Laid down in March 1926 as one of four County-class cruisers, Devonshire was built at the South Yard of Devonport Royal Dockyard, and she was launched at midday on Sunday 23 October 1927 by Lady Elizabeth Mildmay, the wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Devon, who broke a bottle of Devonshire cider over the bows of the new cruiser.

With the ceremony over Devonshire was towed up the Hamoaze to the North Yard for fitting out.

Armed with eight Mk VIII 8-inch guns in four turrets (two forward and two aft), four single 4-inch high-angle guns, four 2-pdr pom-poms (12 more were added in March 1941), and eight 21-inch torpedo tubes, by the standards of the late 1920s Devonshire was a powerful cruiser. She had an overall length of 633 feet, a beam of 66 feet, a draught of 22 feet and a displacement tonnage of 10,500. Capable of speeds of over 32 knots, she was powered by a four-shaft arrangement of Parsons geared steam turbines which were built by Vickers Ltd of Barrow-in-Furness, with the steam being provided by eight Admiralty three-drum, superheat boilers. In appearance, with her two tall tripod masts and three funnels, she closely resembled the units of the earlier Kent class, although she and her sisters were fitted with hangar space for three Walrus aircraft, together with a catapult. She carried a complement of some 700 officers and men.

On 19 March 1929, 17 months after her launch, HMS Devonshire was commissioned into the Royal Navy and on 11 May, after carrying out trials at Portland, she sailed for Gibraltar. Before joining the First Cruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet Devonshire, together with her sister Sussex, underwent an eight-week work-up period at Gibraltar before, on 8 July, she finally steamed east to Malta, arriving in Grand Harbour three days later.

Eight days after arriving on station, Devonshire and the rest of the Mediterranean Fleet sailed for manoeuvres in the Aegean Sea, off the island of Skiathos. Controlling the exercises was the C-in-C in his Royal Oak flagship and also taking part were Queen Elizabeth London and Sussex, together with units of the Third Destroyer Flotilla. Arriving off Skiathos on 21 July the fleet lay at anchor, and while the senior officers planned the forthcoming manoeuvres the sailors were granted recreational leave for 'picnic and bathing parties'.

When they got under way Devonshire and the destroyers practised torpedo firing, after which there was gunnery practice. At O800 on Friday 26 July the fleet weighed anchor, and within minutes London, Sussex and Devonshire had formed single line ahead in order to carry out a full calibre shoot. At 08.45 there was a flurry of manoeuvring as Sussex, which was rejoining the line, almost collided with Devonshire; the latter’s stem did in fact touch Sussex's port quarter, but no damage was done and the exercise continued.

At 10.00 exactly Devonshire fired her first broadside, but practically simultaneously a huge explosion shook the ship. A faulty breech mechanism in X turret had caused a shell and some cordite bags to ignite, and the force of the explosion blew the roof off the gun turret and started fires in the gun house and pump room. Fortunately these were soon extinguished, but the explosion took a heavy toll of the Royal Marines who were manning the turret.

One officer and six men were killed instantly, one of them being blown overboard. Devonshire, meanwhile, made for the Greek port of Volos where 17 injured men were transferred to the hospital ship Maine. However, 11 of these subsequently died and 16 of the victims were buried at Volos with full military honours.
Devonshire, with the guns of X turret awry, returned to Malta and from there proceeded to Devonport where, on 14 August 1929, her tragic first commission ended.

Fatalities - Royal Marines
Captain John Arthur Bath D.S.C. † Killed Outright
Sargeant William Ernest Snell ¤ Missing, presumed drowned
Corporal Edward Bacon † Killed outright
Corporal Joseph E. Barber † Died on board HMS Maine
Corporal James Levins † Killed Outright
Marine James W. Blackman † Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Joseph S. Brindle † Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Samuel Goldsmith † Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Frank Grindle † Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Edward C. Harris † Died on board HMS Maine
Marine William Ernest Hellyer ‡ Died on board HMS Maine
Marine William George Hole † Died on board HMS Devonshire
Marine Augustus Alexander MacDonald † Died on board HMS Devonshire
Marine John Tossel Old † Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Lionel R. Taylor † Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Frank Williams † Died on board HMS Maine

Fatality - Royal Navy
Ordnance Artificer Arthur C. Edwards † Died on board HMS Maine

