HMS Cairo
 HMS Cairo after being converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser
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HMS Cairo (D87) was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy , which was the first British warship to be named after the capital of Egypt . The ship built by Cammell Laird belonged to the five-ship Carlisle group of C- class cruisers .
From 1938 the Cairo was converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser and came back into service as the first complete conversion in 1939, before the outbreak of the World War . After deployments in Norway, in the Atlantic and securing convoy trains to Malta , the Cairo was sunk on August 12, 1942 in the Mediterranean near Bizerta by the Italian submarine Axum .
History of the Cairo
The ship was ordered as the 26th C-class cruiser with four other cruisers in the summer of 1917. The contract went to Cammell Laird in Birkenhead . In August 1914, the shipyard had delivered the first cruiser of this class, which finally comprised 28 ships, to the Royal Navy in August 1914, the Caroline . With Cleopatra , Castor , Constance and Caledon , she had delivered four more cruisers of the class by March 1917, some of which belonged to different subgroups due to the further development of the basic design. The Cairo was laid on November 28, 1917; on November 19, 1918, she was launched and came on September 24, 1919 in the service of the Royal Navy. In contrast to the other C-cruisers, all five ships of the seventh and last assembly of the class ( Carlisle sub-class) were not completed until after the end of the First World War .
Like all ships in the sub-group, the Cairo was 137.6 m long, 13.3 m wide and had a draft of 4.7 m. The cruiser was protected by a side armored belt 37 to 76 mm thick. In addition there was a 25 mm thick armored deck and equally strong protective shields for the main artillery. The cruiser had a displacement of 4290 t and could reach 29 kn with its 40,000 hp turbine system . The maximum bunker supply of 935 t of fuel made it possible to travel 5900 nm at a cruising speed of 10 kn . The Carlisle- class cruisers were armed with five 6-inch (152 mm) L / 45 Mk.XII guns to combat naval targets. These were all arranged on the midship line: two on top of each other at the bow and stern and the fifth also raised behind the two chimneys and in front of the high stern structure (headlamp tower). To defend against air attacks, the cruisers of the subgroup had two 12-pounder (76 mm) L / 40-Mk.I multi-purpose guns and two 2-pounder (40 mm) anti-aircraft guns . There were also four 3 pdr (47 mm) Hotchkiss salute guns and four 533 mm twin torpedo tube sets. A crew of 432 men was planned for wartime; but often 100 fewer on board in peacetime.
The cruisers of the Carlisle group differed from the previous Ceres sub-class, on which the two elevated nose guns had been introduced for the first time, by the so-called "trawler" bow. The approximately 1.5 m higher stem and the shape of the bow were intended to reduce the obstruction of the bow guns by splashing water. Due to the changes to the fuselage, the last group of the C-Class was slightly longer and had 100 t more displacement.
Use of the Cairo until 1937
The Cairo , which was completed after the end of the war, was used at the China Station from 1920 . In 1922 she was moved to East Indies Station , where she remained until December 1926. In 1927 there was another short-term and temporary deployment to the China station because of the tensions that had broken out there. The cruiser then moved to the 8th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies station . From September 1928 to August 1930, the Cairo was then used with the Mediterranean Fleet as the flagship of the commander of the destroyers, where she replaced the Coventry and was then replaced by the same cruiser.
In 1931/32 the Cairo was completely overhauled at the state shipyard in Chatham . She then served from August 1932, five years at the Home Fleet as flagship of the commander of the destroyer before in November 1937 by the modern Aurora of Arethusa class was replaced.
Conversion to an anti-aircraft cruiser
Since the beginning of the 1930s it became apparent that the C-class cruisers developed for a naval war in the North Sea were of little use and the existing will to extensively modernize existing units (see total conversions of some heavy units such as Queen Elizabeth and Renown and existing destroyers of the V. - and W-Class ) 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 convert the eleven other ships of the class that were still in existence. However, the main armament of ten individual 102-mm guns (also) suitable for anti-aircraft defense was changed to the installation of four modern 102-mm double mounts, and the structure of the superstructure was interfered with more heavily. In 1938 the Chatham naval yard began converting the Cairo and her sister ship Calcutta as the first units. The conversion of the Cairo then took place from November 1937 on the naval shipyard in Portsmouth .
