Light cruisers of the Aretuse type are a type of light cruisers of the Royal Navy of Great Britain during the Second World War. In total, 4 units were built for the British fleet: “Aretusa” ( Arethusa ), “Galatea” ( Galatea ), “Penelope” ( Penelope ), and “Aurora” ( Aurora ). His cruiser "Aurora" was not only in the Russian fleet - during the Second World War, his namesake served in the British fleet. HMS Aurora participated in all significant maritime operations in the European theater of operations, whether it was the Norwegian campaign, the attack on Mers-el-Kebir , the hunt for " Bismarck " or the landing of landings in North Africa, Italy and Normandy.
| Light cruisers of the type "Aretyuza" | |
|---|---|
| Arethusa-class light cruisers | |
 Light cruiser "Galatea" type "Aretyuza" | |
| Project | |
| A country |
|
| Previous type | " Linder " |
| Scheduled | 6 |
| Built by | four |
| Canceled | 2 |
| Losses | 2 |
| Main characteristics | |
| Displacement | Standard 5220—5270 t total 6665–6715 t |
| Length | 146.4 / 154.33 m |
| Width | 15.56 m |
| Draft | 4.27–5.1 m |
| Booking | Belt - 57 mm; traverses - 25 mm; deck - 25 mm; cellars - 51 ... 76 mm; towers - 25 mm; barbety - 19 mm |
| Engines | 4 mal parsons |
| Power | 64,000 l. with. (47 MW ) |
| Travel speed | 32.25 knots (59.7 km / h ) |
| Navigation range | 5500 miles on 15 knots |
| Crew | 500 people |
| Armament | |
| Artillery | 3 × 2 - 152 mm / 50, 4 × 2 - 102 mm / 45 (Aretuce - 4 × 1) |
| Flak | 2 × 4 - 12.7-mm machine gun |
| Mine-torpedo armament | 2 × 3 533-mm torpedo tubes TR.IV; |
| Aviation Group | 1 catapult, 1 hydroplane (absent on the Aurora) [1] |
Content
Creation History
They were designed for service as part of the main forces of the fleet — the ideological heirs of the scout cruisers of the early 20th century, and one of the main tasks of the cruisers was the fight against enemy destroyers. The aging cruisers of types C and D should have been replaced in this role. Type "Linder" for this task was too large and expensive. By the end of 1929, five projects of various displacement and various weapons were ready (4 × 2 or 3 × 2 152 m of cannon in the towers, 5 × 1 152 mm or 6 × 1 140 mm of cannon with shields). For further development, a 4200-ton version with six 152 mm guns in the towers was chosen. By the summer of 1930, draft designs were prepared with a standard displacement of 4,800 and 4,850 tons, representing an intermediate type ship between the old cruisers of types “C” and “D” and “Linder”. As a result of increased protection, the displacement has increased to 5,000 tons. The transition from linear to echelon layout of the power plant cost an additional 500 tons. In the results, the project had to make new changes aimed at reducing the displacement, and it was possible to reduce it to 5,450 tons, and this was stopped.
Construction
During construction, for the first time in the British military shipbuilding, electric welding was widely used: the bow and stern extremities (approximately 20 m each) were welded, a significant part of beams, bulkheads, and internal decks. Only the main elements of the set were riveted, the upper deck, armor plates and elements most susceptible to vibration. This made it possible to save more than 200 tons, as a result, the real displacement of the Areutyz turned out to be lower than the design one [2] .
Corps
The hull of the type of cruisers "Aretyuza" on the layout and design repeated the hull of the "Emphione". About a third of the hull length was a forecastle, rising slightly to the stem. Further to the stern, the bulwark continued, serving as an additional protection of the boats from flooding. The hull lines are round-cheeked, with a characteristic zygomatic fracture in the bow. The ships had two solid decks - the upper and main; the lower deck also extended beyond the boiler compartments. The hull was assembled in a longitudinal pattern, a double bottom went along the entire length. Constructive anti-torpedo protection was absent [2] .