Injuries - Royal Marines
Corporal L.E. Elliott Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Corporal G.C. Pengelly Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Acting Corporal Charles Percival Wickenden ± Hospitalised on HMS Maine
Marine T. Agar Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Marine A. Brimblecombe Hospitalised on HMS Maine
Marine F. Chalice Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Marine W.J. Elliott Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Marine J. Hallam Hospitalised on HMS Maine
Marine G.H. Harkcom Hospitalised on HMS Maine
Marine E.F. Hymen Hospitalised on HMS Maine
Marine W. Smith Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Marine Albert Edward Streams ° Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire

Injuries - Royal Navy
Chief Petty Officer R.E. Jenns Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
L/S/A W.G. Eason Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Able Seaman A.E. Haley Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Able Seaman [?].J. Smith Hospitalised on HMS Maine
O/S O.C. Mason Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire

† Buried in the Naval Reservation at Volos, 27th July, 1929.
¤ Commemorated in the Memorial in the Naval Reservation at Volos. Sgt. Snell's body was never recovered, despite HMS Sussex and HMS Frobisher searching the area for the rest of the day.
‡ Buried in the Naval Reservation at Volos, 29th July, 1929.
± Act. Cpl. Wickenden later died of his injuries in Malta, probably at Bighi Royal Naval Hospital. He was buried at Kalkara Naval Cemetery on 4th September, 1929, in Plot D, Grave 586.
° Marine Streams was later awarded the Albert Medal in recognition of his part in rescuing casualties from the turret.
Sgt. Snell on the right

The Bravery

The Captain of HMS Devonshire stated:
"The conduct of the whole personnel of the ship, officers, men and boys was, throughout, in accordance with the highest traditions of the service."
The Official Court of Enquiry into the accident concluded with the following note:
"It is wished to placed on record that in our opinion, there were several cases of individual gallantry displayed by Officers and men in rescue work."
So far, I've found the following individuals formally honoured for their bravery following the accident. Doubtless there were other acts of individual bravery that have gone unmarked, or which I have yet to identify:

Lieutenant-Commander (later Captain) Alexander Henry Maxwell-Hyslop, HMS Devonshire's Gunnery Officer, was awarded the Albert Medal in recognition of his immediate response to the explosion. He entered the turret whilst it was still on fire and directed the evacuation of the wounded, despite the imminant threat of further explosions, the fire, smoke and toxic fumes. London Gazette, 19th November 1929.
King George V decorated him at Buckingham Palace on 26th February 1931. See also: The George Cross Database.
Lt.Cmdr. Maxwell Hyslop went on to serve in the Royal Navy during WWII. He died in 1978.
A fuller biography of him has been prepared by the Maxwell Society.

Marine Albert Edward Streams, one of the crew from HMS Devonshire's 'X' turret, was awarded the Albert Medal in recognition of his response to the explosion. Having survived the initial blast, he recognised that there were wounded men still in the damaged turret, who he helped evacuate, before getting himself to safety. London Gazette, 19th November 1929.
King George V decorated him at Buckingham Palace on 26th February 1931 - he was still serving on HMS Devonshire in the Mediterranean at the time of Lt.Cmdr. Maxwell Hyslop's decoration.
Marine Streams went on to serve during WWII. Unfortunately he was killed on the first day of the liberation of Sicily, 10/07/1943, whilst serving with 41 Commando, Royal Marines.
Midshipman (later Commander) Anthony John Cobham accompanied Lt-Cmdr Maxwell-Hyslop into the turret, assisting in the evacuation of casualties. He showed "marked initiative, coolness and pluck for an officer of his age". In recognition, he was awarded the Medal of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire For Gallantry, more popuarly known as the Empire Gallantry Medal: London Gazette, 31st December, 1929. See also: The George Cross Database.
Midshipman Cobham went on to serve in the Royal Navy during WWII. He died in 1993.

Able Seaman George Paterson Niven accompanied Lt-Cmdr Maxwell-Hyslop and Midshipman Cobham into the turret, assisting in the evacuation of casualties. This included descending into the lower decks of the turret, when he heard a casualty calling out for help. In recognition, he was awarded the Medal of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire For Gallantry, London Gazette, 31st December, 1929. See also: The George Cross Database.
Able Seaman Niven went on to serve in the Royal Navy during WWII. He died in 1947.

