Danae class

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Danae class
The Danae in Vancouver, 1934
The Danae in Vancouver, 1934
Ship data
country United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Naval War Flag) United Kingdom New Zealand Poland
New ZealandNew Zealand (naval war flag) 
PolandPoland 
Ship type Light cruiser
Shipyard 5 shipyards
Construction period 1916 to 1922
Launch of the type ship November 29, 1917 ( Dragon )
Units built 8th
period of service June 1918 ( Danae ) to 1948 Royal Navy
Ship dimensions and crew
length
143.6 m ( Lüa )
135.3 m ( Lpp )
width 13.9 m
Draft Max. 5.0 m
displacement standard : 4,970 ts
maximum: 5,870 ts
 
crew 450 to 470 men
Machine system
machine 6 Yarrow boilers
2 sets of geared turbines
Machine
performance 		40,000
Top
speed 		29 kn (54 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

for Diomede, Despatch : 2 x 4-inch (102-mm) - Flak

most recently Danae , similar to Dauntless, Diomede  :

Armor

Magazines: 57 mm
command post / belt: 76 mm
deck / bulkheads: 25 to 57 mm

Danae-class was a ship-class light cruiser in the Royal Navy during the First and Second World Wars .

The eight ships were built shortly before and after the end of the First World War. Only the lead ship, the HMS Danae , was finished in time to be used in the First World War in 1918. Some of the light cruisers fought in the Russian Civil War .

During World War II, they were used in almost every theater of the Royal Navy, from the Atlantic Battle to the Pacific War. Two ships were handed over to the Polish Navy . Three cruisers were lost during the war. The remaining ships were scrapped between 1946 and 1948 after the Second World War.

The ship class is also referred to as the D class , but should not be confused with the D (destroyer) class .

Construction and design features

The eight ships were built between December 1916 and October 1922 at six private shipyards in England and Scotland . Three ships entered service with the Royal Navy in 1918, two more in 1919. The last three ships launched in 1919 were handed over to naval shipyards for final equipment and completed in 1921/1922. Four other construction contracts for Danae-class cruisers were canceled shortly after the end of World War I on November 26, 1918.

The cruisers of the new class were a further development of the previous C-class , of which the Royal Navy received 36 cruisers in various subgroups between December 1914 and April 1922. The last five cruisers of this class were completed at the same time as the Danae- class cruisers . With a length of 143.6 m, the newer class was six meters longer than the cruisers of the Carlisle subgroup and also 60 cm wider. The length was required for the installation of another 6-inch gun on the midship line.

The new cruisers were among the fastest of their time with 29 knots (54 km / h). The drive consisted of two Brown Curtis steam turbines with six Yarrow boilers , which together delivered 40,000 hp (29.4 MW) on two screws . The fuel supply was 1,060 t, with which the cruisers could travel 1,480 nautical miles (2741 km) at a top speed of 29 knots and up to 6,700 nautical miles (12,408 km) at 10 knots (18.5 km / h). The warships were lightly armored. The thickness of the armor on the sides and the command deck was 76 mm. The tanks and the ammunition chambers were protected with 57 mm armor steel, the main deck with 25 mm.

D-class at Brasseys

The armament initially consisted of six 6-inch (152 mm) guns , all arranged on the midships line. Two individual guns were placed one above the other in front of the bridge, as were the two individual guns at the stern. The other two were raised in front of and behind the two chimneys.
The initial anti-aircraft armament consisted of two 3-inch (76-mm) guns , each set up at the ends of a raised platform transverse to the fuselage between the funnels, and two 2 pdr (40 mm) flak in the lateral ends of the Bridge of cruisers. The most recently completed Diomede and Despatch received two 4-inch (102-mm) flak in place of the 3-inch guns , which later also replaced the 3-inch guns in the other units.
For this purpose, the ships had four sets of triple torpedo tubes to the side of the funnels. The reinforcement to triplet sets instead of the twin tubes of the C-Class was a consequence of the Skagerrak battle . The cruisers Danae and Dragon , which were completed first , already had a launch platform for Camel hunting machines on the forecastle upon delivery , which were dismantled again early on. Dauntless had a similar launch platform aft for a while after the delivery.

