York Class Heavy Cruiser

The HMS Exeter, a York-class heavy cruiser, was the second and final one built for the Royal Navy in the late 1920s. Most of the 1930s, she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet or the North America and West Indies Station, with a brief deployment to the Mediterranean Fleet during the Abyssinia Crisis. When World War II started, she patrolled South American waters against German commerce raiders. In the Battle of the River Plate, she was one of three British cruisers that fought the German pocket battleship, the Admiral Graf Spee, and was severely damaged. After repairs, she spent most of 1941 on convoy escort duties before transferring to the Far East. During the Malayan Campaign, she escorted convoys to and from Singapore. In February 1942, she was assigned to the Striking Force of the joint American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM), playing a more active role in defending the Dutch East Indies. She engaged in the Battle of the Java Sea, where she was crippled and later sunk by Japanese ships in the Second Battle of the Java Sea.