Norfolk class
 The HMS Norfolk at sea |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | Heavy cruiser |
| Namesake | Norfolk county |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
Standard: 9,925–9,975 tons |
| length |
192-193 meters |
| width |
20 metres |
| Draft |
6.37-6.91 meters |
| crew |
710 men |
| drive |
80,000 wave horsepower |
| speed |
Max. 32 knots |
| Range |
12,000 nautical miles at 12 knots |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
| Aircraft | |
The Norfolk class was a class of heavy cruisers in the Royal Navy . It was a subclass of the county class . It consisted of the two ships HMS Norfolk and HMS Dorsetshire . Both units were mainly used as escorts during World War II .
technology
Propulsion and hull
The hull length of the two ships was 186 m at the waterline and 192–193 m above all. She was 20 m wide and had a draft of 5 meters. The standard water displacement was 10,035 ts and fully loaded at more than 13,400 ts. It was driven by four Parsons geared steam turbines , which received their steam from eight Admiralty boilers . The maximum speed was 32.5 knots . The cruisers reached a permanent maximum speed of 31 knots, with the total output of the turbines totaling 80,000 hp. At a cruising speed of 12 knots, the fuel supply of 3,320 tons of marine diesel was sufficient for a distance of 12,000 nautical miles , almost half a circle around the world.
Armament
Main armament
The armament consisted of eight 8-inch ship guns Mk VIII in four twin turrets Mk II, two each on the fore and aft. The magazines had a capacity of 125 to 150 shells in the execution for the County class.
Medium artillery, air defense, torpedoes and aircraft on board
The heavy anti-aircraft defenses , which also served as medium artillery , initially consisted of four Mk-V 4-inch guns in single mounts ; in 1936/37 the Mk V from the First World War were replaced by eight modern Mk XVI in four double mounts were replaced.
The light air defense originally consisted of four 40 mm Vickers Mk II (2-pounder) guns in single mounts and four 47 mm Vickers (3-pounder). In 1933 two quad mounts with 12.7 mm Fla-MG were installed. In 1937 the 2-pounder single mounts were replaced by two eight-fold mountings of the Mark VIII type , so that there were now 16 40 mm Vickers 2-pounders on board. The 47 mm anti-aircraft weapons were removed in 1939 in favor of nine 20 mm Oerlikon cannons .
The cruiser also included eight 21-inch (53.3-cm) torpedo tubes in two sets of four and two Supermarine Walrus double-decker flying boats.
Armor
The belt was armored with 25 mm and the ammunition chambers with a box-shaped protection from 25 to 102 mm. The turrets and barbeds each had an armor thickness of 25 mm.
history
The Norfolk class was a subclass of the County class . It consisted of two units, the HMS Norfolk and the HMS Dorsetshire .
Both ships were keeled in 1927, with the Norfolk keel laying on July 8 at Fairfield Shipbuilders . In the case of her sister ship, however, this only took place on September 21 at the Portsmouth naval base . The Norfolk was launched on December 12, 1928, but the Dorsetshire only launched on January 29, 1929. On April 30, 1930, the Norfolk was finally put into service, which happened exactly five months before the sister ship was commissioned.
Both ships were placed under the Atlantic Fleet , so the units were also present at the Invergordon Mutiny , but they did not take part. From 1933 to 1936 the Dorsetshire was stationed in South Africa. Her sister ship, however, was used from 1932 for three years in the Caribbean and then for four years on the East Indies station .
The Dorsetshire became part of the China Station from 1936 after an overhaul , which was also its task at the outbreak of the Second World War . The sister ship was at the outbreak of war for an overhaul in Great Britain. During the war, both units were used both for trade defense operations and for the pursuit of large German ships. Both took part in the sinking of the battleship Bismarck .
The Dorsetshire was sunk in the Indian Ocean on April 5, 1942 by Japanese carrier aircraft . The Norfolk was later involved in the sinking of the Scharnhorst in the naval battle off the North Cape . In 1950 it was sold for scrapping.
literature
- David Brown, Geoffrey Till: The Road to Oran. Anglo-French Naval Relations, September 1939-July 1940. Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2004, ISBN 0-7146-5461-2 .
- Richard Holmes: World War II. From Blitzkrieg to Hiroshima. The Definitive Visual Guide. Penguin, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4053-3235-4 . Pp. 119-139.
- HT Lenton: British and Empire Warships of the Second World War. Greenhill Books, London 1998, ISBN 1-85367-277-7 .
- Robert Gardiner, Roger Chesnau: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-1946. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1980, ISBN 0-87021-913-8 .
- Horst Boog , Werner Rahn , Reinhard Stumpf, Bernd Wegner: The German Reich and the Second World War. 10 vol., Vol. 6, The global war: The expansion to the world war and the change of initiative 1941–1943. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1990, pp. 373–384.
- Mike J. Whitley: Cruiser in World War II . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01842-X .
Footnotes
- ^ A b c Gardiner, Chesnau: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships. 1980, p. 28.
- ↑ 8 "/ 50 (20.3 cm) Mark VIII at Naval Weapons; Retrieved April 29, 2010
- ^ Whitley: Cruisers in World War II. 1997, p. 104.
