- Yes.
- No.
- In a future Dutch/BeNeLux techtree.
- In the French BeNeLux sub-tree
- Other (Please explain in the comments).
- I said “No” in the first question.
Today I’m going to suggest one of the most famour light cruisers of the Netherlands Navy.
This is the light cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter (1935)
HNLMS De Ruyter
Source: Foto's
History
Spoiler
HNLMS De Ruyter in the early stages of construction
Source: Foto'sThe story of HNLMS De Ruyter was quite a dissapointing one actually. In 1926 the Netherlands Navy accepted two new light cruisers into their Navy, these being the two Java-class cruisers HNLMS Java and HNLMS Sumatra. But the original plan was for three Java-class cruisers. The third ship, HNLMS Celebes, was never built. This left the Navy feeling a little underwhelmed. HNLMS Celebes was planned to be made as flagship, with accommodation for the fleet commander and his staff.
So some time after the Navy wanted a new third cruiser. And this time they wanted one that was armed with 20cm guns, most likely a heavy cruiser. But the current economical crisis made it so that this new cruisers specifications kept getting smaller and smaller. Instead of 20cm guns it would have the usual 15cm onces. Instead of a heavy cruiser it was going to be a light one. In the end the proposal had whittled down to a small light cruiser with three twin 15cm guns.
However, a small compromise had been made. The Navy still didn’t have their Flagship cruiser that HNLMS Celebes was planned to be. So this new cruiser design was proposed to fill this role. And so the design was slightly increased in size to accommodate the fleet commander and his staff, and with the increased size there was room for a fourth 15cm gun turret. But since we can’t have nice things in war neutral 1930’s Netherlands this increase was seen as a bit to much, so the Navy had to settle with just a single extra 15cm gun turret instead of a twin one.
HNLMS De Ruyter whilst still under construction. The main bridge was getting finished here
Source: Foto'sThe new ship was given the name HNLMS De Ruyter, a very iconic name for Dutch ships and always reserved for the largest and most powerfull ships the Navy had. The ship was launched on the 11th of March 1935, and would be put into service on the 3rd of October 1936.
Dispite the small size and poor armour of the cruiser, the ship itself was seen as one of the most advanced cruisers of it’s time. The fire controll systems onboard the ship, and the very advanced anti-aircraft battery were simply the best at the time. So the ship was a great sign of pride for the Dutch Navy.
HNLMS De Ruyter most likely shortly after going into service
Source: Foto'sIn 1937 the ship set sail for the Dutch East Indies, and during it’s journey it would visit multible Dutch controlled places to show the flag. Once she arrived in the East Indies she was assigned as the new Flagship of the Dutch Navy there.
During 1939, with the ever increasing tensions between the countries in the East Indies, HNLMS De Ruyter was assigned to constant patrol duties to maintian Dutch neutrality.
HNLMS De Ruyter getting assisted by a couple of tugboats
Source: Foto'sWhen Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, the Netherlands was now dragged into the second world war. And so the Navy present in the Dutch East Indies was put under command of “Karel Willem Frederik Marie Doorman”, or “Karel Doorman” for short. During the early days of the war the East Indies Navy primarily protected allied convoys. But this would soon change when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Now with Japan joining the war a new combined allied Naval Force was made, the ABDA-Command (American, British, Dutch and Australian Command). Something a lot of people like to skip over was the strong presence the Dutch had in the East Indies. Most of the Dutch fleet operated there. The Dutch were even considered one of the five Naval Powers in the East Indies, the others being America, Britain, Australia and Japan. The Dutch submarine fleet played a vital role in the East Indies and is something I highly recommend more people look into.
HNLMS De Ruyter would take part in multible operations after this, something which I’m not going to detail in this suggestion. My suggestions are always about giving you the needed information about the Aircraft, Ground Vehicle or Naval Vessel I’m suggesting. So if you want to know more about what HNLMS De Ruyter did during the early stages of the war I recommend you look it up online or in books.
HNLMS De Ruyter during firing excercises
Source: Foto's
Fate
Spoiler
HNLMS De Ruyter now with a gray, green and black color scheme
Source: https://www.destinationsjourney.com/netherland-cruiser-hnlms-de-ruyter/In Febuary 1942 a allied task force consiting of two Heavy Cruisers, three Light Cruisers (Including HNLMS De Ruyter) and nine Destroyers would take part in what would be known as the Battle of the Java Sea.
