The survey moves from Southampton through the Gloucester and Edinburgh groups, distinguishing ships lost during the war from those retained into the 1950s and 1960s. Manchester appears at Operation Pedestal, Gloucester brings an unusually long accumulation of battle honors, Edinburgh is lost during the war, and Belfast survives as a museum ship. Famous surviving artifacts can overshadow names such as Gloucester, Liverpool, Manchester, and Southampton, whose operational histories also merit commemoration. The individual careers show how one basic design moved through Arctic, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Normandy, and Korean service.
Chapter · 1:59:45-2:17:43
Individual Town-class careers and remembered names
A ship-by-ship survey follows construction, wartime losses, postwar service, battle honors, and the case for reviving historic Town-class names.