RSV - Man O War.01 - County Class Cruisers.pdf - ZZ - Marynistyka - yogi172

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ALAN RAVEN and JOHN ROBERTS

An introductory note from the publisher:

Dear Reader,

I'd like to take a moment to introduce you to our new

MAN 0' WAR series of warship monographs. Each book

will be devoted to a famous class of warship of the WWII

era, with emphasis on never-before-published data and

photos. Future titles will follow the format of the one you

are now holding; loaded with fine photos, informative

text, & six pages of top-quality colour work.

We have retained the incomparable team of Alan

Raven and John Roberts to author the 1st four titles of

the series (see the back cover for a listing and details).

For those of you familiar with their work, I need speak no

further regarding the quality of content of each book. Art

direction will be the province of Larry Sowinski, the multi-

talented modeller and authority on American warship

camouflage.

There it is; read on and enjoy. I can only hope that in

the reading, the large and handsome "County" cruisers

spring to life for you as they did for us in the preparation

of this work.

Thank You,

~~ Edward Valerio,

R.S.V. Publishing, Inc.

Written by

ALAN RAVEN and JOHN ROBERTS

Photos from the authors' collection and by courtesy

of the Imperial War Museum, U.S. National Archives,

National Maratime Museum. Wright & Logan, and

Arthur Davidson Baker III.

of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system or transmitted, in any form or by any means,

without prior permission of the publisher.

Published by: R.S.V. Publishing Inc.

P.O. Box 182

Times Plaza Station

Brooklyn, N.Y. 11217

Printed in U.S.A.

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The County class cruisers were somewhat unusual ships

being outside the general development of British cruiser

design. They were constructed as a direct result and in

accordance with the terms. of the Washington Naval

Treaty of 1922. This treaty specified that cruisers should

not exceed 10,000 tons displacement or be armed with

guns in excess of 8 inch calibre.

The predictable result was that all the signatories of

the treaty (USA, Britain, Japan, France and Italy) built ships

right up to the limit. Although Britain had proposed the

10,000 ton limit (in order to retain the 9,500 ton Cavendish

class cruisers) it met American, rather than British, cruiser

requirements and when the Counties first appeared they

were heavily criticised for being too large and too expen-

sive. It was pointed out that, to meet British requirements

for trade protection, larger numbers of smaller cruisers

were what were needed. The Admiralty eventually adopted

- this policy after constructing thirteen County class ships

(including two for the Australian Navy) but for all their

faults, real or imagined,the Counties proved of great value

in the Second World War and more than justified their

existence.

Japan would build to the limit and that it was necessary for

Britain to do the same. Little if any consideration was

therefore given to ships of less than 10,000 tons.

As finally worked out the basic requirement was for a

ship armed with eight 8 inch guns mounted in turrets,

having a speed of 33 knots and a high freeboard to give

good sea-keeping qualities. By July 1923 a preliminary in-

vestigation by the ONC's department made it clear that if

all the requirements were met, little weight would be avail-

able for protection. It was estimated that only 820 tons out

of the 10,000 tons could be alloted to this item. This weight

was not sufficient to provide adequate protection to the

vitals of the ship and it was suggested that only the

magazines should be armoured. Several armour schemes

were worked out on this basis and in August 1923 the

following system was proposed for adoption:

Magazinesand shell rooms on the same level in the hold, with box

protection consisting of: '3 inch NC' deck, '3 inch C' end bulk-

heads, '4 inch C' sides and '3 inch C' ring bulkhead to central

hoist.

This scheme absorbed 745 tons and provided protec-

tion from 8 inch shell at angles of decent up to 40° which

was equal to 20,000 yards. The Board of Admir?lty was

not, however, happy about leaving the machinery unpro-

tected and in October 1923 decided to reduce the speed

requirement from 33 knots to 31 knots. This meant a re-

duction from 100,000 SHP to 75,000 SHP with a subse-

The Kent Class

Shortly after the Washington conference the Naval staff

began formulating the requirements for a cruiser of the

Treaty type. It was taken for granted that the USA and

BERWICK at the time of her trials in 1927.

Note the short funnels. Her paint scheme is

a white hull with a buff superstructure.

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AUSTRALIA in 1928 with short

funnels.

SUFFOLK as completed in 1928

with tall funnels, like BERWICK,

she is also painted up in white

and buff.

CUMBERLAND in 1935 under-

going reconstruction. This

included the addition of a large

aircraft hangar forward of the

mainmast and the cutting down of

the quarterdeck.

.,.;

quent saving in the number of boilers. The weight made

available by this saving amounted to 400 tons. It was

decided to utilize this to provide a 1 inch deck and 2 inch

side over the machinery compartments but subsequently

this was distributea on a more complex basis (see legend

Table"I). On October 29, at a Controllers Conference, the

Engineer in Chief commented that in the space available

he could in fact provide machinery of 80,000 SHP without

exceeding the weight already specified. This allowed for

an increase in speed of Y, knot. The legend worked out on

this basis and dated October 31, 1923, was approved by

the Board on December 13.

steering gear

gunhouses

1-1/2 inch deck, 1 inch bulkheads

1 inch roof and sides, 3/4 inch floor.

1 inch ring at base of gunhouse

Weights

General equipment

Armament

Machinery

Amour & protective plating

Hull

Standard displacement:

625 tons

1050 tons

1850 tons

1025 tons

5400 tons

10000 tons

When presenting this legend for approval the DNC

stated that there was no margin whatever for additions of

weight and if the ships were to be kept within the Treaty

limit it would be neces.sary to exercise strict economy of

weight during construction. Detailed calculation of the

design resulted in a reduction of the beam to 68 feet 3

inches; and in the weight adjustments shown in Table 2.

TABLE 1

Legend for KENTClass Cruisers-31 October 1923

. Length (pp)

590feet

Length (oa)

630 feet

TABLE 2

Calculated Estimate of Weights-1925

General Equipment

Beam (max)

68 feet 4 inches

Loaddraught(Ior'd)

151eet 3 inches

Load draught (aft)

17 feet 3 inches

Deep draught (max)

20 feet 6 inches

568 tons

Standard displacement

10,000 tons

Armament

986 tons

Freeboard (Ior'd)

33 feet

Machinery

1826 tons

Freeboard (lIJidships)

27 feet 3 inches

Armour & protective plating

992 tons

Freeboard (aft)

29 feet

Hull

5570 tons

SHP

80,000

Standard displacement:

9942 tons

Speed at load draught

31-112knots

Speed at deep draught

30-1/2 knots

In October 1923 the Board decided on a construction

programme of eight treaty cruisers per year for five years.

In January 1924, however, the first Labour Government

came to power and the Admiralty was asked to reduce this

number drastically. The Board finally decided that they

would accept four in the 1924/25 Programme, but sub-

sequently the cabinet approved the construction of five. In

addition the Australian authorities provided the finance for

the construction of two Treaty cruisers for the RAN. Seven

Kent class ships were therefore laid down in 1924/25, the

details of their construction are given in Table 3

Complement (as private~)

784

Armament:

eight 8 inch, 100 r.p.g.

four 4 inch HA. 200 r.p.g.

two multiple pom-poms,1000 r.p. barrel

two quadruple torpedo tubes, nine

torpedoes

Protection:

mairo"1agazines

4 inch side, 3 inch crown, 3 inch

end bulkheads

secondal) ~

(amidships}

macP'1eI',

3 inch side, 2 inch crown and ends

1-318 inch deck, 1 inch side and end

bulkhead

Oilluel capacity

3200 tons

RSV - Man O War.01 - County Class Cruisers.pdf

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