HMS Delhi
 The Delhi after being converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser
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HMS Delhi (D47) was a Danae-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy and was named after Delhi, the seat of government in India. It was completed shortly after the First World War and was still used in the Second World War.
The Delhi was 1941/1942 at a major overhaul in New York to an anti-aircraft cruiser rebuilt and given a new main armament with five American 12.7cm multi-purpose guns. It was canceled in 1948.
History of Delhi
In September 1916 the first cruisers of an "improved Ceres class" were ordered as the last advancement of the Arethusa class developed before the World War . The order for the model ship Danae , which was first completed in June 1918, went to the warship yard of the Armstrong Whitworth company . In the summer of 1917, the shipyard received the order for three more cruisers, which were to be completed with a modified forecastle, the so-called "trawler bow". By the end of the war in 1918, only two of the cruisers were completed on the High Walker yard of the Newcastle shipyard . For the first of these orders, the keel was laid on October 29, 1917, which was then launched as Delhi on August 23, 1918. On June 20, 1919, the Delhi was delivered to the Royal Navy.
First deployments of Delhi
When it was commissioned, the Delhi was assigned to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron in the Atlantic Fleet . It was equipped for use in the Baltic Sea to replace the Curacao, which was missed by a mine hit in May . Until December 1919 she remained with the units that were supposed to protect the Baltic states. In the autumn of 1920 she was back in the Baltic Sea, but was mostly in Copenhagen during the mission. The Delhi remained with the Atlantic Fleet until 1923.
Empire Cruise
On November 27, 1923, the Delhi with its sister ships Danae , Dragon and Dauntless belonged to the "Special Service Squadron" around the battle cruisers Hood and Repulse , which left Devonport to visit British territories on a world tour. The Delhi was the flagship of the association's cruiser division. The first stage led over 2805 nautical miles to Freetown in what was then the British colony of Sierra Leone and then over another 3252 nm to Cape Town , where the association arrived on December 22, 1923. After visiting other South African ports, it went in January 1924 via Zanzibar , Mombasa to Trincomalee . In the Indian Ocean off the Ceylon Navy base, the Dunedin joined the association on January 24, 1924 . Since the end of the year she had been on her way to New Zealand via Malta and Aden . Via Port Swettenham it went to Singapore , the future base of the Royal Navy for East Asia, until February 10th . There, the Empire Cruise units met the heavy cruiser Hawkins , which had arrived from Hong Kong three days earlier , the light cruiser Carlisle and other units from China Station .
The association then ran to Australia, where various ports were visited between February 26 ( Fremantle ) and April 23, 1924, the departure from Sydney for New Zealand.
A special event of the visit was the solemn sinking of the battle cruiser Australia according to the provisions of the Washington Naval Treaty on April 12th. The day was chosen to allow the Special Service Squadron to participate. The disarmed battle cruiser was sunk in deep water 25 nm off Sydney Heads . In addition to the British association, the Australian cruisers Melbourne , Brisbane and Adelaide as well as the destroyers Anzac and Stalwart and several ferries with spectators attended the ceremony.
From Sydney, the Australian cruiser Adelaide joined the Special Service Squadron to do a circumnavigation of the world. During the visit to New Zealand, the Dunedin , which was joined in the Indian Ocean, was handed over to the New Zealand Navy on April 24th. From May 18, the association then crossed the Pacific via Fiji and Hawaii to Canada , where the Esquimault naval base and Vancouver (June 26 to July 5) were visited. The association then went to San Francisco , where it entered on July 7, 1924. From here, the two battle cruisers continued their journey with the Australian light cruiser through the Panama Canal and the Caribbean to Canada and finally to Great Britain. The Adelaide was the first ship in the Royal Australian Navy to use the Panama Canal.
The Delhi and its sister ships continued their voyage under Rear Admiral Hubert Brand along the South American Pacific coast with visits to Peru and Chile, then around Cape Horn and via Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. The cruisers visited several South American ports, some of which were only visited in pairs, with Delhi in Valparaíso (August 7th to 12th) and Buenos Aires (August 23rd to 28th) forming a pair with the Danae . On September 28, 1924, the battle cruisers and the light cruisers of the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron met again in British waters between Bishop Rock and Plymouth . The Hood then ran to Plymouth with Delhi and Dauntless , while Repulse and Adelaide ran to Portsmouth and Danae and Dragon to Sheerness .
