HMS Norfolk (78)
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (June 2008) |
Norfolk in wartime camouflage. As she still has an X turret, this photo is pre-1944.
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Norfolk |
Namesake | Norfolk |
Builder | Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd, Govan |
Laid down | 8 July 1927 |
Launched | 12 December 1928 |
Commissioned | 30 April 1930 |
Identification | Pennant number: 78 |
Honours and awards |
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Fate | Sold for scrapping on 3 January 1950 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | County-class heavy cruiser |
Displacement |
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Length | 632 ft 9 in (192.86 m) |
Beam | 66 ft (20 m) |
Draught | 18 ft (5.5 m) |
Installed power | 80,000 shp (60,000 kW) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph) |
Range | 12,000 nmi (14,000 mi; 22,000 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Complement | 710 private ship, 819 war |
Armament |
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Armour | |
Aircraft carried | 2 × Supermarine Walrus flying boats (operated by 700 Naval Air Squadron) |
HMS Norfolk was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy; along with her sister ship Dorsetshire she was part of a planned four-ship subclass. She served throughout the Second World War, where she was involved in the sinking of the German Navy's battleships Bismarck and Scharnhorst.
Construction
[edit]She was laid down in July 1927 at Govan by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd and launched on 12 December 1928. She was commissioned on 30 April 1930.
Service history
[edit]Inter-war period
[edit]In September 1931, the crew of the Norfolk were part of a mutiny that later became known as the Invergordon Mutiny. The ship later served with the Home Fleet until 1932 and was then Flagship of the 8th Cruiser Squadron on the America and West Indies Station, based at the Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, between 1932 and 1934. Norfolk left Bermuda on 21 November 1934 for England.[1]
From 1935 to 1939, Norfolk served with the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, before coming home to refit in 1939, being still in dockyard hands when war was declared.
Second World War
[edit]At the outbreak of war in 1939, Norfolk was part of the 18th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet, and was involved in the chase for the German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst. She was soon receiving numerous repairs for damage that she had received, not to mention vital modifications to the ship. Her first repairs were carried out in Belfast, after damage from a near-miss by a torpedo from U-47, the submarine responsible for sinking the battleship Royal Oak at Scapa Flow.
Shortly afterward, bomb damage that she had received from an air raid by eighteen sixteen Junkers Ju 88 of Kampfgeschwader 30 and Heinkel He 11 of Kampfgeschwader 26 at Scapa Flow on 16 March 1940[2] forced her into yet another repair, this time on the Clyde.[3] After these repairs had been completed Norfolk proceeded to a shipyard on the River Tyne for a new addition to her equipment – a radar set.
In December 1940, Norfolk was ordered to the South Atlantic on trade protection duties. Operating out of Freetown as part of Force K she participated in the hunt for the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer.
On 18 January 1941 Norfolk, under the command of Capt. Phillips, acting upon a report from the AMC Arawa seeing in the far distance the gunflashes of the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sinking the tanker British Union, joined in the search for the German raider together with her sister ship Devonshire.[4] In February, she escorted Atlantic troop convoys, but by May she had returned to Icelandic waters.
