County Class (1924)
.jpg) HMS Berwick (November 1942), the first county-class keeled unit.
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The County class was a class of heavy cruiser of the British Royal Navy , which in the period between the First - the and World War II was built and came to use during World War II. At the same time, after the Monmouth or County class of 1901, it was the second class in the history of the Royal Navy to receive this designation. The units of the County class were almost all of shires ( counties named) or by city. The only exception was the cruiser HMAS Australia , which bore the name of the Australian continent . A total of 13 cruisers of this type were put into service by 1930. Three of the ships were handed over to the Royal Australian Navy , two of them immediately after commissioning, one in 1943 as a replacement for a lost cruiser. The County class is subdivided into three sub-groups, with seven ships in the so-called Kent sub-class, four in the London class and two in the Norfolk sub-group. The two units of the Norfolk type were also the last built ships of the County class. During the Second World War a total of three units of this type were lost, all in the Pacific theater of war .
Technical details and modifications
The County-class heavy cruisers were the result of the Washington Naval Conference of 1922, which stipulated that cruisers could displace a maximum of 10,000 ts and could be armed with a maximum of 203 mm guns. In the context of this fleet agreement, plans for a new cruiser for the Royal Navy were worked out from 1923 onwards, which is why the county-class ships are also regarded as classic "Washington cruisers". The original requirements from the navy had outlined a ship with a maximum speed of 33 knots , 203 mm guns in twin towers and a high freeboard for good seaworthiness. It soon became apparent, however, that all of these requirements were difficult to implement on the basis of a standard displacement of a maximum of 10,000 ts, if the armor protection was not to suffer too seriously from the specifications. In this context, the Royal Navy soon reduced its maximum speed requirements to just 31.5 knots. The original plan was to build 17 units of this type. In view of budget bottlenecks, the British Navy had to be content with building only seven ships from 1924 onwards. Six more ships, divided into two subgroups, were approved in 1925 and 1926.
Armament
The County-class cruisers had eight 203 mm L / 50 Mark VIII guns in four twin turrets, with two turrets in front and two aft of the main superstructure. These guns, developed from 1923 on, could fire a 116.1 kilogram shell over a maximum range of around 28 km with a maximum barrel elevation of 45 degrees. The rate of fire was around four to five rounds per minute. Usually the endowment was 125 to 150 shells per gun.
The anti-aircraft armament initially consisted of four individually positioned 102 mm L / 45 Mark V guns, with two cannons on either side of the ship, and four 40 mm QF flak also in individual mounts . There were also eight 12.7 mm anti- aircraft machine guns in two quadruple mounts . This armament was changed and reinforced several times in the course of the service and especially during the Second World War.
It should be noted here that the modification of the light and medium armament of the ships of the county class, or the ships of the direct subgroups, was mostly not uniform. In 1932 , for example, the heavy cruiser HMS Kent temporarily received two additional individually mounted 102 mm Mark V guns on both sides of the front funnel, but had to wait until 1938 for a conversion to twin turret shields. HMS Cornwall and HMS Berwick were already (as the first units of the County class) in 1936/37 converted to eight 102 mm Mark XVI guns in double mounts (which came on board instead of the four 102 mm Mark V guns). The cruiser HMS Norfolk, on the other hand, received its 102 mm twin mounts only in 1941 as part of a longer stay in the shipyard.
The light anti-aircraft armament initially consisted of 40 mm anti-aircraft guns and eight 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine guns. This equipment was also heavily modified from the mid-1930s. By 1941, the individually positioned 40 mm flak were expanded on all ships and replaced by up to 16 40 mm flak in two eight-fold Mark VIII mounts. These almost 16-ton mounts, also known colloquially as "Chicago pianos", could theoretically fire up to 920 40 mm projectiles per minute (on average about 115 rounds per barrel). In the course of the Second World War, mostly between 1940 and 1942, the 12.7 mm machine guns came off board and were replaced by individually set up 20 cm Oerlikon flak , with between eight and twelve tubes on board per ship. In addition, some county-class ships, including the HMS Sussex , had so-called UP batteries at times , but they were disembarked by 1942.
