Old Photograph HMS Swiftsure Forth Bridge Scotland

Old photograph of HMS Swiftsure by the Forth Railway Bridge near North Queensferry, Fife, Scotland. HMS Swiftsure was a Minotaur-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers Armstrong at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, on 22 September 1941, launched on 4 February 1943 by Lady Wake-Walker and commissioned on 22 June 1944. Swiftsure joined the Home Fleet on commissioning, and in 1944 she was assigned to the Eastern Fleet, where, in November 1944, she became a unit of the newly formed British Pacific Fleet. In the Pacific she participated in the Okinawa Campaign of March and May 1945 and in June took part in the carrier raid on Truk by the British Pacific Fleet, with the cruisers shelling the islands. On 30 August 1945 this group entered Hong Kong and took the Japanese surrender there. HMS Swiftsure was at this time the flagship of the British Pacific Cruiser Squadron, and was selected by Admiral Cecil Harcourt to hoist his flag for the Japanese surrender. In 1946 she was the flagship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron and in 1951 she became the flagship of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron. In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. She was eventually sold, arriving at the Inverkeithing yard of T. W. Ward in Fife on 17 October 1962 to be scrapped. Blog post of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



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