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Character Profiles
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The Southampton
Class
of 'Light' Cruiser
(profile
contributed by Justin 'LooseCannon' Riggir)
Two
views of HMS Belfast
Cruisers, in comparison to battleships, were built for speed and endurance.
Their role as a lighter ship was to protect trade and commerce, act in
a reconnaissance role, and support the main fleet. Their armour was less
thick to increase their speed, and their principal function was to sink
other cruisers. One of the reasons why their numbers were not limited
by the Versailles or Washington Treaties was that alone they could not
play an aggressive role in naval war. However, in conjunction with battleships
they could be deadly. More warships of this class were built by the major
naval powers than any other class, for not only could they support the
battle fleet, but they were less expensive to construct and therefore,
in the mood of the interwar years, at least within the democracies, less
politically emotive.
The Royal Navy's cruisers lightened the burden on the battle fleet, for
although not designed to engage capital ships they were capably handled
against surface raiders. Just as the Washington Treaty kept battleship
size at 35,000 tons, so the cruiser was defined as a 10,000-ton ship armed
with either eight inch or six inch guns, and the numbers of the heavy
type were limited in the same ratio as battleships. The Washington Naval
and Disarmament Conference of 1921-22 had set this ratio at 5:5:3 for
the United States, Britain and Japan, while Italy and France were obliged
to accept a ratio of 1:7 with respect to the others and this five-power
pact was to expire in 1936. Later treaties tackled the subject of the
light cruiser, and tried to limit numbers by allocating totals of tonnage.
Additionally, the naval treaties stipulated age-limits for ships and the
British position was badly affected by these restrictions, since the Royal
Navy had a large proportion of older ships built during the First World
War. To avoid having to scrap too many useful ships, it was necessary
to rearm them to allow them to be reclassified. At the time of the Abyssinian
Crisis in 1936 this device was used to retain the old 'C' Class cruisers,
and they were re-rated as anti-aircraft cruisers. A new class of anti-aircraft
cruiser was designed at the same time, the Dido Class, with an
armament of dual-purpose 5.25 inch guns, and they were to prove a worthwhile
addition to the Fleet.
The Southampton Class, which was the first example of a new type
of cruiser which combined the qualities of the old 'heavy' or eight inch
gunned cruiser and the 'light' or six inch gunned type, had their origin
in an attempt to match the Japanese cruisers of the Mogami Class.
The Director of Naval Construction announced that he could not produce
a design with fifteen six inch guns, and so amid widespread criticism
the British ships had only twelve guns. Only after World War II did the
US Navy Technical Mission discover what many had suspected, that the Japanese
designers had been unable to keep within the limits, and the displacement
of the Mogami Class had risen to 13,000 tons. The British ships
proved more than adequate for all the tasks set them during the war, and
were able to take heavy damage. To comply with the 1935 London Naval Treaty
the displacement of the new fleet cruisers was reduced to 8,000 tons,
and this led to the Fiji or 'Colony' Class, which had the armament
of the previous Southampton Class and with only slightly less speed.
One good effect of the international treaties was to accelerate technical
progress. Because new equipment had to be incorporated within a fixed
set of dimensions and weights the designers had to look to lighter boilers
and turbines, new structural steels, and economical methods of construction
to offset the weight of new armament. Before the First World War the answer
had usually been to increase size, and cruiser displacements rose to battleship-size,
but in the 1930s ship-armament rose faster than tonnage. Thus the Fiji
in 1940 could mount twelve six inch guns and eight four inch AA guns on
the same displacement as the York of 1928, with six eight inch
and four four inch AA. Nor did the Fiji design lack protection,
and the economies of design included a more efficient arrangement of armour
than in the larger Southampton and a new hull form.
Apart from the old cruisers converted to anti-aircraft ships, the newer
cruisers were all modernised to varying extents. The principal improvement
was to replace the old single AA guns with the twin four inch mounting,
but after 1936 the original heavy cruisers of the Kent Class were
modernised to include better protection. In the days before radar it was
necessary to use aircraft to spot shell-splashes at long-range, and most
of the battleships had been fitted with catapults for launching floatplanes.
But the cruiser was designed to operate in distant oceans, and if she
was to locate an enemy raider or even merchant shipping to capture, she
had to extend her range of vision. Only aircraft could do this, and so
great ingenuity was devoted throughout the 1920s and 1930s to the problem
of installing aircraft in cruisers. The British, along with the Americans,
came to the conclusion that it was vital to protect the aircraft from
the elements, and so hangers began to appear. The Southampton Class
was the first British design with an integral hanger for two floatplanes,
and the Kent Class were given a hanger in their 1936-38 reconstruction.
However, war experience proved that aircraft were a liability in action
as their fuel was a fire hazard, and the problems of launching from the
catapult under fire, as well as recovering the aircraft were a diversion
that a captain could do without. The only recorded launching in action
was when HMS Ajax launched a Seafox in the early stages of the
Battle of the River Plate. By 1942 there were sufficient aircraft carriers
to provide aerial reconnaissance for cruisers, and additionally the demand
for light AA guns and radar sets took precedence, so catapults were removed
and hangers were either dismantled or converted to other uses.