In May 1939 she was the first ship to be completed according to the new plans. It now had four twin mounts with 4-inch (102 mm) -Mk.XVI multi-purpose guns and a 2-pdr- (40 mm-L / 39) quad on the midship line in place of the previous anti-ship guns. The quadruple “pompom” was raised above the bow gun in front of the bridge. Two heavy 0.5 (12.7 mm) Vickers anti-aircraft machine gun quadruplets were set up to the side of the front funnel for defense at close range .
The conversion of the Calcutta was also completed before the outbreak of the Second World War and the conversion of two other cruisers, Carlisle and Curacoa, began.
War missions by the Cairo
When the war began, the anti-aircraft cruiser was stationed in Portland with the Channel Force . In mid-September he then secured the deployment of defensive mine barriers in front of the eastern access to the English Channel . In October, the cruiser secured ship movements on the British east coast and then from March 1940 also escorts between Norway and Great Britain. The Cairo was partly used with the sister ship Calcutta and the Southampton .
Operations in front of Norway
On April 11, 1940, the operation of the Cairo began against Norway against the German invasion of Norway , when she was to escort the first troop convoy NP.1 with six destroyers to Harstad to attack the German troops in Narvik . On the 13th, the convoy was split up because the British Chiefs of Staff had also decided to launch a pincer attack on Trondheim . The Cairo and three of the fuse destroyers ( Vanoc , Whirlwind and Highlander ), reinforced by the cruisers Manchester and Birmingham , were now to escort the transporters Empress of Australia and the Polish motor ship Chrobry with the 146th Infantry Brigade to Namsos , from where the northern pincers should be set on the German-occupied Trondheim. In the small Norwegian port city, the cruisers Glasgow and Sheffield as well as destroyers had already landed a division of the Royal Marines on April 14, which, however, was immediately discovered by the German aerial reconnaissance.
On the 15th, the future commander of the attack, Lieutenant General Carton de Wiart , was flown in with a Sunderland flying boat , which was attacked by a German aircraft on landing. Because of the German air sovereignty over Namsos, against which there was no resistance, de Wiart decided not to allow the large vans to drive as far as Namsos. A transshipment was to take place at Lillesjona, an arm of the sea more than 100 miles north between the island of Handnesøya and Nesna , where a tanker was also dispatched, as the Cairo and her accompanying destroyers had almost used up their fuel. There on the night of the 17th, five tribal destroyers took over two battalions of infantry to bring them to Namsos. During the loading process, German planes appeared, but did not score any hits on the ships they attacked. Since the transfer point was now known to the Germans, the British naval commander decided to reload the remaining troops and as much material as possible onto the Chrobry and not to allow any further use of the tribal destroyers, which were not only short of fuel but also of anti-aircraft ammunition. The destroyer Vanoc , which was still available, was supposed to escort the Chrobry to Namsos. The Empress of Australia , which is difficult to maneuver in the Norwegian coastal waters , was released to Great Britain with parts of the material. Many units of the Navy had to run back to Britain to replenish fuel and ammunition. The lack of fuel for many ships was due to the changeable British command situation. The lack of fuel also forced the Cairo further north to find a supplier.
At the same time there was a French convoy FP.1A with the French troop and material transporters El Djezair (X17), El Mansour (X06), El Kantara (X16) and Ville d'Oran with the 5th Alpenjäger Half-Brigade secured by the cruiser Emile Bertin and six French large destroyers on the march to the Norwegian coast to support the attack on Trondheim. The Cairo was sent to meet the convoy and escorted the convoy through the Norwegian coastal waters to Namsos on April 18. On the approach, the convoy was attacked in vain by German submarines and the air force. The attacks that continued during the unloading prevented the unloading of all material for the French troops; Of the ships, only the Emile Bertin was damaged by bombs from Ju 88 of II./ KG 30 and was canceled for further missions off Norway. The Cairo also almost completely used up its ammunition and guided the French transporters back to Great Britain.
