C-class (cruiser)

HMS *Cairo*
	HMS Cairo after being converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser
Ship data
flag	United Kingdom
Ship type	Anti-aircraft cruiser
Keel laying	November 28, 1917
Launch	November 19, 1918
Commissioning	September 23, 1919 ; July 1939
Whereabouts	Sunk August 12, 1942
Ship dimensions and crew
length	137.56 m ( Lüa ) 129.54 m ( Lpp )
width	13.33 m
Draft	Max. 4.27 m
displacement	Construction: 4,290 ts; Maximum: 5,250 ts
crew	432 men
Armament
	from 1939 (as anti-aircraft cruiser): 4 × 2- 102 mm-Mk XVI (twin mounts); 1 × 4- 40 mm / L39 (2pdr) - "pompom" ; 2 × 4 heavy 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun quadruplets ;
Sensors
	from July 1940: Type 279 radar airspace ; February 1942 : + fire control radar type 285

**C class**
	The Cordelia
Ship data
country	United Kingdom
Ship type	Light cruiser anti-aircraft cruiser;
Shipyard	10 different
Construction period	1913 to 1922
Launch of the type ship	February 23, 1914 Cordelia
Units built	28
period of service	December 1914 to 1946

The C-class was a class of 28 light cruisers in the Royal Navy . The ships were built from 1913 onwards in seven groups, which were designated as the Caroline , Calliope , Cambrian , Centaur , Caledon , Ceres and Carlisle classes. The ships were designed for use in the North Sea and were a further development of the Scout Cruiser of the Arethusa class . The Caroline was the first cruiser of the class to enter service in the Navy on December 4, 1914 , followed by eight other cruisers in 1915. During the First World War , 23 ships of the class were completed. Eight cruisers of the class took part in the Battle of Skagerrak in 1916, on which the Castor, used as the command cruiser of the 11th destroyer flotilla , mourned 13 dead and 23 wounded and the flagship of the 4th light cruiser squadron , Calliope , killed ten and nine wounded. Ships of the class also participated in other skirmishes, but none of the cruisers were lost. Supporting the Baltic States in their struggle for independence, the first loss of a cruiser of the class occurred in the Baltic Sea on December 5, 1918 , when the Cassandra struck a mine on the way from Libau to Tallinn and sank. The destroyers Westminster and Vendetta were able to save the crew up to 10 men . In the years that followed, the cruisers were mainly used by the Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet , but some also at other stations such as the East Indies Station and the China Station . As the first ship of the class, the Cordelia was retired in 1923 and sold for demolition. From 1930 the ships of the first four sub-groups followed.

In 1936, the conversion of the cruisers into anti-aircraft cruisers began . When the Second World War broke out , thirteen cruisers were still in service with the Navy, four of which had already been converted into flak cruisers; two were under renovation. The seven cruisers that had not been converted were reactivated and used for trade defense and blockade tasks. In the course of the Second World War, two more ships were converted into flak cruisers in 1942/43. With Curlew , Calypso , Calcutta , Cairo , Coventry and Curacoa , six ships sank in World War II and the Carlisle was irreparably damaged. The remaining ships were separated and demolished by 1948.

Today only the HMS Caroline remains as a museum ship. The cruiser, used in Belfast as a stationary drillship by the reservists since 1924, is the only remaining warship that took part in the 1916 naval battle of the Skagerrak.

The Caroline class

The cruisers of the Caroline sub-class were ordered in July / August 1913. They were the first six of eight "light armored cruisers" approved in the 1913 budget, launched in 1914/15 and added to the fleet in 1915.

The Comus in front of the shipyard

The ships were three meters longer and somewhat wider variants of the Arethusa class. The 40,000 PS steam turbine system on four shafts also largely corresponded to that of its predecessor. Except for the Carysfort equipped with Brown Curtis turbines , the other ships were equipped with Parsons turbines. The ships received eight Yarrow boilers to generate steam . As the only sub-group of the C-Class, the Caroline cruisers had three chimneys like their predecessors. The six cruisers displaced 4,219 t, were 135.9 m long and 12.6 m wide. They had a top speed of 28.5 knots (kn) , a range of up to 5900 nm at a cruising speed of 10 kn.

