Volume 12 Issue 135

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light Crulsers
ofWbrld\Ih
The prtnciple task of light ctttisers during World War I was to
scout ahead of the mainbattletleet. But, intheweather
HMS Southampton sanft
the German cruiser
Frauenlob and lfie
conditions of the North Sea, this often meant that these forpedoboat S 35 af
weakly-protected vessels had to venture within range of the Jutland butsuffered
severe damage during
enemy b attleships' main armannent. the night action.

'We crouched behrnd the tenth of an inch platrng and ate bully beel but
rt drdn t seem to go down very easrly. It seemed rather a waste of time to
eat beel for surely in the next ten mrnutes one of those ll-inch shells
would get us, they couldn't go on falling just short and lust over indeflnite-
ly and, well, lf one did hrt us - hght cruisers were not designed to Crgest
11 inch high explosives. , .' This laconic eyewitness account was by an
officer aboard HMS Soufiampton at Jutland, but could equally well have
come from a thousand others on either side.
The oider fleet concept ofpushing forward armoured cruisers to gain
intelligence of the enemy had been bankrupted by the arrival of the
battle-cruiser and the fast battleship, the job passing to the new Qrenera-
tron of hght cruisers. To do therr job requrred getting to within clear
visual range and this, in typical vrsrbilltres, meant well within heavy gn:n
range of the enemy 1ine. It took dedication and nerve to press such a
reconnaissance well home with half the bridge observing the enemy
line and the other half watching the navigator who manoeuvred the ship
raprdly away from where he ;udged the next salvo would land, He
usually got it right,
Vrrtually unprotected cruisers, relying on their agrlrty to keep out of
trouble, were initially drfficult for the British Admrralty to accept
although, hrstoricaliy, they were close in concept to Nelson's frigates.
Once in service, however, both Bntrsh and Germans found them indis-
pensrble, They were deeply involved in every major action and in all the
humdrum, unseen and uncomfortable drudgery that hes behind the
simple expression 'sea control', Many were lost but all were valiantl-,.
served, Despite their apparent fragrlity they proved remarkably resis-
tant to gunflre and the endless 'dripping' of therr crews concealed a
deep-felt love for their ships, few envying those with 'cushier billets c:-
the big ships,
Ne/son sajdfie would die with thewords'want of frigates'engraved on his
heart;the RoyalNavy's problem before 1914 was a shortage of cruisers fast
enough towork ahead ofthe new generation offast battleships.

l_-'-tr -' .-:3&

".:-'€lt]ldr
f?5:-'=-cu
..'- W",w
 iiltfunt' class
Intended primarrly for colonial duties,
the three'Friant' class cruisers dated
from that splendidly srlly penod when
French ships were unique in the
world, Despite their modest size they
were built on the same 'fierce face
principles that also groverned the
armoured cruisers and battleships,
Each featured the exagqerated ram
bow and bulbous stern that gave
buoyancy at either end and extra
length to improve the hnes, Their hiqh
freeboard hulls were two levels deep
over their entire length and pierced
Iiberaliy with rectanqrlar ports rather
than the usual scuttles to rmprove liv-
ing conditions in the tropics. The sides
were given a pronounced tumble-
home
'Jurien de Ia Gravidre' class
-As the American USS Sl .Louts was to
be a diminutive of the 'Cahfornia' de-
srgn, so was Ihe Jurien de la Gravidre
scaled down from the 'Gueydon class
arrnoured cruiser but at an eariy date.
That she was one-off rs interesting rt
se1f, representing probably the last
gasp of the so-called Jeune Ecole
movement. This stemmed larqely from
the beliefs of Admiral Aube during the
iBBOs that, as the UK was the most like
ly enemy of France, the latter's fleet
should be recast with this in mind. It
would be easrer, he argrued, to adopt a
,;.ffi\
F d rr5l
2682
For their size and date, they were
respectably armed wrth a marn battery
of sx 164-mm (6 4-in) Wns Though
these were only 3O-calibre weapons
the muzzles of the two sited on the
centreline at each end were vrrtually
in line with the deck limrts. The re-
maining four guns were sited on spon
sons 'growinq' from the steeply-slop-
ing sides, thus gaimnq a measure of
axial chase fire, The narrow upper
deck was sponsoned further to
accommodate a 100 mm (3.9-in) Sun at
each'corner' and 10 47-mm quickhrers
were also supposed to be fitted. At
least one unit, the nameship origrnally
had some of these weapons sited on
'military masts both guns and masts
havrng to be removed as a result of
stabilrty problems
guerre de course defeatlng the UK
economically rhrough lne oeslr uctlon
of her mercantrle marine rather than
her battlefleet. What therefore, was
required were coast defence ships
and a large number of corsairs (pri-
vateering had been declared interna-
tionally illegal by the Congress of Paris
rn l856 but. run by the governmanl. it
was presumably respectable), the
money for them being made avarlable
by the scrappinq of the redundant bat-
tle fleet and its expensive rnfrastruc
ture. A number of commerce-raidrng
They were protected cruisers wlth a
full-lengrth 30-mm (1 lB-rn) armoured
deck, arched over the machinery and
thickened on the flankinqt slopes to
B0 mm (3. 15 rn). No less than 20 boilers
were drvided between three spaces.
The orrginal class consisted of the
maqnifl cently-named Cft asse/oup-
Laubat, Buge aud and Friant, foliowed
by the sliqhtly modified du Chayla,
Cassard and d?ssas. A good rdea of
the breadth of scope open to the older
shtps rn J 914-Bgiven by lnelr servtce
rs
in the Caribbean, the Red Sea the
Levant coast and the Dardanelles, the
Indian Ocean and the Black Sea.
With her exaggerated ram bow,
bulhous stern and pronounced
tumblehome, Friant was a c/assic
French warship. Designed for
colonial service, her sides were
lib er al ly p ie r c e d w i th r ec t angu
ports to improve ventilation- Shewas
recalled from the Caribbean in 1914
and served throughout thewar.
cruisers were constructed but, by the
end ofthe century, it was obvrous that
war was now far more likely with the
Triple Alhance than wrth the UK and
Aube's rnfluence waned It was at thrs
point that lhe Jurien was burlt
Of vrrtually the same length as the
'Gueydons , whe was nearly
(16.4ft) smailer rn the beam, a con,
siderable amount that called lor
er dnd lowel SUpp'S luCIuIe ln .om-
pensation, wrth poles tn place of mrltl
ary masts. Further topside wetght was
saved by liErhter calibre quns and use
Despairing of de{eating the British
battle fleet, the French planned a
series of fast light cruisers to attack
merchant shipping, even building
one, Chateaurenault, fo /ooklike a
Iiner. Jurien de la Gravidre was a
failure; designed for 23 kts, she never
managed more than 21, and that only
for an hour or so.
Specification
'Frianf class
Displacement: 3,880 tons standard
Dimensions: iength 95 0 m (3 L 1.7 ft);
beam 13.0 m(42.7 fI), draught 6,4 m
(2r 0 ft)
Propulsion: two sets ol lrLple-
expansion steam engtnes delivenngt
9,500 ihp (7085 kW) to two shafts
Speed: 1B 5 kts
Endurance: I I 125 km (6,9 15 miles) at
10 kts
Armament: sx single 164 mm (6.4-in)
loursingle 100-mm(3 94 in)and 1O
single 47-mm gn-rns, and two 450-mm
( 17, 7-in) torpedo tubes
Armour: B0 mm (3. 15-in) belt
Complement:375
{
I ar
of casemates rather than srded turrets
There was no belt, the volume beneati:
the waterhne being covered by a 65-
mm (2 56-rn) protective deck anC
flanked by cellular sub drvision
Though havrnq less installed power
than the larger shrps her flner ltnes
5m and lighter displacement were sup-
posed to realize 23 kts. Thrs speed was
a hgiht never achieved. As with most Frencl:
cruisers rn the war, her potenhal wm
under-urLhzed. the Jurten bei".o ^m
ployed primarrly in containing a larqe-
ly qurescent Austrian fleet in the Adria
Jurien de la Gravidre' class (continued) Light Cnrisers of World War I
tic and in minor operations with the
Brrtish in Greek and Turkish waters.

Specification
Jurien de Ia Gravidre
Dispiacement: 5,650 tons standard
Dimensions: length 137.0 m (449.5 ft);
beam 15.0 m (49.2 ft); draught 6 4 m
(21 0 ft)
Propulsion: three sets oftriple
expansron steam engines delivering
17,000 ihp (12675 kW) to three shafts
Speed:22 kts
Endurance: I 150 km (7,145 mrles) at
10 kts
Armament: two twin and four single
164-mm (6,4 in) and 10 srngle 47-mm
gmns, and two 450-mm ( 17.7-in)
torpedo tubes
Armour: 65-mm (2.56 in) deckand 5O-
mm ( l,98-in) gunhouses and
casemates
Complement: 511

Jurien de la Gravidre rzas desrgned as

a commerce raider, her intended
victims British merchantmen, but
d6tente befr4leen Great Britain and
France left her without a role. She is
seen here entering Toulon for a refit
inSeptember 1916.

€# Jduano'class
Itairan fleet operations have always
been [mrted large]y by the confines of
the Mediterranean; this has combined
-,r,rrth close rivalry wrth the neighbour-
rnq French to exefi great influence on
thell warshlp desrgn over the years
Tlprcally, endurance and protection
have bebn subordinated to speed and
armament Lrke other fleets before
1914, the ltahans flrrted with the idea of
the scout cruiser once the steam tur-
brne and oil-flring were available to
produce sufficrent power in a small
hull. Unusually where thrs beqinninqr
mrght well have been expected to re-
sult ln a serres of ever larger ciasses
the Itahans rnitrally progressed down-
ward to the larqe destroyer and
thouQrh the diflerence was flne this
was recoqnized rn the cateqorization of
esploratori rather than rncrocitort Jeg-
gerl
Typical of ships built rn the aqre of the
reciprocatinq engine were the two
1,300-ton 'Agordats' whrch, as scouts,
were poorly served by their 22 kts
and, when the Ouarlo was completed
in 1913, she marked something of a
revolutron. Of abour the same si.e as
the earlier British scouts, her later
machinery permitted a maximum of
over 29,000shp (2i620kW) on four
shafts, resultinq rn a trral speed ofnear-
ly 29 kts Her turbines were of Parsons
manufacture and were relrable
throughout her comparatively long
career (she was not finaliy stricken un-
tll1939) LongT and low with a raised
forecastle, she was a classic scout her
threelowbutevenlysizedandspaced Specification
funnels rmpartinq a somewhat
Japanese appearance
Before Quarro was even launcneS.
however. and obvrously not appreciat
tng her excellent design, the Italians
laid down two 'improved and en-
larged versions, the Marsala andlVino
Bixio These had lower installed pow-
er and were triple-screwed yet stlll
contrived four funnels which were
oddly spaced and, together with the
masts, glven a pronounced rake. Their
more ltalianate appearance was not
matched by performance, however
their Curtiss machinery typlcally pro-
ducing power for about 3 ks less than
the Quarfo, and they were drscarded
in the late 1920s The sheer cost of
speed is well illustrated by the quoted
endurance flgmres of Quarlo at 15 kts
she couid cover some 4265 km (2,645
mtles) but at 28 kts less than 1110 km
(690 miles).
'Quarto'class
Displacement: 3 275 tons standard aii
3,450 tons full load
Dimensions: lenqth 131.6 m (431.8 ft)
beam 12.9 m (42 3 ft); draught 4.1 m
(13 4 ft)
Propulsion: four sets ofsteam turbmes
dellvering 25,000 shp (18640 kW) to
four shafts
Speed:28,5 kts
Armament: sx srngle I 2O-mm (4. 7-rc)
and sx singrle 76-mm (3-in) gurs,t*:
450-mm (-7 7 in) lorpedorubes ani
up to 200 mines
Armour: 40-mm ( 1.57-in) and 2O-run
(0,79-in) decks
Complement: 247

Long,low, and fasf, Quartoftad

the characteristic speed and
grace of an Italian warship,
although her three small funnels
made her look a little like the
lapanese destroyers operating in
the Mediteftanean during World
Warl.

