HMS Neptune (20)
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| Career | 
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| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | 24 September 1931 |
| Launched: | 31 January 1933 |
| Commissioned: | 12 February 1934 |
| Fate: | Sunk 19 December 1941 by mines off Tripoli |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 7175 tons 9740 tons full load |
| Length: | 554.9 ft |
| Beam: | 56 ft |
| Draught: | 19.1 ft |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 32.5 knots max |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | 550 (prewar) |
| Armament: | 8 x 6-in guns (twin turrets)
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| Aircraft: | 1 Fairey Seafox |
| Motto: | |
The ninth HMS Neptune was a Royal Navy Leander-class cruiser built by Portsmouth Dockyard, with pennant 20. She was manned by a crew loaned to the Royal Navy by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) from 1941 onwards.
Neptune partecipated to the battle of Calabria, during which she was hit by Italian light cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Neptune was sunk on the night of 19 December/20 December 1941 by two Italian mines off Tripoli in a storm. Only one of her crew of 767 survived, being was picked up five days later by an Italian torpedo boat. In the same incident, the British destroyer Kandahar and cruiser Aurora (12) also struck mines, Kandahar being sunk.
See HMS Neptune for other ships of this name.
External links
- HMS Neptune Association (http://www.hmsneptune.com/)
| Leander-class cruiser |
| Royal Navy |
| Achilles | Ajax | Amphion | Apollo | Leander | Neptune | Orion | Phaeton |
| Royal Australian Navy |
| Hobart (ex-Apollo) | Perth (ex-Amphion) | Sydney (ex-Phaeton) |
| Royal New Zealand Navy |
| Achilles | Leander |
| Indian Navy |
| Delhi (ex-Achilles) |