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Black Prince at anchor on the River Tyne, July 1944 | |
History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | Black Prince |
Namesake | Edward, the Black Prince |
Builder | Harland & Wolff, Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Yard number | 1049 [1] |
Laid down | 2 November 1939 |
Launched | 27 August 1942 |
Completed | 20 November 1943 [1] |
Commissioned | 30 November 1943 |
Decommissioned | March 1962 |
Out of service | Loaned to the Royal New Zealand Navy, 25 May 1946 |
Fate | Scrapped, 2 May 1962 |
Notes | Pennant number: 81 |
New Zealand | |
Name | HMNZS Black Prince |
Commissioned | 25 May 1946 |
Out of service | Returned to Royal Navy control, 1 April 1961 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | Dido-class light cruiser |
Displacement |
|
Length | |
Beam | 50.5 ft (15.4 m) |
Draught | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion | 4 shafts; 4 geared steam turbines |
Speed | 32.25 knots (59.73 km/h; 37.11 mph) |
Range | 6,824 km (3,685 nmi; 4,240 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
Complement | 530 |
Armament | |
Armour |
HMS Black Prince was a Dido-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, of the Bellona subgroup. The cruiser was commissioned in 1943, and served during World War II on the Arctic convoys, during the Normandy landings, and as part of the British Pacific Fleet. In 1946, the cruiser was loaned to the Royal New Zealand Navy, becoming HMNZS Black Prince. The cruiser was docked for modernisation in 1947, but in April, her sailors walked off the ship as part of a series of mutinies in the RNZN. The shortage of manpower resulting from these mutinies meant that the modernisation had to be cancelled, and Black Prince was placed in reserve until 1953. She returned to service after refitting with simplified secondary armament with a single quad "pom pom" in Q position and eight Mk3 40mm Bofors guns. The ship was decommissioned again two years later, and returned to the Royal Navy in 1961. Black Prince did not re-enter service, and was towed from Auckland to Osaka for scrapping in 1962.
"Black Prince" was a modified Dido design, sometimes called Dido Group 2, or the Bellona subgroup with only four 5.25-inch mounts instead of five, and improved anti-aircraft armament. She was built by Harland & Wolff of Belfast, Northern Ireland, with her keel being laid down on 2 November 1939. [2] [3] She was launched on 27 August 1942, [2] [3] and completed on 20 November 1943. [2] [3]
Black Prince was named after Prince Edward (1330-1376), the eldest son of King Edward III.
After commissioning, Black Prince served on Arctic convoys and then came south in preparation for the invasion of Europe, being employed on offensive sweeps against German coastal convoy traffic. On the night of 25 and 26 April 1944, accompanied by Canadian destroyers, she was involved in the action which sank the torpedo boat T29 and damaged T24 and T27 off the north Brittany coast.
During the Normandy landings, she was part of Force "A" of Task Force 125 in support of Utah Beach. Task Force 125 at this time consisted of the battleship USS Nevada, the cruisers USS Quincy, USS Tuscaloosa, Black Prince, the monitor HMS Erebus and several destroyers and destroyer escorts. [4] Black Prince's target was the battery at Morsalines. [5] [6] In August, she moved to the Mediterranean for the invasion of Southern France. [7] She was then sent to Aegean waters in September 1944. On 8 September, Black Prince arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, where she was ordered to sweep the area around Scarpanto and the Gulf of Salonica. On one occasion she bombarded the airfield at Maleme on the island of Crete to prevent German aircraft from taking off.
On 21 November 1944, Black Prince left Alexandria, passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea and then on into the Indian Ocean. She arrived at Colombo in Ceylon on 30 November to join the East Indies Fleet where she covered the aircraft carrier raids against Japanese oil installations and airfields in Sumatra and Malaya (Operation Meridian).
On 16 January 1945, she sailed as part of the British Pacific Fleet, seeing action off Okinawa and in the final bombardments of the Japanese mainland before withdrawing to repossess Hong Kong in September.
After the Japanese surrender, she remained in the Far East, and was transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy on 25 May 1946. During 1947, the cruiser was docked for modernisation, but this was cancelled following a series of mutinies in April (which included the sailors from Black Prince), as the RNZN no longer had the manpower to operate her. [8] Black Prince was placed in reserve. Work on reactivating the ship began in January 1952, to reduce crew the two multiple Pom Pom AA mounts were temporarily removed and 8 of the unique RNZN 40 mm single electric Toadstool CIWS, installed, in place of Mk 5 twin Oerilikons and she was recommissioned in February 1953. [9] In the same year she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. [10]
The cruiser was decommissioned again in August 1955, and after the decision in the British 1957 Defence White Paper to strike the remaining Royal Navy Dido and Improved Didos as too outdated to be used again or modernized, Black Prince was reduced to extended 3rd class reserve, [11] and used as an accommodation ship [12] for refitting warships and spare part source for Royalist 's 1960-1 refit, before reverting to Royal Navy control for disposal in line with its loan terms.
She was sold for scrap in March 1962 and towed from Auckland on 5 April to the Mitsui & Company, Osaka breakage yards, Japan, by the tug Benten Maru, arriving there on 2 May 1962. [13]
HMAS Napier (G97/D13) was an N-class destroyer serving in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during World War II. Built during 1939 and 1940, the destroyer was commissioned into the RAN, although she was ordered and owned by the British government. During 1941, Napier operated in the Mediterranean, before being transferred to the British Eastern Fleet at the start of 1942, then to south Atlantic operations in early 1944. In 1945, Napier was assigned to the British Pacific Fleet, and spent the rest of World War II in the fight against Japan. After the war's end, the destroyer was decommissioned and returned to the British. She was sold off in 1955, and broken up in 1956.