The torpedo armament, consisting of eight 533 mm torpedo tubes in two sets of four, was identical in all units. At the same time, the county class ships were the first in the Royal Navy to receive quad tube sets. On the other hand, the relatively high freeboard caused problems when launching the torpedoes , although it was beneficial to seaworthiness , since the torpedoes fired from the level of the upper deck often suffered damage to the controls due to the height. Between 1942 and 1944, the torpedo tubes were removed from most of the ships.
The weight of the entire armament was 1,172 ts, which at the same time exceeded the weight of the entire armor protection (1,025 ts).
Radar equipment and aircraft equipment
The radar equipment varied from ship to ship, but from late 1941 onwards, most units had a type 273 radar operating on a 10 cm wave, which was used for sea target observation (the range was around 40 km). In addition, from 1941 a type 279 air warning radar (range of up to 175 km) and a type 285 fire control radar for the heavy anti-aircraft guns (the range was around 15 km; the Kent was the first unit to receive such a radar system in January 1941 ).
All county-class units carried an aircraft catapult aft of the third funnel on board from around 1931 . Initially equipped with outdated machines of the type Fairey III F or Fairey Flycatcher , seaplanes of the type Supermarine Walrus have been on board since 1937 . Almost all cruisers abandoned their aircraft equipment by 1943/44.
Machine system
The drive system of the County-class ships consisted of eight oil-fired Admiralty boilers from 3-drum-type and four Parsons - geared turbines (one exception was the Berwick and the two 1929 and 1933, Australia delivered units is that the only ships turbines Brown-Curtis type ), which controlled four waves. The machine output averaged 80,000 WPS , although the machine was initially designed for up to 100,000 WPS. The maximum speed of the ships of the County class according to the shipyard specifications was around 31.5 kn, although this speed was exceeded by some ships and in the context of speed tests later. For example, the units in the London sub-class achieved a top speed of 32.25 kn ( Shropshire up to 32.6 kn) during test drives . However, in contrast to the Kent type, the torpedo bulges were omitted from these ships . The supply of heating oil was normally between 3,200 and 3,400 ts, giving the cruisers a range of up to 13,000 nautical miles (at a cruising speed of 12 knots).
Armor
The thickness of the side armor was 51 to 114 mm, with the thickness near the ammunition chambers between 76 and 114 mm. In addition, the ammunition chambers were protected by 76 mm thick transverse bulkheads. This should provide protection against 203mm shells falling at a 40 degree angle. At the level of the machinery, the side armor was 51 mm thick, while the chimneys had 102 mm thick protection. The armored deck was on average 25 mm thick, only 38 mm above the engine rooms. The navigation bridge and the towers as well as the barbeds of the main artillery were, however, only lightly armored with 25 mm. The total weight of the armor protection was 1,025 ts. In the 1930s, major modernization of British heavy cruisers was considered. But only the HMS London was extensively modernized from March 1939 to March 1941. The anti-aircraft armament and armor were significantly improved and the appearance of the Colony class was aligned. However, due to the war, the propulsion system was not renewed.
County-class units
First group (also Kent class)
The ships of this subgroup were equipped with torpedo bulges from the start and also carried the 203 mm main armament in 205 ton double turrets Mark I, which allowed a tube elevation of up to 70 degrees. The standard displacement was around 10,900 ts.
