Malaya HMS

[john sefton]

HMS Malaya was a present from the Federated Malay states to the Imperial Government. The 31,000 ton battleship was built by Armstrong Whitworth at a cost of £2,945.709.
She was launched on the 18th March 1915 and armed with eight 15" guns, twelve 6" and eight 4" guns. The following year she joined the Grand Fleet as a unit of the 5th Battle Squadron. As part of this unit she took part in the Battle of Jutland where she received seven hits and suffered 96 casualties. She continued to serve in the 5th Battle Squadron until the end of the war. For a period of four months in 1917 she numbered HM King George VI as one of her officers.
In between the two World Wars she carried the Duke of Connaught to India, visited the Federated Malay States and generally showed the flag. In 1937 she was modernised at a cost of £976,963 and sent to the Mediterranean where the outbreak of the Second World War found her. HMS Malaya was soon despatched to the East Indies Station to form with the Glorious and Ramillies a hunting force for enemy raiders in the Aden Area. She later transferred. to escort duties in the Atlantic and later still to the Mediterranean where her activities included the bombardment of Bardia.
HMS Malaya joined Force H in 1940 and left it in 1941 to continue in her escort role in the Atlantic. On the 20th March 1941 while escorting one such convoy she was hit by a torpedo and had to make her way, first to Trinidad and later to New York where she became the first ship to be repaired under the Lend Lease Act. In October 1941 HMS Malaya became the flagship of Force H. At the end of August 1942 she returned to the UK for a refit before joining the Home Fleet. The following year she carried out a bombardment of the island of Cezembre, off St. Malo. In May 1945 she became a tender to HMS Vernon, the torpedo school at Portsmouth, and was used as an accommodation ship. Three years later she was scrapped and the ship's bell formally presented to the Malayan Naval Force, now the Royal Malayan Navy.
Battle Honours. Jutland 1916. Atlantic 1940-41. Calabria 1941. Mediterranean 1940-41. Malta Convoys 1941-42. English Channel 1944.
Log Book July 1985
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[aukepalmhof]

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