The British favoured the six inch gun for their cruisers, partly because
the shell could be manhandled if power-loading failed in action and partly
because of the extended teething troubles of the eight inch gun. The 'County'
Class had taken a long time before their eight inch mountings could be
regarded as reliable, principally because of the advanced nature of the
mounting. The twin six inch used in light cruisers was similar in basic
design but was a more modest mounting and thus avoided the problems of
the eight inch. Pressure to match the American and Japanese cruisers had
led to the introduction of a triple six inch mounting in the Southampton
Class, and this became the standard for wartime cruisers. The need for
a dual-purpose gun led to the 5.25 inch twin-mounting, and this was used
as the secondary gun for battleships and as the main armament of the new
anti-aircraft cruisers. It was not a complete success, for in addition
to technical problems with the mounting its shell was too heavy for the
anti-aircraft role. After a brief period it was replaced by more sophisticated
versions of the six inch gun.
From 1937 the standard light anti-aircraft mounting for small ships was
the twin four inch, a weapon with nearly ninety degrees of elevation which
proved very successful against aircraft. The eight-barrelled pom-pom had
been introduced in 1927 as a defense against dive bombers, and with its
eight belt-fed guns pumping out projectiles at a prodigious rate it was
the most effective weapon of its kind. A four-barrelled version was introduced
for small ships, with unfortunately only half the rate of fire. These
were supplemented with the Swiss 20 mm Oerlikon heavy machine gun, and
the quadruple 0.5 inch machine gun which unfortunately suffered from frequent
jamming.
One good feature of modern British cruiser design was the provision of
an adequate ammunition supply to the anti-aircraft guns. Other cruisers
might have more guns or even a better disposition but in the dark days
in the Mediterranean, British cruisers showed they could fight sustained
battles against aircraft. The two modern cruisers sunk during the evacuation
of Crete in May of 1941, HMS Fiji and HMS Gloucester, were
only sunk by Ju-87 Stukas after they had fired away all their four
inch ammunition and nearly all pom-pom shell and in the closing moments
of the action both ships were reduced to firing practice shell.
In 1939 the Royal Navy was still using a torpedo which had been in service
for twenty years. This torpedo had been improved with the addition of
a magnetic exploder which would set off a torpedo underneath a target
and produce far greater damage. As it increased the lethalness of the
torpedo and its chance of scoring a hit, the magnetic pistol was very
critical, however it had the weakness that it could be influenced by the
earth's magnetic field if the torpedo ran too deep. The counter-measure
was discovered to be degaussing, or electric neutralisation of the target
ship's magnetic field, and in order to counter this the magnetic pistol
had to be set to very sensitive levels.
The Battle of the River Plate in December of 1939 was not only a great
tonic to British morale at a period when the war at sea was not going
well, but it was a classic illustration of how cruisers were designed
to function. Every year cruisers on foreign stations carried out a 'raider
exercise' with one cruiser playing the role of a German pocket battleship.
The solution to a powerful enemy ship on the trade-routes was not, as
so many commentators had claimed, another pocket battleship, but a concentration
of cruisers, and this was the reason why numbers of cruisers were always
more important than individual quality. The anti-raider tactics relied
on the speed of the cruisers, thirty knots or more, to keep them out of
trouble, for their four inch armour belts and thin deck armour would offer
little protection from heavy shell. In the case of the pocket battleships
another factor overlooked by the naval pundits of the 1930s was that the
German Panzerschiff was really only a large cruiser with two battleship-type
gun-mountings. She was not heavily armoured, nor was she fast, and her
heavy armament was actually too cumbersome to cope with fast targets.
In fact it could be argued that the Graf Spee and her sisters were
too heavily armed for their role, as the eleven inch guns were no better
at sinking merchantmen or even cruisers than eight inch or even only six
inch, and the enormous weight of armament made a higher speed unobtainable.
The Battle of the River Plate also demonstrated how tough cruisers were.
Although the Exeter was badly damaged and eventually had all her
guns put out of action she could still steam, while Ajax had both
her after turrets put out of action by an eleven inch shell. The German
fire was accurate, and the battle was in fact the first time that radar-control
was used in action, but still the British cruisers were not in any danger
of sinking. Another lesson learned from the battle was the wisdom of retaining
torpedo tubes in British cruisers, for the Graf Spee's captain
later said that he had not dared close with the Exeter to finish
her off because of her six twenty one inch torpedo-tubes. However, he
omitted to mention that his ship had eight torpedo-tubes, and could theoretically
have kept the British cruisers at bay. What helped the British cruisers
to survive was the poor quality of eleven inch shells, as the Admiralty
report on the damage reported a number of non-bursting shells. This was
a strange reversal of roles, as it had been the poor quality of British
shells in 1916 which had prevented the Grand Fleet from gaining a conclusive
victory at Jutland.
