Specifications for HMS Newcastle,  Displacement: 9,100 tons Speed: 32kt Complement: 700 Armament: Twelve 6 inch guns in threes. Eight 4 inch anti-aircraft guns in pairs and eight 2pdr anti-aircraft guns in pairs as well as eight 0.5 inch machine guns in fours. Six 21 inch torpedo tubes in threes and 3 aircraft.
Night Attack on the Newcastle by Robert Taylor During the night of 14/15th June 1942 German E-Boats of the 3rd Flotilla left their base at Derna to intercept an Allied convoy bund for Malta. Before 04.00, under the command of Leutnant Seigfried Wuppermann, the motor torpedo boat S-56 slipped past two Royal Navy escort destroyers to make her attack on HMS Newcastle. Alerted to the incoming attack a searchlight on Newcastle switched on illuminating S-56. Wuppermann fired two torpedoes and turned hard to starboard to make his escape. A second searchlight pin-pointed S-56but it was too late. Signatures: Sir Henry Leach GCB, DL; John Baber RNVR; Wilfred Marriott RN; Arthur Deakin RN and Rupert Stant RN.