HMS Calcutta was a C-class

C class cruiser

The C class was a group of twenty-eight light cruisers of the Royal Navy, and were built in a sequence of seven classes known as the Caroline , Calliope , Cambrian , Centaur , Caledon , Ceres and Carlisle classes...

 light cruiser

Light cruiser

A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...

 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...

, named after the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n city of Calcutta. She was part of the Carlisle group of the C-class of cruisers.

She was laid down by Vickers Limited

Vickers Limited

Vickers Limited was a famous British engineering conglomerate that merged into Vickers-Armstrongs in 1927.-Early history:Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor &...

 in 1917, and launched on 9 July 1918. Calcutta was commissioned too late to see action in the First World War, but was converted to an anti-aircraft cruiser in 1939 and deployed in the Mediterranean. On the night of 25 June 1940, Calcutta was sent to join the Canadian

Royal Canadian Navy

The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

 destroyers HMCS Restigouche and HMCS Fraser on a mission to the coast of Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 where 4,000 refugees trapped by the German Army were awaiting rescue.

The warships encountered rough seas and poor visibility, forcing the commanding officer of the Fraser to close quarters with the other two vessels. Fraser executed a turn to port to bring the ship behind Calcutta but in doing so, the two ships collided, with the bow of the heavier Calcutta slicing into Fraser with such force that the destroyer was cut into three pieces. The Fraser sank with the loss of 45 crew, while 19 of Calcuttas crew were also killed.

Calcutta was used to escort allied convoys across the Mediterranean and became involved in the Battle of Cape Matapan

Battle of Cape Matapan

The Battle of Cape Matapan was a Second World War naval battle fought from 27–29 March 1941. The cape is on the southwest coast of Greece's Peloponnesian peninsula...

 in March 1941. She was sunk on 1 June 1941 by German Junkers 88 bombers approximately 100 nautical miles (185.2 km) off Alexandria, Egypt.