r:--

26Ei
Piercrng the Fog
Warship construction progressed so rapidly around the turn
of the century that the distinctions between some types of
warship became blurred, and whole generations of vessels
were rendered obsolete at a disturbing speed. I 9 I 4 found
warships of widely varying ability serving side by side.
Many categories of warship were, and indeed remain, difficult to label
absolute terms: in this respect the light cruiser is typical. From the Washington
Treaty of the early 1920s it was simply a cruiser with guns of 152-mm (6-in)
calibre or less, an over-simplification that led, by 1945, to a band that ranged
f rom the
'14,7001on American 'Worcesters' at the top end to the little 3,750{on
Italian 'Capitani Romani' at the lower. Where the functions of these similarly-
labelled classes were greatly different so, too, were those of ships of the
generation before. 'Light' meant at thls time not'small' so much as'fast', thus
necessarilyalso meaning 'lightly protected'and'lightlyarmed', with functions of
e rher comrrerce destruction or scouting.
Small cruising ships for colonial use aside, mainstream cruiser development
in the transitional era was directed to producing something akin to a derated
banleship, a type short-lived as a consequence of its inferior characteristics,
resulting from the enormous weight of its protection and the low power of its
machinery. ln order to be faster than the main body of the fleet, the cruiser was
obLiged to abandon its massive vertical belt and rely on a combination of
norizontal armour laid over a closely-subdivided lower level.
This, the so-called'protected cruiser', enjoyed a vogue until the advent of
'ace-hardened steel armour, which offered greatly increased resistance to
cenetration on a reduced thickness and weight. This development brought
about a renaissance of the armoured cruiser, whose brief reign was then
:erminatedabruptlybythearrivalof thebattie-cruiserinl90T. lmprovedmachin-
and new quick-firing guns enabled the protected cruiser to survive this
=ry
:ecade. Small second- and third-class cruisers patrolled the imperial trade
'crtes, joined bythe two'Powerfuls', a leap in size and hopelessly uneconomlc
:it necessary as a riposte to French and Russian essays in commerce-raiders.
The trend to lighter protection was one followed very warily by the British
-:mrralty, but a new influence during the 1890s was the so-called torpedo
r -;rboat. Whether f orelgn or B ritish, this type proved too slow and u nequal to its
:es gned role, but its ships proved adequate as leaders to the large flotillas of
-.-all torpedo boat destroyers then coming into service.
Germanscouts
-o the Royal Navy scouting was a service to the main battle f leet and was a job
':- armoured cruisers, but fleets with smaller budgets needed to be more
-.:vatlve and, in 1900, the Germans built the little 25-kt iVovik to Russian
=::ount. The inevitable British response were the four'Gems'of about the
.'-e size, but slower (signif icantly, one heralded a new era in being powered by
=.:am turbines). They had only minlmal protective deck but, in parallel, were
:'-rCrced eight'Scouts' using four leading builders to interpret a specification
.". ." a fair degree of f reedom, resulting in a selection of comparisons on how to
.,:'< in lrght protection on a very tight displacement limit. Desptte their name,
,^:se little ships were rapidly put to use as destroyer leaders.
)eslroyers of the time were f ragile things and were commonly organized into
' :: ;as of upwards of 20 ships. Their operation was the business of a Captain (D)
.',:c, with hrs staff, needed a larger ship not only to provtde the necessary
.::ommodation but also to guarantee keeping pace wrth the pack in poor
::^citions. These early ships were armed only with 102-mm (4-in) guns but
--:se matched, in calibre at least, the 105-mm (4. 13-in)weapons favoured in the
' = ser's developing f leetand were, in any case, adequate to disable an enemy
:3s:royer in support of their own. Destroyers were rapidly ncreasing in size and
,':abiiity, however, and larger leaders were soon found to be necessary.
,'. ih the supersession of the armoured cruiser in 1907, the British began on a
:-: series of 'Towns'which, like the sailing frigate, could find, track and report
Constructed in.lB89, Surcouf was one ofa serjes of light cruisers built for the
French navy to prey on British commerce. Designed for the (then) nimble
speed of 20 kts, she carried four 5.5-in guns and four torpedo tubes. Note her
pronounced ram bow.
ss
.s=g't?
* '-
in
,SMS_Dresdena tValparaiso after theBattle of Coronel. She joinedvonSpee in
the Pacific after an ineffectual commerce raid in the South Ailantic, and
achieved little after escaping from the Falklands batile. The ship may have
been the same c,lass as Emderu but the crew were not.
for the main body of the fleet, while having the speed to avoid apprehension.
That such evasion of action was unpopular was evidenced by the reception
given to the early proposals to fit 4 in gunned ltght cruisers with a pair of 6-in
weapons aft to deter pursuing enemiesl ln the event, the 6-in gun had been
accepted as standard tn the Royal Navy by 1914, and early experience of its extra
hittrng power soon persuaded the Germans to follow suit. But this type of
cruiser was largely ignored elsewhere, except perhaps Japan.
While (with the exception of the two 'Brummers') the German f leet stuck only
a developing series of their own 'Towns', the British contrnued also with the
smaller ships, their task eased by the eary adoption of steam turbines and oil
firing. These classes moved logicallythrough the'Arethusas'to a series of 'Cs'
and'Ds', their size seeing them employed as'attached'cruisers to the Grand
Fleet battle squadrons or co-operating closely with destroyer flotillas, as at
Harwich.
Togo had made classic use of cruisers during the Russo-Japanese War of
1904-5, particularly in shepherding Rozhdestvensky's fleet to its doom at
Tsushima, but this gave little indication of how the British and Germans would
use their considerable numbers after 1914.
Half a dozen Germans were on distant stations and, despite early successes,
their ultimate destruction was virtually certain. Some British light cruisers founcj
themselves in early days involved in hunting raiders both tn the lndian Ocean and
off South America but, for the most part, they were occupied in attritional
warfare in home waters.
_ Of the war's major engagennents, Coronel, the Falklands and the Heligoland
Bight hinged largely on cruiser performance, while at both the Dogger Bank and
Jutland init al contact was gained by light cruiser scTeens, reconnoitering ahead
of therr main forces.
Th.e ships of both fleets proved remarkably resistant to gunfire, losses being
dominated by casualties to mine and submarrne torpedo. Even in the North Sea,
conditions could be coid enough to cause gun mechanisms to jam. Open, single
mountings were used throughout the war, and only with the 'E' type stretched
versions of the'Ds'did the prototype twn gun-house make its appearance.
Torpedoes were carried by ali classes of both sides yet, as in other types of
vessel, there was generally a curious lack of result in their use. This may well
have been due to the expense of the weapon militating against adequate
practice and, if history can be held to teach lessons relevant to our own times,
this bodes ill for the current heavv relrance on missiles.
j
t:'
rjl
i
,l'
ii I
:
t.. 'ff'-k
i
,'^G,1,
r I i |l
'ii ll
1l
 Light Cmisers of World War I
Right:Well wrapped up against the
Baltic cold, the crew of HMS
Caradoc s a/t 6 -in gun open fire on
Bolshevik positions in the Baltic.
Light cruisers carried their main
armament in single open mountings
throughout the war, despite
instances of the cold jamming the
guns.

B elow : F lagship of the 3rd Light

Cr u is er S q u a d r on, HM,S Falmouth
was scouting ahead of the Grand
F leet in August I I I 6 when she was
torpedoedbyU 66. Taken undertow,
she reached Flamborough Head only
to be torpedoed again byU 52. Here
sie selues in the wate r the nex t dav.

-n- -

:*t,'

The clean,'modern' Iines of SMS

Konigsberg IIm ake a dramatic
co ntr as t w ith Sur couf' P ow ere d by
turbines, alJ vesse/s of ffte c,lass
e x c e e de d the ir desr'gped
horsepower on trials, and in deep
water theywould probably have
topped29 kts.

,'!-.-
r. it.. r:-1, Jt Ei -
 NIZ !!
re
-llough
'Gem'ciass
strictly protected cruisers, the
'Gem' class ships (HMSAmethyst, Di-
amond, Sapphire and Topaze) mark
ihe point of departure for the light
cruiser rn the Royal Navy. Protected
cruisers rehed primarily on an arched
armoured deck, running the full lenqth
of the ship, below the waterline at each
end but higher amidships to clear the
rop of the hrgh recLprocaring engrnes
and boilers. Such ships came in a vari-
ety of sizes but, like the armoured
crursers possessed too little (if any)
speed margin over the fleet's main
body with whrch to act as scouts. The
fow 'Gems', launched in 1903-4 were
burit in paraliel with the two 'Challen-
qers' but, where the latter displaced
NtfZ T
Scout types
--<
-
x=
-!e:d'.
ihe largest qun' on the 'hiqhest
the idea of the 'fast scout' was
::Jy entrenched and, though ofques-
.-::able worth, was resurrected by
:-:';al staffs from time to time to pla€rue
:,: :aval architect, British involvement
:::babiy stemmed from the classrc
-::;:e to 'rep1y' to any foreign lead, In
-:-s case it was the l,/oyrk, a 3,000{on-
:-:: built in Germany to Russian
rrllllnt, which inspired Elswick to
::el a similar but enlarged design 1o
:-: Admiralty. Impressed by the 26-kt
i.-sran, this authority put out a general
:;::rfication for a small, fast cruiser
-:-a. could serve for the safe observa-
-:: cf ar enemy port as the 'eyes' of a
:.--kadLng squadron The requrre-
:::. was to maintain 25 kts for eight
:-:-:s. and a 5560-km (3 450-mile) en-
::a:lce at 10 kts Armament was to
:,:l:de two torpedo tubes but only 12-
l:: (76-mm/3-rn) gn-rns. The light scale
:' :rorection was lo be a prolecilve
a:3k'at least I7z rnches in thickness or
-= :qurvalent in a vertical belt, an in-
.::. s-ing lack of comrr'trrenr ir con
.=-!: mth designed function Four prop-
:s:ls were accepted, a pair of ships
::,ng built by each of Armstrong
'=s-."nck)
Fairfield, Laird and Vickers,
.-- :i them berng completed in 1905.
Cn a liqht displacement iimit, all
-::ked low and lean, with single, srded
,::pedo tubes three-quarters aft, four
-2-pdr guns alonq each side and one
::-cre forward and aft, These were la-
..r up-rated to nine 102-mm (4-in)
-.'.-:apons. All had raised forecastles
-_:: a
5,900 tons on a 145 by 17.1 m (376 by
56 ft) huil, the 'Gems' on virtually the
same length dispiaced only 3,000 tons
by virtue of a siender 122-m (40-fi)
beam The 'Challengers' had a shghtly
heavier deck but needed 12 500 ihp
(9320kW) to make 2l kts whrle the
'Gems' could manage 22 kts on only
9 800 ihp (7310 kW), More srgmflcant-
ly, one of their number Amefftysl was
the first smaller shrp to be fitted with
steam turbines, By fittinq her with
cruising in addition to main, turbrnes,
Parsons nearly overcame the machin-
ery's greatest weakness, an economy
inferror to rhat of reciprocating engrnes
at lower speed, Even so, comparative
trials against the similar-hulled Topaze
saw the lurblne ship consuming
l3l5 kq (2,900 lb) of coal per hour at
l0kts against lhe Topaze's 1043k9
(2300 Ib). At 14kls consumprion was
about equal whrle, at the upper end,
the more compact turbrnes developed
12,000hp (8945kW) compared wrth
9,800hp (7305kW) for only 1t06Bkq
(24,400Ib) per hour against 11839kg
.t---
;-n-__1
and the two 'F' class ships from
Fairfield had a poop in addition. Only
the hvo'A'class ships from Armstrong
had four funnels, the remainder three
Both the Fairfield ships and the two'P'
class ships from Laird worked in a 5l-
mm (2-in) vertical patch in addition to a
hght protective deck, The last pair
comprised the two 'S' class ships from
Vrckers, An unusual feature at the time
was a single, tall mast. All averaged
over 25 kts over an eight-hour full-
power trral. HMS Alfenlrve maintain-
ing 26.25 kts for an how, well up to
destroyer speeds of the time and a
record for a ship of her size. Their cost
of around f275,000 apiece attracted
criticism particularly as their function
was seen to be capable ofbeing equal-
ly well performed by destroyers in the
nafiow seas and by merchant cruisers
rn the open oceans In the event, they
performed admirably attached to line
squadrons or as flotrlla leaders to des-
troyers, Only HMS Pathfhder was lost,
Specification
'A'class
Dispiacement: 2,670 tons standard and
2,940 tons full load
Dimensions: Iengrth 114.0 m (374.0 ft);
beam 11,7 m(38 25 ft); draught4 I m
(13 5 ft)
Propulsion: wo se-s ol I nple-
I
expanslons ream engines deliverLng
16,000 ihp (11930 kW) to two shafts
Speed: 25.5 kts
Armament: 10 single 12-pdr and eight
single 3-pdr gn-rns (later altered to nine
(26 100 lb) Thus the lighter machinery
for a three per cent greater economy
produced power for an extra I S kts.-
These slender little ships were also
armed only wrth 102-mm (4-in) Wns
(possrbly rnfluenced by German ciurs-
ers with the superior 105-mm (4, 13-in)
gun a much-crrticized move Thouoh
not officrally described as 'scouts', tie
'Gems' closely paralleled the first
scont-type cruisers then also being
built, whlch sacriflced armament and
some protectton to accommodate
machinery for 25 kts, Sapp.hrie was
very active in the Dardanelles cam-
paign and Io Topaze and Dr'amond, as
'attqched cruisers', fell the melancholy
task of rescuing the few survivors ofthe
battleship HMS Formidable off Port
iand at the rwn of ,he year rn 1914. No
'Gems'were lost
srngle 102-mm/4-in and one 76-mm/3-
in gnrns), and two 457-mm ( l8-in)
torpedo tubes
Armour: 5l-mm (2-in) deck
Complement:270
HMS Foresight
cutaway drawing kg.y
'l quarters
Captain's 10 Twin screws
2 Ouarterdeck 11 T2-pdrshelroom
3 Skyllght 12 Searchllghtplatform
4 Wardroom 13 Searchllght
5 T2-pdr(28-cwt)quickfirng t4 Stove
gun
15 Flaglocker
6 Engineers'quarters 16 Officers'quarters
7 Steerlngcompartment 17 Pantry
8 Steeringengine TB Gig
9 Balancedrudder 19 Cutter
Specification
'Gem'class
Displacement: 3,000 tons standard
Dimensions: length 114,0 m (374.0 ft)
beamI2.2 m(40,0 ft); draugrht4.4 m
(14 5 fl)
Propulsion: two sets of triple
expansion steam engrnes deliveringr
10 000 ihp (7455 kW) to two shafts or
(Ametiyst) two sets of geared steam
turbines delivering 12,000 shp
(8945 kW) to two shafts
Speed: 22 kts or (Amelrlysl) 23.5 kts
Armament: 12 sinqle 102-mm (4-in)
and eight single 3-pdr gmns (later
altered to two single 152-mm/6-in and
eight 102-mmquns) andtwo 457 mm
( IB-in) torpedo tubes
Armour: 5 l-mm (Z-tn) deck
Complement: 296
T he'Gems', Topaze, Amethyst,
Diamond and Sapphire, were the
predecessors of fhe Scouts, carrying
only4-in guns and lightprotection to
gain speed. HMS Amethyst had
turbines which gave her a I Vs-kt
advantage over her sisters and \ower
coal consumption at high speed. She
was leader of the Harwich Force and
DestroyerCommand in 1914, butleft
for the Grand Fleet in August.
20 Magazine
21 Dynamo room
22 Dynamo room
23 Doubebottom
24 Auxi iaryengine room
25 Twin 14- n lVkX torpedo
tubes
26 Ma n feedwatertank
27 Englne room
28 15.800 hptwin s x-cy inder
eng nes
r
29 Store
30 3-pdr quick firlng guns
3T Funne
32 Steamplpe
33 Funne casing
34 Super heaters
35 Funne uptake
36 No. I boilerroom
37 No.2 bo lerroom
38 No.3 bo lerroom
 Ligrht Cruisers of World War I
'Active' class
Following the completron ol the first
eight scouts, there was a perrod of
appraisal Thrs was a time olrapid Ger-
mdn bJrioLng ard 1" ey hod iJst con-
pleted SMS Bremen ihe flrst of a new
'hght cruiser type denved ltke the
British ships, from the smali protected
crurser Similar in length but beamier
the German ships had the advantage of
continuous high ireeboard and their
rnfluence resulted eventually ln the
Brrtrsh 'Towns The Admtralty de-
Ld-o ro der,elop lho qn'dlla' .rL_c6I
iurther in parallel, however; not only
could such shrps marntain thetr speed
longer than a destroyer in deterlorat-
Lng weather, but they had the flrepow
er to drspose ol it Further the larqe
destroyer flotrllas of the time needed a
leader with accommodatlon for Cap-
tarn (D) and hrs staff. These, then
rather than scoutrng, became thetr
rc1es.
The shrps of the second, extended
series of small cruisers were thus not
iermed 'scouts and wete constructed, scribed as a 'double skin' amidshtps: tives' as leaders to three of the iour HMS Activecruises off Queenstown
not by prlvate yards, but by Pembroke vertical, spaced platinq to defeat sen- Grand Fleet destroyer flotrllas, an in 1917 before her deployment to the
Dockyard This srngle small yard did sitiveiy fused projectiles AIl were tur arduous duty from which they were Mediterr anean. The' Active' clas s
rvell to complete the four 'Boadiceas' in brne-driven and carried dual coal./otl relieved by the larger 'Arethusas as was the third group ofScouts.
1909 11 and the three foiiow-on 'Ac- ful: the oil was sprayed onto the they became availabie. Of these flotrl- h able fr om its
d is tinguis
tive' class shrps (HMS Active, already burning coal in the furnace las, the lst with 20 destroyers and the predecessors by the plough bows.
Amphion andFearless) rn 1912 3 The and at the cost of rather too much 3rd with 15 were part of Tyrwhitt s Har
nrst parr, thouqh given 102-mm (4 in) smoke, Qlave a rapid boost rn heat wich Force.
guns received only six of them Only enerQly to the boiler. delivering 18,000 shp (13420 k\\-;::
three could flre on the broadside While Amp,hlon was mtned and lost Specification two shafts
whrch was lnadequate to sink a small only two days after the outbreak ol 'Active'class Speed:26 kts
target from a lively platform, so later war the reminder survtved desptte Displacement: 3,440 tons standard Armament: 10 sinqle 102-mm (4 ::.
*.'.
shrps were given 10 gn-rns, olwhich stx beingr very actively involved. The four Dimensions: length 123.4 m (4OS O ft); and loursrngle3-pdrguns. ani
could frre on the broadsrde The flrst 'Boadiceas' served as 'attached cruis- beam 12 6 m (41,5 ft); draught 4,0 m 533 mm (2l-in) torpedo tubes
two units had a hght protectrve deck ers' to each of the four Grand Fleet (13 0 ft) Armour:none
but the remainder had what was de- battle squadrons and the three 'Ac- Propulsion: two sets olsteam turbines Complement: 320

