HMS Caledon (D53)

HMS "Caledon" was a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was the nameship of the "Caledon" group of the C-class of cruisers.

She was built by Cammell Laird and laid down on March 17 1916, launched on November 25 1916 and commissioned into the Navy on March 6 1917. She was commissioned in time to see action in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. During the battle Ordinary Seaman John Henry Carless, although mortally wounded in the abdomen, still went on serving his gun and helping to clear away the casualties. He collapsed once, but got up again and cheered on the new gun's crew. He then fell and died. He not only set a very inspiring example, but while mortally wounded continued to do effective work against the enemy. He was posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross. HMS "Caledon" survived the First World War and went on to see action in the Second World War.

"Caledon" spent the early part of the war with the Home Fleet, where she escorted convoys and was involved in the pursuit of the German battlecruisers "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" after the sinking of HMS "Rawalpindi". She was reassigned to the Eastern Fleet between August 1940 and September 1942. She then rejoined the Home Fleet. Upon her arrival in the UK, she underwent conversion into an Anti-Aircraft cruiser at Chatham Dockyard between 14 September 1942 and 7 December 1943.

Obsolete by the end of the war, she was disarmed in April 1945, and subsequently sold to be broken up for scrap on 22 January 1948. "Caledon" arrived at the yards of Dover Industries, Dover on 14 February 1948 to be scrapped.

References

*Colledge
*Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
* [http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/1188.html HMS "Caledon" at Uboat.net]