There the cruiser was overtaken in Rosyth and then secured a troop transport with reinforcements for the attack on Narvik on May 11th. When unloading the troops south of Narvik, the Cairo fended off German air raids, and then went to Harstad as an anti-aircraft battery. On May 17, the Cairo with the destroyers Matabele and Echo formed the fuse of the cruiser Effingham , which was supposed to bring British reinforcements to Bodø , but ran onto a reef and could not be deflected. The Cairo and the destroyers contained more than 1,300 men on board before the Effingham was abandoned.
In the attack on Narvik and its occupation by Allied troops, which served as a diversion from the allied retreat that had already been decided, the Cairo was the flagship of the Allied Commander-in-Chief Lord Cork with the flak cruiser Coventry , the cruiser Southampton and the destroyers Whirlwind , Fame , Havelock , Walker , Firedrake and the Sloop Stork who gave fire support to the land forces. The Cairo was damaged by bombs on the 28th.
Operations in the North Atlantic
After securing mine-laying operations in the North Sea in August and September 1940, the anti-aircraft cruiser was assigned to the security of the North Western Approaches based on the Clyde in order to give particularly important convoy more air defense. When the German battleship Bismarck with the cruiser Prinz Eugen broke out into the North Atlantic in May 1941 , the Cairo was leading the troop transport convoy WS.8 with a tank division for the Middle East. When it became clear that the Bismarck was heading to western France damaged, the convoy gave up the 4th British destroyer flotilla with Zulu , Sikh , Cossack , Maori and the Polish Piorun to pursue the battleship, which finally stopped the Bismarck . Cairo continued the march with the convoy with the Exeter and three remaining destroyers. On the march back from the following convoy, the Cairo discovered two lifeboats of the Dutch freighter Eibergen, sunk by a German submarine four days earlier, and rescued the 35 survivors.
On November 2, 1941, the anti-aircraft cruiser Cairo was involved in a novelty with five destroyers, when she joined the CT 5 troop convoy with the eight troop carriers Duchess of Atholl , Orcades , Sobieski , Warwick Castle , Andes , Durban Castle , Oronsay and Reina di Pacifico headed for Canada. On board the transporters were 20,000 soldiers from a British division for the Middle East. The British escort handed over the troop transports in the Atlantic to US Task Force TF 14 , which escorted the British transports to Halifax. Cairo and its five destroyers took over six US transporters that were made available to Great Britain.
In Halifax, the British troops were reloaded onto six large American transporters and then transported on to Cape Town with US escorts. This convoy (British designation WS 12X) left Halifax on November 10th and reached Cape Town on December 9th, 1941. This American involvement in the war began over 30 days before Pearl Harbor (December 7th, 1941) and the German declaration of war on the USA on December 11th 1941.
After an overhaul, the Cairo ran on February 9, 1942 with a trade delegation from Greenock to Murmansk for negotiations with Soviet officials. After the stay from the 15th to the 18th, the cruiser brought the delegation back via Scapa by the 25th.
Missions to supply Malta
From April 19, 1942, the Cairo accompanied the modern anti-aircraft cruiser Charybdis from Gibraltar, a mixed Anglo-American unit around the aircraft carrier Wasp, to Operation Calendar in the western Mediterranean, from which 47 British Spitfire fighters took off south of the Balearic Islands for Malta on the 20th , 46 of which reached their destination. Other similar missions followed, mostly with the Charybdis and the old British carrier Eagle, the last time on June 9th, when 32 Spitfires were flown into Malta.