| ship | Shipyard | Keel laying | Commissioning | Notes and whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HMS Berwick | Fairfield Shipbuilders , Govan , United Kingdom | September 15, 1924 | February 2, 1928 | First keeled county-class unit. In December 1940 involved in combat with the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper . Decommissioned after the end of the war (1946) and scrapped in Blyth on July 12, 1948 . |
| HMS Cornwall | HMNB Devonport , Plymouth , United Kingdom | October 9, 1924 | January 6, 1928 | First county-class unit entered service. Mostly deployed in the Indian Ocean and East Asia, sinking the German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin on May 8, 1941 near the Seychelles . Sunk on April 5, 1942 southwest of Ceylon by bombs from Japanese planes (198 dead). |
| HMS Cumberland | Vickers-Armstrong , Barrow-in-Furness , United Kingdom | October 18, 1924 | January 8, 1928 | 1939 temporarily assigned to the German ironclad Admiral Graf Spee . After the end of the war, test and training ship; 1956 Involvement in the war film Panzerschiff Graf Spee (as the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter ). Decommissioned in 1958 and scrapped in Newport on November 3, 1958 . |
| HMS Kent | Chatham Dockyard , Chatham , United Kingdom | November 15, 1924 | June 25, 1928 | Badly damaged by air torpedo hits by Italian planes off Sallum in September 1940 . Repair by September 1941. Used to secure convoys from the North Sea between 1942 and 1944 . Used as a target ship after the end of the war. Scrapped in Troon from January 31, 1948 . |
| HMS Suffolk | HMNB Portsmouth , Portsmouth , United Kingdom | November 30, 1924 | February 7, 1928 | Badly damaged by a bomb hit off Norway in April 1940 during a German air raid. Repair by February 1941. Shadowing of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941. From June 24, 1948, scrapped in Newport . |
| HMAS Australia | John Brown & Company , Clydebank , United Kingdom | August 26, 1925 | April 24, 1928 | After completion, handed over to the Royal Australian Navy , in service in Australian waters from 1933. 1940 Participation in the British attack on Dakar . Badly damaged by a bomb and four kamikaze hits in January 1945 . After decommissioning (1954), scrapped in Barrow-in-Furness from April 1955 . |
| HMAS Canberra | John Brown & Company, Clydebank, United Kingdom | September 9, 1925 | July 10, 1928 | Second County-class cruiser delivered to the Royal Australian Navy; used in Australian waters from 1929. On 8./9. Seriously damaged by Japanese warships in the night battle off Savo Island on August 8, 1942 (84 dead) and sunk by the American destroyer USS Selfridge by artillery and torpedo fire on August 9, 1942 . |
Second group (also London class)
The second group of the County class had largely the same technical data as the ships of the first group; however, her bridge was 4.6 meters aft = shifted in contrast to the Kent class. However, the standard displacement was lower (about 9,900 ts), which was due to the lack of torpedo bulges and slightly weaker armor. Nonetheless, this enabled the ships of the London group to increase their speed by an average of around 0.75 kn, which is why the cruisers of this sub-class are considered the fastest ships in the county class with up to 32.6 kn.
The HMS London was extensively modernized from March 1939 to March 1941 at the State Shipyard in Chatham . The anti-aircraft armament and armor were significantly improved and the appearance of the Colony class was aligned. However, due to the war, the propulsion system was not renewed.
| ship | Shipyard | Keel laying | Commissioning | Notes and whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HMS Devonshire | HMNB Devonport , Plymouth , United Kingdom | March 16, 1926 | March 19, 1929 | Sank the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis on November 22, 1941 north of Ascension . Used in the Indian Ocean until 1943 , taking part in Operation Ironclad (Allied occupation of Madagascar ). Wrecked in Newport from December 12, 1954 . |
| HMS London | HMNB Portsmouth , Portsmouth , United Kingdom | February 22, 1926 | February 5, 1929 | Mostly used in the transatlantic convoy security service. In June 1941 the German supply ships Egerland and Babitonga were brought up (both ships were able to evade capture by scuttling). 1942 part of the remote security of convoy PQ 17 . Scrapped in Barrow-in-Furness from January 1950 . |
| HMS Sussex | Hawthorn, Leslie & Company , Newcastle upon Tyne , United Kingdom | February 1, 1927 | March 26, 1929 | Badly damaged by bombs in a German air raid on Glasgow in September 1940 ; Ship capsized in port. Extensive repairs until September 1942. 1943/44 deployment in the Indian Ocean, mostly as a security ship for WS convoys . Wrecked in Dalmuir from February 1950 . |
| HMS Shropshire | William Beardmore and Company , Glasgow , United Kingdom | February 24, 1927 | September 12, 1929 | Handover to the Royal Australian Navy on June 25, 1943 as a replacement for the cruiser Canberra , which was sunk in August 1942 . Decommissioned 1949; scrapped from January 20, 1955 in Dalmuir . |
Third group (also Norfolk class)
The two units of this group were equipped with the new 203 mm twin tower Mark II, which weighed around 220 tons and was about 15 tons heavier than the Mark I towers of the previous subclasses and which had a maximum tube elevation of 50 degrees , but had a higher rate of fire. Originally, two more units should have been built from this sub-class (HMS Northumberland and HMS Surrey ). As a result of budget problems and savings plans, however, the construction contracts for the two ships were canceled on January 14, 1930, even before construction had started.
