HMS Southampton (C83)
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The HMS Southampton (C83) was a new Town class light cruiser from 1936 and belonged to the first group of five ships of this class, which were also referred to as the Southampton class after her . Originally, like the previous small cruisers, the ship was to be given a name from Greek mythology and named after a Cyclops Polyphemus . She was the fifth ship in the Royal Navy to be named after the city of Southampton . Her name predecessor, Southampton, was a cruiser of the previous Town class , which distinguished itself in the North Sea from 1914 to 1916 and spent the end of its service as a flagship on the East Indies station from 1921 to 1924 .
Like its predecessor, the new cruiser was built by John Brown in Clydebank and accepted by the Royal Navy on March 6, 1937 with the registration number C83, one day after the sister ship Newcastle .
The Southampton participated in many operations during the World War. On January 11, 1941, she was hit by several bombs east of Malta . The heavily damaged and propulsionless ship was finally sunk by accompanying ships.
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History of Southampton
The design of the new Town- class cruisers was influenced by the regulations of the London Naval Conference of 1930, which limited the number of heavy cruisers. The three contracting states of 1930 (Great Britain, Japan, USA) then tried to build light cruisers with a permitted main armament of no more than 6.1-inch (15.5-cm) guns, the heavy cruisers in size and combat power equaled. In Japan, planned heavy cruisers with five 155mm triple towers were completed as the Mogami class . The US Navy developed the new Brooklyn class with also fifteen 6-inch guns. These cruisers were supposed to compensate for the lighter projectiles due to the increased number of guns. The Royal Navy relied on four 6-inch triple towers for the new Town-class compared to the previously built Leander- class light cruisers with four twin towers and the cruisers of the last Arethusa- class ordered with only three twin towers of this caliber.
The new cruiser was ordered on June 1, 1934 and, like its predecessor, was built by John Brown in Clydebank . Construction of the new ship with hull number 542 began on November 21, 1934 and was launched on March 10, 1936 as the second ship of the new class. On March 6, 1937, the Southampton with the identification C83 was removed from the Royal Navy one day after the sister ship Newcastle .
Mission history
The commissioned Southampton came as a flagship for the 2nd Cruiser Squadron in the Home Fleet . This squadron of cruisers also took the sister ships Newcastle , Sheffield and Glasgow into service in 1937 and was reinforced in 1939 with the two cruisers of the third subgroup of the Town class ( Edinburgh and Belfast ).
War missions
As early as September 5, 1939, the Southampton and her companions placed the German freighter Johannes Molkenbuhr (Hugo Stinnes Lines, 5294 GRT) 17 miles west of Stadlandet . After recognizing the British units, the German crew initiated the self-sinking of the ship, so that the destroyer Jervis could only take over the crew of the freighter and the Jersey sank the Johannes Molkenbuhr .
The cruiser was then mostly in use with the Humber Force in the North Sea and was attacked from the air for the first time on September 26th. On October 16, 1939, the Southampton received a bomb hit for the first time when the I. Group of Kampfgeschwader 30 with Junkers Ju 88 bombers under Captain Helmut Pohle attacked ship targets in the Firth of Forth and hit the cruiser next to the Edinburgh and the destroyer Mohawk by a dud has been. The heavy bomb hit a pompom magazine and then penetrated three decks before leaving the ship and then exploding in the water near the cruiser. The cruiser's electrical supply went out for a while, but all damage could be repaired within three days. The Germans lost two machines and their commander Pohle became a prisoner of war.
The cruiser was ready for action again to take part in the unsuccessful interception attempts against the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau when they sank the British auxiliary cruiser Rawalpindi southeast of Iceland on November 23, 1939 and ran back home after this advance. At the turn of the year the cruiser was overhauled and for the first time equipped with a type 279 radar for air surveillance. Since the division of the 2nd cruiser squadron was the Southampton flagship of the Home Fleet subordinate part, which formed the 18th cruiser squadron.