The cruisers were armed with two 152-mm-L / 45-Mk.XII and eight 102-mm-L / 45-Mk.V cannons, one 76-mm-L / 23-13pdr 6cwt-Mk.V gun, four 47mm L / 40-3pdr Mk.I Hotchkiss cannons and two twin 533mm torpedo tube sets . The two 6-inch (152 mm) guns stood one above the other at the stern, the eight 4-inch (102 mm) guns were set up on the ship's edge on the foredeck, between the funnels and near the searchlight platform. This armament was changed several times and differently in the ships of the lower class during the war.
The armor protection of the ships was 25 to 76 mm thick. The command tower was also armored with 76 mm, the protective shields of the main artillery were 102 mm thick. The crew of the cruisers ranged from 301 to 325 men.

On March 24, 1916, the Harwich Force wanted to carry out an attack on the German airship base in Tondern with the seaplane carrier Vindex , but actually attacked Hoyer . On the march back, the Cleopatra, used as the flagship of the association, discovered the German torpedo boat G 194 , which had ended up in the British association. The Cleopatra's commander decided to ram the German boat before realizing the situation. G 194 was split into two parts and sank. As a result of this maneuver, the Cleopatra came directly in front of the bow of the Undaunted , which suffered very severe damage in the collision of the cruisers and could only be brought in with great difficulty. On April 25, 1916, the Conquest was hit by a 12-inch shell in pursuit of the German battlecruisers after the bombardment of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth . 25 crew members died and another 15 were seriously injured. The ship, in which the sister ships Cordelia , Comus and Caroline participated, was not ready for the sea battle on the Skagerrak . The only three-chimney stacks in the C-Class were all still in use after the end of the World War and were mainly used by the Atlantic Fleet . As the last cruiser of the subgroup, the Comus retired from active service with the "2nd Cruiser Suadron" in June 1930 .

With the Cordelia , the first ship of the C-class was sold for demolition in July 1923 only 15 months after the commissioning of the last ship of the C-class. With the Caroline , the only ship of the class has been preserved from the first subgroup.

Surname	Identifier	Shipyard	Construction no.	Keel laying	Launch	in service	Whereabouts
Cordelia	78, 50, 69	Pembroke Dockyard	251	07/21/1913	02/23/1914	1.1915	sold for demolition in July 1923
Caroline	87, 30, 44	Cammell Laird	803	01/28/1914	09/29/1914	December 4, 1914	from 1924 drill ship of the RNVR , from 2011 conservation as a museum ship
Carysfort	88, 31, 22	Pembroke Dockyard	252	02/25/1914	11/14/1914	6.1915	sold for demolition in August 1931
Comus	5C, A7, 45, 02	Swan Hunter	951	November 3, 1913	December 16, 1914	May 15, 1915	sold for demolition in July 1934
Cleopatra	1A, 40, 88	Cammell Laird	806	02/26/1914	01/14/1915	6.1915	sold for demolition in June 1931
Conquest	C0, 48, 37	Chatham Dockyard		3.03.1914	01/20/1915	6.1915	sold for demolition in August 1930

The Calliope class

The calliope

Calliope and Champion were the last of the eight “light armored cruisers” in the 1913 budget. They were the first cruisers in the Royal Navy to receive geared turbines. In order to obtain comparative values, the two ships were equipped with different machinery. While Calliope received the four-shaft system that was customary up to that time, Champion had a two-shaft system. Both installations enabled higher speeds at lower speeds. For this purpose, the boiler system was changed and reduced to six boilers, for which only two chimneys were required. The Calliope class is sometimes assigned to the subsequent Cambrian class.

