HMS Arethusa (26)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Arethusa.

HMS Arethusa in April 1942
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Arethusa
NamesakeArethusa
Ordered1 September 1932[1]
BuilderChatham Dockyard
Laid down25 January 1933
Launched6 March 1934
Commissioned23 May 1935
Decommissioned1945
Refit
  • Sep - Oct 1937
  • Oct 1940 – Jan 1941
IdentificationPennant number: 26
MottoCeleriter Audax (Latin:"Swiftly and audacious")[1]
Honours and
awards		Ushant 1778 & 1781 - St Lucia 1796 - Curaçao 1807 - Black Sea 1854 - China 1900 - Heligoland 1914 - Dogger Bank 1915 - Norway 1940-41 - Malta Convoys 1941-42 - Normandy 1944[1]
FateScrapped at Cashmores, Newport 1950
General characteristics
Class and typeArethusa-class light cruiser
Displacement
Length506 ft (154 m)
Beam51 ft (16 m)
Draught16.5 ft (5.0 m)
Propulsion
  • Four Parsons geared steam turbines
  • Four Admiralty 3-drum oil-fired boilers
  • Four shafts
  • 64,000 shp
Speed32 knots (59 km/h)
Range5,300 nmi (9,800 km) at 13 knots (24 km/h)[2]
Complement500
Sensors and
processing systems		Type 286 radar (1941), replaced in 1942 by Type 273, Type 281, Type 282, Type 284, Type 285[2]
Armament;Original configuration
6 ×
BL 6 inch Mk XXIII naval guns
(3×2)
4 ×
4-inch (102 mm)
AA guns (4×1)
2 × .50 caliber quadruple machine guns
6 ×
21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
(2×3)
1941 additions
8 × 2-pounder (40 mm) AA guns (2×4)
2 × UP mountings (removed April 1942)
4 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns (4×1)
April 1942 configuration
6 × 6-inch (152 mm) guns (3×2)
8 × 4-inch (102 mm) AA guns (4×2)
8 × 2-pounder (40 mm) AA guns (2×4) (increased to 11)
8 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns (8×1)
6 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2×3)
April 1944 configuration
6 × 6-inch (152 mm) guns (3×2)
8 × 4-inch (102 mm) AA guns (4×2)
8 ×
40 mm Bofors
AA guns (2×4)
16 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns (8×1; 4×2)
6 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2×3)[2]
Armour;Original configuration
1 to 3 inches – magazine protection
2.25 inches – belt
1 inches – deck, turrets and bulkheads[2]
Aircraft carriedOne
Hawker Osprey (Fairey Seafox from 1937) (removed 1940)[2]

HMS Arethusa was the name ship of her class of light cruisers built for the Royal Navy. She was built by Chatham Dockyard, with the keel being laid down on 25 January 1933. She was launched on 6 March 1934, and commissioned 21 May 1935 by Captain Philip Vian.

History

Arethusa was assigned to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron in the

Norwegian Campaign in April 1940, but on 8 May she joined the Nore Command, where she supported the defending forces in Calais
and later aided the evacuations from French Atlantic ports.

On 28 June 1940 she was a component of the newly formed

Mediterranean
.

During the sortie of the

Mediterranean in June 1942, where she joined the 15th Cruiser Squadron, operating mostly in support of the resupply of Malta
.

Position of Arethusa during the Invasion of Normandy

While on

Britain
.

In 1941 Arethusa had been adopted by the people of the City of Swansea. A memorial relief to the 156 men killed in the November 1942 aircraft attack can still be viewed in the city's Maritime Quarter. Swansea Museum's reserve collection at its Landore facility contains the ship's badge, a 20mm Oerlikon AA gun salvaged from the Newport scrapyard, and a scale model of the ship.

She did not become fully operational again until early June 1944, when she sailed for the

King George VI across the channel to Normandy, when he toured the beaches and visited the Allied
command headquarters. On 24 June she came under air attack in Seine Bay and sustained some damage. On 25 June a magnetic mine detonated in her wake. The shock damage was fairly extensive, the cruiser went to Portsmouth for repairs then to a commercial yard for yet another refit and did not return to service until September.

By January 1945, she was part of the 15th Cruiser Squadron with the

the Nore
).

There was a tentative plan to sell her to the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1946 but this came to nothing and she was placed in category 'B' reserve. Because the Navy considered her class of ships too small to be worth modernising, the Navy used Arethusa for trials and experiments in 1949 before allocating her to BISCO for disposal. On 9 May 1950, she arrived at Cashmore's, Newport, for breaking up.

Notes

  1. ^ Arethusa was steaming at 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph) when the torpedo hit the port side below B turret, blowing a hole 53 by 35 ft (16 by 11 m) in the side. The ship caught fire from A turret back to the bridge and flooded to the waterline for 100 ft (30 m) back from the bow. The ship listed to port by 15° and fuel oil was transferred to the starboard tanks to compensate; power failed except to the rear of the forward boiler room and the telephones failed. Despite the damage and occasional air attacks, Arethusa was towed backwards to Alexandria by Petard. After shifting the anchor chains astern, the crew managed to the starboard propeller under water and sail backwards at slow astern, arriving during the evening of 21 November; the ship was under repair for more than a year in the US.

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Mason
  2. ^ a b c d e Whitley, pp.100,101
  3. ISBN 978-1-59114-648-3
    .
  4. ^ "Background Events, December 1941 to February 1942". Naval History. Retrieved 18 July 2010.
  5. ^ "Lofoten Islands 2nd Raid 26/27 December 1941". Combined Operations. Retrieved 18 July 2010.
  6. ISBN 978-0-7195-6408-6
    .

References

Further reading

  • S.V. Patyanin (С.В.Патянин), Kreysera tipa Arethusa (Крейсера типа «Аретьюза»), series Morskaya Kollektsya 6/2002 (in Russian)

External links
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