HMS Devonshire, pennant number 39, was a County-class heavy cruiser of the London sub-class built for the Royal Navy in the late 1920s.

Several months later, she participated in the Battle of Dakar, a failed attempt to seize the Vichy French colony of Senegal in September.

Devonshire carried a maximum of 3,425 long tons (3,480 t) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 13,300 nautical miles (24,600 km; 15,300 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).

[13] Cunningham's ships were then detached to Tromsø where he conducted negotiations with local officials to refuel there and to bring Norwegian troops west from Kirkenes.

[14] Devonshire evacuated King Haakon VII, Crown Prince Olav, and Norwegian government officials, including the Prime Minister, Johan Nygaardsvold, from Tromsø on 7 June.

The ship passed within 50 miles (80 km) of the action in which the aircraft carrier Glorious and two destroyers were sunk by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

Although an enemy sighting report had been received in Devonshire, Cunningham's orders were to get Haakon VII to safety, and the cruiser sped up and continued on her course.

Still Cunningham's flagship, she departed the Clyde on the 31st, escorting the troop convoy en route to Gibraltar[16] where they arrived on 3 September.

On the 14th, Cunningham dispatched the 1st CS, augmented by the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, in an unsuccessful attempt to locate and turn back a Vichy French cruiser squadron bound for Dakar; by this time he had hoisted his flag in the battleship Barham.

Devonshire and her Australian sister ship Australia engaged the French cruisers and destroyers as they manoeuvred in the harbour on the second day of the battle, with negligible effect in poor visibility.

[19] Devonshire remained in the South Atlantic and participated in the unsuccessful hunt for the German commerce raider Kormoran in January 1941.

The following month, Devonshire provided distant cover for the first convoy to Russia, Operation Dervish,[22] before she was transferred to the Eastern Fleet.

Twenty days later, Devonshire sank a German commerce raider, the auxiliary cruiser Atlantis, north of Ascension Island.

[21] After the completion of her refit, Devonshire was sent to join the 4th Cruiser Squadron of the Eastern Fleet and escorted a convoy from Charleston, South Carolina, to Freetown, Sierra Leone en route.

[24] On 25 April, the ship escorted a convoy from Durban, South Africa to Madagascar as part of Operation Ironclad, which was launched to preempt a possible Japanese occupation of the island.

From July until the end of hostilities in May 1945, Devonshire escorted the carrier raids that were mounted on shipping and other targets in Norwegian waters (Operations Mascot, Goodwood, and Hardy).

[23][26] With the end of the war in Europe, Devonshire, now the flagship of Rear-Admiral James Ritchie, the future Flag Officer Norway, sailed on 12 May to Oslo.

[29][30] On 29 September, Devonshire helped to rescued the survivors of SS Empire Patrol, a freighter loaded with Greek refugees bound from Port Said, Egypt, to Greece, that had caught fire.