Town class (1910)
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The Town-class was a class of light cruiser built for the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) between 1909 and 1922. They were long-range cruisers very well suited to the vast expanses of the Empire patrolled by the Royal Navy . The class is divided into several subclasses,
| the Bristol class | 5 ships for the RN: HMS Liverpool , HMS Glasgow , HMS Gloucester , HMS Newcastle , HMS Bristol , | |
| the Weymouth class | 4 ships for the RN: HMS Falmouth , HMS Weymouth , HMS Dartmouth , HMS Yarmouth , | |
| the Chatham class | 3 ships for the RN: HMS Chatham , HMS Dublin , HMS Southampton , 3 ships for the RAN: HMAS Melbourne , HMAS Sydney , HMAS Brisbane , | |
| the Birmingham- class | 3 ships for the RN: HMS Nottingham , HMS Lowestoft , HMS Birmingham , 1 ship for RAN: HMAS Adelaide , | |
| the Birkenhead class | 2 ships originally intended for Greece: HMS Birkenhead , HMS Chester . | |
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In the RAN, the ships were referred to as the Sydney class. They were built for use in all parts of the world and were considered very seaworthy.
The Bristol class
The first five Town-class cruisers were ordered in the 1909 budget and entered service in late 1910.
They were built at various private shipyards. They were 138 m (453 feet) long and fully equipped, they displaced 5,300 tons. They had a relatively low freeboard , which was changed in the following Weymouth class. Their main armament was relatively weak with only two 15.2 cm (6 inch) individual guns in the front and rear. In addition, it had ten 10.2 cm (4 inch) individual guns on the sides, but they were built quite deep and therefore could not be used optimally in all weather. In addition, the ships had four 4.7 cm Vickers guns and four Maxim machine guns .
In the First World War they received a 7.6 cm rapid fire cannon (3 inches) for air defense in addition to the 4.7 cm guns and the MG.
The cruisers should serve to protect the trade routes and also take on tasks for the fleet.
The Weymouth- class
The following four ships were ordered from the 1910 budget and came into service at the end of 1911, and the Yarmouth at the beginning of 1912, and differed only slightly from their predecessors with a maximum displacement of 5,800 tons. They had a more powerful armament with eight 15.2-cm single guns and 53.3-cm torpedo tubes (21 inches). The uniform armament was better placed than on the Bristol class, and the width of the Weymouth class was slightly larger. In 1915, the ships, like all Town cruisers, were retrofitted with a single 3-inch anti-aircraft gun.
Chatham / Sydney class
With the 1911 budget, the Royal Navy ordered three more Chatham- class ships , which came into service in 1912/1913. For this purpose, three sister ships were built as Sydney class for the new Royal Australian Navy , of which the Brisbane, completed in 1916, was the first cruiser built in Australia. The ships, the displacement of which had increased to 6,000 tons, differed from their predecessors in that they had waterline armor at the expense of somewhat reduced deck armor. The bow was also wider than its predecessor.
The Chatham was part of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy from 1920 to 1924 .
The Birmingham- class
The 1912 budget included three more ships for the Royal Navy and a fourth for the Royal Australian Navy with a maximum displacement of 6,040 tons. The ships of this class came into service before the outbreak of war in 1914. The completion of the Adelaide , which was built in Australia , dragged on until 1922. The ships differed from their predecessors in that they had an additional 15.2 cm gun on the forecastle and they were equipped with the more modern Type XII . In addition, the bow was changed to increase the seaworthiness of the cruiser.
The further development of the Birmingham class led to the five Hawkins class ships .
The Birkenhead class
During the First World War, the Royal Navy received two more cruisers of this type. The ships designated as the Birkenhead class had been ordered from Cammell Laird by the Greek Navy as Antinavarhos Kontouriotis and Lambros Katsonis . In 1915 the Royal Navy took over the buildings, renamed them and put the 5,795-ton cruisers into service in 1915/1916. They differed from their predecessors by a slightly different hull shape and, above all, by being armed with ten 14.0 cm guns (5.5 inches). They also only used oil as fuel.
After the war, Greece showed no interest in buying these ships again.
commitment
At the start of the war, the seventeen Town-class cruisers in service were on all Royal Navy stations. The 1st Light Cruiser Squadron with Southampton , Liverpool , Falmouth , Birmingham , Lowestoft and Nottingham served in the Home Fleet and was involved in their first use in the sea battle at Heligoland . The Birmingham was the first ship to sink an enemy ship and a German submarine by ramming the SM U 15 off Fair Isle on August 9, 1914 .
The 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean with Gloucester , Dublin , Chatham and Weymouth was partly used in the pursuit of the German Mediterranean division ( SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau ). The Australian cruisers Brisbane and Sydney took part in the occupation of the German colony of German New Guinea . The Yarmouth of the China Station and the Dartmouth of the East Indies Station took part in the search for the ships of the German East Asia Squadron . The Bristol had a brief battle with the SMS Karlsruhe in the Caribbean in August , in which she received two hits and was unable to follow the German cruiser. The Glasgow located on the South America station took part in the sea battle at Coronel and with the Bristol also took part in the sea battle at the Falkland Islands . The Sydney was able to put SMS Emden in the Indian Ocean in November and put it out of action.
