Dido class
.jpg) The Dido after completion with two bow towers
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The Dido class was the first class of cruiser ordered by the Royal Navy as part of the upgrade program. As anti-aircraft cruisers, they received a main armament of five twin turrets with multi-purpose guns to combat air and sea targets. The Royal Navy ordered 16 cruisers in three lots from 1936 to 1939. When the war broke out , the ten ships in the first two lots had been started and six had been launched. Another six ships were immediately ordered as part of the war program. The first eleven ships were put into service from July 1940 to August 1942. The last five ships were built according to modified plans and came into service as the Bellona class from August 1943 to January 1944 .
Five cruisers of the class were lost in World War II. In the post-war period, ships of the class were also used by the New Zealand and Pakistani navies .
History of the Dido class
After the failure of the British naval disarmament policy in 1936, when Japan and Italy no longer agreed to limit their fleets, the British Admiralty saw the urgent need to improve the fleet's anti-aircraft defenses. In addition to retrofitting existing units and converting old ships to anti-aircraft ships, the Admiralty, as the first class of cruisers in the upgrade program, developed new anti-aircraft cruisers that were to use existing designs as far as possible. The hull and propulsion system of the new cruisers were an adaptation of the light cruisers of the Arethusa class . Their six anti-ship guns and four heavy anti-aircraft guns were to be replaced by ten twin turrets of the new 133 mm (QF 5.25-inch) multi-purpose gun , which were also intended as medium artillery on the new battleships of the King George V- class . In addition, an on-board aircraft system was initially planned, but this had already been deleted when the order was placed on March 21, 1937.
Building history
Five private shipyards and the naval shipyards in Portsmouth and Chatham received construction contracts for one ship each . The hull of the Dido cruiser, largely corresponding to the Arethusa class, was a little longer than the previous model. In the foredeck, three twin towers were installed one behind the other. By installing the first tower closer to the stem, the bridge structure only had to be moved back a little. The installation of the rear towers proved to be relatively easy after the separate 4-inch anti-aircraft battery of the previous model was omitted. The machinery of the Arethusa class could be taken over almost unchanged. However, the installation of five towers in the hull compared to the three towers of the Arethusas significantly changed the space available below deck. The crew rooms on the new cruisers were extremely narrow and uncomfortable.
Armament
During the equipping of the seven ships of the first batch, manufacturing problems with the twin towers for the 133 mm guns meant that Bonaventure only received an aft stern tower and Dido and Phoebe only received the two lower bow towers. The three cruisers received a 102 mm gun in place of the turrets, which should primarily fire light grenades . Only Dido later received the fifth tower.
For close-range aircraft defense, the Dido cruisers had two “Pom-Pom” quadruple mounts on the side of the rear funnel and two heavy quadruple Vickers machine guns on the rear of the bridge house.
From the second construction lot, only the Cleopatra with the 133 mm guns was completed. Because of the continuing bottleneck in the manufacture of turrets for these guns, the two other cruisers Charybdis and Scylla received four double mounts with 113 mm guns behind protective shields, which proved to be suitable for the anti-aircraft tasks of the Dido class. These three ships, the Sirius of the first order , which was delayed due to a bomb damage at the shipyard, and the Argonaut , the first ship of the war order, which was still completed according to the pre-war plans, all came with reinforced light anti-aircraft armament ( 20 mm Oerlikon cannons , individual "Pom-Pom") in service, with which the other units were also retrofitted in the course of the war. In addition to the artillery armament described above,
all cruisers of the Dido class also had two triple torpedo tube sets on the sides of the rear funnel. All weapons were directed by radar.
Bellona group
The last five ships on the war contract ( Bellona class) ordered in 1939 differed only slightly from their predecessors. Clear distinguishing features were the straight masts and chimneys compared to the slight inclination of the eleven previously made Dido s. Due to the change in the construction plan, they only carried four twin towers with 133 mm guns and reinforced close-range anti-aircraft armament. This consisted of three "Pom-Pom" quadruple mounts and six 20 mm Oerlikon twin mounts. By eliminating the third bow tower, the bridge structure could be reduced by one deck and, thanks to the reduced top-heaviness, enabled comprehensive radar control of the 133 mm towers and the "pom-poms". In addition, the hull was reinforced in the bow area, the weakness of which had led to leaks in the predecessors and to problems with the towers, the turntables of which were easily warped.
As far as is known, no changes have been made to the Spartan .
In April 1944, the Bellona received four additional 20-mm Oerlikon cannons in individual mountings, and a further eight 20-mm cannons of the same type were installed in April 1945.
The Royalist was immediately after the completion for Flagship an escort carrier converted -Verbands. In addition, it was equipped with two 20-mm twin cannons and four 20-mm guns on single mounts. She was the only ship of the class that was fundamentally modernized after the war.
Black Prince and Diadem received eight additional 20 mm guns on single mounts and two double mounts with 20 mm guns in the early months of 1945.