The Dido class consisted of sixteen light cruisers built for the Royal Navy during World War II. The first group of three ships were commissioned in 1940; the second group of six ships and third group of two were commissioned between 1941 and 1942. A fourth group, also described as the Improved Dido or Bellona class were commissioned between 1943 and 1944. Most members of the class were given names drawn from classical history and legend. The groups differed in armament, and for the Bellonas, in function. The Dido class were designed to replace the C-class and D-class cruisers as small fleet cruisers and flotilla leaders for the destroyer screen. As designed, they mounted five twin 5.25-inch high-angle gun turrets on the centreline providing dual-purpose anti-air and anti-surface capacity; the complex new turrets were unreliable when introduced, and somewhat unsatisfactory at a time when the UK faced a fight for survival. During the war, the original 1939-42 ships required extensive refit work to increase electrical generating capacity for additional wartime systems and in the final Bellona,HMS Diadem, fully-electric turrets. While some damage was experienced initially in extreme North Atlantic weather, changes to gun handling and drill partially mitigated the problems. The fitting of the three forward turrets in the double-superfiring A-B-C arrangement relied upon the heavy use of aluminium in the ships' superstructure, and the lack of aluminium after the evacuation of the British Army from France was one of the primary reasons for the first group only receiving four turrets, while the third group received four twin 4.5-inch mounts and no 5.25-inch guns at all. The Bellonas were designed from the start with four radar-directed 5.25-inch gun turrets with full Remote Power Control and an expanded light anti-aircraft battery, substantially increasing their efficiency as AA platforms.
HMS Afridi was one of 16 Tribal-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy shortly before the beginning of Second World War in 1939. Completed in 1938 the ship was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet where she served as a flotilla leader. Afridi was briefly involved enforcing the arms blockade on the combatants in the Spanish Civil War. The ship returned home shortly after the start of the Second World War and was assigned convoy escort duties. She played an active role in the Norwegian Campaign of April–May 1940, escorting convoys to and from Norway. Afridi was sunk by German dive bombers on 3 May as she was escorting the evacuation convoy after the failure of the Namsos Campaign.
HMS Euryalus was a Dido-class cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 21 October 1937, launched on 6 June 1939, and commissioned 30 June 1941. Euryalus was the last cruiser built at the dockyard.
The Tribal class, or Afridi class, was a class of destroyers built for the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Australian Navy that saw service in World War II. Originally conceived during design studies for a light fleet cruiser, the Tribals evolved into fast, powerful destroyers, with greater emphasis on guns over torpedoes than previous destroyers, in response to new designs by Japan, Italy, and Germany. The Tribals were well admired by their crews and the public when they were in service due to their power, often becoming symbols of prestige while in service.
HMS Bellona was the name ship of her sub-class of light cruisers for the Royal Navy. She was the first of the fourth group of Dido-class cruisers. Built to a modified design with only four twin 5.25-inch turrets, but with remote power control for quicker elevation and training, combined with improved handling and storage of the ammunition. The light AA was improved over earlier Dido cruisers, with six twin 20mm Oerlikons and three quadruple 40mm "pom pom".
HMS Cleopatra was a Dido-class cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built by R. and W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, with the keel being laid down on 5 January 1939. She was launched on 27 March 1940, and commissioned on 5 December 1941.
HMS Diadem was a Dido-class light cruiser of the Bellona subgroup of the Royal Navy. She was a modified Dido design with only four turrets but improved anti-aircraft armament – also known as Dido Group 2. She was built by Hawthorn Leslie and Company at Hebburn-on-Tyne, UK, with the keel being laid down on 15 December 1939. She was launched on 26 August 1942, and completed on 6 January 1944.
HMS Royalist was a Bellona-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) during the Second World War and early Cold War.
HMS Rotherham was an R-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy during the Second World War, named after Captain Edward Rotheram, who commanded HMS Royal Sovereign during at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Rotherham was completed in 1942 and equipped as a flotilla leader, having slightly reduced armament to allow for the increased complement and working space required. Decommissioned in 1945, the ship was sold to India in 1948, serving as INS Rajput (D141) until 1976, when she was scrapped.
HMS Birmingham was a member of the first group of five ships of the Town class light cruisers.
HMS Orwell was an O-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that entered service in 1942 and was broken up in 1965.
HMS Matabele was a Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that saw service in World War II, being sunk by a U-boat on 17 January 1942. She has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Matabele, which in common with the other ships of the Tribal class, was named after an ethnic group of the British Empire. In this case, this was the Anglicisation of the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe.
HMS Tartar was a Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that saw service in most of the naval theatres of World War II. She had an eventful career, eventually receiving the nickname 'Lucky Tartar' due to her numerous escapes from dangerous situations. She was one of only four from the sixteen Royal Navy-operated Tribal-class destroyers to survive the war.
HMS Roebuck was an R-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during World War II. She was the fifteenth ship to carry this traditional ship name, after a small deer native to the British Isles, which was used as far back as the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
HMS Offa was an O-class destroyer of the Royal Navy which entered service in 1941 and was scrapped in 1959.
HMS Carlisle was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, named after the English city of Carlisle. She was the name ship of the Carlisle group of the C-class of cruisers. Carlisle was credited with shooting down eleven Axis aircraft during the Second World War and was the top scoring anti-aircraft ship in the Royal Navy.
HMS Ceres was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was the name ship of the Ceres group of the C-class of cruisers.
HMS Echo was an E-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the Atlantic, Arctic and Mediterranean theatres during World War II, before being transferred to the Royal Hellenic Navy in 1944, and renamed Navarinon, until scrapped in 1956.
HMS Obdurate was an O-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was built by William Denny and Brothers of Dumbarton, being laid down at their yards on the River Clyde on 25 April 1940, launched on 19 February 1942 and commissioned on 3 September 1942.