Warship 2019

226 Pages·2019·31.721 MB·English

by  John Jordan(Editor)

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WARSHIP 2019
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WARSHIP 2019
Editor: John Jordan
Assistant Editor: Stephen Dent
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Title pages: The battlecruiser HMS Tiger on 4 October 1914,
anchoredat the Tail of the Bank in the Firth of Clyde, prior to her
sea trials. A century’s worth of erroneous description of the
ship’s machinery is critically examined by Dr Brian Newman in
this edition of Warship. (NRS, UCS 1-118-418-163)
OSPREY PUBLISHING
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First published in Great Britain in 2019
This electronic edition published in 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
© Osprey Publishing Ltd 2019
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements within the individual articles constitute an extension of this copyright
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CONTENTS
Editorial 6
Feature Articles
Armed Merchant Cruiser: The Conversion of HMS Kanimbla, 1939 8
Peter Cannondescribes the conversion of the Australian coastal passenger liner Kanimblainto an AMC.
The French Battleship Brennus 29
Philippe Caresselooks at the tortured history of this powerful vessel, which never fired a gun in anger.
The Genesis of the Six-Six Fleet 47
Hans Lengererexamines the rationale behind the fleet that won the Russo-Japanese War.
The Rise of the Brown Curtis Turbine 58
Ian Johnstonassesses the development of the Curtis turbine, built under licence by John Brown & Co.
Battlecruiser Tiger: The Arrangement of the Main Engines 69
Dr Brian Newmaninvestigates the Brown Curtis turbine machinery installed in HMS Tiger, and establishes the
actual configuration.
In Avrora’s Shadow: The Russian Cruisers of the Diana Class 81
Stephen McLaughlintells the story of the Russian Imperial Navy’s first attempt at a true light cruiser.
Project 1030: A Nuclear Attack Submarine for the Italian Navy 98
Michele Cosentinolooks at the Italian Navy's ambition to build a force SSNs and SSBNs.
The 340mm Coast Defence Battery at Cape Cépet 110
John Jordandescribes the development and history of this key element in the defences of Toulon.
Powder Magazine Explosions on Japanese Warships 118
Kathrin Milanovichlooks in detail at magazine explosions involving major vessels, including the efforts of the
various Investigation Committees set up to determine the causes.
Beyond the Kaiser: The IGN’s Destroyers and Torpedo Boats after 1918 129
Aidan Dodsonreviews the careers and ultimate fates of the vessels in service or building in 1918.
Early British Iron Armour 145
David Boursnelllooks at the manufacture and testing of early British iron armour plate.
Australia’s First Destroyers 153
Mark Briggstells the story of the six destroyers of the ‘River’ class built for Australia.
North Sea Partners: The British and Dutch Navies in the Cold War Era 167
Jon Wiselooks at Anglo-Dutch collaboration on a series of postwar naval programmes and initiatives.
USS Lebanon (AG-2): A Jack of Several Trades 183
A D Baker III focuses on USS Lebanon, taken up from trade as a collier and subsequently used for a variety of tasks.
Warship Notes 188
Reviews 201
Warship Gallery 217
Przemyslaw Budzbonpresents a set of previously unpublished photographs of the inter-war Polish Navy.
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EDITORIAL
This year’s annual is unusual in having no fewer than The accompanying article by Brian Newman is less a
fourteen feature articles covering the full span of history than a detective story. The precise configuration of
navies, periods and types of ship. The normal figure for the Brown Curtis turbine installation of the battlecruiser
the number of features is ten or eleven, but submissions Tiger has long been a matter for conjecture and dispute.
this year have generally been shorter, and with the addi- Using photographs of the machinery taken in the work-
tional 16 pages we were granted by Osprey Publishing shop at John Brown’s, Brian has established beyond doubt
last year we have been able to accommodate all the mate- the composition and layout of the machinery. His conclu-
rial submitted. sions contradict the arrangement seen in early plans of the
The lead article this year has as its subject the conver- ship and descriptions of the machinery by numerous
sion of the motor vessel Kanimbla, ordered in July 1934 ‘authorities’, including a former Director of Naval
by the Melbourne-based shipping line of McIlwraith Construction, Sir Philip Watts. This is a cautionary tale
McEacharn from the renowned passenger liner builders of for all those who embark on research using secondary
Harland & Wolff in Belfast, into an Armed Merchant (and even primary) sources: the Russian proverb ‘Trust,
Cruiser. Peter Cannon, whose grandfather served in the but verify’ seems particularly appropriate here.
