HMS Frobisher was a Hawkins-class

Hawkins class cruiser

The Hawkins class was a class of five heavy cruisers of the Royal Navy designed in 1915 and constructed throughout the First World War. All ships were named after Elizabethan sea captains...

 heavy cruiser

Heavy cruiser

The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range, high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 203mm calibre . The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, although the term 'heavy cruiser' only came into formal use in 1930...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She was built at Devonport Dockyard

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...

 and launched on 20 March 1920.

Interwar career

Frobisher was commissioned on 20 September 1924, and entered service with the Mediterranean Fleet as flagship

Flagship

A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...

 of the 1st Cruiser Squadron. She was temporarily detached to serve on the China Station

China Station

The China Station was a historical formation of the British Royal Navy. It was formally the units and establishments responsible to the Commander-in-Chief, China....

 in 1926. In 1927 Frobisher underwent a refit that replaced one 4 inches (102 mm) gun, which was re-sited between the funnels with a fourth gun, with a catapult and a crane. In 1929 another refit gave Frobisher oil fired boilers, and she then joined the Atlantic Fleet. In November 1930 Frobisher was reduced to reserve

Reserve fleet

A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....

 before being converted to a Cadet

Cadet

A cadet is a trainee to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. The term comes from the term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.- Military context :...

's Training Ship, in which role she served from 1932 until 1939. She was laid up in early 1939, until the outbreak of the Second World War. In January 1940 Frobisher started an extensive refit, that rearmed her with five 7.5 inch, and five 4 inches (102 mm) guns, and quadruple 2 pounder pom-pom

QF 2 pounder naval gun

The 2-pounder gun, officially designated the QF 2-pounder and universally known as the pom-pom, was a 1.575 inch British autocannon, used famously as an anti-aircraft gun by the Royal Navy. The name came from the sound that the original models make when firing...

 and 19 20 mm Oerlikons

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original design by Reinhold Becker of Germany, very early in World War I, and widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others...

.

Wartime service

Frobisher joined the 4th Cruiser Squadron of the Eastern Fleet in March 1942 and commenced operations in the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

, escorting convoys around the African coast, spending brief periods in the Selborne dry dock at Simonstown, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. Frobisher returned to the UK in March 1944. She was involved in Operation Neptune

Operation Neptune

The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 , beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time...

 on 6 June as a member of Gunfire Bombardment Support Force D allocated to Sword Beach

Sword Beach

Sword, commonly known as Sword Beach, was the code name given to one of the five main landing areas along the Normandy coast during the initial assault phase, Operation Neptune, of Operation Overlord; the Allied invasion of German-occupied France that commenced on 6 June 1944...

 in the D-Day landings. She is reported to have fired five rounds per minute with her hand-loaded 7.5-inch guns on that occasion. Later that month she was deployed as a depot ship

Depot ship

A depot ship is a ship which acts as a mobile or fixed base for other ships and submarines or supports a naval base. Depot ships may be specifically designed for their purpose or be converted from another purpose...

 for the motor torpedo boats covering the naval forces. In August, she and the repair ship HMAS Albatross were damaged by a long range German torpedo fired from E-boats in Seine Bay. Frobisher was subsequently partly disarmed and reconverted into a Cadet Training Ship. She was sold for scrap on 26 March 1949 and arrived at Newport to be broken up for scrap on 11 May of that year.