From the initial trials of the lead ship of the class, "Bonaventure", the new light cruisers were considered a significant advance, and later, in action in the Mediterranean Sea, they were surprisingly effective in protecting crucial convoys to Malta and managed to see off far larger ships of the Italian Royal Navy. The gun was primarily a surface weapon, but it was intended to fire the heaviest shell suitable for anti-aircraft defence and accounted for around 23 aircraft and saw off far more. Four original "Dido"-class ships were lost during the war: , , , and . The original ship of the class, , was mothballed in 1947 and decommissioned ten years later. was the last remaining in-service ship of the original class, being decommissioned in 1954 and scrapped in 1959.