39 Three quafterWhlte- 58 Lobby B elow : When she was c omplete d n

Forster cy lndrlca boi er 59 Paint store early I 905, HMS Foresight carried
40 Bulkhead 60 Capstan J1x I Z-pdr guns and a pair of ) 4-in
.11 n et va ve 6T Ram
42 Clrcu ation pump 62 Torpedostore torpedo tubes. Her gun armament
43 Coa bunker 63 3pdrshelroom was later changed to l0 ' 4-in
44 3 pdr ready store 64 Foredeck weapons. Of the 'scout' types, only
45 Wire ess off ice 65 Feed watertanks
46 Wire ess aerla 66 2 narmourbet Foreward and Foresight ftadpoops
47 Venti ators 67 7e ln armoured deck (ends) and could further be distingruished
48 Forcmast 68 T 7: in armoured deck
from the'A','P' and'S' classesby
49 Lookout stat on (amidsh p: )
50 Compassplatform 69 Waterl ne having high funnels and no cowls. Ot.
51 Compass 70 Ventllatorto crew's friais, Foresight's engines developeci
52 Brldge q uaTters
I 5,800 ihp, making 25.28 kts.
53 Chart room
54 Crewquarters
55 Steam plpeforheating
llvlng spaces
56 Stokers'quarlers
57 Dynamo roomr'machlne
shop

-,--1:''
 At Secl Before Breakfcst
As thewar clouds gathered over Europe in 19l,4, the battleships of theGrand Fleet
steamed north to their lonely anchorages, Ieaving southern waters in the immediate
care of lighter units. Led with great panache by commodore Tyrwhitt, the Harwich
Force was in action with characteristic promplness lfte day war was declared, and
one of its destroyers fired the first shot of the war at sea.
Following the Fleet Review of July 1914, the
Royal Navy went straight to its war stations and
the Harwich force was immediately estab-
hshed with the arrival there of the llght cruiser
HMS fearless with 20 destroyers oi the lst
Flotrlla and HMS Amphion with the lS-strong
3rd Flotrlla. They were led by Commodore
Tyrwhitt, whose broad pennant was worn by
HMS Amelhysf. 'Reggle' Tyrwhitt, or Com (T)
as he was rnvarrably known from his title, was a
dedicated seaman and born fighter; he was to
lead the force for the duration ol the war, infus-
ing it with enormous enthusiasm,
Though intended to be a southern wing of
the Grand Fleet, the Force was almost im-
mediately taken under direct Admlralty con-
:rol because of the remoteness of Jellicoe's
erganization. Together with the Bth Submarine
lLotrlla (under the command of Tyrwhitt's great
riend and fellow zealot, Roger Keyes) they
:ad the task of controliing the Hoofden, the
:arrow southern gullet of the North Sea, A mea-
s;re of support could be called upon from the
:-elghbouring Humber, Nore and (later) Dover
::mmands.
Startrng as he meant to continue, Tyruhrtt
',',-:s at sea
before breakfast on the first day of
-ie war to counter the enemy's anticipated
: relaying actlvitles. Following up a report of a
s';prcious-looking packet type ship, the Ger-
:.n Konigin luise was intercepted and sunk,
.:-: destroyer HMS lance firing the flrst shot of
:: sea war in the process, Honours were soon
=.:ned, however, as the Ampijon ran on a
::,-ae on her return, sinkrng with considerable
-:ss cf ]ife,
::r several days oifensive patrols off the
I-..:h coast drew a blank and the force was
: *--ed south to cover massrve troop move-
:-:::s across the English Channel. Even now it
-:,':s obvious to Tyrwhitt that the Amethyst,
=-.::ugh only 10 years old, could make only
:a 58
18 kts rather than her designed 23,5. He de-
manded, and received, the new HMS Arethusa
in exchange, He described her as a 'regular
flyer and a ripper'and, without doubt, her 152-
mm (6-1n) guns and 76-mm (3 in) belt were to
prove invaluable.
On 18 Augn-rst the Fear/ess and four of her
destroyers siqhted the German cruiser SMS
Rostock but took her for something larger,
acted indeclsively and lost her. Com (T), ab-
sent from the scene, was furious but more than
compensated by the end of the month with his
action in the Heligoland Bight,
Keyes' submarlnes had observed a great
regularity rn the German patrols, and he and
Tyrwhitt proposed a raid. This was right on the
enemy's doorstep and, in case of interference
from hrs heavy units, would require support
from the Grand Fleet,
Beatty's battle-cruisers and Goodenough's
lst Lrght Crurser Squadron were requested
and refused, only to be reinstated by Jelhcoe.
This latter news did not reach the Harwich
Force, which had already sailed,
Below: HMS Arethusa uras com missioned in 1914 as
flagship of the Harwich Force. Tyrwhitt described
her as a 'regtlar flyer and a ripper'; she could
make over 28 kts and maintained speed well in
heavy seas. Together with H MS Fearless sfi e /ed 3J
British destroyers into the Bight in August.
The Arelhusa and Feariess, with 31 des-
troyers, were to sweep from the north and roll
westward along the German coast, pursurng
any fleeing enemy onto a submarine trap set by
Keyes, The Force left early on 27 August, only
one day after the commodore had accepted his
new ship, and were surprised to meet Good-
enough at 03.30 on the followrng morning,
Shortly before 07,00 a German destroyer was
sighted and fell back with a division of the 3rd
F1otilla in joyful chase, What was not known
was that the Germans had suspected such an
operation and had prepared a defence in
depth, with two patrol lines backed by hght
cruisers. Arethusa was soon heavrly engaged
with SMS Steilin and Frauenlob. The Fearless
obliged the former to retreat but the latter soon
profitted by the frequent jamming of theAreth-
usa's new gmns, rnflicting a deal of damage.
Only a 152-mm shell hit on her bridge per
suaded the German to retlre,
Newchallenge
Driving westward, the enemy destroyer 7
187.was overwhelmed, but Goodenough now
found himself challenged by Keyes who also
had received no prior warning of his presence.
Arethusa now found herself involved with SMS
Strassburg, her brand new machinery all but
broken down, Again the Fearless arrived at a
critical juncture, wrth the Sfellin returning with
a newcomer, SMS Matnz. In shrftinq visibility
and unsure of Goodenough's slrengrh, Tyrwhrit
called for Beatty's asststance,
An anxious hour passed, with the lreliusa's
condition looking increasingly parlous and the
enemy further reinforced by SMS KoJn and
Anadne. The time was spent constructively,
however, for the Marnz desprte a spirited de
fence was hounded to destruction by the des-
Iroyers and cruiser gunf,re.
Beatty's appearance was sudden and decr
sive, His decrsion to take his irreplaceable
ships into such waters was typically
courageous and caught the Germans unpre-
pared. The Koln was sunk and the fleeing.Sfei
SMS Derfflinger was one of the battle-cruisers used
by the Germans to bombard Britain 3 easf coasl.
One of Tyrwhitt's cruisers, HMS Aurora, spofted
theGermans offDogger BankinJanuary 1915, but
muddled signalling let all but SMS Bliicher escape.
 Light Cruisers of World War I

trn heavily damaged, whrle the little Ariadne,

which blundered across the flagshrp's path,
farrly disintegrated under 343-mm (13.5-in) sal-
voes at close ranqe.
Victory had been snatched fortuitously from
an untidy me1ee, Whrle Beatty and Tyi-whitt
were all too aware of thts, they found them-
selves lionized by press and public,
Any ideas of the Royal Navy's invincibrlity on
the part of the latter bodies was swiftly rec-
tified, however, for the following month, the
Harvrich Force had the melanchoiy task of tak
ing on the survivors of the three 'Bacchantes
sunk near the Dutch coast by that new weapon,
the submarine, Very much 'chummy' ships,
their loss was keenly felt, An alarmed Admiral-
:y tned, rmtially, to keep Tyrwhrtt's cruisers in
port but then relented, giving him two more in
:he form of HMS Aurora and Undaunted. The -.',-:-r
.a'rer ship was commanded by the ersrwliile The North Sea was sown with mines by both sides, teaming and vuinerable coastal trade rn
captain of the unfortunale Amphton and, on the particularly along the British east coast, and was to be known, 25 years later. as --l-'-
very day of her arrival in October 19 i4, he took Tyrwhitt's own ship, HMS Arelhusa, was badly A11ey'. Zeebrugge and Ostende posed an e:,i-
damaged by one off Felixstowe on I I February less threat, and Tyr-whitt supported bomi:ar:
a drvisron of destroyers on a sweep, accounting
1 9 1 6. An attempt to tow her home failed, the -
for four of the enemy's destroyers off the Texel, ments by the Dover force in both May ani -:-=
cruiser drifting on to the Cutler Shoal and sinking.
A new and disturbing tactic on the part of the 1917 In the latter an enemy destroyer. ','.=.
Germans was to use Hipper's battle-cruisers in honours were about even, caught but agarn the score was offse--,',':.+:. .

hit-and-run bombardments of the English east To coincide with the 1916 lrish Easter Rebel- the followrng winter, four Britrsh des:r: .-::.
coast, These raids were almost impossrble to hon, Hipper mounted a battle-cruiser foray were mined in succession off the Hccl< .:::=
counter without prior intelligence, but a great against Lowestoft and Yarmouth, Tyrwhitt un- sinking in icy conditions wrth heavy icss :, --,=
chance was squandered at the Dogger Bank in supported by healry units, made contact and, tn Again Tyrwhrtt was rn a supporrr. = :--- ..