The original armament corresponded to the Caroline subclass. Only the torpedo system was changed to two underwater torpedo tubes. The armor on the side of the engine rooms was also reinforced to 102 mm. The armament of these cruisers was also changed during the course of the war.
Both cruisers took part in the Skagerrak battle: on the Calliope , the command cruiser of the 4th light cruiser squadron , 10 men died after hits by the German III. Squadron and on the Champion , the lead ship of the 13th destroyer flotilla , there were no casualties. The flotilla, however, lost two boats and three others suffered considerable damage. While Calliope was used as a light cruiser until November 1929 on the America / Westindies station , with the Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet , the sister ship Champion served as a training ship in December 1933 at the Torpedo School.

Surname	Identifier	Shipyard	Construction no.	Keel laying	Launch	in service	Whereabouts
Calliope	76, 23, 78	Chatham Dockyard		01/01/1914	December 17, 1914	6.1915	sold for demolition in August 1931
champion	C8, 37, 25	Hawthorn Leslie	472	March 9, 1914	05/29/1915	December 20, 1915	sold for demolition in July 1934

The Cambrian- class

The Castor

The four cruisers of the Cambrian sub-class were ordered as the first war order in September 1914 and were added to the fleet between November 1915 and May 1916. They had two funnels like all C-class cruisers from the Calliope sub -class . All ships had a drive with geared turbines on four shafts of the Parsons type or, in the case of the Canterbury, the Brown-Curtis type. The four ships also received two 152-mm cannons and eight 102-mm cannons under construction. Shortly after commissioning, the two front 102 mm cannons were exchanged for a 152 mm cannon; only the most recently completed Cambrian came into service with this change. In the course of the war, additional 102 mm cannons were replaced by guns suitable for air defense.
Except for Cambrian , the cruisers of this sub-class took part in the Battle of Skagerrak. On the ship as a guide of the 11th destroyer flotilla used castor 12 men died after massive attack by the II. Reconnaissance group .

At the end of the war, the four cruisers were armed with four 152-mm cannons, two 76-mm L / 45-20cwt -Mk I -lak , two 2 pdr-pom-pom -lak and two 533-mm twin torpedo tube sets . Notwithstanding, the Canterbury led instead of the two 76-mm guns a 102-mm anti-aircraft gun and two torpedo tube triple sets. The four cruisers served on various stations after the war and were added to the reserve fleet between November 1929 and May 1932. The last active ship was the Castor in the Mediterranean Fleet . By 1936 the cruisers were retired from service with the Navy and sold for demolition.

Surname	Identifier	Shipyard	Construction no.	Keel laying	Launch	in service	Whereabouts
Castor	C4, 33, 20	Cammell Laird	812	10/28/1914	07/28/1915	11.1915	sold for demolition in July 1936
Constance	C5, 49, 90	Cammell Laird	813	01/25/1915	09/12/1915	1.1916	sold for demolition in January 1936
Canterbury	0A, 27, 59	John Brown	435	10/14/1914	December 21, 1915	5.1916	sold for demolition in July 1934
Cambrian	A3, 25, 30	Pembroke Dockyard	255	December 8, 1914	3.03.1916	5.1916	sold for demolition in July 1934

The Centaur- class

The Centaur

The Centaur sub-class was ordered in December 1914. The construction of the two cruisers of this subgroup took place z. Partly using material that was intended for the construction of two smaller Scout Cruisers for the Ottoman Empire . Centaur and Concord were launched and put into service in 1916. The two cruisers being built at Armstrong Whitworth's High Walker Yard in Newcastle largely corresponded to the Cambrian sub-class. However, the amount of armor was more extensive and the distance between the foremast and chimneys greater.
An important change was the main armament with five individual 6 inch guns. The five 152-mm cannons were placed on the center line of the ships on the forecastle in front of the bridge house, between the foremast and the forward funnel, between the second funnel and the main mast, and one above the other aft. The main armament was controlled from a new control station on the front mast, which was designed as a three-legged mast. Their probation resulted in similar changes on the previously made subclasses. These two cruisers also had torpedo armament that was limited to two underwater broadside tubes.
As the first light cruisers with a uniformly heavy armament, they were jokingly referred to as ' Tyrwhitt 's dreadnoughts' after being assigned to the Harwich Force . Centaur served from April 1925 to August 1932 as the flagship of the destroyer in command of the Atlantic Fleet and Concord in Portsmouth as a training ship at Signals School until December 1932, before both cruisers were assigned to the reserve and abandoned in 1934/35.

