HMS Liverpool (C11)

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Liverpool underway on 28 February 1942
History
Royal Navy EnsignUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Liverpool
BuilderFairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan
Laid down17 February 1936
Launched24 March 1937
Commissioned2 November 1938
Decommissioned1952
FateSold for scrap July 1958
General characteristics (original configuration)
Displacementlist error: <br /> list (help)
9,400 tons (standard)[2]
11,930 tons full load
Length591.5 ft (180.3 m)[2]
Beam62.3 ft (19.0 m)[2]
Draught20.6 ft (6.3 m)[1]
Propulsionlist error: <br /> list (help)
Four-shaft Parsons geared turbines
Four Admiralty 3-drum boilers
82,500 shp (61.5 MW)[1]
Speed32 kn (59 km/h)[1]
Complement750
Armamentlist error: <br /> list (help)
12 x BL 6 in (150 mm) Mk XXII guns in triple turrets (one aft turret later removed)[3]

8 x QF 4 in (100 mm) Mk XVI guns in twin turrets[4]
8 x QF 40 mm (1.6 in) Mk VIII guns in quad mountings[5]
8 x 0.5 in (13 mm) Vickers machine guns[1]

6 x 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes (later removed)[1]
Armourlist error: <br /> list (help)
Belt: 4.5 inches (110 mm)
Boiler & engine room: 2 inches (51 mm)
Turrets: 2 inches (51 mm)–4 inches (100 mm)[1]
Aircraft carriedTwo Supermarine Walrus aircraft (Removed in the latter part of WWII)
NotesPennant number C11
For other ships with the same name, see HMS Liverpool.

HMS Liverpool (C11) was a Town class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy in service from 1938 to 1952. Named after the port city of Liverpool in north west England, she served in the Second World War and with the Mediterranean Fleet from 1945 until her decommission.

During the Second World War, the cruiser operated variously with the naval stations in the East Indies and China and with the Mediterranean and Home fleets. Seriously damaged in two attacks by torpedo bombers, Liverpool gained four battle honours for her service. An aerial attack in 1942 proved to be the ship's final combat experience of the war. For its duration, Liverpool underwent repairs and refitting at Rosyth, Scotland. She returned to service in 1945, decommissioned in 1952, and dismantled for scrap in 1958 after six years of reserve status.

History

East Indies and China stations

Procured as a direct counter to the American Brooklyn and Japanese Mogami classes, the Towns consisted of three variants for a total of 10 ships.[6] Liverpool became one of the three Town cruisers — the others being Gloucester and Manchester — ordered to a slightly revised design referred to variously as the Gloucester,[7] Type II, or Liverpool sub-class.[8] When first ordered in the mid-1930s, the original Town class cruisers Newcastle and Southampton were to have been called Minotaur and Polyphemus on commission.[9][10]

She was laid down at Govan on 17 February 1936 and launched on 24 March 1937 by the wife of the Governor of the Bank of England. Commissioned on 2 November 1938,[11] Liverpool became assigned to the East Indies Station under the command of Captain A.D. Read.[12] Before her departure, Liverpool visited her namesake port in January 1939. The Liverpool Woman’s Service Bureau presented the cruiser with a Union flag and White Ensign while the Corporation gave the crew "three pairs of candlesticks, a silver cup, and two bugles". She had already received a silver bell and plate originally in the possession of her predecessor.[12]

The Japanese liner Asama Maru, c. 1931

Part of the 5th Cruiser Squadron, Liverpool began to operate in a combat capacity soon after the declaration of war in September, monitoring the Persian Gulf for potential enemy activity.[11] Liverpool transferred to the China Station in November and became involved in a diplomatic incident when she intercepted the Japanese passenger liner Asama Maru on 21 January 1940.[11] Alerted to reports that German sailors in the United States were preparing to arrange transport to Germany, the British Government had authorised the Commander-in-Chief of the China Station to direct a warship to board the Asama Maru and detain 21 suspected passengers provided the procedure did not occur within sight of the coast of Japan.[13] Just 35 miles (56 km) from the coast of Niijima, Japan, Liverpool located the liner and removed 21 of the ship's passengers, believed to be survivors of the scuttled German liner Columbus.[14]

Liverpool reportedly discharged a warning shot across the liner's bows to compel it to halt, and deployed 10 men to conduct the search.[15] The Government of Japan condemned it as an abuse of belligerent rights and formally protested the action, which further escalated tensions between the two countries.[14] Despite increased public hostility towards Britain, the Japanese and British governments sought to defuse the dispute through negotiation. On 5 February, the two countries accepted a proposal which entailed the release of nine Germans in exchange for Japan pledging to deny military-age German citizens access to their vessels.[14]

