- Yes
- No
Hello Captains!
A while ago I suggested another C-Class cruiser, HMS Calcutta which was converted into an AA-cruiser for the Second World War. Today I wish to put to you another ship of this class, but instead of a Carlisle Sub-Class ship, I put forward a Ceres Sub-Class ship, HMS Ceres. What differentiates this ship is that rather than being converted into an AA cruiser, she retained her 152mm cannons, thus giving her a different role which could be interesting to see in game.
History and Service
Launched on 24 March 1917, HMS Ceres was assigned to the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron and served the later part of the First World War within this role. However with the end of the Great War, peace was not to last long for her as she was soon deployed to the Black Sea in 1920 in order to provide support to White forces during the Russian Civil War. For the rest of the Interwar period however, HMS Ceres rotated between the Mediterranean, the Home Fleet and Reserve where she was considered for conversion into an Anti-Aircraft Cruiser. However, the outbreak of the Second World War stopped these plans and HMS Ceres was quickly put back into the fleet where she initially patroled the Denmark Strait. In 1940, she was transferred first to the Mediterranean where she was stationed in Malta, before being sent to the Far East in April where she patrolled the Dutch East Indies in an attempt to deter Japanese naval activity in the region. Her main action in the war however took place in an often forgotten theatre where she first helped with the evactuations of British Somaliland in 1940 and provided naval gunfire support against the Italian advance on Berbera. HMS Ceres then helped with the recapture of British Somaliland and the push into Italian Somaliland in 1941 before going to the Persian Gulf to under-go a refit where she had 20mms installed. She returned to Home Waters in 1943 where she became the station ship at Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth before she received another refit in preperation for D-Day where she was attached to US Task Force 127 and acted as Shuttle Control for Omaha Beach. Following the capture of Cherbourg, she returned to Plymouth where she was placed in reserve and turned into a base ship for Portsmouth before being sold and broken up in 1946, brining her 29 year career to an end.
Specifications
Displacement: 4,190 tons
Length: 450 ft (140 m)
Beam: 43.6 ft (13.3 m)
Draught: 14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion: Two Brown-Curtis geared turbines Six Yarrow boilers Two propellers 40,000 shp
Speed: 29 knots (54 km/h)
Complement: 327
Armour: 3 inch side (amidships), 2¼-1½ inch side (bows), 2 inch side (stern), 1 inch upper decks (amidships) and 1 inch deck over rudder
Armament and Refits
1939: 5 x 1 - 152/45 BL Mk XII, 2 x 1 - 76/45 20cwt QF Mk I, 2 x 1 - 40/39 2pdr QF Mk II, 4 x 2 - 533 TT
1942: 5 x 1 - 152/45 BL Mk XII, 2 x 1 - 76/45 20cwt QF Mk I, 2 x 1 - 40/39 2pdr QF Mk II, 6 x 1 - 20/70 Oerlikon Mk II/IV, 4 x 2 - 533 TT
1943: 5 x 1 - 152/45 BL Mk XII, 2 x 1 - 76/45 20cwt QF Mk I, 6 x 1 - 20/70 Oerlikon Mk II/IV, 4 x 2 - 533 TT
1944: 5 x 1 - 152/45 BL Mk XII, 14 x 1 - 20/70 Oerlikon Mk II/IV, 4 x 2 - 533 TT
Playstyle
With her relatively light armament, she would be similar in playstyle to the earlier cruiser like the Kuma, Isuzu, Etna and Emden, using their speed and lighter armament to push and harass any destroyers that could attempt to push any caps or torpedo bigger ships. Furthermore with torpedoes and a decent AA suite from 1942 onwards, HMS Ceres could prove to be quite a versatile ship in the lower cruiser BRs filling a nice gap in similar vessels like the Etna and Isuzu, and the Yubari in particular. She would be a fun ship to play and would add a ship that is often forgotten, as she is frequently overlooked due to the presence of more modern and better armed ships from the Second World War, thus potentially getting some of the attention she deserves in War Thunder.
Sources
https://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-06CL-Ceres.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20200218100151/http://navypedia.org/ships/uk/brit_cr_ceres.htm
British Light Cruisers 1939-45 by Angus Konstam
Janes Fighting Ships of World War II