For the following double convoy operation to supply Malta with Gibraltar ( Operation Harpoon ) and Alexandria ( Operation Vigorous ), the Cairo was used as Force X with five destroyers, three escort destroyers , four minesweepers and six MGBs to secure the five transporters and one tanker of the Western convoy WS 19 divided up. The mine- layer Welshman, used as an express transporter, sometimes operated together with the Force X. The convoy was discovered on June 12th by German scouts south of the Balearic Islands . The following day German and Italian scouts were with the convoy, but attack machines did not find the escort. On the morning of the 14th, the first attack by Italian SM.79 torpedo bombers took place . They sank a transporter and damaged the cruiser Liverpool in cover so badly that it had to be towed back to Gibraltar. Further attacks by German and Italian bombers were unsuccessful.
On the 15th, the light cruisers Raimondo Montecuccoli and Eugenio di Savoia attacked the convoy near Pantelleria with five destroyers and, almost simultaneously, the Sturzkampfgeschwader 3 . The Stukas severely damaged two transporters and the tanker, some of which had to be finally abandoned after additional artillery hits by the cruisers. The Italian cruisers and destroyers were pushed aside by the five fleet destroyers of the convoy security led by the Cairo , who had to run towards the Italians in order to be able to use their artillery for defense. The Italian destroyer Ugolino Vivaldi was set on fire and then towed away by others. The Italians, for their part, damaged the destroyers Bedouin and Partridge . The latter was able to repair itself to the extent that it temporarily tried to escape with the Bedouin in tow towards Gibraltar. Another attack by Italian torpedo bombers led to the sinking of the Bedouin .
The Cairo had received two 152 mm hits and had mostly used up its ammunition. The remaining convoy, additionally secured by the Welshman who had come to the rescue , got into a minefield shortly before Malta on the evening of the 15th. One of the remaining transporters was able to continue its journey with a large hole in the fuselage. The Kujawiak sank and Badsworth , Matchless and the minesweeper Hebe were damaged. The Cairo started the march back to Gibraltar on June 16 with Welshman , Marne , Ithuriel , Blankney and Middleton .
In mid-July 1942 Cairo secured the carrier Eagle with Charybdis and five destroyers during the transfer of 32 Spitfire fighters to Malta, which started again south of the Balearic Islands (Operation Pinpoint).
Last use
In order to improve the difficult situation in Malta, the WS 21 convoy with thirteen transporters and a tanker ran into the Mediterranean on August 10, 1942 ( Operation Pedestal ), which was secured to a greater extent than ever before. The Cairo belonged again to the immediate security of the merchant ships, to which the light cruisers Nigeria , Kenya and Manchester belonged, in order to prevent a situation like in June at Harpoon , when the Royal Navy was considerably inferior to the Italian attackers in terms of firepower. There were also seven destroyers and four Hunt- class destroyers escorted to the convoy . On the 11th, the intensive air raids by the Germans and Italians began and the carrier Eagle at the cover formation sank after a torpedo hit by U 73 .
On the 12th, the air raids on the British units increased and achieved success. Italian submarines also managed to attack the convoy. The Axum the Adua-class submarine hit with a torpedo compartments both the tanker Ohio as the cruisers Nigeria and Cairo .
The damaged Ohio was brought to Malta by the British. Their arrival on the Assumption of Mary significantly improved the British supply situation in Malta, but above all it was of great moral importance. Nigeria , torpedoed at the same time as the Cairo , was finally returned to Gibraltar by three Hunt destroyers and was out of action for almost two years. During the night, Italian speedboats attacked near Pantelleria and put the Manchester out of action with torpedo hits, which was finally sunk by the British themselves. The remaining cruiser Kenya did not reach Malta either, as it caught fire on the following day after a not so dangerous torpedo hit and was finally sent back. The feared battle with heavier Italian naval units did not occur because they received no air security and support. In particular, the German Air Force Commander Kesselring wanted to destroy the convoy from the air. But the British security units brought not only the Ohio , but also four freighters to Malta. As a replacement for the failed cruisers of the convoy security, the anti-aircraft cruiser Charybdis was assigned to the convoy by the cover unit, which was already far to the west, and defended it against subsequent air attacks.
