The Suffolk heavy cruiser was completed in 1927. It was considered to be slow and poorly armoured by the outbreak of the Second World War.

It was damaged in action off Norway but was repaired in time to join King George V, the Dorsetshire, Rodney and the Norfork in the attack on the Bismarck in May 1941.

The Suffolk was transferred to the Indian Ocean in 1943 and remained there until the end of the war.