York Class Heavy Cruiser Summary

This is a 3D printed game piece from EBard Models.

The York class was the second and final class of heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy under the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. They were essentially a reduced version of the preceding County class, scaled down to enable more cruisers to be built from the limited defence budgets of the late 1920s.

The class was intended to have seven ships, but only two were built, York & Exeter. The remaining ships were delayed due to budget cuts, and then following the London Naval Treaty of 1930 the Royal Navy decided its cruiser needs were best met by building a greater number of light cruisers.

Both ships served extensively in the first few years of the Second World War. Exeter took part in the Battle of the River Plate against the German raider Admiral Graf Spee, and was badly damaged, though later repaired and modernized. She escorted a convoy to the Pacific in late 1941, and was again heavily damaged in the Battle of the Java Sea, then caught and overwhelmed a few days later by four Japanese heavy cruisers. York was sunk in Suda Bay, Crete, by Italian MT boats in 1941, and was raised in 1952 and towed away to be scrapped in Italy.

Ships of Class:

• York - Scuttled after attacks, May 1941
• Exeter - Sunk in surface action, March 1942

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