January 1915, Aurora ol the Harwich Force
sighted the enemy and, in company wtth both
Beatty and Goodenough, became involved in a
qeneral chase. As a result of damage, ambi-
guous signalling and faulty interpretation the
Britrsh allowed Hrpper to escape with the loss
of only SMS 8/richer. Whrle Tyrwhitt himself
flnished off the latter with torpedoes, the alfair
was unsatisfactory with, among other things,
the light cruisers finding themselves outpaced
by the battle cruisers.
Seaborne air attacks
Wrth Zeppeltns becomtng an jncreasinq
bogey, the Harwich Force struck at source with
the world's first seaborne air attacks. Seaplane
carriers converted from cross-channel packets
were escorted deep into the Bight but thelr
overloaded and underpowered aircraft had
dlff,culty rn getting airborne, A continuing in-
volvement with avration saw also the use of
hrgh speed, destroyer-towed sleds and tem-
porary runways on crutsers' foredecks to
launch higher-performance flghters.
Between the endless sweeps, the Force was
occupted in coverLng convoys capturing
enemy trawlers (to galn intelligence), bom-
bardments and the escorting ol mrnelayers,
They accounted in turn for the enemy mine-
layer SMS Meteor but the heavily-fouled
offshore approaches cost Tyrwhitt his own
ship,Arel,husa rn February 1916 when she was
broken in two by a mine. New'C'c1ass cruisers
were by now arriving, better able to pace the
bigger 'M' class destroyers and the Force's
strength at this pornt was eight cruisers and 23
destroyers.
In a typicat operation, Tyrwhitt took a strong
eiement close to the Danish coast, escorting
the seaplane carrier HMS i/lndex in a raid
against the Zeppelln sheds at Tondern.
During a snow flurry, two destroyers col-
lided, one, HMS Medusa, being capable ol
only 6 kts. She was taken in tow but the group
was attacked by enemy destroyers. The cruis
er HMS Cleopatra sank one by ramming, only
to be hrt in turn by Ihe Undaunted, To retrieve
this casualty meant sacrificing the Medusa so
spite of hrs cruiser, HMS Conquesf, betng hit by
several 305-mm (]2-in) shells hung on until the
Admiralty ordered his disengagemenr
The following month saw Jutland Agatnst all
his instincts, Tyrwhitt was held tn harbour all
day, awalting orders, He was flnally let off the
leash but then recalled. Had the group been
present during the night action, its outcome
must surely have been dtfferent.
Fleet forcedback
Enemy submarine activtty forced back the
operatrng hmits of the Grand Fleet, and the
responsibilities ol the Harwich Force thus in-
creased. They covered the 'Beef Run'from the
Hook against depredations from the enemy
destroyers based on Zeebriigge, forcing
several vicious little engagements, They co-
vered the endless trafftc rn troops and supplies
across the Dover Strait and watched over the
Keyes' gallant attempt to block the : ,:,-c ! : r -: -,=.
Apnl 1918 Followrng the mrning of :,';: :- :--:
cruisers, Tyrwhitt took to transporting 3i,l:.
the cruisers' davits, These sha1lc'.,,--i:--,:.
boars Lhen paLrolled salely over :r: : - ::
whrle the brgger shrps 1ay off to recc,.':l -:-=:'-
The stratagem went drsastrously a,,n.'1--, -,-.-:-=: =
unit of six boats was lost to Germar: s:1.-:-=,-
attackoff Vlieland in August 19lB. On .r= :r::,
side, a Zeppehn was downed by a S--:'..:.
Camel fighter launched from a des.l,'.-=-
towed sled.
On 23 October 1918 the Force fougi. --: -.-.
engagemen (once agarn aga-nsL dfl :r-iir-. :--
attack) and followed the Armis.-:: :"
shepherdrng rn the large numbers c: s;:::----
dered U-boats. Over the four years ci'-.:::::'-,
ting effort, it had grown to a dozen cri:s=:s .:,:
cost of rts achievement had been tr..-c a:'^-:=:,.
and 16 destroyers sunk.
Above: HMS Danae was the only one of her c]ass ::
see active service, joining the Harwich llotiiia ::.
the summer of 1918. Displacing nearly 6.04C ic:.s z
full load, capable of 29 kts and armed w i th s ix € - ::.
guns, shewas afar cry from the cruisers tr se:-,':::
in 1914.
LeIt: Beatty's couraEreous decision to in'.e:-.'=:.:
with his battle-cruisers at Heligoland ensured '.:e
defeat of the German lightforces, but jt'r'/as a... j
gamble to risk irreplaceable warsfirps like ;-"l-i
Lionin enemywaters.
 ffi ibr,"rt ctass
Contemporary with the "m'
'Acttve' class,
the British built a quintet of larger
ships, the 'Brrstols which looked like a
cross between the smaller ships and
the big armoured cruisers whose con
struction had ceased about four years
before. It had been the supersession of
such ships by battle-cruisers that pro-
duced the requirements for the
'Towns', big enough to cruise with the
fleet and fast enough to work ahead of
it, But while armed sufficient to iook
after themselves, they were unable to
undertake the heavrer duties of the
armoured cruiser,
The 4,800-ton 'Bristols' suffered
aqain from a mixed armament, a
meagre pair of 152-mm (6-in) guns
beinqrsuppiemented by 10 102-mm (4-
in) guns. A 76-mm (3-rn) protective
deck was fitted. For therr dutres, they
were critrcized as being etreatly
underarmed, and the four J
'Weymouths that followed had an ail
152-n m marn ba lery Theu srze was
httle increased, however, so their pro-
rection suffered a sigmrflcant loss in
vlew ofthe fact that thetr speed had not the Southampton earned fame wear
been rmproved and that they could be inq Goodeno.Lo's b"oad pennant rn a
r.m down by a battle cruiser faultless performance at Jutland while,
The six'Chatham' class ships (HMS of the latter, Ihe Sydney will be re-
Chatham, Dublin, Southampton, membered for drsposing of the raider
Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney) of SMS Emden,
-:11-12 were improved Weymouths
-:err elqht srngle 152-mm mountings Specification
s ill not superimposed but marnly 'Chatham'class
s-ded, so that a broadsrde v;as of only Displacement: 5,400 tons standard
'-;e qmns They did have a partial 76- Dimensions: length 139,6 m (458.0 ft)t
::r belt worked in, but again enjoyed beam 14.9 m(48,75 ft); drauqht4.6 m
-.- :ncrease Ln speed the ndin reason (15 0 ft)
,:r -,,.rhich bernqr that they were the last Propulsion: four sets ofgeared
: ihe coal fired ships, for which the turbines de[vering 25,000 shp
,:: way to produce more energy was ( 18640 kW) to four (Soul,hampton two)
-, ncrease
" the size of the ship and shafts
:-sial1 more borlers, Speed:25.5 kts
-: rs interesting to note that German Armour: erght singie I 52-mm (6-in)
,;:,i cruiser construction had followed one 76-mm AA and four srngle 3-pdr
:r, almost exactly parallel path also quns, and two 533-mm (21-in) torpedo
:i:ptrng a belt at this time. In general tubes
-::t/ were slenderer, of higher power Armour: 76-mm ( I-in) belt
.:: usefuliy faster. Thetr power was Complement:490
":scrbed by triple propellers and re-
::rted the dilflculties that the British
-,'.-:re having
in that one ship of each
:-ass was twin-screwed with the re
::-alder quadruple Three ships of the
-^ ass served rn the Brittsh Royal Navy,
:-r:e in the Australian Of the former
 'Chatham' class (continued) Light Cruisers of World War I
Left : T he mixed armament of the
'Bristol' class did not prove a
success, and the'Chathams' were
armed with eight 6-in guns which
grave Sydney ove rwhelming ly
superior broadsides in her fightwith
tfi e Emden. Three of the class seryed
with theRoyalNavy and threewith
the AustralianNavT.

HMsSouthampton assfte appeared inJuly 1919 when operating off Murmansk

during the Allied intervention inRussia. The'Chatham' class were superior
sea-boats to the preceding British cruiser classes, as the forecastle was
extended down more than half the |ength, and lower metacentric height
reduced rolling. Horizontalarmourwas supplemented by a thin armour belt.
The high velocity guns of the 'Weymouth' class had proved unsatisfactory, and
the'Chathams' mounted a new, Iower-velocity 6-in gun which was
considerably lighter yet could stiil score hits at up to I 4,000 yards. After an
active wartime career which included action at Heligoland, Dogger Bank and
Jutland, she leftRussianwaters in 1919 tolead the 7th LightCruiserSquadron
in South America. After service there and at the Cape she spent 1921-4 in the
East Indies before going into reserve at the Nore.

- ::='::::::='*iffi aa a ^a a
ffi ibarotine'class
The success ofthe 'Actrves' pointed up
the advantages ol a larqer and hiqher
powered class that could better oper-
ate with the fleet main force the
'Boadiceas' for tnstance, suffering
badly by having to keep station on the
battle squadrons tn heavy weather.
Hrqher power was now a real possibil-
1ty with the rapid advances in steam
turbine engineeringt and the eight
'Arethusas' followed rn rapid succes-
sion, They were powered lor 30 kts (a
120 per cent increase in shalt horse-
power over the Actives') though their
actual speeds were up to 1.5 kts slow
er. A major functton beinq still seen as
counterinq the everJarqer destroyer,
they were given an oddly mixed
armament of two centreline 152-mm
(6-rn) guns with eiqht 102-mm (4 tn)
w.apons rn sirole, s,oed moLntLngs.
They also carrted a quadruple 533-mm
(21 in) torpedo tube bank on either
srde. The extra machinery demanded
a much larger hull but thrs was further
rmproved by addrng a 76 mm (3-Ln)
vertical belt to the 25 mm (]-in) pro-
tectrve deck.
Sx 'Caroline' class crutsers (HMS
C aroline, C arysfort, C leopatr a, C om-
us, Conquest and Cordelia) then fol-
lowed rn quick succession, five of them
toom royal dockyards. A 3-m (iO-ft) in-
crease ln length was of less consequ-
ence than 0.5m (1 6ft) extra on the
beam, rmprovrnq sttffness As wtth the
Arethusas , the mixed armament
proved decidedly unpopular and most
.-ri€r€ r€ drrr€d with a varyinq number
:f 152-mm (6-in) wns as reflts permit-
ed. A 'flrst' for both classes was the
-rclusion of a hrgrh-anqle 76- or 102 mm
-3'or
4-in) gun for use against atrcraft
As completed, HMS Caroline
mounted two more4-in guns thanthe
pr eceding' Arethusas', but the
superiority of 6-inweaPons had
already been established. Some of
the 4-in guns were removed in 19I6
and all had gone by the next Year,
replaced by auniform armamentof
four 6-inguns.
-'==:*.=;.J@:
Some earlier units were later fltted
with a runway over the forecastle qun
to fly off a figrhter for use agatnst the
enemy s spott-ng Zeppelins
Ultimately 28 'C'class cruners were
built but, wrth the last completing after
the war, they varied qulte widely in
desrgn All following the initral 'Caro-
hnes had only two funnels and main
armaments were rattonahzed to frve
-52 mm (6-irJ centreltne rnoun lngq.
Later ships had gn-rns supenmposed
both forward and aft, a few taking an
arrcraft hangar beneath the bridqe To
counteract the wetness ofhard drivtnq,
they were also fitted with a so-called HMS Caradoc engages Bolshevikforces inKaffa Bay during theBritish
'trawler bow' having a knuckle and intervention in Russia. On 26 December l918, together with hersisler Calypso
marked sheet Thrrteen went on to see and three destroyers, she captured two Bolshevik desfroyers. Caradoc
service in World War II, in which six survived to serve again in World War II and was finally sold in I 946.
were lost. Some were used early-on in
the new Northern Patrol but had to be
replaced for the same teasons as the
'Talbots' in World War I
Specification
'Caroline'class
Displacement: 3,750 tons standard
Dimensions:length 135,9 m (446.0 ft);
beam 12.6 m (41,5 ft); drauqht 4,2 m
(14 0 ft)
Propulsion: four sets ofgeared
turbines deliverrng 40, 000 shp
(29825 kW) to four shafts
Speed:29 kts
Armament: two single 52-mm (6-in),
1 A Above : T he Royal N avy's apparently
eight singrle 102-mm (4-in) and one or
two single 76-mm (3-in) AA gnrns, and
'-":'l insatiable demand for light cruisers
(there were over 40 in service or
two twin or quadruple 533-mm (21-in)
'i nearing completion by I I I 5 ) Ied to
t1,
torpedo tube mountings :tr. six' improved Centaur s' being
Armour: 25-mm ( 1-in) deck and 76-mm :f ordered in I I I 5. Twenty-eight'C'
::. type cruisers were eventually built,
Complement: 325
'i allwith similar atmamenL HMS
Cassandra" seen here, was mined in
theGulf of Finlandin 1918.

