An enlarged and improved version of the Royal Navy’s Arethusa class, this light cruiser was ordered from the Vickers shipyard in Britain in 1935. During WWII she was a frontline cruiser in the Argentine navy but afterwards served as a cadet training vessel. A noteworthy feature was her AA armament of twin Vickers 1” guns; La Argentina was the only ship in the Western Hemisphere equipped with this weapon. They were removed in the 1950s and replaced with USN Mk2 40mm twins to ensure ammunition commonality with other Argentine vessels.

Original Author: Jason W. Henson