ship, looks at the ‘pre-fitting’ programme undertaken by The Russian cruiser Avrora is famous largely for her
the British Admiralty for selected merchantmen before the distinctive contribution to the Revolution of 1917 and
war to provide the necessary stiffening for gun mountings, for her subsequent preservation as a museum ship at
and at the extensive modifications that needed to be made Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad). In his latest article
to fit them for service as AMCs when war was declared. for Warship, Stephen McLaughlin looks at the tortuous
This is a fascinating study of a much-neglected but impor- design process of this ship and her two sisters, Diana and
tant aspect of Britain’s trade defence strategy. Pallada, and their very different career paths following
The article by Philippe Caresse that follows is the first their completion in 1901–03.
of a series that looks in detail at the French battleships of The history of nuclear propulsion for submarines in the
the ‘Fleet of Samples’, the Flotte d’échantillons. Philippe US, Soviet, British and French navies during the postwar
leads off with the battleship Brennus, which was years has been well documented. The attempt by the
conceived during the early 1880s, suspended by Admiral Italian Navy to join this elite nuclear club is less well-
Aube, and completed to a radically modified design in known, and is now recounted in detail by Michele
1893. She incorporated a number of striking new tech- Cosentino, who recently came across documents and
nical features, but poor stability meant that she had to be drawings related to the design of a nuclear attack subma-
completely rebuilt before she was fit for service. During rine for the Marina Militare when researching another
the late 1890s and early 1900s she generally performed project at the Italian Navy Historical Office (IHNO). The
the role of fleet flagship, but her powerful 34cm guns proposed attack submarine, designated Project 1030,
were destined never to be fired in anger, and she decom- would have employed a reactor derived from that
missioned shortly before the First World War. mounted in the US submarines of the Skipjack class but,
Two articles in this year’s annual feature the Imperial in keeping with Italian Navy traditions, would have been
Japanese Navy. A keynote article by Hans Lengerer able to operate an underwater vehicle for Special Forces
addresses the thinking behind the so-called ‘Six-Six operations.
Fleet’, largely comprising ships built in British shipyards, In a departure from Warship’s normal coverage, the
that would inflict defeat on the Russian Admiral Editor has focused on the powerful French coastal
Rozhestvensky at Tsushima in 1905, while Kathrin battery of Cape Cépet, built during the interwar period
Milanovich investigates the powder magazine explosions using 34cm battleship guns in naval-style twin turrets to
that plagued the Japanese Navy before and during the defend the approaches to Toulon, while articles by Aidan
First World War. Dodson and David Boursnell continue themes introduced
A second pair of articles looks at different aspects of in earlier editions of Warship. After detailing the fates of
the Brown Curtis turbine that powered many of Britain’s the Kaiser’s battleships and cruisers following the
fastest battlecruisers. Ian Johnston’s article, which makes German defeat in the Great War of 1914–18, Aidan turns
extensive use of contemporary letters and memoirs, his attention to the destroyers and torpedo boats, while
studies the adoption of the American Curtis turbine by David follows up his article on the production of armour
John Brown’s and the features that distinguished it from plate in the UK during the early 1900s with a study of the
the better-known Parsons turbine. One interesting fact development and manufacture of iron armour during the
that emerges is that, for every Curtis turbine installed by second half of the 19th century.
John Brown in a Royal Navy warship, the company had Following the federation of the Australian colonies in
to pay a royalty to Charles Parsons because of the 1901, naval defence would become a controversial polit-
licensing contract it had signed with the latter. ical issue. The following year the Commonwealth
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EDITORIAL
A view of the flight deck of the French aircraft carrier Béarnduring the 1930s. Two Levasseur PL.101 reconnaissance aircraft are being
brought up to the flight deck using the centre and after lifts. Note the heavy clamshell doors which ensured the flight deck remained in
operation when the lifts were lowered to hangar level. The Editor’s article, due to published in next year’s annual, will look at some of
the more unusual aspects of the ship’s design, not all of which were successful. (Private collection, courtesy of Philippe Caresse)
government entered into a ten-year naval agreement with and was subsequenly employed for a variety of tasks,
Britain whereby Australia paid £200,000 annually to the including the towing of gunnery targets for the fleet.