Reservations
The reservations of Aretaws corresponded to their purpose - to defend destroyers from artillery [3] . Their armor accounted for 11.8% of the standard displacement, which was more than 11.7% for the Linder or 10.25% for the Washington DC, and armor protection for most foreign light cruisers of the time (especially French and Italian) was even worse. All armor is homogeneous, non-cemented. The plates of the belt were fastened with bolts, deck armor - with rivets. An armored belt 57 mm thick covered the compartments of the power plant, reaching in height, the area of the nose engine room to the upper deck, and in the aft engine room only the main one. Closed the belt 25.4-mm crosshead. The armored 25.4-mm deck ran along the upper edge of the traverse and belt. Separately 25 mm sheets defended steering.
Artillery weapons
The main caliber consisted of six 152-mm guns Mk.XXIII in three two-gun turrets Mk.XXI. This gun was the main weapon of light cruisers of the British fleet, built in the years 1930-1940 (except for the Dido type ). She became the first British six-inch solid tube construction - all previous were made by winding wire. For 152-mm guns there were two types of shells - armor-piercing and high-explosive. The weight of both was 50.8 kg, the weight of the explosive in the first was 1.7 kg (3.35%), in the second - 3.6 kg (7.1%). The speed of vertical guidance - 5 - 7 ° / s, horizontal - 10 ° / s [4] . The cellar capacity is 200 shells per gun.
Anti-aircraft weapons
According to the project, four 102-mm anti-aircraft guns Mk.V in single installations Mk.IV were supposed. The Mk.V cannon was put into service in 1914 and was used on ships of all classes: battleships, cruisers, destroyers, sloops. Initially it was intended only for firing at surface targets, but by the end of the First World War anti-aircraft guns were developed. The Mk.IV plant was not equipped with a shield, had a mass of 7.1 tons, provided vertical guidance in from - 5 to + 80 °, the practical rate of fire was 14 rounds per minute. The main drawbacks of the gun were low pickup speed, inconvenience of firing at low elevation angles due to too high location of the bolt caused by the natural balancing of the barrel. Automatic anti-aircraft armament consisted of a pair of quad 12.7-mm machine guns , the Vickers .50 , which were located near the nose tube on individual platforms, providing a wide fire sector.
Power Plant
The main power plant consisted of four Parsons turbo-gear units and four three-collector steam boilers of the Admiralty type. All boilers had steam superheaters, fuel and air heaters. Scheme - echelon; the boilers are arranged in pairs in two boiler rooms, in the bow boiler room, the boilers are located side by side, in the aft tandem, the MAL - in two engine rooms. The working steam pressure in the boilers is 24.61 kg / cm² (24.29 atm.), The temperature is 343 ° С [3] . Each unit had a capacity of 16,000 liters. pp., which was to ensure the speed of travel (at full load) at 31.25 knots , the maximum speed at a standard displacement should be 32.25 knots. The range was 5500 nautical miles on the course of 15 knots and 8200 miles on the move of twelve knots [5] .
Service
| Title | shipyard | bookmark date | launch date | commissioning date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aretyuza | January 25, 1933 | March 1934 | May 23, 1935 | ||
| " Galatea " | June 2, 1933 | August 9, 1934 | August 4, 1935 | ||
| " Penelope " | May 30, 1934 | October 15, 1935 | November 13, 1936 | ||
| " Aurora " | July 23, 1935 | August 20, 1936 | November 12, 1937 |
Project Evaluation
Light cruisers of the “Areutyuz” type were designed for service during squadrons, they were assigned the same tasks as the same-named cruisers of the First World War. A comparison of Aretuces with their predecessors - type “D” cruisers - demonstrates its advantage in all characteristics, except for booking. It can be stated that, under this concept, the English managed to create a very successful ship, but no one was able to create a full-fledged cruiser within a limited displacement during the interwar period, and Aretuces were the best among the mediocre. Designed to protect against 120 mm missile shells, ships are not able to truly resist even the 135-mm artillery of cruisers, and had a cruising range sufficient for operations in the Mediterranean and the North Sea. Stability and seaworthiness were excellent.
