HMS Devonshire (39)
.jpg) Devonshire at anchor, 1941
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Devonshire |
| Namesake | Devonshire |
| Builder | HM Dockyard, Devonport |
| Laid down | 16 March 1926 |
| Launched | 22 October 1927 |
| Commissioned | 18 March 1929 |
| Reclassified | Training ship, 1947 |
| Identification | Pennant number: 39 |
| Motto | Auxilio Divino: 'By the help of God' |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 16 June 1954 |
| Badge | On a Field Silver, A Lion rampant Red, armed Blue, crowned Blue |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class and type | County-class heavy cruiser |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 632 ft 8 in (192.8 m) |
| Beam | 66 ft (20.1 m) |
| Draught | 20 ft 9 in (6.3 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 4 × shafts, 4 × geared steam turbines |
| Speed | 32.25 knots (59.73 km/h; 37.11 mph) |
| Range | 12,500 nmi (23,200 km; 14,400 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement | 784 |
| Armament |
|
| Armour | |
HMS Devonshire,
commerce raiders
.
Devonshire returned home in early 1941 and briefly rejoined the Home Fleet, during which time she escorted several
Allied invasion of Madagascar
in mid-1942. She then spent the next year escorting convoys before returning home to begin a lengthy refit. After it was completed in early 1944, the ship escorted various aircraft carriers for the rest of the war as they attacked targets in Norway.
After the German surrender in May 1945, she sailed to Norway and escorted two surrendered German cruisers from Denmark to the UK. Devonshire then began ferrying British troops home from Australia for the rest of the year. In 1947, the ship was converted into a
naval cadets and served until she was sold for scrap
in 1954.
Description
Devonshire displaced 9,850 long tons (10,010 t) at
Admiralty 3-drum boilers. Devonshire carried a maximum of 3,425 long tons (3,480 t) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 13,300 nautical miles (24,600 km; 15,300 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). The ship's complement was 784 officers and men.[2]
The ship mounted eight
anti-aircraft (AA) guns in single mounts. Devonshire also mounted four single 2-pounder (40 mm) light AA guns ("pom-poms"). The ship was equipped with two quadruple torpedo tube above-water mounts for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes.[3]
Devonshire was only lightly protected with little more than a single inch of plating protecting vital machinery. Her magazines were the exception and were protected by 2–4.375 inches (50.8–111.1 mm) of armour. Space and weight was reserved for one aircraft catapult and its seaplane, but they were not fitted until after she was completed.[4]
Construction and career
Devonshire, the fifth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,county. The ship was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 16 March 1926 and was launched on 22 October 1927. Completed on 18 March 1929, she was assigned to the 1st Cruiser Squadron (CS) of the Mediterranean Fleet together with her three sister ships. Devonshire spent the bulk of the interbellum period there, aside from a 1932–33 tour with the China Station.[6]
While off the island of
breech block was opened the propellant charge inside the barrel detonated, which ignited the charge for the next round. The ensuing explosion killed 18 men. Devonshire returned to England for repairs in August with "the turret swung 'round and the guns awry".[7] In 1929–1930 she received a High-Angle Control System, used to direct her anti-aircraft guns, and a catapult was fitted in 1931–1932. Four more single four-inch AA guns in addition to a pair of quadruple Vickers .50-calibre (12.7 mm) Mark III machine guns were added in 1936–1937.[8]
During the Spanish Civil War, Devonshire brought a Nationalist emissary to Menorca on 7 February 1939. The following day, the Republicans surrendered the island to the Nationalists aboard the cruiser and she sailed to Marseille, France, with 452 Republican refugees on board.[9]
Second World War
Devonshire was in the
Faeroe Islands and Iceland.[11] As part of the Allied plans to occupy parts of Norway and interdict the iron ore traffic from Narvik to Germany (Operation Wilfred and Plan R 4), Devonshire and the rest of the squadron were assigned to ferry British troops from Rosyth to Stavanger and Bergen and to be ready to sail on the morning of 8 April, but these plans were partially preempted by the German invasion that same day.[12]
Norwegian campaign
The
from Namsos at the beginning of May and was nearly hit when the evacuation forces were attacked by German aircraft as they were withdrawing on 3 May.[14]
Devonshire evacuated
Crown Prince Olav, and Norwegian government officials, including the Prime Minister, Johan Nygaardsvold, from Tromsø on 7 June. On board were 461 passengers. The ship passed within 50 miles (80 km) of the action in which the aircraft carrier Glorious and two destroyers were sunk by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Although an enemy sighting report had been received in Devonshire, Cunningham's orders were to get Haakon VII to safety, and the cruiser sped up and continued on her course.[15]
Operation Menace
In preparation for
Operation Menace, a British naval attack on Dakar, Senegal, prior to a planned landing by the Free French, the ship was detached from the Home Fleet on 28 August and was assigned to Force M, the Royal Navy component of the operation. Still Cunningham's flagship, she departed the Clyde on the 31st, escorting the troop convoy en route to Gibraltar[16] where they arrived on 3 September. On the 14th, Cunningham dispatched the 1st CS, augmented by the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, in an unsuccessful attempt to locate and turn back a Vichy French cruiser squadron bound for Dakar; by this time he had hoisted his flag in the battleship Barham. Devonshire and her Australian sister ship Australia engaged the French cruisers and destroyers as they manoeuvred in the harbour on the second day of the battle, with negligible effect in poor visibility. After Barham was lightly damaged during the action, Cunningham transferred back to Devonshire for the next day's battle during which the ship fired 200 shells from her main guns without scoring a single hit against French ships obscured by smoke screens.[17]