>K ib'"la*
Where the 'C'{ype cruisers passed
throuqh several stagies to reach the
ultLrnate 'Car]lsle' type, the 'D' class
shrps were really the next loqical step.
Destroyers by the latter part of the war
had advanced to the stago where they
were bigt enougrh to outdistance a
cnriser in all but the worst sea states
Below: Rumours that theGermanswere building new and more powerful light
cruisers led to the'Danae' class mounting a sixth centreline 6-in gun and,
taking advantage of the increased beam, they also mounted aheavy torpedo
armament of I 2 /. 2 I -in weapons in four triple mountings.

2692
D'class (continued)
-nd the 'Ds' drd not therefore suller a
-.,gnif,cant jncrease rn srze to
accommodate up-rated machinery.
They were, however, about 6 m (20 ft)
ionger to take a srxth, centreline 152-
mm (6-in) mounting, squeezed be-
iween the forefunnel and the bridqe,
ls such they were the last class to take
the all-sinqle mount main battery that
-was extremely demanding of axial
lengrth. Advantaqe was also taken to
Couble the torpedo armament to four
-riple mountrngs. Only the three
'Danae' class units HMSDanae Daunf-
,less and Dragon of the first group
,';ere completed in time to see active
service, johing a selection of 'C' class
:mrsers in the Harwich Force.
Five more were completed postwar
.:lMS Delftj, Despatch, Diomede,
Dunedin and Durban) and a further
-:ur were cancelled. With liqht cruiser
c'u1dmq resumed only in the 1930s, the
ls and'Ds' were an important compo-
l8#ele' class
-re 10 'Gazelle' class cruisers (SMS
Amazone, Ariadne, Arkona, Frauen-
Iob, Gazelle, Medusa, Niobe, Nym-
phe, Tlrefis and Undine) bore roughly
:-e sarne relationship to German light
::urser development as the 'Gem'
:-ass did to the Britrsh, They were
--.'olved from the single SMS He1a,
::mpleted in 1896 (sunk by Max Hor-
.:i s E 9 a month after the outbreak of
r:r). This ship, which was later recon-
-rlcted, was a useful prototype, lim-
- :C rn speed by the low rating of her
--.'lindrical boilers, but demonstratinqr
:at a heavier armament could be ship-
;:i and that the protective deck could
:: lprated,
ln the same length, therefore, the
l-elles' had another I m (3,3 ft) of
nent of the fleet between the wars.
Mosl o[ lhe 'Cs that saw service in
World War II had been usefully con-
verted to AA cruisers, with the new
twin HA 102-mm (4-in) mountings and
the requisrte fire control (thouqh it was
generally agrreed that they could fire
ammumtion fa.r more efficiently than
they could stow it). The 'D' class ships,
on the other hand, were never so con-
verted and, berng decidedly old-
fashioned by 1939, were used in low-
hazard duties such as patrolling the
more distant trade routes or hunting
raiders' supply ships. One, the Dune
dln, was sunk in the South Atlantic by
U-124 (wtlh one of the longest re
corded torpedo runs) rn Novembr
1941, the Royal Navy's blackest month.
A hiqh-speed stretched version of
beam and their honzontal protectton
cloubled in thickness to 50 mm
( 1.98 in). Watertube boilers produced
a 40 per cent increase in power at no
penalty while the marn battery was tm
proved to1O 105-mm (4.13-in) quns.
These weapons probably influenced
the British rn their choice of 102-mm
(4-in) weapons for their equivalent
ships, though the German gun was
more powerful, with a muzzle veloctty
that enabled rt to outrange even the
older 152 mm (6-in) gnrn of the Royal
Navy,
The class was produced by the Ger-
mans as a fusion between earlter con
cepts of 'fleet' and'overseas' cruisers,
and were sized accordinqly. Their tnr
tial duties were to screen the fleet
Light Cruisers of World War I
the 'Ds'was started during World War
I as the pla n ned trio of 'E' class cruisers
(only two were completed), doubling
the machinery to achieve an asto-
nishing 33 kts, They were completed
rn 1919 20. One, HMS Enlerprtse, car-
ried a prototype twin 152-mm mount-
ing, Both she and HMS Emerald had
also an aucraft and catapult, and a re-
cord ]6 torpedo tubes. They had the
thick-and{hrn funnels of the 'C' and 'D'
classes, but were drstinctive by havrng
also a third funnel set well aft.
against the attentions of torpedo craft,
but as they were rapidly superseded
by improved classes, they soon found
themselves serving worldwide in Ger-
many's burgeoninqt imperial interests.
Theywere smart little ships, weatherly
and with good freeboard, featwinq an
exaggerated ram bow which, like the
French, gave extra buoyancy forward
and improved lines on a limited lengrth.
Despite their age they were well
used during the war and suffered
accordrngly. Ariadne was shattered
by close-range salvoes from Beatty's
flagship HMS fuon at the Heligoland
Biqht action, Frauenlob was also there
but was eventually sunk by a torpedo
from HMS Southampton duringr the
confused night action after Jutland. Ua-
y buoyancyforward.?hrsisF=uer-:t
, whichwas torpedoed andsun:kb-;
'.
Specification
'Danae'subclass
Displacement: 4,650 tons standard
Dimensions: lenqrth 143.6 m (471.0 ft)
beam 14.0 m (46.0 ft); drausht 4.6 m
(15 0 fr)
Propulsion: hvo sets ofqeared stean
turbines deliverrng 40,000 shp
(29825 kW) to two shafts
Speed: 28,5 kts
Armament:stxsinqrle 152 mm(6 n]
and two single l02-mm (4-in) AA 9u=
and fourtriple 533-mm (21-rn) torped:
tube mountrngs
Armour: 25-mm ( 1-in) deck and 76 ;:,::
(3-in) belt
Complement: 375
The 'D' class survived the war and. ir'
lfte case ofDespatctL a scfteme to
convert her into a royalyacht, and
found themselves in action once
again in I 939. They were generally
used to patrol the most dktant
w ater s, althoughllMS Dunedin was
torpedoed and sunk bylJ-IZ4 off
Brazil in 1941.
dlne was surik rn the Bal:: :
the British submanne E i -:
The I 0'Gazelle' c,lass cmisersbui:
between j,897 and 1903estabh.snea
the basic pattern for German
cruisers. Handsome vessels. r:Li a
good freeboard. thet e xaggera:e=
ram bow endowed them with er;ra
.. HMSSouthampton at JutJand
tf i r<
 'Berlin' class
Besides the British, the German was
rhe only fleel ro burld l,ohl crursers rn
any numbers rn rime to make a signr
ficant contribution to the war The 10
'Gazelles' had proved to be excellent
prototypes and foilow-on ships were
heavrly based on them, thence de-
velopinq very logdcally from class to
class. By the Kaiser's instruction the
earlier mxed bag of names had to give
way to uniformity, all new light cruisers
being named after crties Thus the five
'Berlin' class cruisers, completed in
1904-5, were named after the capital
(SMS Berlin) the three Hanseatic city-
states and Mirnchen (Munrch), They
were essentially'Gazelles' stretched
by 6 m (20 ft) to accommodate 40 per
cent more power which necessitated
a third funnel, They retained the same
armament and scale of protection also
the characteristic positioninqr of the
foremast forward of the bridge struc-
ture and the extreme 'ram bow, Olthis
group SMS Lilbeck became the first Iengthened by 4m (13.lft) to in- Dar-es-Salaam to operate rn the indran Konigsberg, seen here in pre-war
German cruiser to be propelled by crease power to over 13,000 shP Ocean simultaneously wlth SMS panoply, was atDar-es-Sa laam in
steam turbines, her 14,000-shp (10440- (9695 kW). It ts of note that thts extra lmden. oul her ma ol s-.ctrss wds .T )S14 andcaughf HMSPegasus wilft
kW) outfit being of Parsons' designi size was not used to load the shtp wtth surprising and overwhelming the Iittle her fires drawn off Zanzibar, sinking
they were not geared at this time and any more armament and the 105-mm crusrer HMS Pegasus off Zanzrbar be- her in just l5 minutes.
to absorb the power at hiqh revolu- (4. 13-in) gun was retained for its hrqh fore tamely allowinq herself to be
trons, an original multi-propeller rate of flrer up to 20 rounds per minute blockaded and, eventually destroyed
arangement was tried on two shafts, with a well-drilled crew Compared in the Rufiji delta. Propulsion: two sets of -rtplo-
The system was not partrcularly suc- with British shrps of similar length, the expanslon steam engrnes dehvennqf
cessful wrth the screw technologry of Germans were a full 2 m (6.6 ft) wider Specification 13,200 ihp (9840 kW) to two shafts
the time and, pendinq evaluation, the in the beam, improvtng stabrlity and SMSKcinigsberg Speed:23 5 kts
three follow-ons in 1906-7 reverted to also bunker capacity. Both the latter Displacement: 3,350 tons standard and Armament: i0 srngle 105-mm (4 l3-in)
-'e well-trLed trple expansion cngina. and the conservatively-rated machtn 3 950 tons full load qnrns and two 450-mm ( 17.7 ln) torpedo
Ci these, SMS Danzig and Leipzig ery contrrbuted to the ships' designed Dimensions: lenqth 115.25 m (378 i ft) tubes
',vere virtual repeats but the one-off but alrerno ivc role as commerce ralders beam 13.33 m (43,7 ft); drauqht 5 1 m Armour: 50 mm ( 1 98-rn) deck
-. ri ar SMS K6nigsberg was .oain The Konrqsberg herself escaped from (16 7 ft) Complement: 320

'Dresden' class
-: lollow the lone SMS Kontqsberg, general, the machrnery of German
ie German navy built the three'Stet- cruisers appears to have been conser-
tm' class and two 'Dresden'class cruis vatively rated as they were often cap
:rs whrch though off,crally of two clas- able of exceedinq their legend
s:s were very similar, SMSNrirnberg, speeds.
^Stettin and Stuttgart were all com- The two 'Dresdens'offered a better
.cleted in 1908, with SMS Dresden and appearance wrth three equl spaced
Emden followinq in 1908-9 On the funnels and a cleaner hull, from whtch
same beam as the earlier Konigsberg, the earlier sponsons (Schwalbennster
.,1ey were longer by about 3 m (10 ft), or swallows' nests) had disappeared.
allowing a better machinery arrange- The Emden was the last triple-expan
r:lent and shghtly improved lines, The
Sieitins' were unrque rn the fleet 1n Riglrf;Dresden lies atMas aFuera.
:,avlng a unequal spaclng to thelr three Cornered by HMS Kent, HMS
-:nnels whrle the nameshtp essayed a Glasgow and tft eAMC Orama sft e
.rther experiment in steam turbines, hoisted awhite flag after the British
.re compact nature of which enabled opened fire and while the future
-re development of over 50 per cent Admiral C anaris, then a lieutenant,
nore power for an extra 2 kts. In negotiated with the Royal N avy, her
captain blew up her forward
SMSEmdenasshe appeared magazine.
in the Pacific, I 909- I I I 4. On
the outbreak ofwar she
slipped out ofTsingtao and
steamed for the Indian Ocean
to prey on British merchant
siips in c/assic c or s air
tradition. Emdenwas the last
cruiser built by Germany with
r ec ipro c ating engine s,
perhaps because they were
easier to maintain on so
distant a station.