Calls
The Dido and Bellona-class cruisers had been in service in all of the Royal Navy's main combat areas since 1941. The ships of the Dido class were awarded over 80 battle honors for successfully participating in battles in over 20 areas / battles from the Arctic to the Mediterranean Sea to Okinawa .
The cruiser's main battle area has long been the Mediterranean, where on March 31, 1941, the Bonaventure, south of Crete, was the first ship of the class to be lost while escorting a convoy en route from Greece to Alexandria. 139 crew members died in the sinking of the cruiser torpedoed by the Italian submarine Ambra . The Bonaventure was the only ship in its class to be lost before it was awarded a battle honor . On May 29, 1941, the Dido and the light cruiser Orion were badly damaged by German bombs after they had taken troops on board during the British withdrawal from Crete . The makeshift repaired Dido was used for a while before she went to the United States in August to be carefully repaired at the Brooklyn Navy Yard by the end of the year. On August 27, 1941, the Phoebe was attacked and hit by Italian torpedo bombers on a supply trip to the besieged Tobruk . The hit killed eight crew members and caused considerable damage. After an emergency repair in Alexandria, the Phoebe moved through the Suez Canal and via Cape Town to the USA for repairs in October 1941 and was not ready for use again until June 1942.
On March 11, 1942, the Naiad was sunk on the march back from a patrol trip by the German submarine U 565 , with 82 crew members being killed. 582 sailors survived the sinking of the second ship of the class. On June 16, 1942, the Hermione , which was sunk by the German submarine U 205 north of the Egyptian coast on the march back from the aborted Operation Vigorous , was also lost . 87 men lost their lives when the cruiser sank. On October 23, 1942, the Phoebe failed again for a long time. The cruiser, which was supposed to search for German blockade breakers in the South Atlantic, was hit by two torpedoes of the German submarine U 161 on the march from South Africa to Freetown off the coast of French Equatorial Africa , which immediately killed 57 crew members. The badly damaged cruiser could be brought to Pointe-Noire . Grounded in shallow water, an emergency repair lasting two months was necessary to make the cruiser buoyant again. In December 1942 he moved to the USA and was not fully operational again until August 1943.
On July 16, 1943, the Cleopatra was torpedoed and badly damaged by the Italian submarine Dandolo off Sicily . After emergency repairs in Malta, the cruiser went to the USA for a thorough repair. The Cleopatra was only partially operational in November 1944 . On October 7, 1943, the Sirius was badly hit by bombs in the Aegean Sea and was not operational again until February 1944. On October 23, 1943, Charybdis was sunk by German naval torpedo boats in the English Channel with torpedoes. Over 400 crew members lost their lives.
On January 29, 1944, Spartan was sunk off Anzio by a remote-controlled Henschel Hs 293 . 46 men died in the sinking of the anti-aircraft cruiser. On June 23, 1944, the Scylla was hit by a bottom mine while securing the landing areas in Normandy. It could still be brought to Portsmouth. A repair seemed hardly possible and was no longer carried out.
The Diadem , the last ship in its class, was involved in the last battle with German surface units on the night of January 28, 1945 when it was supposed to prevent three German destroyers from marching into the Baltic Sea with the Mauritius off the Norwegian coast.
At the beginning of May 1945 the Diadem , Bellona and Dido were in use in the waters off Norway; in the Mediterranean were Sirius and Cleopatra, who was on the march to the Far East . The Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean had the Royalist and the Phoebe ; Part of the British Pacific Fleet were the three remaining cruisers of the class ( Black Prince , Argonaut and Euryalus ).