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In 1915, the Glasgow was involved in finding and sinking the SMS Dresden , the cruisers of the Home Fleet in the battle on the Dogger Bank and other cruisers in the Mediterranean in the attack on the Dardanelles .
In 1916 nine of the town cruisers were involved in the Battle of the Skagerrak . The 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron under Commodore William Goodenough with Southampton , Birmingham , Nottingham , Dublin and the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron under Rear Admiral Trevylyan Naper with Falmouth , Yarmouth , Birkenhead and Gloucester joined the Battle Cruiser Fleet under Vice Admiral David Beatty from the beginning the battle in action. The 3rd LCS Chester had been assigned to the 3rd Battle Cruiser Squadron operating with the ships of the line from Rear Admiral Horace Hood . Southampton and Chester had most of the casualties to mourn.
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In 1917 an aircraft was first shot down by an aircraft launched by a cruiser, a Sopwith Pup from Yarmouth , which shot down the Zeppelin L 23 at Lyngrik on August 21, 1917 . The Weymouth , Dublin , Melbourne , Sydney and Southampton also received platforms for an airplane take-off in 1917/18, which were removed at the end of the war.
Two ships were lost during the war, the Falmouth and the Nottingham were sunk by German U-boats within two days.
On August 19, 1916, the Nottingham was sunk southeast of the Firth of Forth early in the morning from a British formation by three torpedoes from the submarine SM U 52 . 38 crew members were killed. Most of the crew could be rescued by other British ships, as the third hit took a long time and the evacuation of the ship was largely completed due to engine failure after the first two hits.
On August 20, 1916, the Falmouth was sunk in the North Sea by the German submarine SM U 63 off the central English coast when she was towed by two tugs after she had been torpedoed by SM U 66 ( type UD ) the day before. Since most of the crew had been recovered from the escort ships after the first torpedo hit, only eleven men were killed in the sinking.
fate
The ships did not serve long after the end of the war at various stations abroad. When the Adelaide was completed as the last ship in the class in 1922, four ships of the first series and the two ships originally built for Greece had already been sold for demolition. The Birmingham was the last of the British ships to retire from active service in 1931. The Brisbane was the RAN's training ship until 1936. Only the significantly rebuilt Adelaide survived the Second World War and was only canceled in 1949.
Shipyards
| Vickers , Barrow-in-Furness | 2 ships: HMS Liverpool , HMS Dartmouth , | |
| Fairfield Shipbuilders , Govan | 1 ship: HMS Glasgow , | |
| William Beardmore and Company , Dalmuir | 3 ships: HMS Gloucester , HMS Falmouth , HMS Dublin , | |
| Armstrong-Whitworth , Elswick | 3 ships: HMS Newcastle , HMS Weymouth , HMS Birmingham , | |
| John Brown & Company , Clydebank | 2 ships: HMS Bristol , HMS Southampton , | |
| London and Glasgow Company , Govan | 2 ships: HMS Yarmouth , HMAS Sydney , | |
| Chatham Dockyard , Chatham (Kent) | 2 ships: HMS Chatham , HMS Lowestoft , | |
| Cammell Laird , Birkenhead | 3 ships: HMAS Melbourne , HMS Birkenhead , HMS Chester , | |
| Cockatoo Island Dockyard , Sydney | 2 ships: HMAS Brisbane , HMAS Adelaide , | |
| Pembroke Dockyard , Pembroke Dock | 1 ship: HMS Nottingham , | |
literature
- Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One . Jane's Publishing Company, 1919.
- Randal Gray, Anthony Preston (Eds.): Conway's All the World Fighting Ships 1906-1921 . Conway Maritime Press Ltd, London 1985, ISBN 0-85177-245-5 .
- 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.
Web links
- Ships of Bristol class , the Weymouth class , the Chatham class , the Birmingham class and the Birkenhead class
- The Bristol- class , Weymouth- class , Chatham- class , Birmingham- class , Birkenhead- class ,
Individual evidence
- ↑ David and Hugh Lyon; Siegfried Greiner: Warships from 1900 to today, technology and use . Buch und Zeit Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne 1979, p. 52 .
Bristol Group:
HMS Liverpool |
HMS Glasgow |
HMS Gloucester |
HMS Newcastle |
HMS Bristol
Weymouth Group:
HMS Falmouth |
HMS Weymouth |
HMS Dartmouth |
HMS Yarmouth
Chatham Group:
HMS Chatham |
HMS Dublin |
HMS Southampton |
HMAS Melbourne |
HMAS Sydney |
HMAS Brisbane
Birmingham Group:
HMS Nottingham |
HMS Lowestoft |
HMS Birmingham |
HMAS Adelaide
Birkenhead Group:
HMS Birkenhead |
HMS Chester