Little did they know that this battle would end in an disastrous defeat for the allies. On the 27th of Febuary 1942 the battle began. Karel Doorman, who was the main commander of the allied task force, wanted to intercept a Japanese troop convoy in the Java Sea. But little they he know that they would face of against a much better equipped escort force. The allied fleet faced of against 2 Japanese Heavy Cruisers, two Light Cruisers and fourteen Destroyers.
The battle started of pretty well, but this ended when the Japanese Heavy Cruiser Haguro crippled one of the allied Heavy Cruisers, and destroyed a Destroyer with her torpedoes. The resulting allied frenzy didn’t help either, and the task force made a false retreat, putting an end to the daylight battle.
But Admiral Doorman planned a second attack during the cover of night. However during this attack one of the Allied Destroyers accidentally hit a Dutch Mine and sank. The Japanese caught on to Doorman’s plan, and ordered the Heavy Cruiser Haguro and Nachi to fire a stealthy long range torpedo attack. These torpedoes would end up hitting one of the Allied Light Cruisers, this being HNLMS Java, which blew up instantly and sank with almost all hands. Not long after HNLMS De Ruyter was also hit by these torpedoes. The damage was too great and over several hours the ship would sink. Admiral Doorman was killed during this attack.
This disastrous battle would mark the end of HNLMS De Ruyter. Sadly her wreck would be looted by illegal salvagers, so much of the ship has been lost by now.
Design
Spoiler
HNLMS De Ruyter in her final stages of completion
Source: Foto'sHNLMS De Ruyter was 170,8 metres long, had a beam of 15,64 metres and a draft of 4,9 metres, and displaced 6.442 tons at standard displacement, and 7.822 tons at full. She had a crew of 436 men and was able to reach 32 knots.
The main weaponry of the ship was seven 15cm guns. Six in three twin No. 9 turrets, and one in a single No. 10 turret. These were guns Bofors 15cm/50 guns that were made in the Netherlands by Wilton-Fijenoord.
The guns had a firerate of around 5 - 6 rounds per minute.
Ammunition for the 15cm guns consisted of two types of AP and one HE. The single gun in the No. 10 turret was also able to fire a Starshell.
A twin 15cm No.9 gun mount for HNLMS De Ruyter
Source: Foto's
A photo taken of the front 15cm gun turrets, see how the superfiring turret is a single mount
Source: Foto's
A photo taken of the rear 15cm gun turrets
Source: https://www.destinationsjourney.com/netherland-cruiser-hnlms-de-ruyter/The secondairy guns consisted of ten 40mm L/60 Bofors guns in five twin Hazemeijer No. 3 turrets. Like many nations around the 1930’s, the Netherlands had showed great interest in the 40mm Bofors L/60. And the Dutch company Hazemeijer was developing a twin mount for the Dutch Navy. These twin mounts were very advanced triaxial mounting together with a tachymetric control system. These first turrets, the No. 3 onces, were put on HNLMS De Ruyter and HNLMS Java.
All five twin turrets were put on a single anti-aircraft deck just behind the rear 15cm turrets. The turrets were set up in kind of a circle, and in the middle was a central fire control system also made by Hazemeijer. All in all the very advanced turrets together with their central fire control system made it a very effective and deadly anti-aircraft deck. However there was one concern that would never be addressed, one well placed shot by an enemy vessel could knock out the entire anti-aircraft battery.
HNLMS De Ruyter in the port of Surabaya. Note the 40mm anti-aircraft deck on full display
Source: Foto's
A close-up of the Hazemeijer 40mm No. 3 gunmounts onboard HNLMS De Ruyter
Source: Foto'sLastly HNLMS De Ruyter was armed with eight 12,7mm Colt-Browning machine guns. I always see these mentioned by sources but they all fail to mention exactly where these are and in what kind of gunmounts. Well these guns are mounted in four twin turrets that have the two machine guns stacked on top of eachother. All four turrets are mounted on the main bridge of the ship, with two of the turrets just behind the single 15cm No. 10 turret, and two more higher up in the bridge on a small platform.
Protection of the ship was quite poor, HNLMS De Ruyter is actually more of a very large flotilla leader then a cruiser. The armour of the ship was 50 mm armored belt, which would lower to 30mm at the ship ends. The upper deck was 7 to 13 mm thick, with the deck just below that being 6 to 7 mm thick. The actual armoured deck, and also the roof of the armoured citadel was 30 mm thick.
