HMS Tiger (C20)
 HMS Tiger before the renovation, 1963
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HMS Tiger ( C20 ) was one of the last conventional light cruiser of the British Royal Navy , later lead ship of the same name Tiger class and became in 1945 the stack left. With the end of the Second World War , the further expansion was stopped for the time being and only completed after extensive changes in 1959. In the early 1970s she was converted into a guided missile and helicopter cruiser and remained in this role until 1978. After the subsequent service in the reserve fleet, she was finally retired in 1986.
history
The construction of the Tiger began in 1941 at the John Brown Shipyard in Clydebank , initially under the name Bellerophon as part of the Minotaur class , which with about 8,800 standard tons displacement and armament of 3 × 3 BL 6-inch guns , the Should replace ships of the Crown Colony class . The construction was given a low priority from the start due to the war situation and the lack of capabilities of the draft to combat submarines . Likewise, no torpedo tubes were provided and the anti-aircraft armament no longer corresponded to the growing threat from enemy aircraft. The ship was then launched incompletely on October 25, 1945 and named Tiger by Lady Stansgate, wife of the British Air Force Minister at the time, William Benn and mother of politician Tony Benn . In 1946 the further expansion was temporarily stopped and the ship was launched in Dalmuir .
In 1951 the British government made the decision to complete the Tigers with a different design. Mainly the main artillery was converted to 2 × 2 more modern, semi-automatic QF 6-inch (152 mm) guns with a caliber length of 50 and 3 × 2 fast-firing 76 mm automatic cannons of caliber length 70 with 90-120 rounds per minute were installed for air defense. In addition, each individual tower received an MRS3 fire control radar. In this configuration, the Tiger became the lead ship of the eponymous class of three light cruisers and had a range of 12,000 km at 13 knots.
In March 1959, the Navy took over and the ship was officially put into service on March 18, 1959.
First missions
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After the first test drives, representative trips were made to Gdynia , Stockholm , Kiel and Antwerp . At the end of 1959, the Tiger moved to the Mediterranean Sea to serve as the flagship of the British Mediterranean fleet for a year .
In operation, both the main artillery and the anti-aircraft armament showed problems with prolonged fire. Therefore, at the end of 1960, there was another stay in the shipyard.
The ship then took part in Operation "Far East" in connection with the clashes in Indonesia and Malaysia .
1965–1966, the Tiger became the flagship of Rear Admiral Michael Pollock as part of the Home Fleet . During this time, there was an accident with a slightly injured person in whom a training grenade was accidentally fired into the Devonport shipyard during material tests . In October 1966, the ship was near Cardiff when the Aberfan disaster struck and the crew was deployed to support the rescue operations.
From December 2 to 4, 1966, the ship, lying off Gibraltar , served as the scene of negotiations on the independence of the State of Rhodesia between British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and the leader of the Rhodesian independence movement, Ian Smith . Then the Tiger was assigned to the reserve fleet on December 18 of the same year.
modification
Already at the end of the Second World War it became clear that due to the technical development in air force and missile technology there was no longer any use for large, conventional warships with exclusive tube armament. Therefore, the Tiger was relocated to Devonport and converted from 1968 to 1972 into a "helicopter and command cruiser". In addition, the aft turret was omitted in favor of a landing deck with hangars for four helicopters (initially Westland Wessex , later Westland Sea King ). The chimneys were redesigned and made significantly narrower, supplemented by new covers and the radar equipment was modernized. Extensive command and control facilities have also been installed so that the ship can be used as a flagship for "task groups" in the future.
In order to keep up with the times with regard to air defense, 2 starters with 4 rockets of the type GWS 22 Seacat were installed.
Overall, the expansion increased the crew to 885 men (85 officers and 800 crew levels). If the renovation originally cost only £ 5 million and took 18 months, the work ended up taking almost five years and costing over £ 13 million.
The ship was put back into service on May 6, 1972 and remained part of the active fleet long enough to become part of the fleet parade in honor of Queen Elizabeth II's 25th anniversary in 1977 .
Whereabouts
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In 1978 the Tiger was reassigned to the reserve , brought to Chatham and decommissioned on May 4, 1979 together with her sister ship Blake as the "Standby Squadron".
When the Falklands War broke out in April 1982 , both ships were checked immediately and their condition was confirmed. This was followed by docking in preparation for recommissioning.
Contrary to initial speculation that the 6-inch artillery could be useful for bombing coastlines, it was actually the flight decks of the cruisers that made the difference for its speedy commissioning. These were the third largest in the Royal Navy at the time (after the carriers Hermes and Invincible ) and could have been used by vertical take-offs of the Harrier type .
