HMS Norfolk (78)

HMS ''Norfolk'' was a heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy. The ship was the Lead ship of the Norfolk-subclass of which only two were built: ''Norfolk'' and . She served throughout the Second World War. During 1939-41 she operated in the Atlantic against German raiders and blockade runners. In March 1940 she was damaged by a German dive bomber in the anchorage of Scapa Flow.

In May 1941 ''Norfolk'' and her sister ship detected the German battleship and the heavy cruiser whilst on patrol in Denmark Strait. The two cruisers guided the battleship and the battlecruiser to the German ships, but in the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May, ''Hood'' was sunk and both ''Prince of Wales'' and ''Bismarck'' were damaged. ''Norfolk'' and ''Suffolk'' kept contact with the German ships and guided the Home Fleet to the scene. ''Norfolk'' directed a torpedo bomber attack from ''Victorious'' to the ''Bismarck'', but these aircraft could only score one insignificant hit on ''Bismarck''. Finally ''Bismarck'' shook off the shadowing ''Norfolk, Suffolk'' and ''Prince of Wales,'' and headed to port in France. When Bismarck was found back on 26 May, ''Norfolk'' was one of the few ships left with enough fuel, to continue the pursuit of ''Bismarck.'' In the evening of 26 may, torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier rendered ''Bismarck'' steerless, allowing her persuers to catch up. In the morning of 27 May, the battleships and , ''Norfolk'' and the heavy cruisers destroyed the ''Bismarck'' with gunfire and torpedoes.

From 1942 onwards she operated in the Arctic, usually as part of the close covering force of Arctic convoys to Russia, where she was involved in the sinking of the German battleship during the Battle of the North Cape.

Characteristics

''Norfolk'' was laid down in July 1927 at Govan by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd, launched on 12 December 1928, and commissioned on 30 April 1930. She was at maximum long overall, and had a beam of and a draught of . The cruiser displaced at standard displacement, in compliance with the tonnage restriction of the Washington Naval Treaty, and up to at full load. ''Norfolk'' was propelled by four Parsons steam turbines that drove four screw propellers. Steam was provided by eight oil-fired 3-drum water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at and produced a top speed of . The ship had a capacity of of fuel oil as built, which provided a cruising radius of at a speed of . She had a crew of 710 officers and enlisted men.

''Norfolk'' was armed with a main battery of eight guns in four twin turrets. She had a secondary battery consisting of four twin dual-purpose guns. The cruiser was to be equipped with multiple QF 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns, but these were not yet available when she was commissioned. In 1939 her light anti-aircraft armament consisted of two octuple 2-pounder guns and two quadruple Vickers AA machine guns. By 1945 this was modified to six quadruple 2-pounders, nine single Bofors 40 mm guns and eleven twin 20 mm guns. To compensate for the added weight of anti-aircraft armament and radars, the third ( "X" ) twin 8 inch turret was landed in 1944. ''Norfolk'' also mounted two quadruple torpedo tubes.

The County-class heavy cruisers sacrified armour for speed and armament. As built there was no belt armour, but a belt was added before the war. The sides and the barbettes used plating, the lower deck , the turrets and only the ammunition magazines received of armour plate on the sides.

During the war, ''Norfolk'' underwent five refits and repairs : April-July 1940, July-September 1941, February-March 1942, April-May 1943 and February-October 1944. On each occasion her anti-aircraft armament and radar equipment were updated with what was available at the moment.

Service history

Inter-war period

In July 1931, ''Norfolk'' and ''Devonshire'' were the first British Navy ships to visit the German harbor Kiel. In September 1931, the crew of the ''Norfolk'' were part of a mutiny that later became known as the Invergordon Mutiny. The ship later served with the Home Fleet until 1932 and was then Flagship of the 8th Cruiser Squadron on the America and West Indies Station, based at the Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, between 1932 and 1934. ''Norfolk'' left Bermuda on 21 November 1934 for England. From 1935 to 1939, ''Norfolk'' served with the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, before coming home to refit in 1939, being still in dockyard hands when war was declared.