Surname	Identifier	Shipyard	Construction no.	Keel laying	Launch	in service	Whereabouts
Centaur	36, 34, 10	Armstrong Whitworth	888	01/24/1915	January 6, 1916	08/26/1916	sold for demolition in February 1934
Concord	2A, 46, 15	Armstrong Whitworth	889	1.02.1915	1.04.1916	1.12.1916	sold for demolition in August 1935

The Caledon- class

The calypso

The cruisers of the Caledon sub-class were ordered in December 1915 as six improved cruisers ('Improved Centaur') of the previous sub-class and four were added to the fleet in 1917. The hull was slightly changed, recognizable by the changed shape of the bow. The length was now 136.16 m over all (129.54 m pp), the maximum width 13 m and the draft 4.54 (max. 4.95) m. The previous hull shape had led to a very wet forecastle and severely restricted the use of the weapons installed there; even the new shape did not lead to any significant improvement. Two orders were completed as ships of the subsequent Ceres group.

The main armament consisted of five 6-inch cannons, two 3-inch anti-aircraft guns, four 3-pdr guns, and a machine gun. The reinforced torpedo armament now comprised eight tubes in four twin sets on deck. Four of the 6-inch cannons were at the same deck height on the forecastle, between the bridge and the chimneys, behind them and on the quarterdeck behind the main mast. The fifth gun was installed on the lower quarterdeck part. The heavy 3-inch anti-aircraft guns stood on the sides of the forward funnel. The torpedo tube sets were offset near the sides of the ship behind the funnels. Their angles of fire were limited to one broadside. The ships were armored for the full length of the ship. At 76 mm, the area of the machine was most strongly protected, the armor decreased to 51 mm to the rear and 38 mm to the bow.

Besides Cassandra , the three other cruisers of the subgroup were involved in the 2nd battle near Helgoland on November 17, 1917 . Caledon and Calypso took heavy hits. Of the five dead on the Caledon , one was posthumously awarded the Caledon Victoria Cross. The bridge on the Calypso was hit and 10 men including the commander died.
The Cassandra was the first loss of the class a few weeks after the end of World War I when she ran into a mine in the Baltic Sea while helping the Baltic States. In December 1918, Caradoc and Calypso gave Estonian troops artillery support in the fight against Bolshevik troops and with the destroyers Vendetta , Vortigern and Wakeful captured the Russian destroyers Avtroil and Spartak , which were left to the Estonians as the core of their own navy.

The Caradoc was used between the wars in the Mediterranean (2.19 to 11.26), America / West Indies / South America (10.28 to 2.30) and China (1927, 7.30 to 8.34) and last served as a boy training ship . For the remaining sister ships see the ship articles Caledon and Calypso . From the reserve fleet, Caledon and Calypso were first used in the Northern Patrol and then came to the Mediterranean, where the Calypso was sunk on June 12, 1940 as the first British ship by the Italian Navy. Caledon was converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser during the war (9.42-12.43) and was last used in the Aegean to support the Greeks before it returned home in the spring of 1945 and was disarmed. The non-converted Caradoc was used to secure its own trade and against the shipping of the Axis powers in the North Atlantic and the Eastern Fleet . Most recently she was the stationary flagship of the East Indies Fleet in Colombo . She returned home in December 1945. The last two cruisers of the lower class were then retired and sold for demolition.