She rejoined the East Indies Station in April,[11] becoming flagship of Rear-Admiral Arthur Murray's Red Sea Force.[16] Alongside HMAS Hobart, Liverpool operated off the coast of Italian-occupied Somaliland just before the beginning of the East African Campaign, and later escorted a convoy transporting contingents from the Australian and New Zealand militaries.[11] When ordered to redeploy to the Mediterranean in June,[16] Liverpool relinquished her status as flagship with the transfer of Admiral Murray to the New Zealand cruiser Leander at Port Sudan.[17]

1940–1945

In her first month assigned to the 7th Cruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet, Liverpool engaged Italian warships on two separate occasions.[11] She first encountered Italian vessels off the coast of Libya on 12 June while shelling positions near Tobruk with Gloucester and four destroyers. The cruisers attacked five vessels, including the obsolete armoured cruiser San Giorgio, and sank the minesweeper Giovanni Berta.[18] On the 28th, a British Short Sunderland patrol aircraft detected three Italian destroyers west of Zante.[19] The 7th Cruiser Squadron — comprising Gloucester, Neptune, Orion, Liverpool and HMAS Sydney — was on deployment in support of an Allied convoy when it altered course to locate and engage the destroyers; these were sighted 60 miles (97 km) south-west of Cape Matapan by Liverpool.[19] The ensuing action, carried out at a minimum range of over 14,000 yards (13,000 m), became known as the Battle of the Espero Convoy and resulted in the destruction of the Italian Espero. Ammunition had been rapidly depleted by the squadron and by the close of the action, Liverpool had almost expended the contents of her shellrooms, reporting that each gun had 40 shells remaining.[19][20] The Admiralty later criticised the expenditure of more than 5,000 rounds, which Admiral Andrew Cuningham, C-in-C of the Mediterranean Fleet, attributed to the squadron's inexperience and his belief in the necessity to confront the Italian warships before nightfall.[19][20] Nevertheless, the use of such a large volume of shells caused the cancellation of Operation MA.3, which encompassed two convoys to the besieged island of Malta.[19]

On 9 July, Liverpool fought in the Battle of Calabria — the first major encounter between the Allied and Italian fleets in the Mediterranean theatre.[21] The Liverpool and Neptune commenced firing at 15:22, eight minutes after Italian cruisers started their barrage at a range of 23,600 yards (13.4 mi). After a continuous exchange of fire, Warspite struck the battleship Giulio Cesare at 16:00, inducing the Italian fleet to disengage from the battle.[22] Throughough the rest of July, Liverpool provided support for Allied convoys and became a target for Italian aircraft. Two attacks resulted in direct hits, causing minor damage and one fatality.[11] When the Mediterranean Light Forces restructured in August, Liverpool switched to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron and grouped with Gloucester and Kent under command of Rear-Admiral Edward de Faye Renouf.[23] She continued to provide cover for convoys in the Mediterranean and undertook other duties, such as escorting Illustrious when the aircraft carrier entered the eastern theatre of operations in September.[11] On the 28th, as part of Operation MB.5, Liverpool and Gloucester proceeded to Malta transporting 1,200 reinforcements, airmen, and RAF provisions.[24] The cruisers — briefly protected from the 29th by a force consisting of the battleships Valiant and Warspite, Illustrious with her aircraft, cruisers Orion, Sydney, and York, and 11 destroyers — came under repeated aerial attack.[24][25] Both cruisers later detached from the naval force and reached the island on the 30th.

While Liverpool and other vessels were returning from an operation against the island of Leros on 14 October,[26] Italian torpedo-bombers attacked the cruiser, inflicting considerable damage to the forward section and causing fuel to be released from the aviation tank.[27] According to Captain Read, despite surrounding the petrol with 70 tons of water, the fuel reached the mess decks and became exposed to an electrical short circuit.[28] The subsequent explosion seriously compromised Liverpool's bow structure, blew up "A" turret, and enveloped the forecastle in flames.[28] Orion, screened by the anti-aircraft cruisers Calcutta and Coventry, took Liverpool in tow at the stern.[29] While being towed on the 15th, Liverpool's bow detached from the hull. Later in the day, 12 sailors (including one unidentified) were buried at sea. Three more died in the night and were buried before the two cruisers reached the port of Alexandria.[30] She arrived on the 16th and would not return to a state of sea worthiness until March 1941.[11] Her captain transferred in late October to the Ramillies,[28] and was succeeded to command by A.L. Poland.[31] The Admiralty announced in November that three officers and 27 ratings had been killed and 35 wounded during the attack.[32] Liverpool had been forewarned of an imminent attack via radio direction finder (RDF) but the inexperienced rating on-watch at his post did not report this to his superiors because of apparent confusion.[30]