However, after the loss of the destroyer Sheffield and the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano , doubts about the ship's self-defense capabilities predominated. This and the high manpower requirements, combined with the fact that a Harrier that only launched vertically, had a lower amount of weapons and fuel, led to the restoration work being stopped, and the ship was left to its own devices and moored to a buoy in Portsmouth until mid-1986 .
After a possible sale to Chile did not get beyond the negotiation stage in the following years , the Tiger was finally towed to Spain in October 1986 and scrapped .
Commanders
| From | To | captain |
|---|---|---|
| March 1959 | July 1959 | Captain Richard E Washbourn DSO OBE RN |
| July 1959 | April 1961 | Captain Ronald E Hutchins RN |
| April 1961 | March 1963 | Captain William Wilberforce Graham RN |
| March 1963 | March 1965 | Captain Hardress L Lloyd DSC RN |
| March 1965 | December 1967 | Captain Geoffrey J Kirkby RN |
| 1968 | 1972 | modification |
| August 1971 | April 1973 | Captain Dudley T Goodhugh RN |
| April 1973 | August 1975 | Captain Michael L Stacey RN |
| 1975 | 1976 | In reserve |
| April 1976 | January 1978 | Captain Simon Cassel's CBE RN |
| January 1978 | June 1978 | Captain George MK Brewer RN |
Sister ships
- HMS Blake (C99) , formerly Tiger , keel laid 1942, commissioning 1961, decommissioning 1979, conversion analogous to the HMS 'Tiger'
- HMS Lion (C34) , formerly Defense , keel laid in 1942, commissioning 1960, decommissioning 1972, no conversion, spare parts store for Blake and Tiger
literature
- Colledge, JJ; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing.
- Robert Gardiner, ed., Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946 (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1980)
- Robert Gardiner, ed., Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1982 (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1983)
- Jane's Fighting Ships 1950–51 (Janes Publishing, London, 1950)
- Alan Raven and John Roberts, British Cruisers of World War II , (Arms and Armor Press, London, 1980)
- MJ Whitley, Cruisers of World War Two: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (Arms and Armor Press, London, 1995)
Web links
- HMS Tiger on Uboat.net (English)
- A history of the Tiger class
- HMS Tiger on militaryimages.net (English)
- HMS Tiger as a 3D model in a computer game
Footnotes
- ↑ Navy Estimates, 1959-60 , pp. 230-1, List and particulars of new ships which have been accepted or are expected to be accepted into HM service during the Financial Year ended March 31, 1959
- ^ A b c Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995 , page 504, Robert Gardiner, Conway Maritime Press, 1995, ISBN 0-85177-605-1
- ^ JJ Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). (2006) [1969] . London: Chatham Publishing, ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8 .
- ^ A b John E. Moore: Jane's Fighting Ships 1975-76, p . 349 . Macdonald and Jane's & Co, 1975, ISBN 0-354-00519-7 .
- ^ House of Commons Debates, HMS "Lion" and "Tiger" (Gun-Turrets and Control Gear). October 1960, volume 627 para. 278-9W. Hansard, accessed May 31, 2017 .
- ^ House of Commons Debates, HMS "Tiger" (Firing Accident). volume 733 para. 2011-2. Hansard, August 12, 1966, accessed May 31, 2017 .
- ^ David Jenkins: Shipping at Cardiff: Photographs from the Hansen Collection . University of Wales Press, Cardiff, ISBN 978-1-78316-322-9 ( google.co.uk ).
- ^ Obituary, Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia. Zimbabwe Today, April 6, 2017; accessed May 31, 2017 .
- ↑ Ian Smith: The Great Betrayal . Blake Publishing, 1997, ISBN 1-85782-176-9 , pp. 127-131 .
- ↑ Last Log ADM 53/166530. National Archives catalog, accessed March 9, 2020 .
- ^ House of Commons debates, Public Accounts Committee (Reports), volume 847 para. 1735-1737. Hansard, accessed March 10, 2020 .
- ^ Out of routine at HM Dockyard, Devonport. National Archives catalog, accessed March 9, 2020 .
- ^ Official Souvenir Program, 1977. Silver Jubilee Fleet Review , HMSO
- ^ House of Commons Debates, HMS Tiger, November 12, 1997, volume 300 para. 581-2W. Hansard, accessed March 10, 2020 .
- ^ House of Commons Debates, HMS Tiger, June 30, 1986, volume 100 para. 441W. Hansard, accessed March 11, 2020 .
- ^ British Armed Forces (1860-), Royal Navy - Captains Commanding Warships. Retrieved March 9, 2020 .
- ^ A b Robert Conway: All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995, p . 504 . Conway Maritime Press, 1995, ISBN 0-85177-605-1 .