List of classes of British ships of World War II

This is a list of all British ship classes that served in World War II.

This list includes all British ship classes including those which did not serve with the Royal Navy or British military in general.

Heavy cruisers were defined by international agreement pre-war for the purposes of arms limitation as those with guns greater than 6-inch (152 mm); ships of guns of 6-inch or less were light cruisers.

Armed merchant cruisers[51][page needed] Several classes of Admiralty tug were operated as well as other vessels obtained

Illustrious in 1942 with a Fairey Swordfish on deck.
HMS Unicorn in the Atlantic 1943
HMS Activity in the Firth of Forth
Merchant aircraft carrier Empire MacColl sometime between 1943-1945
Pegasus in 1918 when it was called Ark Royal ; it was renamed before World War II
HMS King George V lead ship of class in 1941 and the most advanced British battleships of World War II
Hood was the only one of four planned Admiral-class battlecruisers built. The pride of the Royal Navy, it was sunk in the Battle of the Denmark Strait
HMS Suffolk (55) was one of the Kent subclass of the County-class heavy cruisers
HMS Phoebe , a Dido -class cruiser with Princess Elizabeth and King George VI on board at Belfast .
The armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay in Dakar , Senegal in 1940
The Roberts -class monitor HMS Roberts .
HMS Mackay , one of the Admiralty type destroyer leaders, and saw action in the Channel Dash
HMS Vanquisher one of the V-class destroyers which took part in evacuating troops from France in Operation Dynamo
G-class destroyer HMS Griffin saw most of its notable action in the Battle of Cape Matapan and Operation Vigorous which was mainly around Africa and in the Mediterranean.
The Canadian Chebogue was one of over 150 River-class frigates built
Flower-class Mignonette underway on the River Tyne
The Black Swan -class sloop HMS Erne arriving at Algiers as part of a troop convoy
Abdiel -class minelayers Manxman and Welshman
The Algerine -class minesweeper Hound used reciprocating steam engines rather than turbines
Sealion a pre-war S-class submarine.
Admiral Sir John Eccles , Commander in Chief Home Fleet , boarding the X-craft Minnow at Portland.
Isles-class trawler HMS Procher
Fairmile B motor launch ML 117 underway.
Insect-class gunboat HMS Aphis
TID-class tug in Ostend , Belgium
Newly made Landing Craft Assault (LCA) in 1942.
The yacht Sundowner owned by Charles Lightoller which participated in the Dunkirk evacuation as a little ship.