailed for Manus the forward operating base for the British and American fleets Argonaut took part in the shelling of positions at Saskishima while the Americans concentrated on Okinawa . She was withdrawn in August 1945 and sailed to Formosa (now Taiwan ) to help with the evacuation of British Prisoners of War. Then in September the Argonaut sailed for Shanghai to repatriate British internees. Hong Kong was the ships next stop for a similar mission.
She finally returned to Portsmouth Britain on July 6th 1946 and was reduced to reserve and never re-commissioned again. In November 1955 she arrived at Cashmore’s Shipyard in Newport, Gwent, South Wales for disposal.
