Cornwall’s hangar and long-range cruiser role

Cornwall had enough topweight margin to receive a hangar aft of her aircraft, a practical if visually ungainly solution to operating aviation from a non-carrier. During the Dakar expedition she was detached to intercept the Vichy French cruiser Primauguet and an accompanying tanker, forcing them back toward Casablanca. Her Far East and Indian Ocean service also included the sinking of the German commerce raider Pinguin in May 1941. Aircraft facilities and long-range endurance suited the County class to distant patrols, while its guns gave those patrols coercive weight.