1920s ship in the British Navy
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
,
pennant number
39, was a
County-class
heavy cruiser
of the
London
sub-class
built for the
Royal Navy
in the late 1920s. The ship spent most of her pre-
World War II
career assigned to the
Mediterranean Fleet
aside from a brief tour with the
China Station
. She spent the first two months of the
Second World War
in the Mediterranean until she was transferred to the
Home Fleet
and became
flagship
of a cruiser squadron.
Devonshire
took part in the Norwegian Campaign in mid 1940 and evacuated much of the Norwegian Government in June. Several months later, she participated in the
Battle of Dakar
, a failed attempt to seize the
Vichy French
colony of
Senegal
in September. The ship remained in the South Atlantic afterwards and supported
Free French
efforts to take control of
French Equatorial Africa
in addition to searching for German
commerce raiders
.
Devonshire
returned home in early 1941 and briefly rejoined the Home Fleet, during which time she escorted several
aircraft carriers
as they
attacked German forces
in Norway and
Finland
and covered the
first convoy to the Soviet Union
. Shortly afterwards, the ship was sent to the South Atlantic where she sank the
auxiliary cruiser
Atlantis
.
Devonshire
was then assigned to the
Eastern Fleet
in the
Indian Ocean
and supported the
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
training ship
for
naval cadets
and served until she was sold for
scrap
in 1954.
Description
[
edit
]
Devonshire
displaced 9,850 long tons (10,010 t) at
standard
load and 13,315 long tons (13,529 t) at
deep load
. The ship had an
overall length
of 632 feet 8 inches (192.8 m), a
beam
of 66 feet (20.1 m) and a
draught
of 20 feet 9 inches (6.3 m).
[1]
She was powered by
Parsons
geared
steam turbines
, driving four shafts, which developed a total of 80,000
shaft horsepower
(60,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 32.35
knots
(59.91 km/h; 37.23 mph). Steam for the turbines was provided by eight
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
8-inch (203 mm) guns
in four twin
gun turrets
, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. Her secondary armament consisted of four
QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mk V
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
[
edit
]
Devonshire
, the fifth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,
[5]
was named for the
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
Skiathos
in the
Aegean
, she suffered a serious accident on 26 July 1929 during gunnery training. There was a
misfire
in the left gun of "X" turret; when the
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
[
edit
]
Devonshire
was in the
Mediterranean
when the war began in September 1939 until she was transferred to the Home Fleet some months later. After the
armed merchant cruiser
Rawalpindi
was sunk by the German
battleships
Scharnhorst
and
Gneisenau
on 23 November,
Devonshire
and the battleships
Nelson
and
Rodney
sailed from
the Clyde
on a fruitless attempt to find the German ships.
[10]
In March 1940 she became the
flagship
of the 1st CS, and flew the flag of the future
First Sea Lord
,
Vice-Admiral
John H. D. Cunningham
. During this time the
squadron
was tasked to cover
Scotland
, 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
[
edit
]
The
Admiralty
ordered that the troops, but not their equipment, be unloaded from the cruisers on the evening of the 8th, and that the cruisers were to search forthwith for the German ships known to be at sea. This was later cancelled and the squadron was ordered to rendezvous with the main body of the Home Fleet. Later that day, German bombers attacked the British ships and
Devonshire
suffered a near-miss. On the 11th, the squadron was detached on an unsuccessful search for German ships in the area around Trondheim and rejoined the fleet two days later.
[13]
Cunningham's ships were then detached to
Tromsø
where he conducted negotiations with local officials to refuel there and to bring Norwegian troops west from
Kirkenes
. The squadron arrived there on the afternoon of the 15th and escorted Norwegian troopships back to Tromsø.
Devonshire
covered the evacuation of British and French troops
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
King Haakon VII
,
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
[
edit
]
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
Douala
,
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
[
edit
]
Devonshire
remained in the South Atlantic and participated in the unsuccessful hunt for the German commerce raider
Kormoran
in January 1941.
[20]
The ship subsequently transferred to the Home Fleet and was refitted in
Liverpool
19 February?22 May. During this refit her single 2-pounder guns were replaced by two octuple mounts and an early-warning
Type 281 radar
.
[21]
She escorted British carriers when they
raided Kirkenes and Petsamo
in Norway and Finland in late July. The following month,
Devonshire
provided distant cover for the first convoy to Russia,
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
[
edit
]
The ship was subsequently refitted in
Norfolk, Virginia
from 24 January to 7 March 1942, where she received a
Type 273
gunnery radar and six more Oerlikons.
[21]
After the completion of her refit,
Devonshire
was sent to join the
4th Cruiser Squadron
of the Eastern Fleet and escorted a convoy from
Charleston, South Carolina
, to
Freetown
,
Sierra Leone
en route.
[24]
On 25 April, the ship escorted a convoy from
Durban
, South Africa to
Madagascar
as part of
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
[
edit
]
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
Mascot
,
Goodwood
, and
Hardy
).
[23]
[26]
With the end of the war in Europe,
Devonshire
, now the flagship of Rear-Admiral
James Ritchie
, the future Flag Officer Norway, sailed on 12 May to
Oslo
. She then went to
Copenhagen
the next day, and from there she escorted the German cruisers
Prinz Eugen
and
Nurnberg
to
Wilhelmshaven
on 24?26 May.
[27]
In June,
Devonshire
was again the flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron, under the command of Vice-Admiral
Rhoderick McGrigor
, which returned King Haakon to Norway, arriving in Oslo on 7 June. The king himself sailed in her half-sister,
Norfolk
.
[28]
Later that month, she was outfitted for use as a troopship, and she was used to transport personnel to and from Australia for the rest of the year.
[29]
[30]
On 29 September,
Devonshire
helped to rescued the survivors of
SS
Empire Patrol
, a
freighter
loaded with Greek refugees bound from
Port Said
,
Egypt
, to
Greece
, that had caught fire.
[31]
Post-war
[
edit
]
The ship was converted into a cadet training ship in 1947 and served in this role until 1954.
[23]
As part of this reconstruction most of her armament was removed; by 1949 it consisted of a single eight-inch gun turret, two four-inch gun turrets and single examples of the quadruple two-pounder, single- and twin-Oerlikon mounts, plus a single
40-millimeter (1.6 in) Bofors
light AA gun.
[32]
In 1953 she took part in the
Fleet Review
to celebrate the
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]
- ^
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
- ^
Koester, C. B. (October 1993).
"The Liberation of Oslo and Copenhagen: A Midshipman's Memoir"
(PDF)
.
The Northern Mariner
.
III
(4): 49?60.
doi
:
10.25071/2561-5467.781
.
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
[
edit
]
- 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
.
- Colledge, J. J.
; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969].
Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy
(Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing.
ISBN
978-1-86176-281-8
.
- Friedman, Norman
(2010).
British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After
. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing.
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
.
- Rohwer, Jurgen
(2005).
Chronology of the War at Sea 1939?1945: The Naval History of World War Two
(Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
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
.
- Whitley, M. J.
(1995).
Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia
. London: Cassell.
ISBN
1-86019-874-0
.
External links
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edit
]
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Kent
class
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London
class
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Norfolk
class
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Surrey
class
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- Surrey
- Northumberland
(both cancelled)
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