Bismarck
[edit]On 21 May Norfolk, under the command of rear Admiral Frederic Wake-Walker,[5] was patrolling in the Denmark Strait against possible German raiders. When the British received news of an impeding attempt of the German battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen to breakout into the Atlantic, the Denmark Strait patrol was reinforced with Norfolk's sister ship Suffolk, which was refuelling at Iceland. In the evening of 23 May the two cruisers were patrolling 15 miles apart when Suffolk spotted the two German ships. Suffolk could hide in the mist but when Norfolk made contact with the German ships she was spotted by Bismarck as well and the German battleship fired five salvoes at Norfolk before she too could escape in the mist. Norfolk and Suffolk continued to shadow Bismarck and Prinz Eugen with their radar and sent regularly contact reports, in order to guide a British force consisting of the battleship Prince of Wales, the battlecruiser Hood and six destroyers under the command of admiral Lancelot Holland to the scene. At midnight Bismarck suddenly reversed course and tried to chase the cruisers away. Norfolk and Suffolk lost contact and as a result, Holland sent his destroyers away on a fruitless search for the German ships. When contact was finally regained Holland could close in on the German ships but now the British ships were approaching slowly on a converging course rather than the planned advantageous head-on approach.[6] In the ensuing Battle of the Denmark Strait Hood was sunk and both Bismarck and Prince Of Wales were damaged. Holland had not tried to involve the shadowing cruisers in his battle plan, the cruisers were too far away to close in before the battle was over. Only Suffolk fired a few salvoes which fell far too short.[7]
Both cruisers and the damaged Prince Of Wales continued to shadow the German ships in order to guide the Home Fleet to them. During the afternoon of 24 May, Bismarck turned twice on her pursuers and had a brief gun duel with first Suffolk and then Prince Of Wales. With these diversions, Prinz Eugen was able to slip away to continue merchant raiding independently whilst the damaged Bismarck wanted to head to the french port of Brest for repairs.[8] During the night an attack with nine Fairey Swordfish was launched from the approaching Home Fleet.[a] In bad visibility the aircraft detected Bismarck at 23:30 and the shadowing British ships with their radar, and made contact with Norfolk to get a proper heading towards the enemy. The aircraft scored one hit but this did not affect Bismarck much.[9] Norfolk was trailing Bismarck with her radar on the port side. As the British ships entered the open Atlantic, they started to zigzag because of the U-boat danger. Norfolk had a fixed radar, not a rotating one, and was able to track Bismarck only during the first leg of the zigzag. When Bismarck turned away on 25 May at 03:06 to starboard and behind the trailing ships, the manoeuvre was detected too late and the British ships lost contact. The Norfolk, Suffolk, Prince Of Wales and the approaching Home fleet fanned out to regain contact but the Bismarck had escaped.[10] During the subsequent search for the Bismarck, many British ships had to give up the hunt because of fuel shortage and because they were searching in the wrong direction, thinking the Bismarck would either continue into the Atlantic or return to Norway. Wake-Walker anticipated Bismarck continuing to a French port and when Bismarck was found back on 26 May at 10:30 by air reconnaissance on er way to Brest, Norfolk was in a position to pick up the chase again. Bismarck was rendered steerless as a result of a torpedo aircraft attack the same day at 20:47 by the aircraft carrier Ark Royal from Force H. During the night Norfolk closed in together with the battleships Rodney and King George V, but waited untill the morning of 27 May to attack, whilst Bismarck was constantly being harassed by individual torpedo attacks of five destroyers under the command of Captain Philip Vian. Norfolk made contact with Bismarck at 07:53 but withdrew quickly waiting the arrival of Rodney and King George V. The British opened the battle at 08:47 and Norfolk joined at 08:54, firing from 22,000 yards. At 08:59 she scored an important hit on the foretop of Bismarck, putting her central fire control station out of action. At 09:10 Norfolk fired four torpedo's from 16,000 yards which all missed.[10] During the battle she fired a total of 527 8-inch shells,[11] and carried out flank marking for the battleships.[12] Bismarck was put out of action by 09:30 and finally sank at 10:40.[13] After the battle Norfolk returned independently to the Clyde on 29 May and on its way she was bombed by one German aircraft but suffered no damage.[14]
Arctic Convoys
[edit]When the German army invaded the USSR in Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, the British were decided to send help. A PQ convoy lane sending military supplies from the UK to Northern Russia was established by September 1941.[15] From October onward, Norfolk was employed as an escort for these Arctic Convoys. Between 17 and 30 October she escorted the six merchant ships of Convoy PQ 2 to Arkhangelsk, in company of the destroyers Icarus and Eclipse and three minesweepers. On 3 November the cruiser and the two destroyers escorted the twelve ships of the empty return convoy QP 2 back to the UK.[16] From then on she was attached to the Home Fleet as part of a force guarding a possible breakout attempt of the German battleship Tirpitz into the Atlantic.[3] In April 1942 Norfolk was assigned as close cruiser escort for the Convoy PQ 14, with the cruiser Edinburgh with the destroyers Foresight and Forester, but she was unable to link up with the other ships and did not sail to Northern Russia but instead stayed in the vicinity of Bear Island from where she could support either PQ 14 or the returning Convoy QP 10.[17][3] On 13 May Norfolk sailed again towards Bear Island as part of a cruiser force in order to cover the return of the damaged cruiser Trinidad from Murmansk to home waters, but the cruiser is sunk by German bombers before they can reach her. Between 21 and 29 May she sails to Kola Bay as part of the close cruiser escort for Convoy PQ 16 and the returning QP 12.[18]
Battle of North Cape
[edit]Norfolk was part of the cruiser covering force of Convoy JW 55B when it engaged Scharnhorst, on 26 December 1943. She scored three hits on the German ship, and received several 11-in shell hits (all passing through the thin-skinned ship without exploding) in return, before she withdrew; Scharnhorst was later caught and sunk by the battleship Duke of York and her escorting cruisers and destroyers. She sustained damage (especially to X-turret and barbette) in that confrontation, and she was subsequently repaired/refitted (losing X-turret in favour of additional AA guns) on the Tyne, which prevented her from being involved in the historic D-day landings.