Surname	Identifier	Shipyard	Construction no.	Keel laying	Launch	in service	Whereabouts
Caledon	69, 22, 65, D53	Cammell Laird	828	03/17/1916	11/25/1916	March 6, 1917	from December 1943 anti-aircraft cruiser , sold for demolition in January 1948
Cassandra	3C, 32, 04	Vickers , Barrow	456	3.1916	11/25/1916	6.1917	sank on December 5, 1918 in the Baltic Sea after being hit by a mine
Caradoc	A0, 28, 55, D60	Scott's	476	02/21/1916	December 23, 1916	06/16/1917	in April 1944 houseboat, sold for demolition in May 1946
Calypso	24, 82, D61	Hawthorn Leslie	486	February 7, 1916	01/24/1917	06/21/1917	sunk on June 12, 1940 by the Italian submarine Bagnolini south of Crete .

The Ceres class

The Ceres

The cruisers of the Ceres sub-class were ordered in spring 1916 and put into service in 1917/1918. Again the foredeck was changed slightly and the hull about 20 cm wider. The cruisers received the same armament as their predecessors, but in an improved line-up. The larger bridge house and the tripod mast were moved further back. The position of the second gun was moved from the restricted position between the bridge house and funnels to a new, elevated position in front of the bridge on a deck house, which considerably increased the firepower to the front. The positions of the torpedo tube sets were also changed, as the front twin set was placed further forward on port side. Apart from the better distribution of the firepower, the armament and armor remained the same. All five ships had a two-shaft propulsion system, but only the Curlew built by Vickers received Parsons geared turbines. The other ships were fitted with Brown Curtis turbines.

All five ships of the class came into service with the Royal Navy by February 1918 and were still used in the First World War. So Ceres and Cardiff were involved in the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron on November 17, 1917 in the 2nd battle near Helgoland. Cardiff was hit and 7 men died on it.
The Coventry and Curlew last used in the Mediterranean in 1935 were the prototypes for converting the ships into anti-aircraft cruisers, the positive evaluation of which triggered the plan to convert all C-class cruisers. The conversion of the Curacoa , which was used as an artillery training ship in Portsmouth from December , was started shortly before the outbreak of war and carried out in the first months of the war. The three ships converted into flak cruisers were lost in the war.
Cardiff , which was still in service at the China Station from 1938 to April 1939 , and Ceres , which had been in reserve since the end of 1932 in the Mediterranean, were not rebuilt as planned and survived the war. First both were used at home, from the autumn of 1940 Cardiff served as an artillery training ship in the home. Ceres came across the Mediterranean to the Eastern Fleet , where it remained in service until autumn 1943. During the invasion of Normandy, she was used as a control ship. Both cruisers received increased light anti-aircraft armament during the war. Cardiff had modernized 76 mm guns and six 20 mm Oerlikon automatic cannons instead of the 3-pdr. On the Ceres all anti-aircraft guns were replaced by fourteen individual 20 mm Oerlikon automatic cannons. After the end of the war, both cruisers were separated and canceled.

Surname	Identifier	Shipyard	Construction no.	Keel laying	Launch	in service	Whereabouts
Ceres	66, 36, 58, D59	John Brown	459	07/11/1916	March 24, 1917	1.06.1917	sold for demolition in April 1946
Cardiff	29, 39, D58	Fairfield's	526	07/22/1916	04/12/1917	06/25/1917	sold for demolition in January 1946
Curacoa	A7, 62, D41	Pembroke Dockyard	257	7.1916	May 5, 1917	02/10/1918	from 1940 flak cruiser; after collision with the on October 2, 1942 Queen Mary dropped
Curlew	80, 3C, 48, D42	Vickers	497	08/21/1916	July 3, 1917	12/14/1917	anti-aircraft cruiser since 1938; Sunk by the Luftwaffe in Ofotfjord on May 26, 1940
Coventry	4C, 61, D43	Swan Hunter	1035	4.08.1916	July 6, 1917	02/21/1918	from 1937 flak cruiser; Sunk by air raid off Tobruk on September 14, 1942

The Carlisle class

The Calcutta with trawler bow

The five Carlisle sub-class cruisers were ordered in June 1917 as part of the War Emergency Program . They were a repetition of the Ceres sub-class with a trawler bow raised by 1.5 m, which increased the length over all by half a meter and was supposed to protect the front guns from overcoming water. They were armed with five individual 6-inch cannons as their main armament, two 3-inch, four 3-pdr and additional 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns, and four torpedo-tube twins. The command tower that had been set up in front of the bridge on all C-Class cruisers was no longer applicable. They came into service with the Navy between 1918 and 1922. Cairo , Calcutta and Capetown were equipped with Parsons geared turbines; Carlisle and Colombo received Brown-Curtis geared turbines. The most recently completed capetown was launched at Cammell Laird in 1919 and then towed to the Pembroke Dockyard for final equipment. A similar procedure was followed for other unfinished newbuildings in order to better utilize the state shipyards.

