HMS Birmingham (1913)

HMS Birmingham was the lead ship of the Birmingham group of three Town-class light cruisers built for the Royal Navy shortly before the First World War, with her sisters Lowestoft and Nottingham. The three were nearly identical to the third group of Town-class ships but had an extra 6-inch gun on the forecastle, and Birmingham was a two-screw ship built at Elswick, launched on 7 May 1913 and completed on 30 January 1914. She joined the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet and on 9 August 1914 rammed and sank the stopped German submarine U-15 off Fair Isle, the first U-boat lost to an enemy warship. She sank two German merchant ships that year and took part in the battles of Heligoland and Dogger Bank, and in 1916 she fought at Jutland with the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron. After the war she was flagship of the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron, served on the Africa Station and elsewhere, and was sold in 1931 and broken up at Pembroke Dock.