In the years of service between the world wars, the cruisers were only slightly modernized. In the twenties, the removal of the launch platforms took place. The cruisers did not receive aircraft on board . The heavy flak was standardized on all ships to three 102 mm guns. On Despatch and Dunedin , shortly before the start of World War II, heavy Vickers machine gun quadruplets replaced the individual 2 pdr pom-poms in the bridge. A conversion that did not prove itself in the war.

Since the beginning of the thirties it became apparent that the C-class and D-class cruisers developed for a naval war in the North Sea were not very useful, and the Admiralty's willingness to extensively modernize existing units (see total conversions of some heavy units such as Queen Elizabeth and Renown and existing V and W class destroyers ) led to the conversion of two ships ( Coventry and Curlew of the Ceres group) to anti-aircraft cruisers as early as 1935 with regard to the C-class cruisers . The conversion was classified as successful and the Admiralty decided to similarly convert the eleven other remaining ships of the class and the eight cruisers of the Danae class. This plan ran for the C-Class up to the start of the war.
see => HMS Cairo .
During the Second World War, the anti-aircraft armament of the cruisers was reinforced. Only the Delhi was converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser with US weapons during a major overhaul in New York in 1941 . On the other cruisers, it was only the light flak and the removal of torpedo armament that were reinforced. Another major upgrade was the introduction of radar in the 1940s .

Development of the armament of the HMS Danae

    • 1918
      • six 152 mm MK. XII guns
      • two 76.2 mm Mk. II anti-aircraft guns
      • two 40 mm anti-aircraft guns
      • twelve 533 mm torpedo tubes
    • 1930
      • six 152 mm MK. XII guns
      • three 102 mm Mk. V anti-aircraft guns
      • two 40 mm anti-aircraft guns
      • twelve 533 mm torpedo tubes
    • 1942
      • six 152 mm MK. XII guns
      • two 102 mm Mk. V anti-aircraft guns
      • six 40 mm anti-aircraft guns
      • twelve 533 mm torpedo tubes
    • 1943
      • five 152 mm MK. XII guns
      • a 102 mm Mk. V anti-aircraft gun
      • eight 40 mm anti-aircraft guns
      • twelve 20 mm anti-aircraft guns
      • Depth charges

Ships of the class

The Delhi converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser
  • HMS Delhi (D47)
    • Keel laying: October 29, 1917
    • Launched: August 23, 1918
    • Builder: Sir WG Armstrong-Whitworth & Co., Newcastle upon Tyne
    • Commissioning: June 1919
    • History and whereabouts:
      • Damaged by German explosives on February 12, 1945 and scrapped in 1948.
  • HMS Dunedin (D93)
    • Keel laying: November 1917
    • Launched: November 19, 1918
    • Builder: Sir WG Armstrong-Whitworth & Co., Newcastle upon Tyne
    • Commissioning: October 1919
    • History and whereabouts:
  • HMS Durban (D99)
    • Keel laying: January 1918
    • Launched: May 29, 1919
    • Builder: Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Greenock
    • Commissioning: November 1, 1919
    • History and whereabouts:

Explanations

  1. ↑ HMS is the abbreviation for His / Her Majesty's Ship and the name prefix of British ships. HMS means His / Her Majesty's Ship .
  2. ↑ Danae refers to Danaë , lover of Zeus and mother of Perseus , from Greek mythology .
  3. ↑ ORP is the abbreviation for Okręt Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej and the name prefix of Polish ships. ORP means Warship of the Republic of Poland .
  4. ↑ Conrad goes back to the Polish-born English writer Joseph Conrad .
  5. ↑ Dauntless means fearless .
  6. ↑ Delhi refers to the city of Delhi in what was then British India .
  7. ↑ Despatch means dispatch or settlement . In the context it means either doing someone, i.e. killing someone , or doing something , i.e. being ready to serve.
  8. ↑ Diomede was, according to Homer, the mistress of Achilles .
  9. ↑ Dragon means " dragon ".
  10. ↑ Durban is a city in South Africa .

See also

  • HMS Danae (other ships of the Royal Navy named HMS Danae )

Web links

Commons : Danae class  - collection of images, videos, and audio files