After the decision, due to the favorable results of the Coventry and Curlew prototypes , to convert the other eleven C-Class cruisers into anti-aircraft cruisers by 1940, the program began in 1938 with the conversion of Cairo , which was the flagship of the leader of the destroyers until November 1937 Home Fleet, and Calcutta , which has been assigned to the reserve since 1931 . Both renovations were completed in the first half of 1939. The two other conversions started during this time included the Carlisle , which was used from 1929 to March 1937 at the South Africa Station , which was ready for use in early 1940.
Of these, when Crete was cleared on June 1, 1941, the Calcutta was lost to a bomb, where other flak cruisers were also in use. During Operation Pedestal to supply Malta, the Cairo was sunk on August 12, 1942 in the Strait of Sicily. The Carlisle was badly damaged by the Luftwaffe near Karpathos on October 9, 1943 during an attack against the German reinforcement convoys during the Dodecanese campaign . The accompanying her escort destroyer Rockwood she accepted in tow and the cruiser could be introduced to Alexandria. Four direct hits and numerous close hits had turned the cruiser into a total write-off that could only be used as a depot ship in the port.
Since the Royal Navy interrupted the conversion program of the C-Class when the war broke out, Colombo (since the end of 1935 in the reserve after deployment in India) and Capetown (since autumn 1938 in the reserve after deployment in China) were used as light cruisers to secure their own Commercial traffic and used to observe ship movements of the Axis powers. The Capetown was torpedoed by an Italian speedboat near Massawa on April 8, 1941, and repairs in Bombay dragged on until July 1942. The sister ship Colombo was converted from August 1942 to June 1943 at Devonport Dockyard into an anti-aircraft cruiser with new armament, which remained in service in the Mediterranean until April 1945. The Capetown , which was moved back home, served during the Allied invasion of Normandy as a control ship for the unloading process in the artificial harbors on the American landing section. It was released from active service in autumn 1944.

Surname	Identifier	Shipyard	Construction no.	Keel laying	Launch	in service	Whereabouts
Carlisle (ex Cawnpore )	41, D67	Fairfields	580	October 2, 1917	July 9, 1918	11/11/1918	from 1939 flak cruiser; Seriously damaged by air force near Karpathos on October 9, 1943 , not repaired, depot ship in Alexandria, demolition in Alexandria from 1948.
Calcutta	74, D82	Vickers, Barrow	548	October 18, 1917	July 9, 1918	08/28/1919	from 1939 flak cruiser; Sunk by the Luftwaffe during the evacuation of Crete on June 1, 1941
Cairo	97, D87	Cammell Laird	870	11/28/1917	11/19/1918	09/23/1919	from 1939 flak cruiser; sunk on August 12, 1942 by the Italian submarine Axum .
Colombo	7A, D89	Fairfields	581	December 8, 1917	December 18, 1918	06/18/1919	from 1943 flak cruiser; sold for demolition in January 1948
Capetown	88, D88	Cammell Laird Pembroke Dockyard	871	02/23/1918	06/28/1919	04/11/1922	sold for demolition in April 1946

Conversions

In the 1930s it became clear that the cruisers no longer met international standards and the requirements of the Navy. For budget reasons, the Navy tried to modernize the older ships that existed in many types. A suggestion for the C-Class was the conversion to flak cruisers.

