was ordered to sweep the area around Scarpanto and the Gulf of Salonica. On one occasion she bombarded the airfield at Maleme on the island of Crete to prevent German aircraft from taking off. On 21 November 1944, Black Prince left Alexandria, passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea and then on into the Indian Ocean. She arrived at Colombo in Ceylon on 30 November to join the East Indies Fleet where she covered the aircraft carrier raids against Japanese oil installations and airfields in Sumatra and Malaya (Operation Meridian). On 16 January 1945, she sailed as part of the British Pacific Fleet, seeing action off Okinawa and in the final bombardments of the Japanese mainland before withdrawing to repossess Hong Kong in September. Royal New Zealand Navy After the Japanese surrender, she remained in the Far East, and was transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy on 25 May 1946. During 1947, the cruiser was docked for modernisation, but this was cancelled following a series of mutinies in April (which included the sailors from Black Prince), as the RNZN no longer had the manpower to operate her. Black Prince was placed in reserve. Work on reactivating the ship began in January 1952, to reduce crew the two multiple Pom Pom AA mounts were temporarily removed and 8 of the unique RNZN 40 mm single electric Toadstool CIWS, installed, in place of Mk 5 twin Oerilikons and she was recommissioned in February 1953. In the same year she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The cruiser was decommissioned again in August 1955, and after the decision in the British 1957 Defence White Paper to strike the remaining Royal Navy Dido and Improved Didos as too outdated to be used again or modernized, Black Prince was reduced to extended 3rd class reserve, and used as an accommodation ship for refitting warships and spare part source for s 1960-1 refit, before reverting to Royal Navy control for disposal in line with its loan terms. Fate She was sold for scrap in March 1962 and towed from Auckland on 5 April to the Mitsui & Company, Osaka breakage yards, Japan, by the tug , arriving there on 2 May 1962. Notes References Further reading Dido-class cruisers Ships built in Belfast 1942 ships World War II cruisers of the United Kingdom Dido-class cruisers of