IJ

2694
'Dresden' class (continued)
sron engrned crutser built by the Ger-
:lans, the simple reliability of the
rachinery being a positive asset for
.:re necessary self maintenance under-
:aken durrng her raiding cruise. Her
--xbine-driven srster Dresden, howev-
:r, was the only one of von Spee's shtps
.: be so fitted and was able to develop
:re extra speed necessary to out dis-
rnce Sturdee's ctuisers at the Falk-
-:rds and survive, whlle lhe very slml
--r but reciprocating-engined ly'tirn-
berg was run down and destroyed by
HMS Kenl, whose stokers had worked
miracles. It was very obvtous that the
almost universally 105 mm (4 13-in)
gunned Germans were always at a dts-
advantage when unable to escape the
British wrth their 152 mm (6-in)
weapons. 'lhe Dresdens existenco
was a lonely one. This was no area for
rardinqt and she went into hidinq in the
desolate inlets of Tierra del Fuego for
two months until, with her boiier tn
Light Cruisers of World War I
poor condrtron, she broke out to Juan
Fernandez where, on 14 March 1915
she was cornered and sunk by HMS
Glasgow and Kent.
Specification
'Dresden'c1ass
Displacement: 3,590 tons standard and
4,270 tons full load
Dimensions: length 118 25 m (388,0 ft);
beam 13.33 m (43 7 ft); draught 4 8 m
(15 75 ft)
Propulsion: (Dresden) four sets of
steam turbrnes delivering 10 BO0 shp
(8,050 kW) to two shafts, or (Emden)
two sets of trrple-expansion steam
engdnes dellerinq 14,500 ihp
(10810 kW) to two shafts
Speed:26 kts
Armament: 10 single 105-mm (4. 13-in)
gmns and two 450-mm ( 17 7-in) torpedo
tubes
Armour: 50-mm ( l.98-in) deck
Complement: 360

'Breslau' class
-:e four 'Kolbergs', completed in
:,3-10, were afull l2 m (39,4 ft) lonqter
:::, the 'Dresdens despite being the
:s. all-turbine class. They doubled
:: -nstalled power of the earlier shtps,
-.,:leased bunker space and took
::r.1er two 105-mm (4. 13-in) quns
:,: -n
as contemporary with the British
:::iicea' class, smaller ships with
....-sL{ to 10 102-mm (4-in) weapons.
''.:-:r.
the followrng year, the Royal
.-'.-_; rephed with the first 'Town'
--- -p (the 'Bristol class) they built
'-=::-
slightly larger than the 'Kol-
:=:;s thouqh similar in power and
.:=.: of protection. Siqtniflcantly
- ', :','er, they also put aboard a pair of
,: :::,m (6-rn) gnrns.
-:-: deliberately developinEt Ger-
:r- senes continued almost without a
::=-< with the four 'Breslau' class
ri:rs (SMS Eres/au, Magdeburg,
j::alsund and Strassburg) These
- beam 13 5 m (44.3 ft); draught 5.1 m
=:: compatable in srze to the Bristols
.': .rterest.ngly. the qJartet n-
: :::C double-, triple- and quadruple-
. .' propulsion, for evaluation pur-
: .:s Both powerandspeed differed
--ierably, the ships (like the British
---.=: adoptrnq a four-funnel layout,
stacks were typically German,
- = ,;: cased for only hall their height.
: -=: efficiency was improved some
"-r -oy adopting oi1 burners to sup
:,=:-.nt the coal in the furnace While
:- .,:-rnq the gun armament of the 'Kol
:-:;s they increased the torpedo
.:,--nent from two 450-mm (17 7 in) to
:JO-mm (19.7-in) tubes. Another
- -:.:','ation was to reduce the protec
': reck from the previously universal
: ::r (1.98 rn) to only 15 mm (0 6 in)
.-. :ntroduc.ng a new LeoLure in a
.' ::n (2 76-in) belt. This was a fun-
:=-::ntal chanqe of heart not born of
:...-: experience War, howevet, was
- ::3w that the fast rate of flre of the
: rm glrrns was still no match for the
-=.-.:l and slower British 152-mm guns
. -' .-veral groupsof G-rman cruse"s
were regn-lnned with 150-mm (5.9-in)
weapons.
Magdeburg was lost as earlY as 26
Augmst 1914, berng destroyed by the
Russians after grounding in the Gulf of
Finiand. The recovery of her code-
books proved prLceless to the Allies.
Her sister Breslau was something oi a
cause c6ldbre when wtth the battle-
cruiser SMS Goeben, she reached
Turkey at the outbreak of war. As the
Yavuz Sultan Selrm and Midilli they
were an endless threat to both the Rus-
sians rn the Black Sea and the Anglo-
French forces outside the SIraiL Midillt
was sunk by runnrng into a British
minefleld in January 19lB
Specification
'Breslau'class
Displacement: 4,550 tons standard and
5 590 tons fuil load
Dimensions:length 138 5 m (454.4 ft); .Li?e Goeben, Breslau .io:ned'th e Turkish navy; styling herself 'Midilli', sfie and
the battle-cruiser thre,,tei,4d Reis-:;ar iorces in the Black Sea and ALlied units
(16 7 ft) in the Aegean. She perisher:l when a sortie inJanuary )918 went disastrously
Propulsion: two (Slrassburg), three wrong,'Breslau struck five British mines and sank, while Goebenwas mined
(Magdeburg andSfajsund) or four too, stranded, and had to be towed to safety.
(Breslau) sets ofsteam turbines
delverrngr between 22,300 and
33,500 shp (16625 and 24980 kW) to
two, three or four shafts
Speed:28 to 30 kts
Armament: 12 single 105-mm (4 13-in)
qnrns (later altered to seven srngle 150
mm/S.9-in guns) and four 500-mm
(19 7-in) torpedo tubes
Armour: 1S-mm (0.6 in) deck and 70-
mm (2 76-1n) belt
Complement: 365
Rr'grht: Breslau a tConstantinople with
Goeben. Their passage across the
M ed i te r r ane an repre s ente d a
humiliating defeat for the Allied
navies and was a stunning strategic
victory forGermany, since the
imposing presence of the squadron
enabled pro-German elements in
Turkey to pitch theOttomanEmpire
into thewar against the Allies.

i:eslau lnlrodu ced several

-:,novations:the new bow improved
s-oakeeping, she had a cleaner hull
unusually, an armouted belt.
=nd,
lhe cut-down quarterdeck provided
z platform for mjnes, and eacft vessel
ri the class had a different set of
:,:rbines. Magdeburg was lftemosf
tucial G erman loss of the war :
gr ounded in the B altic, fhe Russjans
:aptured her code book.

I
,.4

2695
 'Frankfurt' class
The four 'Breslaus' were followed rn
L9l3 by the pau of twrn-screwed 'Karls-
ruhes', nearly identical except for the
almost-obligalory slroht rncredse tn
length and beam Improvedborler and
layout enabled the next pair (SMS
Graudenz and Regensburg) of 1914 to
revert to three funnels being other-
wlse sLmilor Both of these pa,rs were
later rearmed with 150-mm (5.9-tn)
gnrns, but the f,rst to take them from the
outset were also the frrst to be com-
pleted during the war and after the
early lesson of the Heligoiand Bight
action, SMS Fra nkfurt and Wies baden
or rhe 'Frankfurt' class. Wo' trXPerL
ence not only decided their main bat-
tery of eight larger qnrns but added a
parr of HA BB-mm (3 46-in) weapons for
use against atrcraft. The new belt and
splinter deck protectron was also con-
flrmed as correct and repeated subse-
quently in all other war-burlt light
:ruisers, A small increase in beam en-
abled them to ship 120 mines on deck,
another improvement to be repeated
-r later ships An rnnovation in machin-
:ry led to the 'Frankfurts' being fitted
'.'.:rh reducilo- gears lor lhell steart
::rbines (contemporary with the same
=iditron in the British 'Cs)
Wrth shared prrorities, the early se-
-.-ere losses in light crursers sustained
:;.'the German fleet were hardly reco-
. .roo dur-ng rhe war onlv su mo"e
-::Lrally beinq completed (and repeat
: ; names of lost ships), together with a
EI 'Askold' class
,: ..ne Russians Askold was an early
. :ranglan chieftain, but to the Royal singly, eight with light shields and on
l,-'.'-; that knew her well the ship the open deck and four casemated.
Askold was simply the 'Packet of The forecastle was very short and the
,-,::dbrnes', one of the few shrps out-
--j: ihe French navy boastinq more
:,= iour funnels. The ship was laun-
,::i in lB99 by the Krupp-Germania
.-, ::n at Krel and, though contempor-
-:; '..nth the German 'Gazelle' class
:.-- closer in concept to the earlier
:::_,.as . In common with others of the
:=:: she was truly a protected cruiser
:aF
pair of 'windfalls buildinq to Russian
account, and a further pair of specraltst
cruiser-minelayers Eight more laun-
ched or building at the Armrstlce,
were never completed.
f ranklut L and l4liesbaden panlcL
pated at Jutland as part of the 2nd
Scoutinq Group, Both, with SMS Pflau,
were badly I red led when they ran -nto
Hood's battle-cruisers, the Wiesbden
becominq a total wreck in beinEt an
immobilized'Aunt Sally between both
fleets though remarninqi afloat for near-
ly 12 hours after having sustained a
fearful battering. Frankfurt suwtved
the war to be surrendered with the
Hrgh Seas Fleet. She was not sunk in
the qreneral scuttling of 2 I June 19 19 at
Scapa Flow, beinq one of the ships
beached in trme by the Royal Navy
She was eventually translerred to the
Amerrcans and expended 1n 'Billy'
Mitchells controversial aerial bomb-
ing trials.
Specification
'Frankfurt' class
Displacement: 5, 150 tons standard and
6,600 tons full load
Dimensions: lenqth 145 3 m (476.7 ft); l2 kts
beam 13,9 m(45 6 ft); drausht6 i m Armament: elght single I 50-mm (5. 9- Frankfurt and Wiesbaden were the
(20 0 fr) in) and two BB-mm (3.46-rn) gmns four firstGerman light cruisers to receive
Propulsion: two sets of greared steam 500-mm ( 19 7-in) torpedo tube and i20 150-mm (5.9-in) guns for their main
turbines dehvering 37, 500 shp mlnes armament. They also mounted a pair
(27960 kW) to two shafts Armour: 20 mm (0.79-in) deck and 70- of 88-mm (3.4-in) anti-aircnft guns. A
Speed:28 kts mm (2.76-in) belt modest increase in beam allowed
Endurance: 8900 km (5,530 mties) at Complement: 500 them to carry 120 mines on deck.
Allmainbatterygunsweremounted the Far East at the outbreak of World expansion steam engines delivering
War I, she came under British oper- 19,650 ihp (14650 kW) to three shafts
ational control, taking part in the Speed:23,5 kts
search for von Spee escorting con- Armament: l2single 152-mm 16 ir)
concentration of weight forward gave voys in the Indian Ocean and then and 12 single 76-mm (3-in) gmns, and
her a reputatton for wetness and ln sewing in the Mediterranean, on the srx 380-mm ( l 5-rn) orpedo tubes
order to meet the demands of the spe Levant coast and at the Dardanelles, Armour: 50 mm (1,98-in) deck, and
cification, her butlders (not famtliar Following the 1917 revolution and with patches of 100-mm (3.94-rn) and 3B-mm
with this class of ship) underestlmated the UK siding agarnst the Bolsheviks, {,.6. ln) arnou. over the mach:nery
for scantlings in some areas of the hull she was taken over by the British and spac-as
Nevertheless, she had a successfui lay rusting until returned and scrap- Complement:5OO
and useful career. ped in 1922.
As part of the Port Arthur squadron Askold, seen as completed in 1901,
Specification had avery active career; her
Askold beautiful colour scheme replaced by
Displacement: 5,9l0 tons standard a coat of grey, she fought the
Dimensions: lenqth 132, I m (433.4 ft); J apanese off Por t Ar thur in I 904 and
beam 15,0 m (49 2 ft); draught 6.2 m broke out to Shanghai and
(20 3 ft) internment. I n I I 1 4 she j oined the
Propulsion: three sets oftrrple- hunt for von Spee's squadron.
Emdens Epic Rctid
In August I9l4 Germany's Pacific squadrongathered in the Marianas, and at the
suggestion of her captain the cruiser Emden was detached to raid British commerce
inlie IndianOcean. Conducted in the classic corsair tradition, her cruise attracted
worldwide attention, and the chivalry and daring of her captain won prajse even
fromhisenemies.
3afeguarding Germany's interests 1n the Far heardofwarwithJapanandthepursurngofold
=ast"was Vr"ce-Admrral Graf von Spee's East scores in her investment of Tslngtau. Emden
-rsratic Squadron, based on the limited facih was now without friends or facllities,
.-:s of Tsingtau in northern Chrna. Its maior A first problem was.the failure of a collier to
-:rits comprised the armoured cruisers SMS make a pre-arranged rendezvous off Timor
::harnhorst and Gnejseaau, and the hght and bunkers were taken from an auxrliary On
::rrsers SMS Emden, Nirnberg and Leipztg. 27 August the little cruiser came through the
..{is area of responsrbility b-eing vast, von ]rombok Strart and entered the Indlan Ocean,
-:cee spent consid'erable ttme at sea Follow British radio disciphne
was slack, von Miiller
--1 ihe'sarajevo alfair in June l914, war looked raprdly becoming aware of major activity rn the
jnd, taking the practical view that area, Duringtheweekspentrunninglhelength
--:-,.rtable
-rgtau would be hdefeniible agarnst Allied of Java and Sumatra, a dummy fourth funnel wa_s
-',-ui powet, he decrded to get 'lost' in the contrived to gtve the_appearance of a British
.=:rfic, thus avoiding the fate of the Russian 'Town', A second coaling stop a! the northern
:::- Arthur squadron a decade before end of Sumatra also falled and had to be re-
3n1y the Emden remained and, on the re- soived as before, the ships almost running foul
:=-ot of the warning telegram on 30 July her of the British cruiser HMSHamps,htre one of a
--c:ain, von Miiller, put to sea to await events, force seeking another German SMS Konlgs-
::s:ilities against Russia commenced on 3 Au berg
;--:- and the?mden captured the new auxihary From here, von Miiller struck out across the Captain Karl Friederich Max von Muller becane
--' :,.an which she took back to Tsingtau for IndianOceanbut, despitecrossingmajortrade
the most famous German sea captain. his na:ne a
byword for chivalry and enterprise. He joinei
-c,d conversion to a raider (Kormoran). By routes, arrived north east of Ceylon on 10 Emdenin the Far East in I I I 3 and soon maie a
':-,..' the UK and France were also hostile, and September having taken only a Greek ship, name for himself dealing with brigands an the
,-can was also expected to declare, so \ron loaded with contraband (and lnvalualole) Brit- Yangtse. It was he who suggested a campaig:, ::
l.-dler wasted no iime, topped up and sailed ish coal. Emden then followed the Coiombo- thelndianOcean, and he executed itwith rigcrc:s
:- 6 August with two auxiiiarres to rendezvous Calcutta route northward and was tmmediately professionalism.
-.'-.h voi Spee in the Marianas. A conference rewarded. Her first prize was the Bnttsh ship
(par- , : =-
port hrs 250-odd captrves and, incide:-:--
--:re on 12 August decided that the squadron 1adus, which was strrpped of useful items
. -:i-rld make for Germany via the Pacific and trcularly soap that was in very shorl supply) ginning his great reputation for fair:::ss --:
;.-= Horn but von Mi1]]er, having convinced his before being sunk. Four other ships were humanity.
.=:1ror of the etreat prospects open lo a crurser taken in rapid succession but their crews were Dangerously ciose to the Sandheais := :-:
way, becoming an embarrassment in numbers. A tured the empty colher Trabbock. T: s :.: --=:
-- -le Indian 6cean was aliowed his own without delay he used hrs Qruns ra-:-:t ...::
My dutiful thanks for the confidence piaced passing neutral .ltalian.was stopped and, re-
, ne, Success to the Squadron and Bon quested to take them to land but refused, after- charges but, in the depth of nigth: ::-= :.-.
.:_.age': with this valedictory signai Emden wards warning the British City of Rangoon of
,=-. io-n Spee to his separate fate olCoronel and the Emden's presence, This shrp broadcast a_ Emden'sgrracefu 1profi[e soon began ta haun: :.3
;' = Falklinds. Von Muller moved at a leisurely general raider warning, the first confirmation of minds of ship owners in the Indian Ocean: he: ra:=
: =:e through the mynad islands of Indonesia, von Miiller's whereabouts. While the latter on Madras sent shockwaves across India. ana
,-::,ng boti ship and crew to peak efficiency, realized that to dally would be disastrous, he 'Emden'came to be usedin the localTamil d:zie::
r: :h6y passed Celebes on 23 August they iook the Bntrsh Kabrnga, sparing her to trans- to me an' an ingenious pers on'.

