HMS Newcastle (C76)

The seventh HMS Newcastle was a Town-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She belonged to the Southampton subclass. In the Second World War following extensive battle damage sustained in the Mediterranean, she spent some time being repaired in New York.

She also saw action in the Korean War.

Interwar period
Newcastle was laid down by Vickers Armstrong on 4 October 1934, launched on 23 January 1936 by Her Grace the Duchess of Northumberland and commissioned in March 1937. Newcastle joined the 2nd Cruiser Squadron, and was under refit on the outbreak of war. After the refit was completed, she joined the 18th Cruiser Squadron with the Home Fleet in mid-September 1939, initially being employed on Trade Protection duties in the Western Approaches, and then joined the Northern Patrol.

Second World War
During the initial part of the Second World War, Newcastle engaged and badly damaged two German destroyers off Brest. Newcastle also set a record during this period by staying at sea continuously for 126 days.

On 23 November 1940, Newcastle encountered the German small battleships (or battlecruisers) Scharnhorst and Gneisenau but they escaped in bad weather before other ships could come up.

She was involved in an abortive action under Vice-Admiral James Somerville against the Italians at Cape Spartivento. After operating against blockade runners in the South Atlantic, Newcastle was sent to the East and then re-deployed to the Mediterranean as part of Operation Vigorous, (convoy escort) from Alexandria to Malta in June 1942.

Four days out (of Alexandria), HMS Newcastle was torpedoed by a German E-boat (S-56), on 15 June, blowing a complete hole through her bows. The crew saved the ship, which returned to Alexandria at 4 knots where she could not be repaired but was offered facilities to make her own. This meant building an additional wooden bulkhead strengthened by concrete behind the damage. This had to be continually replaced at ports in India, Ceylon, South Africa and Brazil, finally arriving in October at Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York where new bows were built by March 1943.

From New York she sailed to Plymouth before joining the Eastern Fleet at Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and acting as the lead ship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron. During her time with the Eastern Fleet, Newcastle participated in the bombardment of numerous Japanese-held islands and supported the British Fourteenth Army in their campaigns in Burma.

Post-War
After the war, the cruiser was given an overhaul in 1952 and took part in the Korean War - acting as a flagship and providing naval gunfire support to UN forces - and the Malayan Emergency in the later 1950s.

Newcastle was decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1959.