Most of Devonshire’s pre-war career was spent in the Mediterranean and on 3 December 1939, when war was declared, she was at Alexandria. It was not long, however, before she returned to home waters to join the fleet at Scapa Flow. On 3 April she sailed from Rosyth as part of a battlefleet which included Rodney, Furious, Berwick and York, to set course for Norwegian waters.

The force was acting as escort to two large minelaying groups which were to lay mine barrages off the Norwegian coast and during the afternoon of 9 April, the day that German forces invaded Denmark and Norway, Devonshire came under heavy air attack whilst she was off Stavanger. One bomb exploded in the sea close to the ship's port side, abaft B turret, causing some slight damage, but it did not affect her operational capability. During the naval battles at Narvik Devonshire was escorting Allied troop convoys to the port, and patrolling the northern Norwegian coastline, between Kirkenes, on the edge of the Barents Sea, to Tromso, north of Narvik.

In early May she assisted the Allied evacuation of Namsos and escorted a troop convoy to Scapa Flow, coming under heavy air attack from which she emerged unscathed. By mid ¬May Devonshire had returned Namsos to assist with the evacuation of Allied troops from that port and on 18 May she came under heavy air attack, with one of her Walrus aircraft being shot down and two crew members killed.

Throughout May and early June the cruiser remained in northern Norway and on 7 June, whilst anchored off Tromso, she embarked the King of Norway, together with the Crown Prince and 56 members of their staff and Norwegian Government officials. Also embarked were over 400 rearguard troops and a number of political refugees, and after m fast three-day passage they were all disembarked safely at Greenock.

For Devonshire there followed a transatlantic crossing to Halifax, NS, for a refit.
In mid-1941 Devonshire was once again operating from Scapa Flow, and some five weeks after the massive German invasion of Russia, the cruiser was involved in the first incursion by the Royal Navy into Arctic waters. Devonshire was to escort the aircraft carriers Furious and Victorious well into the Barents Sea, from where bombing raids were to be mode on enemy shipping at Kirkenes and Petsamo. The force, which also included Suffolk and a destroyer screen, left Iceland's Seydis Fjord on 26 July 1941 to steam east and four days later aircraft from the two carriers made their attacks. In the event, however, 15 aircraft were shot down and only superficial damage was inflicted on shipping in the two harbours.
 
By 5 August the force had returned to Scapa Flow. Just over two weeks later, on 23 August, again in company with Victorious and the elderly Argus, Devonshire left Scapa Flow to escort the first Russian supply convoy of the Second World War, PQI, to Archangel. On the last day of August Devonshire and other units of the escort force anchored in Spitzbergen’s Sardon Bay and with the convoy safely delivered, during the return passage aircraft from the to carriers attacked shipping, an aluminium plant and a power station in northern Norway. By mid ¬September the cruiser was back at Scapa Flow and preparing for service in warmer waters.

In late October 1941 Devonshire was in the South Atlantic, patrolling between Freetown and Simonstown, when trawlers of the South African Defence Force sighted a convoy of five French merchant ships, escorted by the French sloop D’Iberville, which was en route from vichy-held Madagascar into the South Atlantic and steaming well south of Cope Town. Devonshire, which was at Simonstown, was ordered to intercept and on 1st November she sailed south. Next day she rendezvoused with Colombo and the armed merchant cruiser Carthage, and they were later joined by Carnarvon Castle.

The French convoy was sighted during the afternoon and next day, having refused to be diverted to South African ports, the merchant ships were boarded and sent in to Cape Town with prize crews. The sloop D’Iberville, being outgunned by the two cruisers and two armed merchant cruisers, was forced to part company with her convoy and move away to the west. With the operation over Devonshire steamed into the Indian Ocean to escort the troopship Viceroy of India, after which she moved into the Atlantic Ocean to head north for Freetown.

Nine days after leaving Simonstown, at 07.10 on Saturday 22 November, in a position Lat 040 - I0'S/180 - 45'W, some 1,000 miles west of Gabon, the observer in the cruiser's Walrus aircraft sighted a suspicious merchant ship to the west. Devonshire immediately altered course to close the position and 50 minutes later the merchant ship was sighted. By this time the aircrewman had given a description of the ship and after consulting the weekly intelligence report and a copy of the 23 June 1941 issue of Life magazine, it was strongly suspected that the ship was the German armed raider Atlantis, or ‘Raider C' as she was known to British Intelligence. The ship's frequent alterations of course deepened suspicions in the minds of those on Devonshire's bridge.

