HMS Cornwall (56)

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HMS Cornwall, pennant number 56, was a Template:Sclass2 heavy cruiser of the Kent sub-class built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1920s. The ship spent most of her pre-World War II career assigned to the China Station. Shortly after the war began in August 1939, she was assigned to search for German commerce raiders in the Indian Ocean. Cornwall was transferred to the South Atlantic in late 1939 where she escorted convoys before returning to the Indian Ocean in 1941. She then sank the Template:Ship in May. After the start of the Pacific War in December 1941, she began escorting convoys until she was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in March 1942. The ship was sunk on 5 April by dive bombers from three Japanese aircraft carriers during the Indian Ocean Raid.

Description

Cornwall displaced Template:Convert at standard load and Template:Convert at deep load. The ship had an overall length of Template:Convert, a beam of Template:Convert and a draught of Template:Convert. She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines, driving four shafts, which developed a total of Template:Convert and gave a maximum speed of Template:Convert. Steam for the turbines was provided by eight Admiralty 3-drum boilers. Cornwall carried a maximum of Template:Convert of fuel oil that gave her a range of Template:Convert at Template:Convert. The ship's complement was 784 officers and men.<ref>Raven and Roberts, pp. 123, 412–13</ref>

The ship mounted eight 50-calibre 8-inch (203 mm) guns in four twin gun turrets. Her secondary armament consisted of four [[QF 4 inch Mk V naval gun|QF Template:Convert Mk V]] anti-aircraft (AA) guns in single mounts. Cornwall mounted four single 2-pounder (40 mm) light AA guns ("pom-poms"). The ship carried two quadruple torpedo tube above-water mounts for [[British 21 inch torpedo|Template:Convert]] torpedoes.<ref name=r12>Raven and Roberts, p. 412</ref>

Cornwall was only lightly protected with little more than a single inch of plating protecting vital machinery. Her magazines were the exception and were protected by Template:Convert of armour. Space and weight was reserved for one aircraft catapult and its seaplane, but they were not fitted until after she was completed.<ref>Raven and Roberts, pp. 251, 412</ref>

Construction and career

Cornwall, the fifth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,<ref>Colledge, p. 79</ref> was named after the eponymous county. The ship was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 9 October 1924 and was launched on 11 March 1926. Completed on 6 December 1927, she was assigned to the 5th Cruiser Squadron (CS) on the China Station and spent the bulk of the interbellum period there.<ref>Whitley, pp. 83, 86</ref> In 1929–30 she received a High-Angle Control System, used to direct her anti-aircraft guns, and a catapult was fitted the following year. Two quadruple Vickers .50-calibre (12.7 mm) Mark III machine guns were added in 1934.<ref name=rr51>Raven and Roberts, p. 251</ref>

In July 1936, Cornwall returned home to begin a major refit, which included a Template:Convert Krupp cemented armour belt abreast the engine and boiler rooms as well as the dynamo room and the fire control transmitting station. This belt extended Template:Convert down from the lower deck. Four inches of armour were also added to protect the sides of the boiler room fan compartments. A hangar for her aircraft was added and a new, more powerful catapult was installed. The ship's director was moved to the roof of the hangar and a new power-operated director-control tower was installed in its original location. Her single four-inch AA guns were replaced with twin-gun mounts for Mark XVI guns of the same calibre. Two octuple-barrel 2-pounder mounts were added abreast the searchlight tower and the original 2-pounder guns were removed. The changes raised the ship's displacement by Template:Convert and cost an estimated £215,000.<ref>Raven and Roberts, pp. 244, 251</ref> After the refit was completed in December 1937, the ship was assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron before rejoining the 5th CS in 1939.<ref name=w6>Whitley, p. 86</ref>

On 5 October 1939, a month after the start of World War II, she was assigned to Force I to hunt for German commerce raiders in the Indian Ocean and spent most of the rest of the year there. Cornwall was then transferred to the South Atlantic for convoy escort duties.<ref name=w6/> On 13 September 1940, the ship rendezvoused with a convoy that was carrying troops intended to capture Dakar from the Vichy French, but was detached to intercept the Vichy French light cruiser Template:Ship that was escorting an oil tanker to Libreville, French Equatorial Africa, five days later and forced them to return to Casablanca in French Morocco. She then returned to the Indian Ocean and sank the German commerce raider Template:Ship on 8 May 1941. Cornwall rescued 3 officers, 57 ratings and 22 prisoners after the battle.<ref>Rohwer, pp. 38, 40, 42, 72</ref>

Dorsetshire (background) and Cornwall under air attack by Japanese aircraft, 5 April 1942

After the start of the Pacific War on 7 December, the ship began escorting convoys across the Indian Ocean,<ref name=w6/> examples being Convoy JS.1 from Colombo, Ceylon, to the Dutch East Indies in late January–early February 1942<ref>Gill, 1957, p. 563</ref> and the troop Convoy MS. 5 to Australia in early March. Later that month, she was assigned to the fast Force A of the Eastern Fleet.<ref>Rohwer, p. 148</ref> On 2 April, Cornwall and her half sister, Template:HMS, were detached from the fleet, Dorsetshire to resume an interrupted refit and Cornwall to escort convoy SU-4 (composed of the U.S. Army transport Template:USAT and Australian transport Template:MV) to Australia and the aircraft carrier Template:HMS to Trincomalee in Ceylon for repairs. On 4 April, the Japanese fleet was spotted and the two cruisers left harbour and, after a hurried refuelling at sea, set out for Addu Atoll shortly after midnight. The following day, the two cruisers were sighted by a spotter plane from the Template:Ship about 200 miles (370 km) south-west of Ceylon.<ref>Gill 1968, pp. 16, 18</ref>

As part of the engagement known as the Easter Sunday Raid, a wave of Aichi D3A dive bombers took off from three Japanese carriers to attack Cornwall and Dorsetshire, Template:Convert south-west of Ceylon, and sank the two ships. British losses were 424 men killed; 1,122 survivors spent thirty hours in the water before being rescued by the light cruiser Template:HMS and two destroyers.<ref>Gill 1968, p. 19</ref>

Bibliography

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• {{#invoke:template wrapper|{{#if:|list|wrap}}|_template=cite book

|_exclude=case, year, _debug
| last1 = Colledge
| first1 = J. J. 
| author-link1= J. J. Colledge
| last2 = Warlow
| first2 = Ben
| date = 2006
| orig-date = 1969
| title = Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present
| edition = Rev.
| location = London
| publisher = Chatham Publishing
| isbn = 978-1-86176-281-8
| OCLC = 67375475

}}

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• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

External links

• HMS Cornwall at U-boat.net
• IWM Interview with survivor Robert Crick
• IWM Interview with survivor John Maule
• IWM Interview with survivor Harold Farmer
• IWM Interview with survivor Roger Collett
• IWM Interview with survivor Patrick Fitz
• IWM Interview with survivor Edwin Drew
• IWM Interview with survivor Benjamin Fuller