Waters - British Town Class Cruisers

BRITISH TOWN CLASS CRUISERS

DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT & PERFORMANCE SOUTHAMPTON & BELFAST CLASSES

CONRAD WATERS

Previous pages: Edinburgh the last Town to be laid down but not the last to be completed pictured during the course of acceptance trials on 6 July 1939. She was accepted from builders Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at 21.40 that evening. The two 10,000-ton 6in cruisers also referred to as the Improved Southampton class, Belfast and Edinburgh and the Belfast class in official reports ordered under the Royal Navys 1936 construction programme incorporated significant differences from the earlier Towns. (Authors collection)

Text copyright Conrad Waters 2019

Drawings and artwork by and A D Baker III, John Dominy, John Jordan and George Richardson

This edition first published in Great Britain in 2019 by

Seaforth Publishing,

An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,

47 Church Street,

Barnsley

South Yorkshire S70 2AS

www.seaforthpublishing.com

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 5267 1885 3 (Hardback)

ISBN 978 1 5267 1886 0 (Kindle)

ISBN 978 1 5267 1887 7 (ePub)

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A T 18.15 ON THURSDAY 3 AUGUST 1939, the tenth and final Town class cruiser, HMS Belfast , was accepted from her builders, Harland and Wolff Limited, on behalf of the Admiralty by her new commanding officer, Captain G A Scott, whilst the ship lay at anchor in Belfast Lough. A short commissioning service was conducted by the cruisers chaplain and after a slight delay caused by difficulties lowering the Red Ensign her White Ensign was hoisted for the first time. At 19.11 Belfast weighed anchor and four minutes later she was underway bound for her home port of Portsmouth. Just one month later, the British deadline for a halt to Hitlers invasion of Poland expired and the Royal Navy commenced hostilities with Germany for the second time in a generation.

Entering service between 1937 and 1939, the ten Town class cruisers were the most modern vessels of their type in the Royal Navy when the Second World War began. Constructed in the era of naval arms limitation treaties, they were conceived in the early 1930s as a response to the emergence of heavily-armed American and Japanese ships and represented a step-change from initial British 6in gun-armed light cruiser designs. In spite of this, they continued to reflect the balance of compromises with respect to firepower, protection and speed inherent in displacement-limited treaty cruisers. Primarily intended for the defence of trade, they were destined to see arduous service in a wide range of roles.

The Towns were ordered in four batches under the Royal Navys 19331936 construction programmes. They were initially to be named after fabulous monsters and known as the Minotaur class. However, a change of heart after the two 1933 programme ships had been laid down saw the naming policy revised to celebrate important cities. The leading pair adopted the names Newcastle and Southampton in consequence. Southampton was designated as the class name and this was also applied to the six similar ships ordered under the 1934 and 1935 programmes. However, both batches and particularly the 1935 ships incorporated differences which resulted in them being respectively referred to as the Birmingham and Gloucester sub-classes in some documents. The final pair ordered in 1936 were built to a larger design and referenced as the 10,000-ton 6in cruiser, the Improved Southampton class, Belfast and Edinburgh and the Belfast class in official reports.Although commonly known as the Edinburgh class in many recent publications, the author has not been able to trace official use of this designation in contemporary documentation. Collectively even in official documents the class quickly became known as the Towns.

As modern ships, the Towns were at the heart of Royal Navy cruiser operations throughout the Second World War. They served in all theatres, playing a decisive role in victories such as the Battle of the Barents Sea and the destruction of Germanys Scharnhorst at the North Cape. The cost was heavy; four of the ships were lost and the other six all survived heavy damage, in some cases on more than one occasion. All of the class were progressively modernised to incorporate the latest technological developments, in many ways equipping them to fight a different kind of naval warfare than that envisaged when they were first conceived. This process continued after the war, the bulk of the class serving into the late 1950s. Belfast became the sole treaty cruiser to be preserved when she was finally paid off for disposal in 1971.

The stories of many individual Towns have been printed over the years and an operational history of the class written by Neil McCart was published in 2012. However, the only monograph to undertake a comprehensive review of the classs design and wartime performance Alan Ravens and John Roberts compact Town Class Cruisers dates from as long ago as 1975 and does not encompass post-war design changes. With much additional information now in the public domain, it is possible to provide an updated, more detailed account of one of the most important Royal Navy designs of the period.

This book is essentially a technical history. It aims to explain why the Town class was built; to recount the design and construction process; and to describe the main features of the resulting ships. It also assesses the wartime changes that were adopted in the light of technological advances and practical experience, as well as the later modernisation programmes that kept the remaining ships fit for service during the early Cold War era. Whilst not a detailed operational history, it attempts to evaluate the extent to which the class met its designers expectations on active service, appraising the consequences of various incidences of action damage. Whilst the Towns were not without their detractors, the author hopes to demonstrate the classs design team produced a practical and resilient group of ships that proved equal to the many demands placed on them.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A book of this nature is only possible with the help of many. First, I am indebted to Seaforths Rob Gardiner for allowing me to undertake the project and for providing considerable ongoing assistance. I must also thank Dave Baker, John Jordan and George Richardson for producing many of the books illustrations, as well as the Aston & Weston Branch of the Royal British Legion for agreeing to the use of the late John R Dominys drawings and considerable research. Various aspects of the book have benefitted from the advice and help of Roger Branfill-Cook, Richard Dennis, Jamie Duff, Norman Friedman, Ian Gazeley, Peter Marland, Alan Raven, John Roberts and John Weal, although I must single out John Jordans patient and consistent support. Rick E Davis, Stephen Dent, David Hobbs, Ian Johnston, Miles F McLaughlin, Richard Osborne and Roger Torgeson have all helped with the sourcing of photographs from official and private sources.