| ship | Shipyard | Keel laying | Commissioning | Notes and whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HMS Dorsetshire | HMNB Portsmouth , Portsmouth , United Kingdom | September 21, 1927 | September 30, 1930 | Participation in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941. Sunk by Japanese aircraft on April 5, 1942 southwest of Ceylon by bombs (234 dead). |
| HMS Norfolk | Fairfield Shipbuilders , Govan , United Kingdom | July 8, 1927 | June 30, 1930 | Mostly used in the transatlantic convoy security service. Participation in the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst in December 1943, itself damaged by artillery hits. Wrecked in Newport from January 1950. |
Fields of activity and assignments
During the Second World War, the County-class cruisers were mainly used as security ships for troop transport and North Sea convoys , including the so-called WS troop transport convoys , whose task was to reinforce the British troop contingents in India and the Middle East . In connection with the WS-5A convoy, the cruiser Berwick got into action with the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper in December 1940 (and was damaged, although the German cruiser broke off the attack on the heavily secured convoy).
In May 1941 the Suffolk shadowed the German battleship Bismarck with her radar, although it was not working properly, during its Atlantic venture . Only a few days later, on May 27, 1941, the cruiser Dorsetshire , which operates together with the Home Fleet , was involved in the sinking of the Bismarck . Another use of a county-class cruiser against a German battleship took place in December 1943 during the German advance against the northern sea convoy JW-55B . Here the Norfolk came into action with the battleship Scharnhorst , but suffered two heavy artillery hits, including the rear, elevated main artillery turret of the cruiser was put out of action. Nevertheless, a hit by the Norfolk damaged the radar of the German ship in return.
In addition, the cruisers were also used to secure British aircraft carrier associations and were temporarily involved in the search for German auxiliary cruisers and blockade breakers , with the auxiliary cruisers Pinguin and Atlantis being sunk in 1941 . The context of the use of the county class against German trade troublemakers had already led to the approach of the cruiser Cumberland against the German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee operating in the South Atlantic in 1939 , although there was no combat contact, as the German ship was previously in the La Plata estuary was sunk.
The units transferred to the Royal Australian Navy took part in almost all major battles of the Pacific War, for example the Battle of Guadalcanal (with the Canberra sunk), the Allied campaign against New Britain in 1943/44, the Battle of Leyte Gulf as well as the battle for Okinawa in 1945 . The ships mostly took on security and bombardment tasks, but were also involved in direct combat operations, for example the Shropshire took part in the battle in the Strait of Surigao in 1944.
losses
A total of three County-class ships were lost during World War II, all in the Pacific theater. On April 5, 1942, during the Japanese advance into the Indian Ocean , southwest of Ceylon , the Dorsetshire and Cornwall fell victim to Japanese carrier-supported bombers. Both ships were hit by ten to 15 bombs each and sank, killing over 400 British sailors. Another cruiser, the Australian Canberra , was launched on the night of 8/9. August 1942 in the Night Battle of Savo Iceland by Japanese cruisers badly damaged by artillery fire, in which 84 crew members were killed, and had in the course of August 9, 1942 by an American destroyer sunk even as little prospect of a recovery of the burning wreck passed and the Allies also feared further Japanese attacks.