Coventry and Curlew of the Ceres subclass were converted as prototypes . The armament of the prototypes was completely replaced and the superstructures and masts changed. The new armament consisted of ten individual 102 mm L / 45 Mk.V multi-purpose guns . For this purpose, two positions for multi-barreled 2-pdr anti-aircraft guns were prepared, as their installation could not be firmly expected due to the high demand. Coventry eventually received two and Curlew an eight-fold 2 pdr "pompom". The tests with the units available from the end of 1936 and April 1937 were positively assessed and led to the decision to convert all of the remaining eleven units into flak cruisers.
The program was not a high priority and in 1938 only the renovation of Cairo and Calcutta began. The conversions should now receive 102 mm Mk.XVI twin guns and a quadruple "pompom" . The first two standard conversions came back to the fleet in May and July 1939.
Before the outbreak of war, the renovation of Carlisle and Curacoa began in 1939 and were ready for use by April 1940. The beginning of the war led to the postponement of further conversions, since the production of new buildings and then also the repair of existing ships was using the capacities of British shipyards.

After the loss of the Curlew during the Weser Exercise Company in 1940, the Calcutta was lost in 1941, again by the German Air Force, during the intensive use of the flak cruisers during the evacuation of Greece and Crete . On August 12, 1942, the Italian submarine Axum sank the Cairo from a supply convoy for Malta . On September 14, 1942, Coventry , which had been damaged several times during its operations since 1940, was lost in an air raid while retreating from an amphibious operation against the North African coast near Tobruk .

On October 2, 1942, the Curacoa was the victim of an accident when the cruiser was overrun by the high speed Queen Mary while marching in the North Channel.
The Carlisle was so badly damaged by the air force near Karpathos on October 9, 1943 that repairs were out of the question.

In 1942 the renovation program was started again when Colombo and Caledon were still being renovated. Their armament differed from the previous modifications with only three 102 mm twin guns. Colombo received two 40 mm L / 56 Bofors twin guns as well as three twin and two individual 20 mm Oerlikon automatic cannons in addition to an extensive radar system. Caledon recently had three 102 mm twin guns, two 40 mm L / 60 Mk.IV Hazemeyer twins , six individual 40 mm Bofors and a 20 mm Oerlikon.
Only the last two conversions survived the World War. The other modifications were lost in the war.

The anti-aircraft cruiser prototype Coventry
The Carlisle after being converted into a flak cruiser
The Colombo after being converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser

The anti-aircraft cruiser of the C-class

Surname	Shipyard	finished	modification	to	Final fate
precursor
Coventry	Swan Hunter	2./1918	Portsmouth	11/15/1936	sunk by Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean Sea on September 14, 1942
Curlew	Vickers	12./1917	Catham	5.1937	sunk by the Luftwaffe off Norway on May 26, 1940
Unit conversion
Cairo	Cammell Laird	10./1919	Portsmouth	5./1939	August 12, 1942 Italian submarine Axum sunk
Calcutta	Vickers	8/1919	Chatham	7/1939	sunk by Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean on June 1, 1941
Carlisle	Fairfield	11./1918	Chatham	1./1940	Seriously damaged by the Luftwaffe on October 9, 1943, not repaired, depot ship in Alexandria
Curacao	Pembroke	2./1918	Chatham	4./1940	rammed and sunk by the Queen Mary on October 2, 1942
modified
Colombo	Fairfield	7./1919	Devonport	6./1943	sold for demolition in January 1948.
Caledon	Cammell Laird	3./1917	Chatham	12./1943	sold for demolition in January 1948.

literature

Geoffrey Bennett: The Skagerrakschlacht , Wilhelm Heine Verlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-453-00618-6
Robert Gardiner, Randal Gray: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906-1921 , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis (1984), ISBN 0-85177-245-5
Roger Chesneau: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946 , Conway Maritime Press, Greenwich (1980), ISBN 0-85177-146-7
Norman Friedman: British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After , Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, South Yorkshire (2011), ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7 .
Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the Naval War 1939-1945 , Manfred Pawlak VerlagsGmbH (Herrsching 1968), ISBN 3-88199-009-7