Home Fleet in the context of "HMS Malaya"

HMS Essex was one of 10 Monmouth-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Upon completion in 1904 she was assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet. The ship was placed in reserve in March 1906 and recommissioned in 1909 for service with the 4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station. In 1912, Essex returned home and was assigned to the Training Squadron of the Home Fleet. After a refit the following year, she rejoined the 4th Cruiser Squadron in early 1914.

After the beginning of World War I in August, the ship captured a German merchantman the following month. Essex spent most of the first half of the war in the Atlantic Ocean, escorting convoys and searching for German commerce raiders. The ship captured another German merchantman in mid-1916 and was reduced to second-line roles such as depot ship and accommodation ship a few months later. She was paid off in 1919 and sold for scrap two years later.

HMS Sheffield was the third of ten Town-class light cruisers of the Royal Navy. The ship was laid down in January 1935, launched in July 1936, and commissioned in August 1937. She was active in all major naval European theatres of the Second World War, in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

Her career started with service in the Home Fleet, which took her on patrols against German blockade runners and on actions during the Norwegian Campaign. In August 1940, Sheffield was transferred to Force H stationed in Gibraltar. During her service with Force H, most of the operations involved either ferrying aircraft or escorting convoys to Malta. Sheffield also operated against German surface raiders in the Atlantic, and took part in the chase for the German battleship Bismarck. On 26 May 1941, she directed torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal to Bismarck, but took no part in the sinking of Bismarck one day later.

HMS Nelson (pennant number: 28) was the name ship of her class of two battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1920s. They were the first battleships built to meet the limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Entering service in 1927, the ship spent her peacetime career with the Atlantic and Home Fleets, usually as the fleet flagship. During the early stages of World War II, she searched for German commerce raiders, missed participating in the Norwegian Campaign after she was badly damaged by a mine in late 1939, and escorted convoys in the Atlantic Ocean.

In mid-1941 Nelson escorted several convoys to Malta before being torpedoed in September. After repairs she resumed doing so before supporting the British invasion of French Algeria during Operation Torch in late 1942. The ship covered the invasions of Sicily (Operation Husky) and Italy (Operation Avalanche) in mid-1943 while bombarding coastal defences during Operation Baytown. During the Normandy landings in June 1944, Nelson provided naval gunfire support before she struck a mine and spent the rest of the year under repair. The ship was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in mid-1945 and returned home a few months after the Japanese surrender in September to serve as the flagship of the Home Fleet. She became a training ship in early 1946 and was reduced to reserve in late 1947. Nelson was scrapped two years later after being used as a target for bomb tests.

Arctic naval operations of World War II were the World War II naval operations that took place in the Arctic Ocean, and can be considered part of the Battle of the Atlantic and/or of the European Theatre of World War II.

Pre-war navigation in the region focused on fishing and the international ore-trade from Narvik and Petsamo. Soviet settlements along the coast and rivers of the Barents Sea and Kara Sea relied upon summer coastal shipping for supplies from railheads at Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. The Soviet Union extended the Northern Sea Route past the Taymyr Peninsula to the Bering Strait in 1935. The Winter War of 1939-1940 between Finland and the Soviet Union opened the northern flank of the Eastern Front of World War II. The Arctic was initially dominated by the Soviet Northern Fleet of a few destroyers, with larger numbers of submarines, minesweepers, and torpedo cutters supported by icebreakers. The success of the 1940 German invasion of Norway provided the Kriegsmarine with naval bases from which capital ships might challenge units of the British Royal Navy Home Fleet. Luftwaffe anti-shipping aircraft of Kampfgeschwader 26 (KG 26) and Kampfgeschwader 30 (KG 30) operated intermittently from Norwegian airfields, while Küstenfliegergruppen aircraft including Heinkel He 115s and Blohm & Voss BV 138s undertook routine reconnaissance. Following the 1941 Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, the Allies initiated a series of Arctic convoys to bring military supplies to the Soviet Union in formations of freighters screened by destroyers, corvettes and minesweepers. Escorting cruisers typically maneuvered outside the formations, while a larger covering force including battleships and aircraft carriers often steamed nearby to engage Kriegsmarine capital ships or to raid the German naval bases in Norway.