The hard-hit Cairo had already been abandoned. Due to the torpedo hits in the stern, she was unable to maneuver and had no propulsion. The Hunt destroyer Derwent took over the shipwrecked Cairo and the Wilton sank the still drifting wreck by gunfire north of Bizerta at the position 37 ° 26 ′ N , 10 ° 22 ′ E . 24 crew members of the Cairo died in its sinking. The two Hunt destroyers then supported the return of the Nigeria with the Bicester , with which they reached Gibraltar again on August 15, 1942 and the Derwent disembarked the rescued crew members of the Cairo .
The anti-aircraft cruiser of the C-class
| Surname | Shipyard | finished | modification | to | Final fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| precursor | |||||
| Coventry (D43) |
Swan Hunter , Wallsend |
2./1918 | Portsmouth | 1936 | sunk by Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean Sea on September 14, 1942 |
| Curlew (D42) | Vickers , Barrow | 12./1917 | Catham | 1936 | sunk by the Luftwaffe off Norway on May 26, 1940 |
| Unit conversion | |||||
| Cairo (D87) | Cammell Laird , Birkenhead | 10./1919 | Portsmouth | 5./1939 | August 12, 1942 Italian submarine Axum sunk |
| Calcutta (D82) | Vickers | 8/1919 | Chatham | 7/1939 | sunk by Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean on June 1, 1941 |
| Carlisle (D67) | Fairfield , Govan | 11./1918 | Chatham | 1./1940 | Seriously damaged by the Luftwaffe on October 9, 1943, not repaired, depot ship in Alexandria |
| Curacao (D41) | Pembroke | 2./1918 | Chatham | 4./1940 | rammed and sunk by the Queen Mary on October 2, 1942 |
| modified | |||||
| Colombo (D69) | Fairfield | 7./1919 | Devonport | 6./1943 | sold for demolition in January 1948. |
| Caledon (D53) | Cammell Laird | 3./1917 | Chatham | 12./1943 | sold for demolition in January 1948. |
literature
- David Brown: Naval Operations of the Campaign in Norway, April – June 1940. (Naval Staff Histories), Routledge, Reprint edition 2000.
- 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 .
Web links
- HMS CAIRO - World War 1 C-type Light Cruiser on naval-history.net
- HMS Cairo (D 87) on uboat.net
- IWM Interview with survivor Clifford Richardson , as seaman aboard HMS Cairo in Arctic, Atlantic and Mediterranean, 1942 including sinking 8/1942.
- Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945 , Library for Contemporary History, Württemberg State Library, Stuttgart 2007
Individual evidence
- ↑ Weyer's pocket book on the war fleets. P. 252
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 18.-20. April 1940, Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. May 17, 1940, Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 27./28. May 1940, Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 18.-27. May 1941, North Atlantic, company "Rhine Exercise"
- ↑ Eibergen Dutch Steam merchant
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. October 28 - November 7, 1941, North Atlantic
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. November 10 - December 27, 1941, Atlantic / Indian Ocean, here WS 24
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 14.-26. April 1942, Mediterranean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 12-16 June 1942, Mediterranean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 14.-19. July 1942, Malta / Mediterranean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 10-15 August 1942, Mediterranean Sea, Operation "Pedestal"
- ^ Royal Navy casualties, killed and died, August 1942
Remarks
- ↑ In the Home Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet there was a commander of the destroyer flotillas, who was called "Rear-Admiral (D)" or "Commodore (D)" according to his rank.
Caroline group: HMS Caroline | HMS Carysfort | HMS Cleopatra | HMS Comus | HMS Conquest | HMS Cordelia
Calliope Group: HMS Calliope | HMS Champion
Cambrian Group: HMS Cambrian | HMS Canterbury | HMS Castor | HMS Constance
Centaur Group: HMS Centaur | HMS Concord
Caledon Group: HMS Caledon | HMS Calypso | HMS Cassandra | HMS Caradoc
Ceres Group: HMS Cardiff | HMS Ceres | HMS Coventry | HMS Curacoa | HMS Curlew
Carlisle Group: HMS Cairo | HMS Calcutta | HMS Capetown | HMS Carlisle | HMS Colombo