| Comparative TTH | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main elements | Emile Berten | "Luigi Cadorna" [6] | "Agano" | "Dido" [7] | "Perth" [8] | Aretyuza [9] | "Atlanta" [10] | |
| Displacement, standard / full, t | 5886/6530 | 5323/7194 | 6614/8534 | 5600/6950 | 6980/8965 | 5250/6700 | 6718/8340 | |
| Power plant, l. with. | 102,000 | 95,000 | 100,000 | 62,000 | 72 500 | 64,000 | 75,000 | |
| Maximum speed, knots | 34 | 36.5 | 35 | 32.25 | 32.5 | 32.25 | 32.5 | |
| Range, miles at speed, knots | 3600 (15) | 3088 (16) | 6000 (18) | 5500 (15) | 7000 (15) | 5500 (15) | 7530 (15) | |
| Main caliber artillery | 3 × 3 - 152 mm | 4 × 2 - 152 mm | 3 × 2 - 152 mm | - | 4 × 2 - 152 mm | 3 × 2 - 152 mm | - | |
| Universal Artillery | 1 × 2, 2 × 1 - 90 mm | 3 × 2 - 100 mm | 2 × 2 - 76 mm | 5 × 2 - 133 mm | 4 × 2 - 102 mm | 4 × 1 (4 × 2 [11] ) - 102 mm | 8 × 2 - 127 mm | |
| Light anti-aircraft artillery | 4 × 2 - 37 mm, 4 × 2 - 13.2 mm | 4 × 2 - 37 mm, 4 × 2 - 13.2 mm | 2 × 3 - 25 mm | 2 × 4 - 40 mm, 8 × 1 - 20 mm | 3 × 4 - 12.7 mm | 2 × 4 - 12.7 mm | 4 × 4 - 28 mm, 8 × 1 - 20 mm | |
| Torpedo armament | 2 × 3 - 550 mm TA | 2 × 2 - 533 mm TA | 2 × 4 - 610 mm TA | 2 × 3 - 533 mm TA | 2 × 4 - 533 mm TA | 2 × 3 - 533 mm TA | 4 × 2 - 533 mm TA | |
| Reservations, mm | cellars - 30, deck - 20, deckhouse - 20 | belt - 24 + 18 mm, deck - 20 mm, towers - 23 mm, deckhouse - 40 mm | belt - 60, deck - 20, towers - 19 | belt - 76, deck - 25 (51 above the cellars), towers - 13 | belt - 76, deck - 32, towers and barbets - 25, cellars to 89 | belt - 57, deck - 25, towers - 25, barbety - 19, cellars - 76 | belt - 95, deck - 32, towers - 25, deckhouse - 62, cellars up to 95 | |
| Crew, pers. | 567 | 694 | 701 | 487 | 570 | 500 | 623-820 | |
Notes
- All data are as of 1939.
- ↑ 1 2 Illustrious Cruisers, 2013 , p. 14.
- ↑ 1 2 Illustrious Cruisers, 2013 , p. 21.
- ↑ Famous Cruisers, 2013 , p. 15-16.
- ↑ Famous Cruisers, 2013 , p. 22
- Way Conway's, 1922-1946. - P. 295.
- Way Conway's, 1922-1946. - P. 33.
- Way Conway's, 1922-1946. - P. 30.
- Way Conway's, 1922-1946. - P. 32.
- Way Conway's, 1922-1946. - P. 118.
- ↑ The rest
Links
Literature
- Yu. Yu. Nenakhov. Encyclopedia of Cruisers 1910–2005. - Minsk, Harvest, 2007.
- Patyanin S.V. Churchill's celebrated cruisers. “Arethusa”, “Penelope”, “Galatea”, “Aurora” . - M .: Yauza, EKSMO, 2013. - 96 p. - (War at sea. Collection). - 2000 copies - ISBN 978-5-699-64806-1 .
- Patyanin S.V., Dashyan A.V. et al. Cruiser of the Second World War. Hunters and defenders. - M .: Collection, Yauza, EKSMO, 2007. - 362 p. - (Arsenal collection). - ISBN 5-69919-130-5 .
- Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1922–1946 / Gray, Randal (ed.). - London: Conway Maritime Press, 1980. - 456 p. - ISBN 0-85177-1467 .
- MJ Whitley. Cruisers of World War Two. An international encyclopedia. - London, Arms & Armor, 1995.
- Smithn PC Dominy JR . Cruisers in Action 1939-1945. - London: William Kimber, 1981.