Suffolk from cultural diplomacy to Norway

As China Station flagship under Admiral Frederic Dreyer, Suffolk returned to Portsmouth carrying a large collection of Chinese art for a Royal Academy exhibition. The voyage was part of the diplomatic and cultural-presence work expected of an overseas cruiser. In 1940 she helped begin the British pre-emptive occupation of the Faroe Islands and sank the German tanker Skagerrak near Norway. Suffolk then joined the destroyers Kipling, Juno, Janus, and Hereward in bombarding the airfield at Sola. German bombers damaged the cruiser badly enough to keep her under repair on the Clyde until February 1941. Within a few years, her role had shifted from cultural diplomacy to contested littoral operations.