HMS London (69)
 The London with the new superstructures.
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The Royal Navy's eighth HMS London (C-69) was a County-class second group heavy cruiser . The four following cruisers differed from the originally manufactured Kent type by having a smaller and more recessed deck structure. The cruisers of this second group were also known as the London class.
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. The HMS London also remained the only County-class cruiser with such a modernization.
From 1946 to 1949 the HMS London was at the China Station and was used in the Amethyst incident and was significantly damaged. Given the age of the machinery, the London was sold for scrapping in early 1950.
Building history
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The County-class heavy cruisers were a result of the Washington Naval Conference of 1922 and its limits for cruisers (maximum 10,000 ts , maximum with 20.3 cm guns). The county class ships were considered the classic "Washington cruiser". The Royal Navy wanted 17 units of this type, initially had to be satisfied with seven ships ( Kent class). In 1925 the four ships of the London - were approved. In these ships, the torpedo bulges had been omitted and the armor was a little weaker. As a result, the ships of the London group had an average speed increase of around 0.75 kn, which is why these cruisers with up to 32.6 kn were considered the fastest ships in the county class. As a new armament they had 4-way torpedo tubes for the first time, the use of which from the high cruiser decks proved to be difficult. In 1930/1931 all cruisers received a catapult and a Fairey III F seaplane, which was replaced by a Hawker Osprey in 1934 and a Supermarine Walrus in 1937 .
Mission history
The keel laying of the London took place on February 23, 1926 at the naval shipyard in Portsmouth . The London was launched on September 14, 1927 and entered service on January 31, 1929. The London served as the flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron until March 1939 . On April 1, 1929, she arrived in Gibraltar and then ran via Valencia and St. Tropez to Malta . The ship's first official appearance was the visit to the world exhibition in Barcelona from May 17th together with the battleship Ramillies . The squadron's summer trip was to the Gulf of Patras . Various small port cities were visited, such as the former Venetian Dragomesti, today Astakos ( Aetolia-Akarnania ).
In addition to the many visits, there were also shooting with live ammunition. There was an accident on the sister ship Devonshire near Skiatos . The left cannon of the "X" tower misfired. A loading gunner did not recognize this and opened the bolt. The air supply ignited the charge in the tube and a standby charge in the tower. The explosion hurled the tower roof away and 17 men died. The accident resulted in a new locking mechanism, the 17 dead had to be buried in Greece. A British consul bought the site in order to ensure a permanent peace of the dead. The case hit the media in 2003 because the Greek authorities wanted to assign this site to a park.
From March 1932 to July 1934 Henry Harwood , who later became the British Commander in action against the Admiral Graf Spee , was in command of the London . From September 1, 1937, London, as the flagship of Vice Admiral Charles Kennedy-Purvis, visited Venice with her sister ship Sussex for a week and had moored across from the Doge's Palace . Together with Shropshire, the London evacuated thousands of civilians from Barcelona at the end of the civil war .
The big renovation
In March 1939 the conversion of the London began at the Chatham naval shipyard . The originally planned replacement of the machinery has been abandoned. She received a new superstructure above the main deck, which resembled the superstructure of the Colony class . Their individual 4 "anti-aircraft guns were replaced by twin guns. In addition, 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns and a modern radar system came on board. A 3½" (89 mm) thick armor belt, 2.4 m wide, was attached to protect the machinery . The measure was completed in March 1941. The plan to rebuild other ships of the county class in the same way was not due to the pressure of the war.
War missions
In May the London was assigned to secure the convoy SL.75, from which it withdrew to search for the Bismarck after the destruction of the Hood . In fact, it was used to search for German suppliers in the Atlantic. In the German supply area in Natal-Freetown-Enge, she discovered the German supply tankers Esso Hamburg (MT, 1939, 9848 BRT) 07.35 N / 31.25 W and Egerland (DT, 1939, with the destroyer HMS Brilliant) on June 4 and 5, 1941 10040 GRT), which sank themselves. On June 26, she discovered the motor ship Babitonga (4422 GRT), which also sank itself. In September 1941, HMS London , accompanied by the destroyers Active and Electra , brought an Anglo-American delegation under Lord Beaverbrook and W. Averell Harriman from Scapa Flow to Arkhangelsk , who wanted to meet with the Soviet government in Moscow. The London ran on the 30th with fourteen merchant ships, the first return convoy QP 1 , from Arkhangelsk back to Scapa. The heavy cruiser Shropshire and the destroyers Electra , Active , Anthony and three anti-submarine trawlers were also used as security . After these operations, several cracks appeared in the decks due to the weight of the new superstructure. The repair took place in the Tyne Middledock from October 1941 to February 1942.
London then served at the North Cape to protect northern sea convoys , u. a. At the end of April / beginning of May 1942 as a local security at PQ 15 with the cruiser Nigeria and two destroyers, PQ 16 , at the end of June / beginning of July 1942 on the counter escort QP 13 and PQ 17 with the Norfolk and the American cruisers Wichita and Tuscaloosa and a mixed destroyer association. At the beginning of September, she was deployed again as a cover group on PQ 18 together with Norfolk and Suffolk, and in November on the counter-escort of QP 15 with the Suffolk . Again there were tears and cracked seams. The ship was again in a shipyard from December 1942 to May 1943. This time the hull was reinforced. In addition, the London received a new radar system and additional light anti-aircraft weapons. This conversion eliminated the deficits and from July the cruiser was fully operational. He operated from the Ceylon coast or the South African coast and stayed with the Eastern Fleet until the end of the war .
On 10/11 April 1945 the London was involved in the operation "Sunfish", in which the Eastern Fleet with the battleships Queen Elizabeth and the French Richelieu as well as the Cumberland and destroyers advanced against the north coast of Sumatra and shelled Sabang. The accompanying escort carriers Emperor and Khedive gave air security and attacked Emmahaven and Padang with their aircraft . On September 2, 1945, the London and the Cumberland were the first allied ships to enter Sabang and on the HMS London the Japanese surrendered on Sumatra under Vice Admiral Sueto Hirose .
literature
- JJ Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy , Chatham London (Rev.ed. 2006), ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships: Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford.
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlag, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
Web links
- HMS London Album 1929-31
- The Shropshire at the Naval Historical Society of Australia (Engl.)
- LONDON heavy cruisers (1929) (engl.)
- HMS London (69)
- Admiral Sueto Hirose
Individual evidence
- ^ Whitley, Mike J .: Cruiser in World War II. Classes, types, construction dates . Motorbuch Verlag. Stuttgart 1997, p. 95.
- ^ Whitley: Kreuzer , p. 99.
- ↑ Mishap 26th July 1929
- ↑ Struggle to keep the graves
- ↑ The sinking of Esso Hamburg
- ↑ sinking of the Egerland
- ^ Rohwer: Chronik des Maritime Warfare , p. 131
- ^ Rohwer, p. 171
- ^ Rohwer, p. 173
- ^ Rohwer, p. 239
- ^ Rohwer, p. 257
- ^ Rohwer, p. 283
- ^ Rohwer, p. 307
- ^ Rohwer, p. 544
- ^ Rohwer, p. 370