HMS Durban
HMS Durban was a light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was launched from the yards of Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company on 29 May 1919 and commissioned on 1 November 1921. Early career Durban was initially assigned to the China Station as part of the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron in January 1922, and in 1928 she was transferred to the America and West Indies Station based at the Royal Naval Dockyard at Bermuda, with Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary, serving aboard as a watch-keeping Lieutenant. In 1930 Durban returned to Britain, and in 1931 she joined the South Atlantic Division. By December 1933, she was relieved by the heavy cruiser and again returned to home waters. In March 1934, Durban left for Gibraltar to join the Mediterranean Fleet. She spent two years on this station, returning to Britain in September 1936 to be placed into reserve. Wartime service On the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Durban was recommissioned and assigned to the 9th Cruiser Squadron under the Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic. In March 1940 she was operating in the Indian Ocean and was then transferred to the Eastern Fleet based at Singapore. Here she became a unit of the British Malaysian Force with her two sister ships, and . The unit kept watch on German merchant ships in the Dutch East Indies harbours, with Durbans patrol area being off Padang. On 10 November 1940 the Norwegian tanker Ole Jacob reported being attacked by the German raider between Ceylon, and the north end of Sumatra. A force was hastily assembled, comprising Durban, the cruiser and the Australian cruiser and armed merchant cruiser to hunt for Atlantis. The task force was however unable to locate the raider. In 1941 Durban, with her sister , was escorting convoys between Singapore and the Sunda Strait. In February, she escorted the ocean liner , then carrying Second Australian Imperial Force troops for Malaya, into Singapore, arriving on 18 February. In November, she escorted the troopship Zealandia into Singapore, after relieving the Australian cruiser which had escorted Zealandia from Fremantle, Western Australia. In February 1942 Durban moved with the rest of the Eastern Fleet to Java, after the Japanese started their attack on Singapore. Durban was damaged by bombing before she could leave, but on 12 February she and the anti-submarine vessel escorted the merchant ships and out of Singapore, repelling successive Japanese air attacks for four hours. The next day the convoy, carrying thousands of evacuees from Singapore, reached Tandjong Priok, the port for Batavia. Durban, with Admiral Thomas C. Hart as a passenger, departed 16 February escorting carrying refugees to Colombo. There Durban underwent temporary repairs. She then travelled to New York, arriving in April, where full repairs were completed. Durban then returned to Britain, where further modifications were made in Portsmouth between June and August. She then escorted convoys from Britain to South Africa. On 8 December 1942 the