HMS Sheffield (C24)
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HMS Sheffield (C24) was a Southampton sub- class cruiser of the Town- class of the British Royal Navy during and after World War II . She was the first Royal Navy ship to be named after the English industrial city of Sheffield , the former center of the British steel industry.
The design of the Town- class cruisers was influenced by the regulations of the London Naval Conference of 1930. This had limited the number of heavy cruisers and light cruisers were allowed to carry a main armament of no more than 6.1 inches (15.5 cm) caliber. All three signatories of the London Naval Treaty of 1930 (Great Britain, Japan, USA) subsequently tried to build light cruisers that matched heavy cruisers in size and combat power by increasing the number of guns and thus trying to compensate for the lower caliber.
Technical specifications
The Sheffield was laid down at Vickers Armstrongs in Newcastle upon Tyne on January 31, 1935 , launched on July 23, 1936, and commissioned on August 25, 1937. At 180.2 m long, 18.8 m wide and 6.2 m draft, it displaced 9,100 tons (standard) and 11,350 tons (combat weight). The crew numbered 748 men. The armament consisted of twelve 6-inch (152-mm) guns of the type BL 6 "MK XXIII in four three-turrets, eight 4-inch (102-mm) rapid-fire cannons in four twin turrets, eight QF-2 anti-aircraft guns Guns ("pom-pom") in two quadruple mounts, eight 0.5-inch (12.7-mm) Vickers machine guns in quadruple mounts, and six 21-inch (53.3 cm) torpedo tubes in two sets of triple The four Parsons turbines with a total of 75,000 horsepower (shp) allowed a top speed of 32 knots .
history
Second World War
When the war broke out, Sheffield was part of the 18th cruiser squadron that patrolled the Denmark Strait . In April 1940 she took part in the British campaign in Norway, after which she served for a short time in the English Channel as security against a possible German invasion of England. Then she was assigned to the Force H stationed in Gibraltar and operated in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic.
In the spring of 1941 she took part in the bombardment of Genoa (February 9th) and in operations against associations of Vichy France and in securing convoys that were bringing supplies to Malta .
In May 1941 she was one of the forces that sank the German battleship Bismarck . The Sheffield narrowly escaped an accidental torpedo attack by Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal . The aircrews had not been informed of the assignment of the Sheffield to shadow the Bismarck . When the pilots saw a single ship below, they believed they had the Bismarck in front of them. Their torpedoes were equipped with novel magneto ignition systems, which fortunately proved unreliable for the Sheffield . In the subsequent new attack on the Bismarck , the fuses had been replaced by the reliable impact fuses; one hit and destroyed the battleship's steering gear.
On June 12, the Sheffield sank the German tanker Friedrich Brehme , which had been assigned to the Bismarck . In October, she sank another German supply ship, the Kota Penang , together with the light cruiser Kenya .
After that, the Sheffield was used to secure convoys of northern convoys in the North Sea until it ran into a mine on March 3, 1942 near Iceland . After the necessary repairs, from July 1942 a. a. in convoy PQ 18 again in escort service in the North Sea.
In November 1942, she was one of the forces that secured the Allied landing in North Africa ( Operation Torch ).
In December, the Sheffield and Jamaica formed the "Force R" of Rear Adm. Robert L. Burnett (on the Sheffield ), which formed the remote security for the convoy JW 51B . The convoy was attacked on December 31 by surface forces of the Kriegsmarine under Vice Admiral Oskar Kummetz , consisting of the heavy cruisers Admiral Hipper and Lützow and six destroyers , and the battle in the Barents Sea broke out . After the Admiral Hipper had received three 15 cm hits from the Sheffield , which put boiler room 3 out of operation and thus reduced its speed, Admiral Kummetz broke off the engagement. The German destroyer Z 16 Friedrich Eckoldt , who mistook the Sheffield for the Admiral Hipper , was sunk by the Sheffield .
In February 1943 the Sheffield was moved to the Bay of Biscay . From July to September she supported the Allied landing near Salerno in southern Italy ( Operation Avalanche ). Then she ran again to secure the convoy in the Arctic, where she was involved in the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst on December 26, 1943 with the convoy JW 55B . Towards the end of 1943, the "X" tower was expanded while it was in the shipyard. In its place came two 40 mm Bofors quad mounts .
From April to August 1944, the Sheffield was part of the escort of the British aircraft carriers that carried out repeated air raids on the battleship Tirpitz and participated in the operations Tungsten and Mascot in this context . After these ultimately unsuccessful attacks were stopped, the ship was sent for a major overhaul in Boston and England, which lasted until the end of the war.
After 1945
The Sheffield was operational again in May 1946 and then served alternately in the Caribbean , the Mediterranean and the waters around the British Isles. She was modernized again in 1949/50 and 1954 and was the flagship of the 8th cruiser squadron in the Caribbean in 1954. In January 1959 she joined the reserve fleet, where she served as the flagship of the Home Fleet until September 1964 .
The Sheffield was put on the list of ships available in September 1964 and cannibalized in Rosyth in 1967 and then scrapped in Faslane-on-Clyde . Her ship's bell and war flag have been hanging in Sheffield Cathedral ever since .
literature
- MJ Whitley: Cruisers of World War 2: An International Encyclopedia . Arms & Armor Press, London 1995, ISBN 1-85409-225-1 .
Individual evidence
- ^ David Brown: Tirpitz: The Floating Fortress, p. 40 . London: Arms and Armor Press, 1977, ISBN 0-85368-341-7 .
Web links
- sheffield1937 on tynebuiltships
- HMS SHEFFIELD - Town-type Light Cruiser on naval-history.net
- HMS Sheffield (24) on uboat.net
- HMS Sheffield Southampton Class Light Cruiser on WW2 Cruisers
- Sheffield at bismarck-class.dk (engl.)
Southampton Group:
HMS Birmingham |
HMS Glasgow |
HMS Newcastle |
HMS Sheffield |
HMS Southampton
Gloucester Group:
HMS Gloucester |
HMS Liverpool |
HMS Manchester
Edinburgh Group:
HMS Belfast |
HMS Edinburgh