As part of the ship's interim repairs, Liverpool had a provisional, "false" bow constructed.[33] Once able to embark on a prolonged voyage, Liverpool proceeded to the United States, via the Indian and Pacific Oceans, to have her bow reconstructed at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. The ship's presence would not be disclosed until September when the US Navy Department released a list identifying 12 ships situated in various ports.[34] She departed in October and returned to Britain in December, principally to complete the installation of her radar systems.[11]

After returning to active service, Liverpool became subordinate to the 18th Cruiser Squadron. Between March and May, she performed routine duties in the North Western Approaches and deployed in support of three Arctic convoys.[11] Liverpool became employed in the Arctic as a replacement for the damaged cruiser Trinidad, and joined convoy QP 10, consisting of 16 merchant vessels and five destroyers, on 12 April as escort on its journey from the Russian Kola Peninsula to Iceland.[35] The convoy came under repeated attack from U-boats and aircraft for three days.[36] By the time Liverpool concluded her escort duties on the 18th,[11] the convoy had four vessels sunk (two of which sank on the 11th) and one damaged; QP 10 arrived at Reykjavik on the 21st.[37]

The cruiser rejoined the Mediterranean Fleet in June to participate in the Malta convoys. While with Force W covering Convoy WS. 19 during Operation Harpoon,[11] Liverpool and the convoy came under attack by at least 38 Axis aircraft on 14 June; Liverpool was crippled and the Dutch freighter Tanimbar sunk.[38] The torpedo that impacted Liverpool's starboard side hit the engine room and disabled the aiming gears of "X" and "Y" turrets.[11] Reduced to 4 knots (7.4 km/h) and partially flooded, Liverpool was taken under tow by Antelope and escorted by Westcott, which was later supported by the corvettes Jonquil and Spirea.[11] During the journey to Gibraltar, the group came under relentless attack from sortieing aircraft. Casualties were reported in the ship's log as being 15 killed and 22 wounded.[39] The fatalities from the torpedoing had remained in the engine room and been affected by heat exposure, requiring the distribution of an additional tot of rum to the volunteer retrieval party.[40]

At Gibraltar, Liverpool underwent temporary repairs. The warship returned to Britain in August, beginning a two-year period of maintenance that did not end until after the war.[11] Sufficient personnel would not be assigned to Liverpool until 1945 as other ships had higher priority for the allocation of manpower.[11]

Post-war

Refitted with upgraded radar equipment and additional anti-aircraft weaponry in place of "X" turret, Liverpool returned to service in October 1945 to join the 15th Cruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet.[11] Within the first two years, Liverpool had relieved Arethusa as guardship at Trieste and,[41] as flagship of Admiral Algernon Willis, visited numerous ports, including Istanbul, Sevastopol, and Athens.[42] The cruiser transported Olympic torches and related items in April 1948 in preparation for the ceremonial prelude to the Summer Olympic Games in London.[43]

Admiral Rhoderick McGrigor, First Sea Lord, being piped on board Liverpool at Valleta, Malta in 1952. The cruiser was serving as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet.

While docked in the harbour of Alexandria, Egypt on 22 January 1950, Liverpool entertained King Farouk. Given a 21-gun salute by the cruiser, Farouk met Lord Mountbatten and the Ambassador to Egypt and later expressed his "pleasure at the visit and at renewing my acquaintance with the Royal Navy."[44] In September 1951, Liverpool became the first British warship to visit Yugoslavia since the beginning of the war and was inspected by the country's leader Marshal Tito in the city of Split.[45]

Following the abrogation of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty in October 1951, the Royal Navy dispatched vessels to Port Said where dock workers had declared a strike in protest at the British administration of the Suez Canal Zone. The cruisers Gambia and Liverpool consecutively assumed responsibility for dock operations, supplied men to replace unavailable workers and guarded against guerilla attacks on facilities.[46]