Norfolk was the flagship of Vice Admiral Rhoderick McGrigor off North Norway during Operation Judgement, an attack by the Fleet Air Arm on a U-boat base which destroyed two ships and U-711 on 4 May 1945, in the last air-raid of the war in Europe. When the war came to a close, Norfolk left Plymouth for a much needed refit at Malta, after transporting the Norwegian Royal family back to Oslo after their five-year exile in London. This was followed by service in the East Indies as the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies.
Post-war
[edit]In 1949, Norfolk returned to Britain and was placed in Reserve. She was sold to BISCO for scrapping on 3 January 1950. On 14 February 1950, she proceeded to Newport, arriving on 19 February, to be broken up after 22 years of service, in which she gained the Norfolk lineage the majority of her battle honours, including her last.
Footnotes
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ At this latitude and time of the year, there was still daylight
Citations
[edit]- ^ "East End News: Personal". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 23 November 1934. p. 9.
- ^ Rohwer 2005, p. 17.
- ^ a b c Mason 2010.
- ^ Smith & Dominy 1980, p. 118.
- ^ Busch 1980, p. 28.
- ^ Stephen 1988, pp. 73–78.
- ^ von Müllenheim-Rechberg 1990, pp. 140–152.
- ^ Stephen 1988, pp. 82–84.
- ^ Bercuson & Herwig 2002, pp. 188–193.
- ^ a b Stephen 1988, pp. 84–97.
- ^ von Müllenheim-Rechberg 1990, p. 298.
- ^ Tovey 1947, p. 4859.
- ^ Stephen 1988, p. 97.
- ^ Tovey 1947, p. 4865.
- ^ Kemp 1993, pp. 11–18.
- ^ Rohwer 2005, pp. 109, 113.
- ^ Rohwer 2005, p. 158.
- ^ Rohwer 2005, pp. 165, 167.
References
[edit]- Bercuson, David J.; Herwig, Holger H. (2002) [1988]. Bismarck. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-179516-8.
- Busch, Fritz-Otto (1980). De vernietiging van de Bismarck (in Dutch). Amsterdam: omega boek BV. ISBN 90-6057-197-5.
- Mason, Lt Cdr Geoffrey B (8 October 2010) [2003], Smith, Gordon (ed.), "HMS Norfolk - County-type Heavy Cruiser including Convoy Escort Movements", Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2, Naval-History.Net
- Kemp, Paul (1993). Convoy: Drama in Arctic Waters. Casell. ISBN 0304354511.
- von Müllenheim-Rechberg, Burkhard (1990). Battleship Bismarck, A Survivor's Story. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9780870210273.
- Rohwer, Jürgen (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.
- Smith, Peter C.; Dominy, John R. (1980). Cruisers In Action 1939-1945. London: William Kimber. ISBN 0718302184.
- Stephen, Martin (1988). Grove, Eric (ed.). Sea Battles in close-up: World War 2. London: Ian Allan ltd. ISBN 0-7110-1596-1.
- Tovey, John (1947). "Despatch on the sinking of the German battleship "Bismarck" 1941 May 27" (PDF). Despatches Published in the London Gazette – via ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/londongazette.html.
Further reading
[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.
- Friedman, Norman (2010). British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59114-078-8.
- Raven, Alan & Roberts, John (1980). British Cruisers of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-922-7.
- Whitley, M. J. (1995). Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Cassell. ISBN 1-86019-874-0.