The events of December 13, 1939 off Montevideo were inevitable, provided
that the British commodore and his curiser-captains kept their heads,
and followed the tactics which been developed. The German ship concentrated
on the eight inch gunned Exeter as her most dangerous opponent
and the British ship was severely damaged, but just as the Graf Spee
looked likely to put her completely out of action, the two six inch gun
cruisers, the Ajax and Achilles, forced the Graf Spee
to switch targets. These light cruisers dared not face the eleven inch
broadsides for too long, and had to withdraw. This diversion forced the
Graf Spee to disengage the Exeter, and the slow-firing eleven
inch turrets could not change elevation and bearing fast enough to land
a crippling salvo. As soon as the German ship tried to find the Exeter's
range once more the light cruisers came in again, and as they kept apart
the Graf Spee could not cope with them both. Nor was the British
fire ineffective against the Graf Spee's armour, and soon a number
of hits were scored and the pocket battleship turned for neutral waters
and the Uruguayan port of Montevideo.
Many British cruisers served on the Northern Patrol to prevent neutral
merchant shipping from running contraband goods through the blockade to
Germany, and to shadow any German warships trying to break out into the
Atlantic. This was a heavy commitment in both men and ships, in waters
notorious for bad weather and bitter cold in winter.
To relieve cruisers for more urgent duties with the Fleet or on distant
stations the Admiralty reverted to a device they had used in the First
World War. The requisitioned fifty large liners on the outbreak of war
and armed them with six inch guns to serve as Armed Merchant Cruisers,
or AMSs. The AMC was hardly ideal for the job as her towering sides made
her a good target, her capacious passenger decks made an excellent fire-trap,
and her lightly plated hull offered only enough resistance to a shell
to trigger its fuse. Yet two armed merchant cruisers, the Jervis Bay
and the Rawalpindi, fought actions against German capital ships
which equalled the deeds of any regular cruiser. As the war progressed
the Admiralty paid off the AMCs and converted them to troopships or amphibious
transports, and the type re-emerged in another form, the Auxiliary Anti-Aircraft
Ship. These were merchantmen stripped of their derricks and cargo-handling
gear to make way for a battery of four twin four inch AA guns and pom-poms.
With naval-type fire-control they now had the defensive armament of a
cruiser, and although they might steam at only eleven or twelve knots,
in the middle of a slow-moving convoy one AAA-ship offered the same protection
as a cruiser. Nothing emphasises the value of the cruiser in World War
II more than these examples of attempts to provide the qualities of a
cruiser when one was not available.
The ten-strong Southampton Class were built in three groups and
launched between 1936 and 1938. The first two groups displaced 9,100 and
9,400 tons, however the third group had additional protection, hull bulges
and up to four and a half inches of armour, and so displaced 10,000 tons.
Group One : Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Southampton
Specifications
Displacement: 9,100 tons standard
Dimensions: 591.5 (o.a.) x 61.75 x 17 feet
Propulsion: 4 shaft geared turbines, 75,000 hp, 32 knots
Armor: 3 to 4 inch belt, 2 inch deck, 1 to 2 inch turrets, 4 inch
Director Control Tower
Armament:
12 x 6 inch guns (4 x 3) , 8 x 4 inch AA guns (4 x 2) , 8 x 2 pdr AA guns
(2 x4) , 8 x 0.5 inch AA guns (2 x 4) , 2 x 3 21 inch Torpedo Tubes ,
3 aircraft
Crew: 700
Group Two : Gloucester, Liverpool, Manchester
Specifications
Displacement: 9,400 tons standard
Dimensions: 591.5 (o.a.) x 62.25 x 17.5 feet
Propulsion: 4 shaft geared turbines, 82,500 hp, 32.5 knots
Armor: 3 to 4 inch belt, 2 inch deck, 1 to 2 inch turrets, 4 inch
Director Control Tower
Armament:
12 x 6 inch guns (4 x 3) , 8 x 4 inch AA guns (4 x 2) , 8 x 2 pdr AA guns
(2 x4) , 8 x 0.5 inch AA guns (2 x 4) , 2 x 3 21 inch Torpedo Tubes ,
3 aircraft
Crew: 700
Group Three : Belfast, Edinburgh
Specifications
Displacement: 10,000 tons standard
Dimensions: 613.5 (o.a.) x 63.25 x 17.25 feet
Propulsion: 4 shaft geared turbines, 80,000 hp, 32 knots
Armor: 4.5 inch belt, 2 inch deck, 1 to 2.5 inch turrets, 4 inch
Director Control Tower
Armament:
12 x 6 inch guns (4 x 3) , 12 x 4 inch AA guns (6 x 2) , 16 x 2 pdr AA
guns (2 x8) , 8 x 0.5 inch AA guns (2 x 4) , 2 x 3 21 inch Torpedo Tubes
, 3 aircraft
Crew: 850
Sources: Navies of World War Two by Antony Preston, British & Dominion
Warships of WWII by H.T. Lenton & J.J. Colledge
Links: The
Worlds Warships - An extensive site on Warships both past and present
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