The Dido- class cruisers
| Surname | Shipyard | start of building | Launch | finished | Final fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Bonaventure (31) |
Scott's building no. 575 |
08/30/1937 | 04/19/1939 | May 24, 1940 | on 31 March 1941 by the Italian submarine Ambra sunk |
|
Naiad (93) |
Hawthorn Leslie Building No. 613 |
08/26/1936 | 3.02.1939 | 07/24/1940 | on 11 March 1942 by German submarine U 565 sunk |
|
Dido (37) |
Cammell Laird | 10/26/1937 | 07/18/1939 | 09/30/1940 | Scrapped in Barrow-in-Furness in 1957 |
|
Phoebe (43) |
Fairfields building no. 666 |
September 2, 1937 | March 25, 1939 | 09/27/1940 | Scrapped in Blyth in 1956 |
|
Hermione (74) |
Stephens building no. 560 |
10/6/1937 | May 18, 1939 | 03/25/1941 | June 16, 1942 by German submarine U 205 sunk |
|
Euryalus (42) |
Chatham DY | 10/21/1937 | 06/06/1939 | 06/30/1941 | Scrapped in Blyth in 1959 |
|
Charybdis (88) |
Cammell Laird 2. Lot |
11/9/1938 | 09/17/1940 | December 2, 1941 | 4.5 in-main armament; sunk in the English Channel by German fleet torpedo boats on October 23, 1943 |
|
Cleopatra (33) |
Hawthorn Leslie Building No. 621 |
05/01/1939 | 03/27/1940 | December 5, 1941 | Scrapped in Newport in 1958 |
|
Sirius (82) |
Portsmouth DY 1st construction lot |
April 6, 1938 | 16.09.1940 | May 6, 1942 | Scrapped in Blyth in 1956 |
|
Scylla (98) |
Scott's building no. 580, 2nd construction lot |
04/19/1939 | 07/24/1940 | 06/12/1942 | 4.5-in main armament; Badly damaged off Normandy on June 23, 1944, never completely repaired, scrapped in Barrow in 1950 |
|
Argonaut (61) |
Cammell Laird 3. Lot |
11/21/1939 | September 6, 1941 | 08/08/1942 | Scrapped in Newport in 1955 |
The Bellona sub-class
| Surname | Shipyard | start of building | Launch | finished | Final fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Spartan (95) |
VA Barrow | December 21, 1939 | 08/27/1942 | 07/12/1943 | Sunk by glide bomb on January 29, 1944 off Anzio |
|
Royalist (89) |
Scott's building no. 585 |
03/21/1940 | 05/30/1942 | 09/10/1943 | RNZN 1956–1967,scrappedin Osaka in 1968 |
|
Bellona (63) |
Fairfields building no. 679 |
11/30/1939 | 09/29/1942 | October 29, 1943 | RNZN 1948–1956, scrapped in Barrow in 1959 |
|
Black Prince (81) |
Harland & Wolff | 1.12.1939 | 08/27/1942 | 11/30/1943 | RNZN 1948–1962,scrappedin Osaka in 1962 |
|
Tiara (84) |
Hawthorn Leslie Building No. 585 |
December 15, 1939 | 08/26/1942 | January 6, 1944 | 1956 sold to Pakistan ; renamed Babur , then Jahangir . 1961 training ship. Deleted in 1985. |
Trivia
The later novelist Alistair MacLean served on the “Royalist” . With his world success The Men of Ulysses , he set a literary monument to the cruisers of the Dido class and their missions in the North Sea in 1955.
literature
- James J. Colledge: Ships of the Royal Navy. To Historical Index. Volume 1: Major Ships (excluding Trawlers, Drifters, Tugs, etc.). David & Charles, Newton Abbot 1969.
- James J. Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy. The complete record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th century to the present. New revised edition. Chatham, London 2006, ISBN 1-86176-281-X .
- Alistair MacLean : The men of the "Ulysses". Roman (= Ullstein. 23194). Unabridged edition, 2nd edition. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1994, ISBN 3-548-23194-2 .
- Alan Raven, H. Trevor Lenton: DIDO class Cruisers (= Ensign. 2). Bivouac books, London 1973, ISBN 0-85680-003-1 .
Web links
- Dido group at uboat.net (English)
- DIDO AA cruisers (1940–1942) (English)
- Bellona Group at uboat.net (English)
- BELLONA AA cruisers (1943) (English)
- Gunnery layout of a Dido- class cruiser. from Gunnery Pocket Book 1945 placed online courtesy of Historic Naval Ships Association
- Newsreel video of HMS Scylla fighting the Luftwaffe while protecting convoy PQ18
- Our Navy in Action; newsreel footage of Dido- class cruisers engaging Axis aircraft and Italian battleships during the Battle of Sirte on 22 March 1942
- Short video clip of a Dido -class cruiser in action
Individual evidence
- ↑ Raven, Lenton: DIDO class cruisers. P. 5f.
- ↑ David and Hugh Lyon; Siegfried Greiner: Warships from 1900 to today, technology and use . Buch und Zeit Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne 1979, p. 53 .
- ↑ HMS BONAVENTURE (i) - Dido-class AA cruiser
- ↑ HMS DIDO - AA Cruiser
- ↑ a b HMS PHOEBE - Dido-class AA Cruiser
- ↑ HMS NAIAD - Dido-class AA cruiser
- ↑ HMS HERMIONE - Dido-class AA cruiser
- ↑ HMS CLEOPATRA - Dido-class AA cruiser
- ↑ HMS SIRIUS - Dido-class AA cruiser
- ↑ HMS CHARYBDIS - 4.5-in-gunned Dido-class AA cruiser
- ↑ HMS SPARTAN - Bellona-class AA cruiser
- ↑ HMS SCYLLA - 4.5-in-gunned Dido-class AA cruiser
Remarks
- ↑ 13 C-class cruisers from the end of the First World War (like the Coventry ) were to be converted into anti-aircraft cruisers ; for this purpose, V and W class destroyers of about the same age were converted into WAIR escort boats (e.g. Valorous ); At the beginning of the war in 1939 four cruisers and two destroyers were ready, others were being converted