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拍品專文
The cruiser Norfolk, 9750 tons, was - with her sister ship Dorsetshire- laid down in 1927, launched in 1928 and completed in 1930. Built by Fairfields at Govan, on the Clyde, her overall length was 633 feet, with a 66 foot beam and a 17 foot draught. Powered by Parsons SR geared turbines producing 80,000s.h.p., she could steam at 32¼ knots and carried a full complement of 700 men. With a main armament of 8 8-in. guns, she and her consorts made a formidable addition to the Fleet as each entered service in the run-up to the Second World War. Norfolk won several battle honours for her wartime service but none was so well earned as that for her part in the sinking of the Bismarck. She and Suffolk were guarding the Denmark Strait when intelligence reported that Bismarck and Prinz Eugen were attempting to break out into the Atlantic. In the event it was that particular route which Admiral Lütjens chose and, despite the appalling weather, Norfolk and Suffolk alternately shadowed and harried the German raiders until reinforcements arrived. In all, the epic chase lasted from the 23rd to the 27th May 1941 and Norfolk remained on station until the very end of the operation and Bismarck was sunk. Norfolk's other war service included North Africa (1942), the North Cape (1943) and Norway (1945) and, when peace came, she went out to the East Indies. Paid off and placed in reserve in 1949, she was broken up the following year.