On December 13, 1939, three British cruisers caused
heavy damage to the German "pocket battleship"
Admiral Graf Spee, in the Battle of the River Plate near the South American coast,
driving it to the Montevideo port.
This battle became the first naval engagement of World War II,
and among its participants was His Majesty's Ship, cruiser Ajax.
By the late 1920s, the numerous British cruiser fleet became quite obsolete.
The newest heavy cruisers were both too expensive and poorly armored.
The Royal Navy desperately needed modern ships for squadron service.
This is how the Leander—class cruisers, laid down in the early 1930s, appeared.
They were the first British light cruisers of the new generation.
The fifth and last ship in the class was Ajax.
The cruiser's hull, with an extender forecastle, was designed for high speeds at any load and any weather condition.
Due to the extensive use of welding, the weight of Leanders decreased from ship to ship.
The hull was divided into compartments by 26 waterproof bulkheads.
All three decks were waterproof as well.
The most original hull detail was its wide smoke stack
that made the silhouette of the Leanders recognizable.
Among all British ships of that time, only Leanders were single-funnel.
The Ajax's power plant produced more than 73,000 hp,
allowing the ship to accelerate up to 33 knots.
Ajax was almost 170 meters long and 17 meters wide,
with a total displacement of about 8,800 tons.
The engine and boiler rooms of the cruiser were covered by a 76-mm thick armor belt.
The armored deck, about 32 mm thick, was located higher.
Its main turrets were protected by 25 mm of armor.
Magazines, central fire control station, and rudder gear were encased
in separate armored "boxes" with a wall thickness up to 89 mm.
The Ajax's primary armament consisted of eight
152-mm Mark XXIII guns in four twin turrets.
The fundamental difference between Leanders and the previous generation
of British light cruisers was the mounting of all main artillery in turrets.
Compared to open deck mounting, the turret artillery
was better protected and could provide
a high rate of fire in any weather condition.
Anti-aircraft artillery included four 102-mm guns on
single mounts located near the smokestack.
In addition, Leanders were the first Royal Navy ships
to receive quadruple antiaircraft Vickers machine guns
of a 12.7-mm caliber. Three of them were installed on the aft superstructure.
The ship was armed with two quadruple torpedo launchers with a caliber of 533 mm.
Leanders became the first British light cruisers that
had a reconnaissance aircraft on board by default.
Light cruiser HMS Ajax was commissioned in April 1935.
Named after an ancient hero, the ship lived up to her name.
In the South Atlantic and Mediterranean she engaged heavy cruisers, sank destroyers and
transports, fought off air raids, and crushed shore fortifications.
The first enemy that Ajax faced in battle was
the German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee, ironically
nicknamed "pocket battleship" by the British that raided supply lines in the South Atlantic.
After tracking down the raider near the River Plate in December 1939, Ajax,
together with her sister ship HMS Achilles and heavy cruiser Exeter, engaged it.
Thanks to her heavy guns, the German ship soon disabled Exeter
and needed only one precise hit to sink any of the Leanders.
However, Ajax and Achilles did not give up; they showered the enemy with a hail of shells
and forced the "pocket battleship" to retreat and
seek asylum in the Uruguayan capital’s port.
Trapped by British cruisers, the German raider's captain
did not dare engage them again, and scuttled his ship.
In the Autumn of 1940 Ajax sailed to the Mediterranean Sea
and was immediately included in the operations of the British fleet against the Italian navy.
On the night of October 12, near Capo Passero, the cruiser had another moment
of glory when she engaged seven Italian destroyers.
By skillfully maneuvering and quickly shifting fire from one
enemy ship to another, Ajax sank two destroyers,
forced another one to surrender, and the rest of them to retreat.
Ajax continued to actively operate in the Mediterranean until the
beginning of 1943 when she was badly damaged in a raid of German dive bombers.
After a year of repairs, the cruiser returned to active duty
and took part in the Allied landings in Normandy and Southern France.
Ajax met the end of the war in the Mediterranean Sea, where she spent
the next three post-war years.
From there the ship visited Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay,
near the shores of which she had distinguished
herself in the very first naval battle of World War II...
The ship could stay in South America:
the Chilean government wanted to purchase her.
However, the transaction did not go through, and in 1949 light cruiser Ajax
was stricken from the Royal Navy and scrapped.