Atlantis,(PHOTO) or ''Raider C', had been built in 1938 as MV Goldenfels, a 7,862-ton general cargo ship owned by the Hansa Line. On 30 November 1939, having been armed with six 150mm guns from the old 1906 battleship Schlesien, one 75mm bow gun, two twin 37mm and four 20mm guns, as well as four torpedo tubes and two Heinkel He 114B seaplanes, she was commissioned into the German Navy. After leaving Kiel in March 1940 and making a daring escape into the Atlantic she had ranged the Atlantic and Indian Oceans sinking or capturing 22 Allied merchant ships, including SS Automeden which was carrying top secret documents relating to Britain's garrison defences at Singapore. On 22 November, however, she had been ordered to rendezvous with, and fuel, U 126, which is what she was doing when found by Devonshire. Although the submarine made an emergency dive there was no escape for Atlantis.

Once Devonshire was within sight of the merchant ship, to frustrate any submarine attack, she manoeuvred to keep a distance of between 12,000 and 18,000 yards away, maintaining a speed of 26 knots with frequent alterations of course. Devonshire signalled the merchantman to stop and to identify herself but no reply was received. Instead she hoisted the ‘L' flag meaning, ‘Stop, I have something to communicate' and the ‘MT' flags meaning, ‘My engines are stopped'. Apart from this she refused to answer any signals. At 08.37 Devonshire fired two 8-inch salvoes to the left and right of the ship, hoping to provoke either a return of fire or to induce her to abandon ship. At 08.40 Atlantis transmitted a raider report in the form ‘RRR RRR RRR de Polyphemus', a Dutch merchant ship which, eight weeks earlier, had called at Balboa. By 09.34, however, Devonshire had received confirmation that this was false and a minute later, at a range of 17,500 yards, the cruiser opened fire with her main armament. Devonshire's fourth salvo hit Atlantis's No 2 hold, setting it on fire and subsequently blowing up the magazine, and by 09.39 Atlantis herself was on fire and sinking.

At 10.14 there was a heavy explosion and two minutes later the raider sank. With the strongpossibility of a U-boat in the area there was no question of stopping to rescue survivors and two days later Devonshire returned to Freetown. Later that month and in early December she was back in the Atlantic Ocean carrying out an unsuccessful search for survivors of HMS Dunedin.

On 17 April 1941 the German raider Atlantis had sunk the Egyptian SS Zamzan with over 100 neutral US citizens on board, including the Life photographer David Scherman. It was his smuggled photograph which helped to identify the raider.

Atlantis
The ship carried one or two Heinkel He-114B seaplanes, four waterline torpedo tubes, and a 92-mine compartment. The ship was also equipped with six 150 mm guns, one 75 mm gun on the bow, and two twin-37 mm guns and four 20 mm automatic cannons; all of which were hidden, mostly behind pivotable false deck structures. A phony crane and deckhouse on the aft section hid four of the 150 mm guns. 

U-68, U-126, a Nightmare, and HMS Devonshire
On October 18, Rogge was ordered to rendezvous with the submarine U-68, 800 km south of St. Helena and refuel her, then he was to refuel U-126 at a location north of Ascension Island. They met with U-68 on November 13. On November 21 or 22, Atlantis rendezvoused with U-126 and Kapitänleutnant Ernst Bauer came aboard to take a bath. It was around this time that Kapitänleutnant Ulrich Mohr, Rogge's adjutant, awoke from a nightmare about a three-funnelled British cruiser.
At 0816, the foremast lookout shouted "Feindlicher Kreuzer in Sicht!" ("Enemy cruiser in sight!"). This was the British County class heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire. The "Counties" were distinctive of their three funnels. 

Sunk & Sunk again 
U-126 dived, leaving her captain behind. From 14 to 15 km away, outside the range of Atlantis's 150 mm guns, Devonshire opened fire. There is dispute as to whether Rogge ordered his ship to move at full speed and emit smoke, or ordered it to stop. It is believed that they were, at this time, posing as the Greek ship Polyphemus and had begun to transmit the British code RRR, not realising that recent Allied orders had changed this procedure, and the RRR signal should now be sent as RRRR.

After 20-30 seconds, 8-in (200 mm) shells began to arrive at their target. The first salvo missed, but the second and third salvos slammed into the ship. Seven sailors were killed as the crew abandoned ship, Rogge was the last off. Ammunition exploded and the bow rose, then the ship sank.