,.,
.1!

"l
ryai
 Emden's Epic Raid
laden atmosphere inside the ship's holds was
inadvertently detonated in a shattering explo-
sion, This brought the Clan Matheson Io Ihe
scene to offer assistance this ship and her valu-
able piece-goods cargo also beinq lost as a
conseguence. Wrth ample radio evidence of
Britrsh, French and Japanese crursers on her
Iratl, Emden was now obhged to vacate the
iucrative Calcutta approaches, heading south
eastward toward Rangoon. The movement had
been antrcipated and the raider found the area
clear of shipping, though the radio traffic was
ever more threatening, Von Muller therefore
turned to the west, again nairowly missing the
Hampshire as he set out across the Bay of
Bengal,
Oiltankattack
At about 22.00 on 22 September Emden
bo1d1y appeared off Madras, approaching to
wrthin 3000m (3,300 yards) to bombard and
destroy the extensive tank storage iacilrtres of
the Burmah O11 Compnay. Dazzling the port
battery with his searchlights, von Miiller got off
125 rounds in short order and was away, The
material gain was small compared wrth the westward for a coaling rendezvous in the Nico 09.30 hrs, I 0 November J914: Emden slosingr
effect on British morale. bars. batUe with tlre Sydney cou Id be watched from the
Heading southward, lhe Emden cheekrly A raider bereft of facilitres needs to avoid roof of thewirelesssladon on theislandandvon
looked in to the French ports of Pondicheri and damage at all costs, and von Miiller's next step Miicke decided to seize the schooner anchored
offshore and escapewith the landing party.
Cuddalore, rounded Ceylon and arrived at the seems almost foolhardy. Intelligence indrcated
trafflc focal point south of Cap Conmorin just an old French cruiser at Penang and resolving
ahead of the chase, Half a dozen prizes were to attack her Emden, with her fourth 'funnel' The Emden rounded the northern tip of
iaken, one (the Brrtrsh Buresk) being taken ngged, entered through the outer anchorge at Sumatra and ran southward along the island's
along for her cargo of first-quahty steaming flrst liqht on 28 October. What she found was coast. Alhed efforts to catch her were diluted
coal. the lrttle Russian cruiser Zhemchug which, by necessary operations against the Konigs-
Expecting von Milller to double back to the totally surprlsed, was overwhelmed at close berg, off the African coast and the need to
lndies the Allies sent cruisers to the area but range by a harl of gunflre and torpedoes. cover vast movement oftroops by sea, Having
,vere frustrated as the German moved south to Understandably, von Miiller pulled out raprdly peeped briefly and unrewardingly rnto the
Drego Garcia for a period of self maintenance, but, two hours out, stopped an inward bound Sunda Strait, von Miiller resolved to complete
Following thrs, the Emden returned to claim British Glen liner, His action was rnterrupted by
another seven victims before finally heading a small French destroyer, the 300-ton Mous-
quel which, with more courage than tactical
Having spread fear and confusion along the Indian sense, bore siraight in. Her two torpedoes
coasl, Emden ra ided Penang at dawn on 2 8
October 1914. Sporting a fake fourth funnel to
were cool1y avoided by the German, which
make her resembleHM,S Yarmouth sfte entered shattered her with i2 close range salvoes. 1&r
.,1

harbour flying the British flag. When she reached Even here, however von Mirller stopped to trF
Zhemchung, downwent thefalse colours, upwent rescue her survivors, many ofwhom were sev-
the German ensign and Emden opened fire. In just erely injured
-**i
I 5 minutes the Russian cruiser exploded and sank.

"\*,,\)i.

Eri- .
 Light Cnrisers of World War I

-r,chanQle his area to the Red Sea approaches

Jn hrs way he made a fateful decision to detour
=nd destroy the important Brltish Cable and
-,Vireiess
statlon in the Cocos-Keelings
Warning broadcast
This move had iong been anticipated and an
Jert staff rapidly saw through the German's
,cur-funnel drsgurse when she approached
:arly on 9 November and broadcast a powerful
-.-;armng en clair, To avoid posstble bloodshed
-:rough shelling, von Miiller put a SO-strong
-andrng party ashore but these were almost
:nmed-iaiely-marooned when the Emden sud-
ienlv qot under way. A Brltlsh cruiser had
::en sichted, She was, in facL, the Australan
-c2 mm (6-tn) shrp HMAS Sydney whrch
:bserving radio silence, had bee! just below
:e horrzon, covering a convoy Besides her Von Miicke brought the landing party to
:-eavier main battery, the newcomer was clean K apitilnleutnant H ellmuth von M ilcke, Miiller's
'Nimber One', was a resourceful extrovertwhose C onstantinople where they were received by
-:d had at least a 4-kt speed advantage which eoic iournev back toGermany made a dramatic AdmiralWilhelm Souchon. They had sailed across
:-er captain, Glossop, used to full advantage to the Indian Ocean, evading the Royal Navy,
iostscript [o tne sinking of the Emden. /t was hjs
r.ctate the range and the course ofthe action. idea to iig a fourth funnel on the ship to give her a survived Turkish double- dealing and fou gh t off
The German policy of lighter-calibre but fas- silhouette resembling that of H MS Yarmouth. Arab brigands in a battle in the desert.
worked to
=r-firing gun sometimes, as here,
:-eir disadvantage. Despite accurate return
:e the heavier vessel's salvoes soon began to
.=11. The Emden's rangefinder was destroyed
=:rd her steering
gear damaged, the latter
!roblem betng compounded by loss t speed
-':ilowing the t,cpphng of two funnels The for-
::ast went by the board and the ship began to
sustained below the pro-
-rod from damage
:ctive deck. In the iightly-protected gun posi-
---ns, the carnaqe caused by lragments and
:.asl was appalhng and, aller ]00 mtnutes ol
:-:peless aition, von Miiller ran his wrecked
::mmand onto the reef of North Keeling Near-
--; half hrs crew was dead and most of the
r:mainder wounded, while the Australian had
.:ifered only sirght damagte and four falal
:-ualties in drsposrng of thrs most successful of
:-: German raiders, She had caused ihe Brittsh This is the end: shot to pieces by Sydney s hear:er
;eat material damage, but this was of little broadsides, Emden was run ashore on North
-:sequence compared with the associated Keeling Island; over 60 per cent of her creu;
- .ruption to movements and tylng down of becaie casualties. In her raiding career she tac
:,:ch Allied naval strength in her covered30,000 miles, sunk 16Britr'sh shlps i;tC-
-: crehension, inflicted damage to the tune of aboutt5,0AA.0{t -
some 1 5 times the cost of building Emden

-!--,
:
E*r- JSA
'St Louis' class
t'l
The 'St Louis' class concentrate{
their arm ament in a centr al bdtte ry ;
12 <6-in guns each side, protected by
4-inKrupp armour. Apar.tfrom ihe
ammunition hoists to tltb fore and aft
turrets, the rcst of tle hull was
unarmoured. H orj.iontal protection
was provided by a 3-in armoured ...
deck.
:T:I
Until rendered obsolete by the intro-
duction of the battle-cruiser, the
armoured crurser looked set to be an
rmportant feature of the US fleet, initial-
ly indeed takinq the state names re-
sewed at that time for capital ships.
Since 1892 the fleet had, by policy,
burlt almost entirely 'frrst class bat-
tleships and flrst-ciass cruisers', so
second- and third-class cruisers were
produced in only small numbers rn the
1890s for coastal defence and to main-
tain a presence at the few American
colonial possessions. Following the
',',ar ot lB9B wrln Spain and the acquisr-
iion of more- foreign territory, two
Eiswick cruisers were taken over from
Brazilian account, but the workmanlike
desiqn ofthese little shrps had no influ
:
USA
'Omaha'class
Ferhaps surprisingiy the US Navy
launched no crulsers between 1907
aad 1920, By the time that isolationism
:ad turned to active involvement in the
'.';ar
in 1917, the maritime threat from
3ermany was primarily through her
s-.:bmarines rather than her battlefleet,
ld it was on building destroyers that
-SA concentrated. Even so, the gap in
:ruser constructron is drfficult to jus-
.-ry.
A long series of armoured cruisers,
powerful enough to rank as third class
battleships had been rendered rude-
1_,'obsolescent in 1906 by the introduc-
::on of the battie-cruiser, Further,
,rhrle the Civil War had demonstrated
:ne value of both the blockade-runner
and commerce raider, the fast cruiser
iescendent of the latter had no place
The'Omaha' class cruisers were
built to complement the proposed
3 5 - l<t battle-cruisers of the I I I 6
prog:ramme. The desigm was
modified after the US Navyworked
with the Royal N avy in I I I 7 - 8 ; extra
gruns and torpedoeswere added,
which meant more crew and a rather
crowdedvessel
.arH,
..'/
ence whatsoever on the six 'Denver'
class colonial cruisers (Nos i4-i9) that
followed in 1901-3, It was, therefore, a
considerable chanqe of policy that
suddenly produced the three'St Louis'
class ships (USS Cftarleston, Mil-
waukee and Sf .Lours) which though
they took the next pendants (20 22)
had nothing else in common
In lB99 the British had effectively
introduced the armoured crurser by
addinq a belt to the design of the 'Di-
adem' class protected cruisers then
just completed, In a neat reversal of
this move the Americans created a
diminutive of the 'California' (later 'San
Drego') class armoured cruisers and of
a size with the contemporary British
'Monmouths'wrth whom they shared a
in the warlkely to be fought by 20th-
century USA,
Thus, the only likely role for the
cruiser to a nation lacking a real
emprre was that of scoutinq for the
main body of the fleet. The UK had
introduced the steam turbine-driven
hght cruiser wrth HMS AmeLhysl, com-
pleted in 1904, and the possibilities
posed by this new form of compact but
powerful machinery led the US Navy to
build the three 3,7501on 'Chesters' (CL
1-3), all launched in 1907, to evaluate
reclprocatrng macn.nery agalnst
direct-drive and geared turbines The
US Narry, however, did not (and in-
deed does not) like small ships and the
American crurser thus langnrished for
lack of a raison d'6tre
Probably more because both the UK
common marn battery of 14 152-mm
(6-in) guns, Where the British policy
was to work in a shallow 102-mm (4-in)
belt over the grealest possible length
and protect otherwise only the two
level casemales rhe Americans car-
ried on the central battery idea from
the 'Californias', encasing it in 102-mm
steel with a short extension both for-
ward and aft to cover the machinery
spaces. Predrctabiy. lhe na\ry consl
dered them underarmed but, though
they also carried lght horizontal pro-
tection, thef primary drawback was in
therr being no faster than armoured
cruisers, As their economy was not
seen as a virtue they were to langruish
alonqwiih them. The Milwaukeewasa
war loss.
and Germany made qood use of hqht
cruisers rather than through a per-
cerved need, a new class of l0 cruisers
had been authorized in 1916, classified
as 'scouts' despite being half as larqe
aqain as any light cruiser in Europe.
The 'Omaha' class ships (CL 4 13)
were not, however to be completed
until after the war, They were interest-
rng vessels with the large number of
bollers for their 34 kts in two groups,
resulting in two distinctrve pairs of fun-
nels, giving them the appearance of
overgrown flushdecked destroyers.
Their oriqinai elqht 152-mm (6-in) quns
(including some in the last casemates
recorded) were augmented by two
twin turrets at a late stage, All went
through World War II, emerging with
varying degrees of modrfication, to be
ir
Specification
'St Louis' ciass
Displacement: 9,700 tons standard
Dimensions: Ienqrth 123.0 m (426 5 ft);
beam 20. I m (66,0 ft); drauqht 6,9 m
(22.5fi)
Propulsion: two sels ol I nple-
expansion steam engdnes deliveringt
24,000 rhp (17895 kW) to two shafts
Speed:22 kts
Armament: 14 single 152-mm (6-in)
and 18 single 76-mm (3 in) guns
Armour:76-mm (3-in) deckand 102-
mm(4 in)belt
Complement: 668
scrapped with the 1940s. The ships
were the USS Cmcmnafi, Concotd,
Detroit, Marblehead, Memphis, Mil-
waukee, Omaha, Raleigh, Richmond
and Trenton
Specification
'Omaha'class
Displacement: 7,050 tons standard
Dimensions: lenqth 169.3 (555.5 ft);
beam 16 B m (55.25 ft); draught 4.5 m
(14 75 ft)
Propulsion: four sets ofqeared
twbines delivering 90,000 shp
(67105 kW) to fourshafts
Speed:33,5 kts
Armament:two twin and erght single
152-mm (6-in) and four single 76-mm
(3-1n) enrns and l0 533-mm (2]-in)
torpedo tubes
Armour:none
Complement:360
Armed Forces of :h,e World