Other uses
After the Empire Cruise, the crew of the cruiser was re-formed and he was reassigned as the flagship of the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron, which had been relocated to the Mediterranean . In January 1925 he took over these duties in Malta. In February 1927 the Delhi was temporarily assigned to the China Station. There, in March, she carried out a massive anti-pirate campaign in Bias Bay, now Daya Bay , with the heavy cruiser Frobisher and the carrier Hermes , in which landing forces destroyed the pirates' facilities and ships on land. In January 1928, the Delhi returned to its position in the Mediterranean and went home for overhaul in July. The 3-inch anti- aircraft guns were replaced by 4-inch (102 mm) guns , as the last ships of the class had carried since their completion.
In July 1929 the Delhi was relocated to the 8th Light Cruiser Squadron at the America and West Indies station and visited ports in South America and the USA during this stationing. In the spring of 1932 she accompanied the Hood , Repulse , Norfolk and Dorsetshire on visits to the Azores and the Caribbean. After a short stay at home, the cruiser was relocated to the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet as a flagship in May 1932 . In 1935 the Delhi was replaced as the flagship of the cruiser squadron by the new Arethusa . During the civil war, the Delhi stationed in Malta rescued refugees from Palma de Mallorca , Barcelona and Valencia . Off Valencia, the cruiser was attacked by Spanish national planes and shot at by the cruiser Canarias . In February 1938, the obsolete cruiser was finally withdrawn from the Mediterranean, decommissioned and assigned to the reserve in Devonport. In June 1939 the ship was towed to Chatham , only to be equipped and manned again because of the impending outbreak of war.
First war missions
Since mid-September 1939, the cruiser was stationed with the Home Fleet in the 11th Cruiser Squadron and used in the Northern Patrol . On October 25, 1939, the Delhi stopped the freighter Rheingold (5055 GRT) south of Iceland and brought the German ship to Kirkwall. On November 12th, she discovered the Mecklenburg (7892 GRT) in the Faroe Islands , which sank itself. In the following advance of the German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst against the Northern Patrol , which were exploring the possibility of an outbreak in the Atlantic, the Delhi was the second closest to the sinking site of the Rawalpindi . She took part in the search for the German ships, which she sighted briefly in bad weather on the 24th, but could not follow them.
In the spring of 1940, the cruiser moved to the Mediterranean Fleet, which was preparing for a possible war with Italy. When Italy entered the war in June 1940, the Delhi belonged to the units of Force H stationed in Gibraltar and was involved in their forays into the Mediterranean and against Italy.
In September the cruiser was then used on the African Atlantic coast to control French shipping traffic in support of the Free French . On September 6, the Delhi checked the situation in Pointe-Noire , port city of the French colony of the Congo . French cargo ships suspected there had previously left the port. In mid-September, the French naval units in Dakar tried to strengthen the colony of Gabon when French Equatorial Africa ceded to the free French. The older light cruiser Primauguet with the tanker Tarn were sent forward as a fuel base, but intercepted by the cruisers Cornwall and Delhi and directed to Casablanca . The French task force was shadowed by British heavy cruisers and broke off the operation in support of Gabon. On September 23, 1940, British naval forces attacked Dakar in preparation for a landing by Gaullist troops ( Operation Menace ). The attackers included the Delhi and her sister ship Dragon . Because of the determined defense of the French armed forces loyal to Vichy, Churchill ordered the operation to be broken off.
On November 7, 1940, Free French troops attacked Libreville in Gabon and units of the Foreign Legion landed. French ships were used as transporters and escorts. British forces, including Delhi and Devonshire , limited their involvement to the coastal blockade of Gabon. The cruiser remained in the South Atlantic and ran to New York in February 1941, where it was to be overhauled.
Conversion to an anti-aircraft cruiser
The major overhaul took place at the US Navy Yard in Brooklyn . It also included the conversion of the Delhi to an anti-aircraft cruiser . Basically, the Royal Navy had already decided before the war, their outdated constructed yet in World War light cruiser of the C - and D class rebuild for this task. After two prototypes, a conversion program began that should include all still existing C cruisers. At the beginning of the war in 1939 two more cruisers were converted and two more were being converted. After its completion in 1940 there were no further modifications for the time being
see => HMS Cairo .
