HMS Birmingham returned from an Indian Ocean deployment, completed its commission at Chatham, and recommissioned for Mediterranean service. In September 1955, exercises were interrupted so the cruiser could embark Royal Marines and their vehicles at Malta for Cyprus. Birmingham and Roebuck carried the reinforcements to Famagusta, after which Birmingham quickly returned to visits and fleet exercises. Greece's refusal to join one exercise involving Turkey exposed political tensions within the alliance. Later exercises and a NATO review contrasted the reduced British Mediterranean Fleet with the growing weight of the US Sixth Fleet.
Chapter · 1:46:01-1:53:22
A Town-class history connects HMS Birmingham to postwar crises
Neil McCart's class history places one cruiser commission inside decolonization, alliance exercises, and the changing Mediterranean balance.