Second World War

At the outbreak of war in 1939, ''Norfolk'' was part of the 8th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet. In November she was part of the Northern Patrol guarding Denmark Strait against German blockade runners and raiders. On 23 November the German battleships and attacked the Northern Patrol between Iceland and the Faroe Islands and sank the armed merchant cruiser . ''Norfolk'' was involved in the chase for the two German battleships, but ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' retreated at high speed and managed to return to Germany in bad weather. In anticipation of a British reaction on the sortie of the two battleships, the (OKM) had organised a submarine trap East of the Shetland isles. In very bad weather, ''Norfolk'' was sighted on 28 November by which signalled a contact report and alerted the nearby under the command of the famous Günther Prien. Due to the bad weather, Prien managed only to launch one torpedo which missed, but Prien reported one hit, whilst German propaganda claimed the cruiser sunk.

In order to counter a supposed Allied invasion of Norway, the Germans executed a raid on 16 March 1940 with eighteen Junkers Ju 88 of ''Kampfgeschwader'' 30 and sixteen Heinkel He 111 of ''Kampfgeschwader'' 26 at the naval base of Scapa Flow. ''Norfolk'' received a bomb hit on the quarterdeck which blew a hole in the hull and flooded the aft shell magazines. She went into repairs for three months. After these repairs had been completed ''Norfolk'' proceeded to a shipyard on the River Tyne for a new addition to her equipment – a radar set.

In November 1940, the German "pocket battleship" broke out into the Atlantic and on 5 November attacked Convoy HX 84 and sank five ships. Trying to anticipate every possible next move of the German raider, the Admiralty sent out ships to block a possible return to Germany, allocated battleships to convoy escort and organized hunting groups in the North Atlantic. ''Norfolk'' was sent out from Freetown northwards together with her sister ship and the aircraft carrier to block the raider from going to port in occupied France. When in December the appeared in the South Atlantic, ''Norfolk'' was ordered to Freetown as part of Force K on trade protection duties. On 18 January 1941 ''Norfolk'', under the command of Captain Phillips, acting upon a report from the armed merchant cruiser ''Arawa'' seeing in the far distance the gun flashes of the German auxiliary cruiser sinking the tanker ''British Union'', joined in the search for the German raider together with her sister ship .

''Bismarck''

On 21 May ''Norfolk,'' under the command of rear Admiral Frederic Wake-Walker, was patrolling in the Denmark Strait against possible German raiders. When the British received news of an impeding attempt of the German battleship and heavy cruiser to breakout into the Atlantic, the Denmark Strait patrol was reinforced with ''Norfolk''s sister ship , which was refuelling at Iceland. In the evening of 23 May the two cruisers were patrolling apart when ''Suffolk'' spotted the two German ships. ''Suffolk'' hid in the mist but when ''Norfolk'' made contact with the German ships she was spotted by ''Bismarck'' and the German battleship fired five salvoes at ''Norfolk'' before she too could escape in the mist. ''Norfolk'' and ''Suffolk'' continued to shadow ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' with their radar and sent regular contact reports, in order to guide a British force consisting of the battleship , the battlecruiser and six destroyers under the command of Admiral Lancelot Holland to the scene. At midnight ''Bismarck'' suddenly reversed course and tried to chase the cruisers away. ''Norfolk'' and ''Suffolk'' lost contact and as a result, Holland sent his destroyers away on a fruitless search for the German ships. When contact was finally regained Holland could close in on the German ships but now the British ships were approaching slowly on a converging course rather than the planned advantageous head-on approach. In the ensuing Battle of the Denmark Strait ''Hood'' was sunk and both ''Bismarck'' and ''Prince Of Wales'' were damaged. Holland had not tried to involve the shadowing cruisers in his battle plan, the cruisers were too far away to close in before the battle was over. Only ''Suffolk'' fired a few salvoes which fell far too short.

Both cruisers and the damaged ''Prince of Wales'' continued to shadow the German ships in order to guide the Home Fleet to them. During the afternoon of 24 May, ''Bismarck'' turned twice on her pursuers and had a brief gun duel, first with ''Suffolk'', and then ''Prince of Wales''. With these diversions, ''Prinz Eugen'' was able to slip away to continue merchant raiding independently whilst the damaged ''Bismarck'' wanted to head to the French port of Brest for repairs. During the night, an attack with nine Fairey Swordfish aircraft was launched from the approaching Home Fleet. In bad visibility the aircraft detected ''Bismarck'' at 23:30 and the shadowing British ships with their radar, and made contact with ''Norfolk'' to get a proper heading towards the enemy. The aircraft scored one hit but this did not affect ''Bismarck'' much. ''Norfolk'' was trailing ''Bismarck'' with her radar on the port side. As the British ships entered the open Atlantic, they started to zigzag because of the U-boat danger. ''Norfolk'' had a fixed radar, not a rotating one, and was able to track ''Bismarck'' only during the first leg of the zigzag. When ''Bismarck'' turned away on 25 May at 03:06 to starboard and behind the trailing ships, the manoeuvre was detected too late and the British ships lost contact. ''Norfolk'', ''Suffolk'', ''Prince of Wales'', and the approaching Home Fleet fanned out to regain contact but ''Bismarck'' had escaped.

During the subsequent search for ''Bismarck,'' many British ships had to give up the hunt because of fuel shortage and because they were searching in the wrong direction, thinking ''Bismarck'' would either continue into the Atlantic or return to Norway. Wake-Walker anticipated ''Bismarck'' continuing to a French port and when ''Bismarck'' was found back on 26 May at 10:30 by air reconnaissance on her way to Brest, ''Norfolk'' was in a position to pick up the chase again. ''Bismarck'' had its rudder jammed as a result of a torpedo aircraft attack the same day at 20:47 by the aircraft carrier from Force H. During the night ''Norfolk'' closed in together with the battleships and , but waited until the morning of 27 May to attack, whilst ''Bismarck'' was constantly being harassed by individual torpedo attacks of five destroyers under the command of Captain Philip Vian. ''Norfolk'' made contact with ''Bismarck'' at 07:53 but withdrew quickly awaiting the arrival of ''Rodney'' and ''King George V.'' The British initiated the battle at 08:47 and ''Norfolk'' joined at 08:54, firing from . At 08:59 she scored an important hit on the foretop of ''Bismarck,'' putting her central fire control station out of action. At 09:10 ''Norfolk'' fired four torpedoes from which all missed. During the battle she fired a total of 527 8-inch shells, and carried out flank marking for the battleships. ''Bismarck'' was put out of action by 09:30 and finally sank at 10:40. After the battle ''Norfolk'' returned independently to the Clyde on 29 May and on the way she was bombed by one German aircraft but suffered no damage.

Arctic convoys

When the German army invaded the USSR in Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, the British decided to send aid to the Soviets. A PQ convoy lane sending military supplies from the United Kingdom to Northern Russia was established by September 1941. From October onward, ''Norfolk'' was employed as an escort for these Arctic convoys. Between 17 and 30 October she escorted the six merchant ships of Convoy PQ 2 to Arkhangelsk, in company of the destroyers and and three minesweepers. On 3 November the cruiser and the two destroyers escorted the twelve ships of the empty return convoy QP 2 back to the United Kingdom. From then on she was attached to the Home Fleet as part of a force guarding a possible breakout attempt of the German battleship into the Atlantic.

In April 1942 ''Norfolk'' was assigned as close cruiser escort for the Convoy PQ 14, with the cruiser with the destroyers and , but she was unable to link up with the other ships and did not sail to Northern Russia but instead stayed in the vicinity of Bear Island from where she could support either PQ 14 or the returning Convoy QP 10. On 13 May ''Norfolk'' sailed again towards Bear Island as part of a cruiser force in order to cover the return of the damaged cruiser from Murmansk to home waters, but ''Trinidad'' was sunk by German bomber aircraft before they could reach her. Between 21 and 29 May she sailed to Kola Bay as part of the close cruiser escort for Convoy PQ 16 and the returning QP 12. By now, the Germans were opposing the passage of these convoys fiercely, but due to fuel shortages for their surface fleet, attacked mainly with aircraft and U-boats, so ''Norfolk'' was not much involved in the defence of the convoy.

The next Convoy PQ 17 sailed on 27 June and again ''Norfolk'' was part of the close cruiser escort. Through intelligence the British learned that the German surface fleet had plans to intercept the convoy and the First Sea Lord Dudley Pound decided to recall all escorts and to scatter the convoy, resulting in the loss of twenty-three out of thirty-five ships of the convoy. Due to the heavy losses and opposition, the next Convoy PQ 18 was delayed until 7 September, when the threat of interception by ''Tirpitz'' had receded. The cruiser escort with ''Norfolk'' did not stay close to the convoy but patrolled in the area northwest of Jan Mayen and covered the returning Convoy QP 14 as well.

Arctic convoys were then suspended to free forces for Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa in November. ''Norfolk'' and her sister ship operated during Operation Torch as a covering force near the Azores for the American landings on the Atlantic coast of Morocco by the Western Task Force.