Upon decommission in 1952, Liverpool entered the reserve at Portsmouth Naval Dockyard. Gradual rationalisation of the Royal Navy began in earnest in the 1950s and the reserve fleet abolished by Duncan Sandys' 1957 Defence White Paper. With the complete withdrawal from service of wartime cruisers by the 1960s, the roles of Liverpool and her contemporaries effectively became superseded by the County class guided missile destroyers and the three missile cruisers of the Tiger class.[47] Liverpool was sold in 1958 for breaking up at Bo'Ness, Scotland.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Stephen, Martin & Grove, Eric (1993), Sea Battles in Close-up, World War II, p45
  2. ^ a b c d Colledge, J.J. & Warlow, Ben (2003), Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy, p193
  3. ^ DiGiulian, Tony (2008), British 6"/50 (15.2 cm) BL Mark XXIII, navweaps.com. Retrieved 10 April 2008.
  4. ^ DiGiulian, Tony (2008), British 4"/45 (10.2 cm) QF HA Marks XVI, XVII, XVIII and XXI, navweaps.com. Retrieved 10 April 2008.
  5. ^ DiGiulian, Tony (2008), Britain 2-pdr [4 cm/39 (1.575") Mark VIII, navweaps.com. Retrieved 10 April 2008.
  6. ^ Brown, David K. (2004), The Eclipse of the Big Gun, p2
  7. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur (2008), Gloucester class, uboat.net. Retrieved 4 April 2008
  8. ^ Bishop, Chris (2002), The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II, p493
  9. ^ Bassett, Ronald (1988), HMS Sheffield: The Life and Times of "Old Shiny", p7
  10. ^ In Ronald Bassett's HMS Sheffield: The Life and Times of "Old Shiny", it was speculated that the entire class would have conformed to a theme representative of Greek history and mythos had the Admiralty decided against renaming the two vessels
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Cite error: The named reference NHRN was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ a b A City’s Gift to Warship. H.M.S. Liverpool in the Mersey, The Times, 9 January 1939, ancs.ac.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
  13. ^ Best, Anthony (1995), Britain, Japan and Pearl Harbor: avoiding war in East Asia, 1936-41‎, p98
  14. ^ a b c Marder, Arthur Jacob (1981), Old Friends, New Enemies: The Royal Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy, p106
  15. ^ Homeseekers, Time Magazine, 29 January 1940
  16. ^ a b Waters, Sydney David (1956), The Royal New Zealand Navy, nzetc.org. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
  17. ^ Waters, Sydney David (1956), The Royal New Zealand Navy, p85
  18. ^ Rohwer, Jürgen & Hümmelchen, Gerhard (1992), Chronology of the War at Aea 1939-1945: the Naval History of World War Two‎, p24
  19. ^ a b c d e Titterton, G.A. (2002), pp22–3
  20. ^ a b Stevens, David, The Royal Australian Navy, p68
  21. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles, p172
  22. ^ Titterton, G.A. (2002), pp42–3
  23. ^ Titterton, G.A. (2002), p62
  24. ^ a b Titterton (2002), p70
  25. ^ Mason, Geoffrey B. (2003), Service History of Royal Navy warships in World War 2: HMS Gloucester - Town-type Light Cruiser, naval-history.net. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
  26. ^ Titterton, G. A. & Brown, David (2002), p76
  27. ^ Fitzsimons, Bernard (1969), The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare, p2368
  28. ^ a b c Read, A.D. (1949), Transactions of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, p100
  29. ^ Smith, Peter Charles Smith & Dominy, John (1981), Cruisers in action, 1939-1945, p188
  30. ^ a b Naval Officers' Association of Canada, The Journal of Midshipman W. P. Hayes, RCN, noac-national.ca. Retrieved 24 May 2009.
  31. ^ HMS Liverpool (11), uboat.net. Retrieved 21 May 2009.
  32. ^ Naval Casualties, Canberra Times, 5 November 1940, p1
  33. ^ The Shipbuilder and Marine Engine-Builder, 1946, p500
  34. ^ British Warships Here at least 12; Navy Lists Warspite, 2 Car-riers, 4 Cruisers Among the Vessels Now in Our Ports, New York Times, 20 September 1941
  35. ^ Edwards, Bernard (2002), The road to Russia: Arctic convoys 1942‎, p82
  36. ^ Tovey, John C. (1950), Convoys to North Russia, 1942‎, p5142
  37. ^ Hutson, Harry C. (1998), Arctic Interlude: Independent to North Russia‎, p179
  38. ^ Bunker, John (2006), Heroes in Dungarees: The Story of the American Merchant Marine in World War II‎, p205
  39. ^ Notes taken from Liverpool’s Log, lancs.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
  40. ^ Moses, Sam (2006), At All Costs: How a Crippled Ship and Two American Merchant Mariners Turned the Tide of World War II, p70
  41. ^ Mason, Geoffrey B (2007), HMS Arethusa British light cruiser, WW2, naval-history.net. Retrieved 19 April 2008.
  42. ^ Royal United Services Institute (1947), Journal of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies‎, p477
  43. ^ Olympic Games Torch-Relay, olympic-museum.de. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
  44. ^ Royal Navy entertains King Farouk, The Times (51596), 23 January 1950, Col D, p3
  45. ^ Royal Institute of International Affairs (1955), Chronology of International Events, p567
  46. ^ Wettern, Desmond (1982), The Decline of British Seapower, p59
  47. ^ O'Brien, Phillips Payson (2001), Technology and Naval Combat in the 20th Century and Beyond, p189

References

  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
  • Mason, Geoffrey B. (2004), Service History of Royal Navy warships in World War 2: HMS Liverpool - Town-type Light Cruiser, naval-history.net. Retrieved 31 March 2008
  • Titterton, G.A. (2002), The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean, Routledge ISBN 0714651796

External links

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