Several ships were also badly damaged, such as the Sussex , which was hit by a bomb in a German air raid on September 17, 1940 while the cruiser was in dock in Glasgow . The hit caused a serious fire that threatened the ammunition rooms, which is why the order was given to flood the areas at risk of fire. Since the cruiser had not been locked, the hull overflowed over a length of 140 m and the Sussex capsized in the dock. The salvage and repair of the ship dragged on over two years. The Suffolk was also badly damaged by bombs during the German occupation of Norway ; During violent German air raids on April 17, 1940, the cruiser was hit directly in the stern, which destroyed the steering gear. The ship reached Scapa Flow two days later with the aft deck flooded and only with great difficulty and had to be in the shipyard for almost a year.
Nevertheless, however, the ships of the County class proved to be quite stable. In January 1945, during the fighting in the Gulf of Lingayén , the Australia survived four kamikaze and one bomb hits in a single day, including a ten-square-meter hole in the starboard side of the ship. However, nearly 100 sailors were killed or wounded in these attacks.
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Whereabouts
After the end of the Second World War, the county-class ships were decommissioned relatively quickly and cleared for scrapping. On one hand, the United Kingdom was still suffering from the financial burdens of the war and on the other hand it was no longer willing to ships in the light of this follow-up costs and the associated budget constraints that still the classic and in the beginning of the atomic increasingly obsolete expectant and missile age concept of pure artillery cruiser belonged to continue funding. As a result, the Kent , Berwick and Suffolk were cleared for scrapping as early as 1948. Almost all other ships followed by 1950. Only the Devonshire , which took part in the fleet parade on the occasion of Elizabeth II's coronation in June 1953 , and the Cumberland , which was rebuilt in 1951 and used by the Royal Navy as a test ship for decontamination attempts and for various gun systems until 1958, saw one notable period of use in the 1950s. With the Cumberland finally the last cruiser of the County class was scrapped from November 1958.
Trivia
The cruiser Cumberland , which was actually temporarily involved in the search for the Admiral Graf Spee in 1939 , had a role in the British war film Panzerschiff Graf Spee in 1956 . He played himself in the process. The HMS Jamaica was used to represent the British heavy cruiser HMS Exeter (a York-class ship ), which fought the German ironclad in the Battle of the Rio de la Plata in 1939 and suffered various damage . While the Cumberland still had four twin turrets with 203 mm guns at the time of the fighting, it was only equipped with three turrets in the 1950s (two in front of the superstructure in an elevated position, one turret aft of the main superstructure). However, this can hardly be seen in the film, as the artillery armament of the Cumberland , which was sailing as a test ship at the time, had been significantly changed. For example, instead of the two 203 mm twin towers, there was a fully automated twin tower with 76.2 mm multi-purpose weapons.
The Canarias -class heavy cruisers of the Spanish Navy built from 1928 onwards were a modification of the County -class.
literature
- Angus Konstam, Angus / Paul Wright: British Heavy Cruisers 1939–1945. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2012.
- Leo Marriot: Treaty Cruisers: The First International Warship Building Competition. Leo Cooper Limited, London 2005.
- Mike J. Whitley: Cruiser in World War II. Classes, types, construction dates. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997.
Web links
- The Shropshire at the Naval Historical Society of Australia (Engl.)
- Ships of Kent subgroup at navypedia.org (Engl.)
Footnotes
- ↑ Mike J. Whitley: Cruisers in World War II. Classes, types, construction dates. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, p. 95.
- ↑ Whitley: Cruiser. P. 95.
- ↑ However, these are not Mark V type guns, as indicated in the image reference, but rather twin Mark XVI guns.
- ↑ http://www.horncombe.net/hms_london/HMS_London.html
- ↑ http://navalhistory.flixco.info/H/120548/8330/a0.htm
- ↑ Whitley: Cruiser. P. 99.
- ↑ Hugh and David Lyon; Siegfried Greiner: Warships from 1900 to today, technology and use . Buch und Zeit Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne 1979, p. 48 .
- ↑ Whitley: Cruiser. P. 104.
- ^ Fascinating trivia (and any goofs) connected with the film. The Powell & Pressburger Pages, accessed April 7, 2020 .