The sides of the citadel was protected by a 30 mm armored plate. And finally the turrets and barbettes were protected by 30 to 50 mm of armour.
A blueprint of the inside of the ship, showing the internal armour layout
Source: https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/archief/4.MST/invnr/3254/file/NL-HaNA_4.MST_3254The ship was also fitted with an Aircraft Catapult. The Catapult was mounted in between the smoke funnel and anti-aircraft deck. There was room for two Fokker C.11w floatplanes. These floatplanes only had two machine guns, with one facing forwards and one rear gunner, so sadly these planes can’t bomb any enemy vessels.
A Fokker C.11w floatplane getting lifted of from the HNLMS De Ruyter
Source: Foto's
A blueprint with multible cutaways of the ship
Source: https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/archief/4.MST/invnr/3257/file/NL-HaNA_4.MST_3257_deelopname01
Ingame
Spoiler
HNLMS De Ruyter is not the most powerfull light cruiser ever, to be honest she would actually perform pretty poorly ingame. The ship is very large, with pretty much no armour and even her main gun battery isn’t very big. What the ship does have is a good speed and very state of the art targeting systems. If this were to be added ingame, HNLMS De Ruyter should have a very fast rangefinder and very accurate guns. Also her five twin 40mm Bofors turrets (If modeled accurately ingame) are triaxial stabalized, and so even when the ship is in rough seas or making turns the 40mm turrets can stay on target.
My first choice would be to have this ship be added into a independent BeNeLux techtree. But ofcourse the BeNeLux has been added to France, so this is now the only option where Dutch vehicles will go to. But it must be said that the Netherlands and France have nothing in common, and do not make sense to combine together ingame.
In the French tree HNLMS De Ruyter serves are more of a secondairy backup spawn. Her light armour but powerfull anti-aircraft battery makes her a good pick for a later spawn when most enemies are also in their backup ships, and some people are starting to spawn in aircraft.
But for an independent BeNeLux tree HNLMS De Ruyter together with other Dutch cruisers makes for a nice mid BR light cruiser lineup. However HNLMS De Ruyter would always be best in a reserve/backup role due to her poor armour.
Specifications
Spoiler
A side view cutaway of the ship
Source: https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/archief/4.MST/invnr/3234/file/NL-HaNA_4.MST_3234_deelopname01Standard Displacement: 6.442 tons
Full Displacement: 7.822 tons
Length: 170,8 m
Beam: 15,64 m
Draft: 4,9 m
Installed powerplant: 3 x Parsons-De Schelde steamturbines, 6 x Yarrow boilers (68.000 hp)
Propulsion: 2 x shafts, 4,2 meter three bladed propellors
Maximum speed: 32 knots
Crew: 436 menArmor:
Belt: 30 - 50 mm
Upper Deck: 7 - 13 mm
Lower Deck: 6 - 7 mm
Citadel: 30 mm (Roof and sides)
Conning tower: 30 mm
Barbettes: 30 mm
Turrets: 30 - 50 mmArmament:
3 x 2 15cm No. 9 guns
1 x 1 15cm No. 10 guns
5 x 2 40mm No.3 guns
4 x 2 12,7mm Colt-Browning machine guns
1 x Aircraft catapult, with two Fokker C.11w floatplanes carried. (Max speed 280 km/h, 2 x 7.9 mm FN-Browning machine guns, one firing forwards, and one for the gunner)
A top-down view of the bridge tower of the ship, note the twin 12,7mm machine gun turrets on the B and F decks
Source: | Nationaal Archief
A nice side rear shot of HNLMS De Ruyter
Source: Foto's
And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed reading about this amazing machine.
See you on the battlefield!
More Photos
Sources
Spoiler
Dutch sources:
- “Nederlandse marineschepen 1939-1945” book, by Peter Kimenai
- https://www.tracesofwar.nl/articles/2190/Nederlandse-Lichte-kruiser-Hr-Ms-De-Ruyter-1936.htm
Secondairy sources:
- HNLMS De Ruyter, Dutch KNIL light cruiser (1935)
- De Ruyter - class ( 1933 - 1942 )
- HNLMS De Ruyter (1935) - Wikipedia
Fokker C.11w floatplane:
- https://www.tracesofwar.nl/articles/6121/Fokker-CXIw-C-11w.htm
- IPMS Nederland - INFO Fokker C.11 (C.XIw)
Photos:
Blueprints: