- Yes
- No
- 1939 Danae
- 1942 Danae
- 1943 Danae
- All of the Above
- I voted no for the first question
Brief Summary:
The HMS Danae and her class of 8 ships is one of the older classes in the Royal Navy serving at the end of the first world war and at the outbreak of the second world war serving both in the Royal Navy and in the Polish Navy the class of ships would serve all over the globe and Danae herself finishing her career transporting the Polish Red Cross and training the Polish navy.
History:
The Danae Class also known as the D Class Cruisers were designed as lengthened C Class Cruisers allowing for the room to fit in more 152.2mm or 6inch naval guns, originally planned to be a 12 group set of cruisers starting construction in late 1916 the amount was reduced to 8 by the end of the first world war. HMS Danae and her 7 sisters would be completed between 1918 to 1922 .
The Service life of Danae is vast first serving at the end of the first war patrolling the North Sea until a not long later aiding the White in the Russian Civil war serving in the Baltic as a part of the Atlantic squadron at this point in time. In 1923 she took part in the Special Service Squadron alongside Battlecruisers HMS Hood and HMS Repulse as well as 4 of her sister ships. This Special Service Cruiser took the Danae from port to port all over Africa from Freetown to Zanzibar then to Asia and Australia before heading through the Pacific docking in Fiji and Hawaii before reaching Canada and the US coast where she would dock into Vancouver and San Francisco before going into the last stretch of the Squadrons journey by entering many South American ports before heading back to Europe with Cape Verde being the last stop of the squadrons journey.
After the Special Service Squadron she would serve in the Mediterranean from 1927-1929 before being withdrawn for refurbishments and modernisations after over a decade in service. When she re-entered service in 1930 she towed a paddlewheel boat from Devonport all the way to Halifax afterwards immediately springing into action to aid the Dominican Republics capital Santo Domingo which had been hit by a hurricane, arriving there on September 10th. By October she was back to towing the paddlewheel boat to Bermuda to finish her original task from re-entering service. When the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese war happened in 1935 she escorted various convoys which where evacuating Shanghai for Hong Kong.
After her long career seeing service all over the world she was set into reserve originally being planned to become an Anti-Air Cruiser however the second world war changed these plans and on March 23rd 1940 she served in the Far East alongside two of her sisters HMS Durban and Dauntless as well as heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall and Australian heavy Cruiser HMAS Canberra before being withdrawn on the 24th February 1941 to Cape Town for refurbishments where she where she would remain until March 1944 where she would return to Great Britain to aid in the Invasion of Normandy on the Sword Beach Sector and later in the year being withdrawn from service and remaining as a hulk in Plymouth.
However her time as a hulk isn’t the end of her journey as by the 4th of October 1944 she would be leased to the Polish Navy after her sister ship HMS Dragon was sunk being crewed by the survivors of her lost sister ship being refurbished again until the 23rd of January 1945 in which she would have an uneventful time where she would suffer damages to the Turbines in Scapa Flow leading to her repairs lasting until 30th of May where the war in Europe had ended but for her she would have the task of transporting the Polish Red Cross to Norway and Denmark and lastly at the end of 1945 she returned to Rosyth for the last time and begun training the Polish navy. She would be decommissioned on the 8th of March 1946 and would remain in port until the 27th of March where scrapping begun ending the long eventful journey of a ship that had seen service in just about every region of the globe.
HMS Danae in 1918
HMS Danae in 1934
HMS Danae in 1943
HMS Danae at D-Day
Technical:
HMS Danae 1939:
Hull:
Max Speed, Knots, KN: 29
Displacement Standard, T: 4970
Displacement Full, T: 5870
Power, HP: 40000
Length, M: 143.6
Breadth, M: 13.9
Draught, M: 5.00
Complement: 450/469 (as a flagship)
fuel, T: Oil 1050
Electronic Equipment: None
Rangefinders: Multiple Barr and Stroud Rangefinder variants such as the F.Q. 2, M.Q. 1and M.P. 3
Armour:
Belt, mm: 76-38
Deck, mm: 25
Control Tower, mm: 76
Gun Shields, mm: 25
Armament:
6x1 - 152/45 BL MK XII
3x1 102/45 QF MK V
4x1 40/39 2pdr QF Mk II
4x3 - 533 TT
HMS Danae 1942:
Armament:
6x1 - 152/45 BL MK XII
2x1 102/45 QF MK V
4x1 40/39 2pdr QF Mk II
1x4 40/39 2pdr QF Mk II
4x3 - 533 TT
HMS Danae 1943:
Armament:
5x1 - 152/45 BL MK XII
1x1 102/45 QF MK XVI
2x4 40/39 2pdr QF Mk VIII
4x2 20/70 Oerlikon Mk II/IV
Depth Charges
- Type 271, 282, 283 and 291 Radars
Sources:
HMS Danae (D44) - Wikipedia
http://www.navypedia.org/ships/uk/brit_cr_danae.htm
Danae-class cruiser - Wikipedia
HMS Danae, British light criuser, WW2
HMS Danae (D 44) of the Royal Navy - British Light cruiser of the D class - Allied Warships of WWII - uboat.net
HMS Danae - Battle of Normandy
http://dreadnoughtproject.org/tfs/index.php/Danae_Class_Cruiser_(1917)
https://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=371