These cruisers received four 4 inch (102 mm) twin guns as their main armament . In the planned conversion of the D- class, the more modern 4.5 inch (113 mm) multi-purpose guns were to be given. Guns made available were then to be used to arm two Dido cruisers ( Carybdis and Scylla ) whose standard main armament could not be adequately manufactured.
The Delhi , which is undergoing major overhaul in the USA, should therefore be the first (and only) British ship to be armed with standard US Navy weapons. The raised guns at the bow and stern and the rear of the center guns were replaced by 5 inch (127 mm) multi-purpose guns , the standard weapon of the USN destroyers. American fire control stations were also installed in the front and rear for these guns. The weapons of Delhi were originally for the destroyer USS Edison of Gleaves class provided. Originally, the 6-inch gun was to remain in position "3", but was then removed and replaced by two Bofors quadruplets on the sides of the ship. There were also eight individual 20 mm Oerlikon automatic cannons . In addition to the armament, the bridge was rebuilt, additional rooms were created for the planned radar equipment and a new electrical system. In addition, the ship received two new tripod masts. The British auxiliary cruiser Asturias was then armed with the old 6 inch guns of the Delhi .
The first test drives of the converted Delhi began in December 1941 and were completed on January 12, 1942. The cruiser then moved to Norfolk (Virginia) and then ran across the Atlantic to Plymouth from February 4th. The radar equipment was then installed at the local naval shipyard . Two type 285 fire control devices were installed fore and aft. The Bofors quadruplets on the sides of the ship were controlled by two Type 282 devices. In addition, there was a type 271 device in front of the main mast to detect sea targets and sensors of the air surveillance radar type 281 on both masts. Testing of the ship with the new equipment began as early as March. The ship was ready for use in May.
Renewed war missions
Until October 1942, the Delhi was used in the Irish Sea and on the southwest access routes to the British Isles. Then the cruiser was assigned to one of the two British combat groups that were supposed to secure the Allied landing in French North Africa ( Operation Torch ). With parts of the association, the cruiser ran from the Clyde via Gibraltar for use with the Center Task Force off Oran . After the successful landing on November 8, 1942, the Delhi moved with further units to Algiers. On the way there was an air raid on November 20, 1942 by an Italian plane, which hit the tail of the Delhi when it tried to fog the unit. After a makeshift repair in Gibraltar, the cruiser ran back home and was repaired at Palmers in Jarrow .
From May 1943, the cruiser was briefly used again at Plymouth Command before moving to the Mediterranean in June to support the Allied landing in Sicily ( Operation Husky ). The first deployment took place off Syracuse . In September the Delhi was also used to support the landing at Salerno . On the march there, the cruiser was slightly damaged by a collision with Uganda , but continues to operate. The Delhi weapons proved very suitable for artillery support for the landing forces. During the operation off Salerno, the Delhi was attacked from the air and shot at by the artillery of the defenders. From the 17th led her to tow the damaged by a glide bomb Warspite to Malta and shot at least one attackers. After a short overhaul in Malta, the cruiser was also used in the security and support group on the next Allied landing at Anzio ( Operation Shingle ). The basis of this mission was Naples ; in March the Delhi was withdrawn from this mission and commanded to Gibraltar to secure convoy in the western Mediterranean.
The UGS.37 convoy with 60 merchant ships, accompanied by Delhi from April 10th and the Gibraltar Strait, was attacked by 64 Luftwaffe bombers on the 12th at Cape Bengut , 10 of which were lost. By August there were over ten more deployments on various convoy trains.
In August 1944, the Delhi with the new anti-aircraft cruiser Royalist belonged to combat group TG.88.1 with five British escort carriers ( Khedive , Emperor , Searcher , Pursuer and Attacker ) with 24 Seafire fighters each, secured by six fleet destroyers, including the Greek Navarinon ( ex Echo ) as well as the destroyer escort Wheatland and the two cruisers. This combat group was one of the two combat groups of the TF.88 , which carried out the air security of the Allied landing in southern France ( Operation Dragoon ).