Devonshire left the area and the German submarine resurfaced and picked up 300 Germans and a wounded American prisoner, whom it began carrying or towing to Brazil (1500 km west). Two days later the refueling ship Python arrived and took on the sailors. On December 1, while refueling two submarines, the third of the British cruisers seeking the raiders, HMS Dorsetshire, appeared. The U-boats dived immediately.

The crew of the Python scuttled her so the Dorsetshire departed and it was left to the U-boats to recover the crew. Eventually, by means of various German and Italian submarines Rogge's crew was brought back to Germany


By May 1942 Devonshire was in the Indian Ocean as part of ‘Operation Ironclad', the invasion of strategic ports in Vichy-held Madagascar, and in the follow-up to this operation she escorted troop convoys, including the giant Cunarder Queen Mary, between Suez and Simonstown. In July 1944 she formed part of the escort for the aircraft carriers Formidable and Indefatigable when they carried out air attacks on Tirpitz in Norway's Kaafjord and in December that year she escorted the carrier Trumpeter during minelaying operations off Norway. During this latter operation she came under heavy air attack by JU88 torpedo bombers, one of which was shot down by the close-range armament.

In May 1945, when the war in Europe ended, Devonshire was at Scapa Flow and, accompanied by Apollo, Ariadne and other units, she then sailed for Oslo. Embarked in Ariadne was Prince Olav of Norway who was returning for the first time since he had been evacuated from Tromso by Devonshire in June 1940. During the visit to Oslo peacetime conditions returned as the cruiser was opened to the public each day, with over 2,800 people visiting her, and a children's party was organised. From Oslo Devonshire set course for Copenhagen where, guided by German minesweepers, she was the first Allied warship to berth in the harbour since 1939.
See article "Opearation Kingdom"  

The cruiser's officers took over North Dockyard Island naval base and handed it back to the Danish Navy while her engineers inspected the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and the light cruiser Nurnburg, which surrendered to them. The commanding officers of the two German ships reported to Devonshire for their orders and on 22 May Devonshire, accompanied by Dido and HMCS Iroquois, escorted the two German warships out of Copenhagen bound for Wilhelmshaven where the escort was turned over to the Canadian destroyer and the two British cruisers returned to Rosyth.

During the latter half of 1945 Devonshire made a number of trooping voyages east of Suez, on one occasion returning 700 naval ratings from Sydney to Devonport for demobilisation.

During the outward passage to Sydney she assisted in the search for survivors from the British steamer Empire Patrol which had caught fire and sunk off Port Said while carrying over 500 Italian refugees from Ethiopia. In April 1946, on her return from her last trooping voyage to Colombo, See article S S Empire Patrol for full story.
 
Devonshire then steamed north to Rosyth to be fitted out as a cadet training ship to replace the even older Frobisher, taking over her role 12 months later in April 1947.

Devonshire's first training cruise began in autumn 1947, when she visited the Irish port of Berehaven (Castletown Bere), in the beautiful setting of Bantry Bay on Ireland's south coast, the visit being hosted by the Irish Naval Service. From Ireland Devonshire steamed south to the Mediterranean where she visited Ajaccio, Malta and Mers el Kebir before returning to Devonport for Christmas. Over the next six years Devonshire's spring and summer cruises took; her to home and European ports, to the Mediterranean and, on occasions, to the Caribbean; for the cadets, they were the highlights of her training programme. In June 1953, taking her place in 'E-Line' between INS Delhi (ex-HMS Achilles) and HMS Battleaxe, Devonshire was the oldest ship to form part of the Coronation Review of the Fleet.

Her career was, however, nearing its end and the Coronation Review marked the final cruise for the last of the old three-funnelled cruisers. During the final leg of the passage from Torquay Devonshire’s commanding officer, Captain William Crawford, donned a boiler suit and kept watch in the engine room, while the engineer officer took over the bridge watch. On 7 September 1953, having transferred her ship's company and cadets to HMS Triumph, the old cruiser was paid off into the lowest category of 'Class Four Reserve.

The end came in June 1954 when she was sold to Cashmore Ltd, to be broken up at Newport, Monmouthshire. On 10 December 1954, when she left Devonport under tow for her final voyage to South Wales, it was the end of a distinguished 25-year career during which she had added the battle honours 'Norway I940' and 'Diego Suarez 1942' to her name.