Between April 7 and 9, 1940, the Southampton was one of the surface ships of the Royal Navy off Norway, which, with unclear orders, was unable to repel the German attack on Norway . In particular, the attack by the German Air Force on a group sent from the south against Bergen around the cruisers Southampton Manchester , Glasgow and Sheffield with 47 Ju 88s of the KG 30 and 41 He 111s of the KG 26 determined the withdrawal of the British units, which only had the Destroyer Gurkha lost, but damage to other ships. In the following period, the cruiser was involved in setting up allied countermeasures in Norway. After being supplied by Scapa Flow , the Aurora called at Harstad on April 14th . From April 29 to May 1, the cruiser belonged to the British units that supported the evacuation of Åndalsnes and Molde and took over part of the Allied soldiers to be evacuated. From May 28th, Southampton supported the advance of a Polish brigade on Narvik with its artillery and then also in June the evacuation of this symbolic place. On June 7th, the flagship of the 18th cruiser squadron secured the repatriation of the Allied troops from Norway via Harstad and accompanied the second large evacuation convoy as the last flagship of the British naval commander Admiral of the Fleet Lord Cork.
From November 15, 1940, the Southampton moved to the Mediterranean and was already part of the units involved in the sea battle at Cape Teulada on November 27 . In December, the cruiser was sent from Alexandria through the Red Sea to Durban to take part in securing the WS 4B troop transport , which was to bring parts of the 2nd British Armored Division and the 18th Australian Infantry Brigade to Egypt. On the march on December 10, the cruiser shelled the port of Kismaayo (Italian: Chisimaio, Eng. Kismayu) in the south of Italian Somaliland . From the 16th the march back began with the escort secured by the heavy cruisers Devonshire (up to the 18th) and Shropshire , and on the 26th the old cruiser Carlisle and the destroyers Kandahar and Kimberley entered the Red Sea. On the 28th, the Southampton was left of its task and was assigned to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet on January 1, 1941 for the incoming Operation Excess .
The end of Southampton
The Southampton made with the Gloucester and the destroyers Ilex and Janus the Force B of the Mediterranean fleet, which should transport 500 soldiers of the Army and Air Force from Greece to Malta and then from there three from Gibraltar with the convoy MC 4 coming transporter with supply goods to Piraeus should forward. When the two cruisers with the destroyers Ilex and Jaguar left Malta on January 11th, they were suddenly attacked by twelve Ju 87R dive bombers of the II / St.G.2 in the afternoon . The Gloucester was hit by a dud, while the Southampton received at least two hits, which set the cruiser on fire in a short time, led to the failure of all systems and made it no longer possible to fight the fires. After the destroyer Diamond and the Gloucester had taken over the crew, the Gloucester and Orion, who had also come to the rescue , sank the burning wreck 180 nautical miles east of Malta at 34 ° 54 ' N , 18 ° 24' E, with 5 torpedoes. 81 men lost their lives on Southampton .
With HMS Southampton (D90) , another Southampton came into service with the Navy in 1981 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c HMS SOUTHAMPTON - Town-type Light Cruiser
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 16/10/1939 North Sea
- ^ Raven: TOWN Class Cruisers , p. 13
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 09/04/1940 Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War, April 13-15, 1940 Norway
- ↑ Rohwer. Sea War, April 29-30, 1940 Norway
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare, 27./28.5.1940 Norway attack on Narvik
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , June 4-10, 1940 Norway Evacuation of Narvik by the Allies.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , November 24–29, 1940 Mediterranean Sea, Operation "Collar" and sea battle at Cap Teulada (Sardinia).
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , January 6-13, 1941 Mediterranean, Operation "Excess" to strengthen the island of Malta.
Remarks
- ↑ All early British radars were developed for air surveillance.
- ↑ The northern Norwegian city of Harstad on the largest island in Norway was to become the center of resistance against the German occupation of Norway supported by the British and their allies.
literature
- Robert Gardiner (Ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships. 1922-1946 . Conway Press, London 1980, ISBN 0-85177-146-7 .
- Alan Raven: TOWN Class Cruisers , ENSIGN 5, Bivouac Books, London
Web links
- HMS SOUTHAMPTON built by John Brown Clydebank on clydesite.co
- HMS SOUTHAMPTON - Town-type Light Cruiser on naval-history.net
- HMS Southampton (83) on uboat.net
- HMS Southampton Southampton Class Light Cruiser on WW2 Cruisers
- Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945 , Library for Contemporary History, Württemberg State Library, Stuttgart 2007
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