On September 13, 1944, the Delhi was in Toulon , which was ceremoniously taken over by the Free French on that day. In the port, which was still largely blocked by the self-sinking of the French fleet on November 27, 1942, u. a. the light cruiser Georges Leygues and the mining cruiser Émile Bertin .
In October the Delhi was then sent to the Adriatic with the destroyer escort Wheatland . Since November 10, 1944, she has been a guard ship and anti-aircraft battery in the port of Split , which had been captured by Yugoslav partisans at the end of October.
The end of Delhi
In Split, the Delhi was badly damaged on February 12, 1945 in an attack by six German bombs. The attack was aimed at her but did not hit her directly. Instead, it hit an anti-aircraft landing ship next to her with riot ammunition, which increased the force of the explosion. Again the stern of the Delhi was badly damaged. The propeller shafts and the rudder could only be used to a limited extent. But she was still fully operational for her job as a guard ship and anti-aircraft battery.
The damaged Delhi was relocated back to Great Britain via Malta in mid-March, where it was decommissioned in Chatham in May . Because the state shipyard there found that repairs were no longer economical. So it was then taken to Falmouth , dismantled there and sold for demolition in January 1948, which began in Newport in March .
Individual evidence
- ↑ HMS DELHI - July 1920 to July 1921, Atlantic Fleet (including Baltic)
- ^ Stevens: The Navy and the Nation , pp. 182f.
- ↑ a b Bastock: Australia's Ships of War , p. 38
- ^ The Argus (Melbourne): Spanish War , April 25, 1938, page = 2
- ^ "My War": In the Royal Navy by Ronald William Bannister . BBC History. Archived from the original on April 7, 2011.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , October 12-26, 1939 North Atlantic
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , November 12-23, 1939 North Atlantic
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , November 21-27, 1939 North Atlantic
- ↑ HMS DELHI - World War 1 D-type Light Cruiser
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 3.- 23 September 1940 France / Mid-Atlantic
- ↑ Rohwer: Sea War , September 9–22, 1940 Central Atlantic
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 23- 25 September 1940 Mid-Atlantic
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 7.- 8 November 1940 Mid-Atlantic
- ↑ United States of America 5 "/ 38 (12.7 cm) Mark 12. navweaps.com. July 5, 2014. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , November 8-11, 1942 French North Africa Operation "Torch": Allied landing in French North Africa.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , July 10, 1943 Mediterranean Operation Husky
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , September 9-16, 1943 Tyrrhenian Sea, Operation Avalanche
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , April 10-17, 1944 Mediterranean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War, August 15, 1944 Mediterranean, Operation "Dragoon"
- ↑ FRENCH FLEET RETURNS HOME. 13 AND 14 SEPTEMBER 1944, TOULON
- ^ Kobelt: Sturmboote , p. 246f.
- ↑ Spencer Tucker: World War II at Sea: An Encyclopedia - Naval Operations in the Adriatic . ABC-CLIO, 2011, ISBN 1-59884-457-1 , p. 7.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , February 12, 1945 Mediterranean / Adriatic
Remarks
- ↑ The 2nd cruiser Dunedin was completed in September 1919. The third third order ( Daedalus ) was canceled on November 26, 1918 with three orders to other shipyards.
literature
- 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 .
- Hartwig Kobelt: Assault boats in command of the small combat units of the Kriegsmarine and their Italian role models , Helios, Aachen (2016)
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the Naval War 1939-1945 , Manfred Pawlak VerlagsGmbH (Herrsching 1968), ISBN 3-88199-009-7
Web links
- HMS DELHI- World War 1 D-type Light Cruiser on naval-history.net
- HMS DELHI - July 1920 to July 1921, Atlantic Fleet (including Baltic) on naval-history.net (logbooks)
- HMS Delhi (D74) on uboat.net with list of commanders (WWII)
- HMS Delhi (1918) on dreadnoughtproject.org with list of commanders 1919–1922
- The "World Cruise" of the Special Service Squadron
- "The Empire Cruise" - The Visit of 'HMS Dauntless' to Bluff, May 1924 with stages of the journey
- Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945 , Library for Contemporary History, Württemberg State Library, Stuttgart 2007