The Southampton, Belfast, Colony and Superb Classes.
By the late 1930s the American and Japanese were bringing into service large 6-inch cruisers carrying fifteen guns in triple turrets. Britains initial reply was the eight ships of the Southampton Class, carrying twelve 6-inch in triple turrets. Armour protection was greatly increased with a 3 to 4-inch belt. These were very fine ships and were followed by the larger Belfast and Edinburgh which had a heavier belt. All these were completed before the war, while eleven ships of the Colony Class were building, being slightly smaller than the Southamptons, but with the Belfast's armour: they could be distinguished from the former by their upright funnels. Of the Southampton's three were lost; the Manchester, which had been the last cruiser to appear in the Far East in white and buff before the war, was torpedoed by an Italian motor-torpedo-boat in 1942. The Southampton had previously been lost to German aircraft during the most ferociously attacked of the Malta convoys in January 1941, while the Gloucester succumbed to the same enemy during the expensive operations resulting in the loss of Crete.
Of the rest, the Sheffield had a distinguished war record which included taking part in the sinkings of the Bismark and Scharnhorst and she was at the Barents Sea action on 31st December 1942, when she arrived in time to save Sherbrooke's heroic destroyers and drive off, with the Jamaica, the German cruisers Hipper and Lutzow; an action that sickened Hitler of his surface forces. The Sheffield continued after the war to be the last of her class and was scrapped in 1967. The Glasgow, with the Enterprise, engaged German destroyers in a running action in bad weather in late December 1943 and sank three of them. The two cruisers were under air attack at the same time. The Liverpool, which had her bows blown off by an aerial torpedo in 1940, was repaired but torpedoed again in June 1942 and remained out of servce until October 1945. The Birmingham distinguished herself in the bombardments of the Korean War of 1950 to 1952.
The Belfast and Edinburgh with their wide-spaced funnels separated by the main mast differed very much in appearance from the Southampton and Colonies. The Belfast was mined and broke her back early in the war but was repaired in time to take a distinguished part in the sinking of the Scharnhorst. She is Britains last conventional cruiser afloat, and has been preserved as a museum ship moored on the River Thames. The Edinburgh was sunk during an Arctic convoy action in May 1942.
The Colonies numbered eleven ships which completed beween 1940 and 1943. They were the BERMUDA, CEYLON, FIJI, GAMBIA, JAMAICA, KENYA, MAURITIUS, NEWFOUNDLAND, NIGERIA, TRINIDAD and UGANDA. The growing preoccupation with anti-aircraft defence caused the suppression of turrets in the later ships,so as to save space and weight for more anti-aircraft guns. Two were lost in the war, both to German aircraft; the Fiji off Crete in 1941 and the Trinidad in the Barents Sea in 1942. The Gambia was loaned to the Royal New Zealand Navy and the Uganda to the Royal Canadian Navy. The Kenya and the Nigeria were damaged by torpedoes during the Malta convoy called 'Pedestal' in August 1942. The Jamaica, as already mentioned, fought the Lutzow and Hipper in the Barents Sea and she was also in action, steaming with the Duke of York, when they sank the Scharnhorst. After the war these cruisers continued in service into the 1960's, the last survivor being the Gambia. The Nigeria, which was the only one to retain her X turret, was sold to the Indian Navy in 1957 and the Newfoundland and Ceylon were sold to the Peruvian Navy in 1960.
A third batch of almost identical cruisers, the Superb, Swiftsure and Minotaur, followed. The Minotaur was transferred 'New' to Canada as the Ontario, and the Swiftsure was involvd in a dramatic collision with the destroyer Diamond in 1953. The paint-store in the Diamond's bows caused a fierce fire to rage under the cruisers bridge, which dropped 2 feet. Much time and money was spent on refitting her in Chathams dockyard but this was not completed and she never served again. The Superb, although the latest of the Southampton and Colonies type, was one of the first to be broken up. Prewar ships lasted longer - the difference between wartime and peacetime building...
The end of a Proud Line of Magnificent Ships.
The Colony Class
HMS Superb C25 Built by Swan Hunter. Laid down 23 June 1942, launched 31 August 1943, completed 16 November 1945. Paid off 1957, and broken up by Arnott Young, Dalmuir, 1960.
Often referred to as HMS Super 'B', a quite happy ship.....which while not strictly a Colony Class Cruiser, it was closely related as can be seen from the superb lines, no pun intended. Ed.
My grateful thanks are recorded here for the kind assistance of Julian Best without whose help I would not have been able to complete the photographs of the above.
I make no bones about it, I have purloined some photographs from other sites! That's what you have to do when no one else comes up with anything!
The two pictures above were kindly sent to me by a former Royal Marines Musician,
'Dave Simmonds', to whom I am most grateful.
He also sent me a cutting from a newspaper, (probably the Straits Times of Malta, as it is taken in Malta) but I have my doubts if this is of HMS Kenya, as the rake of the funnels are not like other Colony Class Cruisers, and I fail to see a gangway/companionway down the side of the Ship between 'B' Gun Deck and the Midships..... Comments to me please at
editorbill@hmsgambia.com
The end of the road for
HMS Gambia
Sad end of a fine Ship, the Scrapyard!
