British Town Class Cruisers by Waters Conrad

Author:Waters, Conrad
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History / Military / World war II
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

Chapter 6

WARTIME OPERATIONS & PERFORMANCE

OVERVIEW

OVERALL ORGANISATION & DEPLOYMENT

In September 1939 the ‘Town’ class were assigned to one of four cruiser squadrons. Six ships – Southampton, Newcastle, Sheffield, Glasgow, Belfast and Edinburgh – were in home waters serving either with the newly-formed 18CS in the main body of the Home Fleet or with 2CS in the Humber Force. The three 1935 programme ships – Manchester, Liverpool and Gloucester – were allocated to 4CS on the East Indies Station. Birmingham was in the Far East on the China Station as part of 5CS.

The war’s opening months produced two main developments in this organisational structure. One was the concentration of all operational ‘Towns’ in British waters with 18CS in the Home Fleet. Edinburgh was the last to transfer when she left 2CS in March 1940. In parallel, the squadron was strengthened with the recall of Manchester (November 1939) and Birmingham (February 1940) from the East.This probably reflected a scarcity of modern light cruisers suitable for frontline duties in home waters, where a requirement to deploy on fleet operations exacerbated the heavy demands made by trade protection and interception patrols. A natural desire to concentrate the fleet’s newest ships close to the fulcrum of active operations may have been another important influence. 18CS was subsequently to remain the organisational focal point of ‘Towns’ serving with the Home Fleet until the squadron was disbanded in October 1942.

A dramatic photograph of Edinburgh (foreground) seen in company with Sheffield and the ‘Colony’ class cruiser Kenya in the course of operations to escort the ‘Halberd’ convoy to Malta in September 1941. Although both ‘Towns’ were part of the Home Fleet’s 18CS, the class was increasingly deployed on a wide range of detached missions over a broad geographical area as operational necessities dictated. Reinforcement of the forces escorting Malta-bound convoys run from both ends of the Mediterranean was a particularly important mission during the 1940–2 period. (Admiralty – reference unknown)

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