HMS Swiftsure (08)
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| Career (United Kingdom) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Swiftsure |
| Builder: | Vickers Armstrong at Newcastle-on-Tyne |
| Laid down: | 22 September 1941 |
| Launched: | 4 February 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 22 June 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 1958 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: 08 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1962 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Minotaur-class light cruiser |
| Displacement: | 8,800 tons standard 11,130 tons full |
| Length: | 555.5 ft (169.3 m) |
| Beam: | 63 ft (19 m) |
| Draught: | 17.25 ft (5.26 m) |
| Propulsion: | Four Admiralty-type three drum boilers Four shaft Parsons steam turbines 72,500 shp |
| Speed: | 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h) |
| Range: | 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) at 30 knots (60 km/h) 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h); 1,850 tons fuel oil |
| Complement: | 867 |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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HMS Swiftsure was a Minotaur-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers Armstrong at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 22 September 1941, launched on 4 February 1943 by Lady Wake-Walker and commissioned on 22 June 1944.
Service history
Second World War service
Swiftsure joined the Home Fleet on commissioning, and in 1944 she was assigned to the Eastern Fleet, where, in November 1944, she became a unit of the newly formed British Pacific Fleet. In the Pacific she participated in the Okinawa Campaign of March–May 1945 and in June took part in the carrier raid on Truk by the British Pacific Fleet as part of Task Group 111.2, with the cruisers shelling the islands. On 30 August 1945 this group re-entered Hong Kong and took the Japanese surrender there. Swiftsure was at this time the flagship of the British Pacific Cruiser Squadron, and was selected by Admiral Cecil Harcourt to hoist his flag for the Japanese surrender.
Postwar service
In 1946 she was the flagship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron and in 1951 she became the flagship of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron. In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.[1] In the same year she was involved in a collision with the destroyer Diamond, which led to a fierce fire in the forward paint locker. She remained inactive until beginning a major refit in February 1957 Chatham Dockyard to bring her up largely to the standard of the later Tiger class. New 70 calibre twin 3 inch guns and L70 bofors would have been fitted, but Swiftsure would have retained her original triple 6 inch turrets. Midway through the conversion in August 1959, with her new bridge and lattice masts in place, the refit was cancelled.[2] Some reports and the government reply in 1962 in UK Hansard say the refit was costing too much to produce an obsolete ship, Original estimates for the refit in 1956 had been 4 Million pounds [3] whilst others give the reason that the damage suffered during her earlier collision with Diamond had not been fully surveyed and only became apparent during the refit, the ship was structurally weaker and could not support the weight of its new modernised bridge had which sunk more than 18 inches (46 cm). Slow progress on the debugging of the new 3inch/70 calibre guns, which saw the aircraft carrier Victorious armed with slower firing US 3inch/50 calibre mountings and a storm of opposition in the press and Parliament to the rising cost and slow completion of the cruisers Lion and Blake, saw the surplus 3in/70 guns sold to Canada and a large order for proximity fused 40mm L70s cancelled. To finance the immensely expensive completion of the two incomplete Tigers and nip in the bud the intense opposition to 'obsolete cruisers' and new gunnery perceived as faulty, work on Swiftsure 's refit stopped. Her sister ship Superb, had been paid off into reserve in late 1957 after 12 years service, her similar modernisation plans abandoned April 1957 and was sold for scrap in early 1960, one of the first Fiji or Improved Minotaurs to be scrapped. Alternative plans for converting Swiftsure to a helicopter carrier were already being considered seriously by 1958,[4] but she was eventually sold, arriving at the Inverkeithing yard of T. W. Ward on 17 October 1962 to be scrapped.The helicopter carrier conversion plans however were largely adopted in the late 1960s on the cruisers Blake and Tiger.
References
- ↑ Souvenir Programme, Coronation Review of the Fleet, Spithead, 15th June 1953, HMSO, Gale and Polden
- ↑ N. Freidman. British Cruisers Two World Wars and After. Seaforth (2010), p 259
- ↑ Freidman. British Cruisers. (2010), p 284
- ↑ D.Murfin. AA to AA. The Fiji's Turn Full Circle. Warships. (2010)London, p56.
Publications
- 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. OCLC 67375475.
- WWII cruisers
- HMS Swiftsure at Uboat.net
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Swiftsure (08). |
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