In December 1942, the Arctic convoys were resumed. Pound insisted that these convoys were given protection against an attack by the German surface fleet stationed in Norway, by giving them cover of a cruiser force all the way to North Russia. The Home Fleet usually sailed as well but kept its distance. ''Norfolk'' was now usually attached to the Home Fleet or was on patrol around Iceland. Only after the cruiser received severe storm damage did ''Norfolk'' replace her in the cruiser force for Convoy JW 53 in March 1943.

Battle of North Cape

In November 1943 the Arctic convoys were resumed again. The first pair of convoys Convoy JW 54A and Convoy JW 54B sailed unopposed, with ''Norfolk'' being part of the cruiser covering force, but on 19 December, Karl Dönitz told Hitler that the would attack and destroy the next convoy. Anticipating an attack by ''Scharnhorst,'' the commander of the Home Fleet Bruce Fraser organized a trap : for the next convoys Convoy JW 55A and Convoy JW 55B, the cruiser escort consisting of the 10th Cruiser Squadron with the cruisers ''Sheffield'', ''Belfast'' and ''Norfolk'' would keep ''Scharnhorst'' at bay and shadow her so that he could stay undetected at distance with the battleship and race to the scene when needed. On 26 December at 09:21 ''Sheffield'' sighted ''Scharnhorst,'' and ''Norfolk'' opened fire at 09:30. ''Norfolk'' fired six salvoes and scored two hits on ''Scharnhorst'' in a brief gun duel, disabling the aft radar of the German ship. ''Scharnhorst'' withdrew and escaped at high speed.

The cruisers were not able to follow but positioned themselves correctly on the other side of the convoy where ''Scharnhorst'' tried a second attack three hours later. At 12:10 ''Sheffield''s radar detected ''Scharnhorst'' at a distance of and a second engagement developed. ''Sheffield'' was straddled by several salvoes but then ''Scharnhorst'' changed target and hit ''Norfolk'' two times. The first hit put 'X' turret out of action, the second exploded midships below maindeck and killed six men. Fearing torpedo attacks, ''Scharnhorst'' broke off the action and turned for port in Norway. The cruisers kept shadowing but first ''Norfolk'' and then ''Sheffield'' dropped behind with engine trouble. ''Belfast'' remained in touch with ''Scharnhorst'' and guided ''Duke of York'' to the scene. ''Duke of York'' opened fire at 16:51, by 17:00 ''Norfolk'' had linked up and opened fire as well. By 19:45 the German battleship was sunk by gunfire from ''Duke of York'' and torpedoes from the escorting destroyers.

After the battle of North Cape, ''Norfolk'' underwent a lengthy refit. On 11 January 1945 a British force consisting of the cruisers ''Norfolk'' and and four destroyers, executed a raid on Norwegian coastal shipping. Near Egersund they attacked a German convoy and sank two freighters and the escorting minesweeper ''M 273''. Fighters from the covering escort carriers and repulsed a German counter-attack by torpedo aircraft. ''Norfolk'' was the flagship of Vice Admiral Rhoderick McGrigor off North Norway during Operation Judgement, an attack by the Fleet Air Arm on a U-boat base which destroyed two ships and on 4 May 1945, in the last air raid of the war in Europe.

Post-war

''Norfolk'' left Plymouth for a much needed refit at Malta, after transporting on 7 June the Norwegian Royal family back to Oslo after their five-year exile in London.After the war the large County-class cruisers with their large crews were too demanding on the available manpower of the Navy. Only the cruisers that had been extensively modernised during war such as ''Norfolk'' were retained in a training or staff role. Between August 1945 and March 1946 she was part of the 5th Cruiser Squadron in the East Indies Station. In January 1946 ''Norfolk'' became the flagship stationed at Batavia. In 1949, ''Norfolk'' returned to Britain and was placed in Reserve. She was sold to BISCO for scrapping on 3 January 1950. On 14 February 1950, she proceeded to Newport, arriving on 19 February, to be scrapped.

Footnotes

Notes

References

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Further reading

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External links

HMS ''Norfolk'' at U-boat.net

Cruisers of World War II listing for HMS ''Norfolk''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norfolk (78)
County-class cruisers of the Royal Navy
Ships built in Govan
1928 ships
World War II cruisers of the United Kingdom