RN Cruisers: Town Class 1936

[Brian James]

Southampton Sub-Class,Town Class Light Cruiser HMS Newcastle pictured in 1939.

[Brian James]

HMS Belfast....2020.

[Brian James]

Part of the 18th Cruiser Squadron,Southampton Sub-Class,Town Class Light Cruiser HMS Sheffield pictured as she patrols the Denmark Straits in 1940.

[timlewin]

excellent pictures, so good to see these ships at sea instead of posing against the wall!

[Brian James]

Town Class Light Cruiser HMS Belfast pictured at Rosyth c1941.

[Brian James]

Launch of Town Class Light Cruiser HMS Southampton at John Brown & Company Shipyards, Clydebank on March 10th 1936...Southampton saw service in World War II, and initially served as the flagship of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron with the Home Fleet. On September 5th 1939 she intercepted the German merchant Johannes Molkenbuhr off Stadtlandet, Norway, but her crew scuttled the ship before she could be captured. The crew was taken off by the Destroyer Jervis, and Johannes Molkenbuhr was then finished off by Destroyer Jersey.
Southampton was later damaged on October 16th 1939 whilst lying at anchor off Rosyth, Scotland, when she was struck by a 500 kg bomb in a German air raid. The bomb was released from only 490 ft height by a Ju 88 of I/KG.30, and hit the corner of the pom-pom magazine, passed through three decks at an angle and exited the hull, detonating in the water. There was minor structural damage and temporary failure of electrical systems. She was repaired and at the end of the year she was one of the ships involved in the hunt for the German Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau after the sinking of the Armed Merchant Cruiser Rawalpindi. She then served with the Humber Force until February 1940, and then went to the 18th Cruiser squadron at Scapa Flow. On April 9th 1940, Southampton was operating off the Norwegian coast when she sustained splinter damage in a German air attack. The main battery director was temporarily knocked out. After being repaired, she had anti-invasion duties on the south-coast of England until she returned to Scapa Flow in October.
On November 15th Southampton sailed for the Mediterranean. She participated in the action off Cape Spartivento on November 27th. In December the Cruiser was moved to the Red Sea to escort troop convoys, and at the same time took part in the bombardment of Kismayu during the campaign in Italian East Africa. On January 1st 1941 she joined the 3rd Cruiser Squadron and took part in Operation Excess. In the early afternoon of January 11th, both she and fellow Cruiser Gloucester came under attack from 12 Stuka dive bombers of II Gruppe, Sturzkampfgeschwader 2, Luftwaffe. She was hit by at least two bombs south-east of Malta and caught fire; the resulting blaze spread from stem to stern and trapped a number of men below decks. 81 men were killed with the survivors being picked up by Gloucester and the Destroyer Diamond. Heavily damaged and without power, Southampton was sunk by one torpedo from Gloucester and four from the Cruiser Orion.
A week after the sinking Admiral Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, wrote a private letter to the First Sea Lord, Sir Dudley Pound, "I don't like these 'Southampton' Class. They are fine ships but that great hangar structure seems to provide a good point of aim, they are always being hit there." Despite this concern, the other four ships in the Southampton Sub-Class served through the entire war, and only two of the ten overall Town Class ships were lost due to air attack (two others were lost to torpedo attack).

[Brian James]

Town Class Light Cruiser HMS Manchester pictured during the late 1930's.

[Brian James]

Southampton Sub-Class,Town Class Light Cruiser HMS Newcastle pictured at Devonport in July 1939....In 1942 Four days out of Alexandria, Newcastle was torpedoed by the German E-boat S-56, on June 15th, blowing a complete hole through her bows. The crew saved the ship, which returned at 4 knots to Alexandria, where she could not be fully repaired but was offered facilities to make her own temporary repairs. This meant building an additional wooden bulkhead, strengthened by concrete, behind the damage. This bulkhead had to be replaced at ports in India, Ceylon, South Africa and Brazil, before she finally arrived in October at Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York, where new bows were built by March 1943.
From New York she sailed to Plymouth and then on to join the Eastern Fleet at Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and acting as the Lead Ship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron. During her time with the Eastern Fleet, Newcastle participated in the bombardment of numerous Japanese-held islands and supported the British Fourteenth Army in their campaigns in Burma. Post war, the Cruiser was given an extensive modernisation in 1951-2, with a new bridge, New Mk 5 40 twin 40mm light AA armament and Type 275 radar to control its twin 4 inch guns and took part in the Korean War - acting as a flagship and providing naval gunfire support to UN forces...Newcastle also served during the Malayan Emergency in the later 1950s, shelling Malayan Communist targets in June and August 1955 and again in December 1957.She was decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1959, and subsequently broken up at Faslane.

[Pelican]

HMS BELFAST

1959-60 Flying flag of COMFES

[Pelican]

Eighty years since the Royal Navy neared ‘breaking point’ off Crete

Eighty years ago today the Royal Navy joined battle with the Germans off Crete – a battle which arguably brought the Fleet closer to breaking point than any other encounter in World War 2.
Over the space of just a few days, the Mediterranean Fleet first tried to stop the Nazis gaining a foothold on the island – then was involved in a hasty evacuation as the invaders overran Crete.

After German paratroopers seized key points on the island, reinforcements were dispatched by sea in Greek fishing vessels – known as caiques. Around midnight on May 21st 1941, the invasion fleet was intercepted by the Royal Navy, which took a terrible toll of the wooden craft.

But come daylight on May 22nd, the British ships were sighted by the Luftwaffe. Their commander promised to commit everything he had – and he had 700 aircraft, half of them bombers – against the Royal Navy.

Continues, including photos, at:
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... gloucester