After the attack was abandoned, she was employed to escort a British troop convoy to
French Cameroons, in early October and then blockaded the coast of Gabon when Free French forces invaded in early November.[18] On 7 November, her Supermarine Walrus seaplane helped to sink the Vichy submarine Poncelet off Gabon.[19]
1941
Devonshire remained in the South Atlantic and participated in the unsuccessful hunt for the German commerce raider
Operation Dervish,[22] before she was transferred to the Eastern Fleet.[23] Before her departure, the ship received a pair of 20-millimeter (0.8 in) Oerlikon light AA guns in September.[21] On 2 November, the ship led a force that captured a Vichy convoy bound for French Indochina off South Africa. Twenty days later, Devonshire sank a German commerce raider, the auxiliary cruiser Atlantis, north of Ascension Island.[23]
1942–1943
The ship was subsequently refitted in
Operation Ironclad, which was launched to preempt a possible Japanese occupation of the island. The Vichy French had allowed Japanese forces to use air bases in French Indochina to launch the airstrikes that sank the capital ships Repulse and Prince of Wales, so it was quite possible they would permit the Japanese access to military facilities on Madagascar had they requested them.[25] During late 1942, Devonshire's single four-inch AA guns were replaced with twin-gun mounts for Mark XVI guns of the same calibre. The ship remained in the Far East until May 1943, covering troop convoys from Suez to Australia.[23] By this time, her quadruple .50-calibre machineguns and six single-Oerlikon mounts had been replaced by another pair of octuple two-pounder mounts and a dozen twin-Oerlikon mounts. She returned home that month and began a lengthy refit that lasted until 20 March 1944. During this refit, 'X' turret and one twin Oerlikon mount were replaced by two additional octuple two-pounder mounts and eight single-Oerlikon mounts. Her radar suite was modernized with Type 281B replacing Type 281 and the full range of anti-aircraft gunnery radars were installed. To accommodate all the new equipment, her catapult was removed.[21]
1944–1945
She returned to duty with the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow in April 1944. From July until the end of hostilities in May 1945, Devonshire escorted the carrier raids that were mounted on shipping and other targets in Norwegian waters (Operations
With the end of the war in Europe, Devonshire, now the flagship of Rear-Admiral
freighter loaded with Greek refugees bound from Port Said, Egypt, to Greece, that had caught fire.[31]
Post-war
The ship was converted into a cadet training ship in 1947 and served in this role until 1954.coronation of Elizabeth II.[33] Devonshire was sold for scrap on 16 June 1954 and arrived at Newport, Wales, on 12 December 1954 where she was broken up by John Cashmore Ltd.[23]
Footnotes
- ^ Whitley, p. 87
- ^ Raven & Roberts, pp. 412–13
- ^ Raven & Roberts, p. 412
- ^ Raven & Roberts, pp. 256, 412
- ^ Colledge, p. 79
- ^ Whitley, pp. 87–88
- ^ "Turret Explosion". Royal Navy Memories. 4 July 2009. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
- ^ Raven & Roberts, p. 256
- ^ Thomas, p. 861
- ^ Haarr 2013, pp. 311–314
- ^ Rohwer, p. 16
- ^ Haarr 2013, pp. 398–400
- ^ Haarr 2009, pp. 106–107, 287–289
- ^ Haarr 2010, pp. 169–174, 211–212
- ^ Haarr 2010, pp. 312–313, 346–348
- ^ Rohwer, pp. 36, 38, 40
- ^ Jordan and Dumas, pp. 142–143, 147
- ^ Rohwer, pp. 43, 48
- ^ "Commander David Corky Corkhill obituary". The Daily Telegraph. London. 13 December 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
- ^ Rohwer, p. 55
- ^ a b c d Raven & Roberts, p. 429
- ^ Rohwer, pp. 88–89, 93
- ^ a b c d e f Whitley, p. 89
- ^ Rohwer, p. 152
- ^ Shores, pp. 276–278
- ^ Rohwer, pp. 343, 349, 368
- ^ Rohwer, p. 416
- S2CID 247645995. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- ^ "Ships in Port". The Daily News (Perth). Trove.au. 15 October 1945. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- ^ "Shipping: Port of Freemantle". The West Australian. Trove.au. 21 November 1945. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- ^ "S S Empire Patrol..The Rescue". Royal Navy Memories. 2 July 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- ^ "Cadet Training Cruiser 1949". Royal Navy Memories. 3 July 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
- ^ Souvenir Programme, Coronation Review of the Fleet, Spithead, 15 June 1953, HMSO, Gale and Polden
References
- Campbell, N.J.M. (1980). "Great Britain". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. New York: Mayflower Books. pp. 2–85. ISBN 0-8317-0303-2.
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
- ISBN 978-1-59114-078-8.
- Haarr, Geirr H. (2010). The Battle for Norway: April–June 1940. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-057-4.
- Haarr, Geirr H. (2013). The Gathering Storm: The Naval War in Northern Europe September 1939 – April 1940. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-331-4.
- Haarr, Geirr H. (2009). The German Invasion of Norway, April 1940. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-323-9.
- Jordan, John & Dumas, Robert (2009). French Battleships: 1922–1956. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-416-8.
- Raven, Alan & Roberts, John (1980). British Cruisers of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-922-7.
- ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
- Shores, Christopher (1996). Dust Clouds in the Middle East: The Air War for East Africa, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Madagascar, 1940–42. London: Grub Street. ISBN 1-898697-37-X.
- Thomas, Hugh (2003). The Spanish Civil War (4th ed.). London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-101161-5.
- ISBN 1-86019-874-0.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Devonshire (39).
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