Brqzrl
Brazil is the largest country of South America and
the fifth largest in the world. lt has a growing popula-
tion and a complex topography with vast impenet-
rable and partly unexplored jungles forming effec-
tive barriers between rt and all lts near neighbours
but Uruquay. To co-ordinate the defence of the
country there ls no centralized mtnistry of defence,
but instead separate army, navy and air force minis-
tries, a fact which reflects the bltter interservice
rivalries that have been found over the years. This
manifests itself most visibly in the division of the
country into geographic regions for military admin s-
tration and operational reasons. The army recog
nizes 1 1 such regions, the navy seven distrjcts, and
the air force six regional commands. Few if any of
these reglons, dtstricts and commands actually
colncide. The services also maintain their own sys-
tems of training establishments, although a conces-
sion to un ty was made when a tri service senior
officers staff college was set up in Rio de Janeiro.

The Army
The Brazilian army comprises some '1 83,000 men
of whom the majorty (132,000) are one-year con-
scr pts. The army rs divided tnto four armies which
have control over a total of eight divisronaL headquar-
ters. These compr se the following un ts:

one armoured brigade,

six armoured cavalry brigades,
cne armoured infantry brigade
e ght mechanized infantry brigades,
21 motorized infantry brigades,
iwo paratroop brigades (each of three battalrons),
'wo independent in'antry brigades,
sx independent jungle infantry battallons,
rne special forces battalion,
rne air-defence artillery brigade.
10 independent air-defence artillery groups,
i 0 f ield artillery regiments,
:lght coastal artillery groups, and
34 engineer battalions.
There are also 1,1'1 5.000 trained first-lrne and
225,000 partially-trained second-line reserv sts
:vailable for call-up during a conflict.
Theequ pmentused bythearmyis increasinglyof
nd genous design, with at least 40 per cent of the
lountry's total military requirements met from ts
fwn resources. A viable AFV modern zation and
ranufacturing industry sprang up ln the 1 960s and
s today about to start product on of two orig nal
\lBT designs, the EE-Tl Osorio and the MB-3
Tamoio. ln the wheeled AFV field Engesa has the
EE-3 Jararaca, EE-9 Cascavel and EE-1'1 Urutu
series, and has become one of the world's leading
exporters of such vehicles wtlh customers in North
Afflca, West Africa, the Middle East and the Far
East. There is also a highly successful infantry
weapons manutacturing industry but, apart frorn
Av bras and rts multiple rocket-launcher (MRL) pro-
jects, field artillery has strll to be imported. A f ull list
of the equipment used includes:
Artillery: (towed) 75-mm (2.95 in) M1 16 pack
howitzer, 1 05-mm (4.1 3-jn) M'1 01 howitzer, 1 05-
mm M102 howltzer, '1 05-mm M56 pack howitzer,
105-mm FH 1B howitzer, and 1 55-mm (6.'1-in)
Above: Brazil has a flourishing armaments
industry and is now one oI the world's leading
exporters of wheeled AFVs. The X I A seen here
wis anearly effort: are-buildingof eldeily M3Aj
Stuart light tanks.
(MRLs) 108-mm \4.25-in) FGTl0BR, 127-mm (5-
in), 180-mm (7 1 in) and 300-mm (1 1 .8'in)
ASTROS ll;and
(mortars) 60-mm, 81-mm (3.2-in) and 120 mm
(4.72:n) lmbel,8l-mm M1, B'1-mm M29 and '1 07-
mm (4.2-in) M2;
Anti-armour: SS.1 1, Cobra andTOWATGWs; 60-
mm (2.36-in) M9A1 and 89 mm (3 5-in) M20
rocket-launchers; 57-mm M'1 B and 1 06-mm
14.17 -inj M40A'1 recoilless rif les,
Air defence: (towed) 35-mm GDF-002, 4O-mm
Bofors L/60,40-mm Bofors L/70,40-mm Bofors
L/70 BOFl,4O-mm Bofors M1, 57-mm,9O-mm
(3.54-in) M117and90 mmM'l '1 Bguns;and
(SAM) Roland ll;
Smallarms: 0 45-in M191'1 Colt, 9-mm M973, 9-
mrn Beretta M92 and 7.62-mm Mauser pistols;
0.45-in lNA,0 45-in M341,9-mm Beretta M'1 2,
9-mm MPKand9-mm Uru SMGs;7 62-mm FAL,
f .62-mrn G3,7.62-mm Para-FAL, f .62-mm
Mosque-FAL,7 mm Mauser M'l 908 and 5.56-
An Engesa EE-9 Cascavel demonsfra ies :: a - : : ; a
mm HK33 rifles, 7.62-mm Madsen, 7-mm
ve r tic al w heel tr av e I allow e d by wa /k-: g : e :--:
-

M'1 1 4 howitzer; Hotchkrss, 7.62-mn.l FN IVAG, and 0 3-in and 0.5- rear suspension . Its 90'mm main arfi.a-: =: : :::
(coastal) 57-mm, 152-mm (6-in)Vickers Mk V and in Brown ng MGs. fire HEAT, HESH and smoke shell, 44 routds t'e::,:
305-mrn (12-in)guns; carried. The EE-9 has been widely expor:ec' :i tr -s
(self-propelled) 105-mm M7 and 105-mm M'l 0B A number of light aircraft are used by the artillery in sewice in Latin America, West AJrica a::c '::e
SP howitzers; a.d enqinee' rnits fo'ooservalion ourooses. MiddleEast.
Armed Forces of the World
Rio Grande do Norte (ex-USSStrong)was sold to
Brazil in I973 and is seen here on joint Brazilian/US
exercrses. ^Sfie ca rries oneWestlandWasp
helicopter.

The Navy
ln contrast with the arrny, the Brazilian navy is
predominantly a regular force with only 2,200 con-
scripts amongst its 41,500 personnel. A continuous
modernization programme has ensured that the
ships in service are up to date, and the surface fleet
is built around a light ASW carrier, the Minas Gerais.
The sub-surface element is centred on three British-
built 'Oberon' class submarines backed by four old
US 'Guppy ll/lll' fleet submarine conversions. The
latter are to be partially replaced by two West Ger-
man 'Type 209' submarines currently under con-
struction. For these and the 'Oberons' a quantity of
British Tigerf ish heavyweight torpedoes have been
purchased. The '1 0 World War ll era destroyers cur-
rently in service are to be replaced by a locally built
f rigate design, the f irst two of which were laid down
ln '1 983. For operations in the Amazon basin and the
Mato Grosso there are two flotillas equipped with
river patrol craft and monitors. A complete f leet list
includes:

Aircraft-carrier : M nas G e rai s;

t

Submarines: th ree'Oberon', two'G uppy l', twoI

'Guppy lll' and two 'Type 209' (building);
Destroyers : f ive'Allen M. Sum ner', two'Gearing'
andthree'Fletcher';
Frigates: six 'Niteroi' and two (plus up to 10) 'V2B'
class building;
Patrol craft/monitors: 21 plus two building;
Mine warfare vessels: slx cciastal minesweepers;
Amphibious warfare vessels: two LSTs, three
LCUs, three LCMs and 28 EDVPs;
Supportvessels: eight survey ships, seven survey
launches, one submarine rescue ship, one repair
ship, four transports, four tankers, two hospital
ships and 1 1 training vessels; and
Miscellaneous vessels : 70.
For shipboard operations and liaison duties there
The Air Force
The 45,O0O-strong Brazilian air force (FOrga Aerea
Brasileira) is split into five commands. The Air-De-
f ence Command comprises only a single interceptor
group of two squadrons linked into a nationwide
early-warning radar network. The group has a total
of 13 single-seat Dassault-Breguet Mirage lll EBR
(locally known as F1O3E) and one two-seat Mirage
lll DBR (F103D) fighters with R.530 AAMs The
Tactical Command has eight groups in total, with
two squadrons flying 32 Northrop F-SE Tigers and
four F-5B trainers in the close-support fighter-bom-
ber role, f ive squadrons with around 100 EMBRAER
AT-264 Xavante (licence-built Aermacchi M.8.326)
jet COIN/advanced trainer aircraft, two reconnaiss-
ance/survey squadrons with eight EM BRAER RC-95
squadrons each (plus six independent squadrons),
the heavy-lift component comprises two squadrons
with nine Lockheed C-1 30E/H Hercules and a third
with two KC-l 30H transport-tankers for inflight-re-
fuelling of the F-5E force. The remainaing squadrons
fly some 167 medium and light transports, of which
the most important are the 50 C-95, 20 C-95A and 20
C-95B Bandeirantes, 19 C-1 15s (de Havilland Cana-
da DHC-5 Caribous) and l2 C-91s (BAe 74Bs). The
Training Command has six schools and a radio
calibration squadron with some 280 aircraft and heli-
copters in its inventory. Most of the 130 Aerotec
T-23 Uirapuru and Neiva T-25 Universal piston-en-
gine fixed-wing trainers obtained in the 1960s and
1970s are being replaced by about 100 Aerotec
YTA-1 7 Tangaras and 1 20 EMBRAER T-27 Tucanos.

is a 700-man naval air arm (the F6rqa Aeronaval da Bandeirante and 'l 1 RT-26 aircraft, four composite For the future a joint development programme
Marinha do Brasil) which, because of inter-service hellcopter/fixed-wing liaison squadrons, and one with ltaly has resulted in the AMX light tactical
rivalry with the air force, is allowed to operate only transport helicopter squadron. The Maritime Com- fiqhter-bomber. The first of 79 for the Brazilian air
rotary-wing aircraft in its four squadrons. One mand has three joint patrol/SAR squadrons flying force are due to enter service in 1 987. For this and
squadron has 13 American- and ltalian-built Sikorsky Lockheed RC-130E Hercules, P-95 (EMB-1 1 1) Ban- other fighter aircraft a locally-designed AAM, the
SH-3D Sea Kinq ASW helicopters, the second nine deirantes, C-95s and Bell UH-1 H/SH-1 H helicopters. MAA-1 Piranha, is due to enter service shortly.
Westland HAS.Mk 21 Lynx ASWsurface strike heli- It also includes the ASW squadron for the navy's The Brazilian air torce is diuided into five
copters, the third eight Westland HAS.Mk 1 Wasp carrier. commands: Air Defence, Tactical, Transport,
and nine 46rospatiale Ecureuil AS.350 utility heli- For all the military's lnternal and external com- Maritime and Training. Tactical Command has I00
copters, and the fourth 1 6 Bell Model 2068 JetRan- munications and transport flights there is the Trans- of these AT- 2 6A Xavantes (Aermacchi M.8.32 6s,
gers for training. The fixed-wing component aboard port Command. Divided into six groups of two Iicence- built by EM B RAE R ).
the carrier is provided by the air force with a slngle
squadron of elght Grumman S-2E Tracker ASW air-
craft and eight Grumman S-2A Tracker transport,
communications and training aircraft.
For amphibious operations there is a 14,500-man
marine corps (the Corpo de Fuzileiros Navale) which
has an amphibious assault division (comprising an
artillery group, a command battalion, three marine
infantry rifle battalions. an engineer battalion and a
service battalion), a Reinforcement Command (with
the Toneleros special operations battalion, an inter-
nal security anti-guerrilla infantry battalion, a medical
battalion, a service battalion, a transport battalion
and an engineer battalion) and 10 regional marine
infantry groups for the defence of naval installations.
The equipment used includes some 30 M41C light
tanks, LWP-7 amphibious APCs, EE-9 armoured
cars, M113 Mod and EE-1 1 APCs, CAMANF amphi-
b;ous trucks, 105-mm M102 howitzers, 108-mm
:C-- 08R MRLs. 60- and B 1-mm mortars, 7 .62-mm
f 3 '= :s 3--T Beretta SMGs. and 0.3-in and 0.5-in
:- , | i::
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