Royal Navy to base a fixed number of warships in The annual concludes with the customary comprehen-
Australian waters. However, as Mark Briggs’ article sive complement of Warship Notes, reviews of the major
states, this arrangement did not sit well with the height- naval books published this year, and a Gallery that
ened sense of national identity that had emerged in features some rare photos of the Polish Navy during the
Australia after federation, and in 1909 it was decided 1930s with a particular focus on the German aggression
that Australia would purchase eight destroyers of the of early September 1939 and its consequences.
‘River’ class, modified for increased endurance. Two Warship 2020 already has a full complement of features
ships were to be delivered in the UK and a third vessel promised or delivered. The author of this year’s Gallery,
was to be built in Britain, taken apart and reassembled at Przemysław Budzbon, will publish a major article the
Cockatoo Dockyard, Sydney, to provide the experience influence of the salvaged British L 55 on the design of the
for further local construction from the keel up. In the early Soviet submarines. Hans Lengerer will follow up his
event only three further hulls would be built in Australia, article on the Six-Six Fleet with one on the Eight-Eight
and construction of these relatively sophisticated vessels Fleet in which he looks at the ambitious plans for the
proved to be challenging and costly. Mark’s article again projection of Japanese naval power during the second
highlights the difficult choice that has to be made by the decade of the 20th century. Philippe Caresse’s series on the
lesser naval powers between purchasing ‘off-the-shelf’ French Flotte d’échantillons will continue with the battle-
designs abroad and the more costly alternative of devel- ship Charles Martel, the lead ship of the 1890
oping a local industrial base. programme, while the Editor will publish a major article
The features section concludes with an article by Jon on France’s first aircraft carrier, Béarn, built using an
Wise about the close, but not always smooth-running incomplete battleship hull during the 1920s. David Hobbs
relationship between the British Royal Navy and the will follow up his Warship Note on berthing the recon-
Royal Netherlands Navy since 1945 and our regular structed Victorious with a major feature detailing the
drawing feature by A D Baker III. Jon’s article focuses on carrier’s modernisation during the 1950s, while Stephen
the politics of joint projects for ships, weaponry and McLaughlin will turn his attention to the unusual design
sensors and the inevitable tensions between affordability of the Italian ironclad battleships Italia and Lepanto.
and capability. Dave Baker features an unusual vessel, the John Jordan
USS Lebanon, which began her career as a naval collier April 2018
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ARMED MERCHANT CRUISER:
The Conversion of HMS Kanimbla, 1939
British interwar contingencyplansfor the protection ofEmpire trade atsea called for the rapid
conversion ofselected passenger shipsinto armed merchantcruisersto augmentthe RoyalNavy’s
inadequate force ofregular warships. Peter Cannonlooksatthe conversion ofthe Australian
coastalpassenger liner Kanimblainto one ofthe mostsuccessfulauxiliarywarshipsofher kind
upon the outbreakofwar in 1939.
During the late nineteenth century, Britain developed a Beginning in late 1919, the Admiralty facilitated
policy of employing passenger vessels as auxiliary arrangements with patriotically-minded ship owners to
cruising warships to supplement the regular vessels begin incorporating structural stiffening to support both
protecting her global empire’s trade. Armed Merchant Low Angle (LA) anti-surface and High Angle (HA) anti-
Cruisers (AMC) served successfully during the First aircraft guns during the construction of 50 suitably-sized
World War, and experience of that conflict shaped future passenger ships. Furthermore, the register of potential
Admiralty contingency planning. The Royal Navy’s (RN) AMCs included a pool of unprepared vessels from which
immediate post-war planning, with Japan the only cred- to select a further 24 in the event of war. Conversions
ible opponent, called for 70 cruisers to fight a war in the would be equipped predominantly from stockpiled
Far East: 25 with the battle fleet and the remaining 45 equipment removed from decommissioned warships
allocated to trade defence. The latter would be supple- during the drastic downsizing of the peacetime fleet.
mented by 74 AMCs expeditiously converted at ports in Australia, having recently assumed the status of full
the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, Malta, India, South partner in the business of Empire naval defence through
Africa, Canada and Australia when hostilities were the creation of a blue-water navy, participated in the
considered imminent.1 scheme from the outset. By 1921 seven ships building in
HMSKanimblasailing for her workup period on 27 November 1939. The photo wastaken offSydneybyNo 6 Squadron RAAF. Onlythe
forward four (No 1 and No 2) gunshave been provided with shields, while the after No 3 and poop gunsremain unshielded. Also of
note isthe toned-down civilian paintscheme and short-lived air recognition roundelon the poop deck.(RoyalAustralian Navy: HMAS
CerberusMuseum)
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