HMS Dorsetshire (40)
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HMS ''Dorsetshire'' (
pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...
40) was a heavy cruiser of the British Royal Navy, named after the English county, now usually known as Dorset. The ship was a member of the ''Norfolk'' sub-class, of which was the only other unit; the County class comprised a further eleven ships in two other sub-classes. ''Dorsetshire'' was built at the Portsmouth Dockyard; her keel was laid in September 1927, she was launched in January 1929, and was completed in September 1930. ''Dorsetshire'' was armed with a main battery of eight guns, and had a top speed of . ''Dorsetshire'' served initially in the Atlantic Fleet in the early 1930s, before moving to become the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief, Africa in 1933, and then to the China Station in late 1935. She remained there until the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, when she was transferred to the South Atlantic. There, she reinforced the search for the German heavy cruiser . In late May 1941, ''Dorsetshire'' took part in the final engagement with the battleship ''Bismarck'', which ended when ''Dorsetshire'' was ordered to close and torpedo the crippled German battleship. She joined searches for the heavy cruiser in August and the auxiliary cruiser in November. In March 1942, ''Dorsetshire'' was transferred to the Eastern Fleet to support British forces in the recently opened Pacific Theatre of the war. At the end of the month, the Japanese fast carrier task force—the '' Kido Butai''—launched the Indian Ocean raid. On 5 April, Japanese aircraft spotted ''Dorsetshire'' and her sister while en route to Colombo; a force of
dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...
s then attacked the two ships and sank them. More than 1,100 men were rescued the next day, out of a combined crew of over 1,500.


Description

''Dorsetshire'' was at maximum
long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and ...
, and had a
beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of and a draught of . She displaced at standard displacement, in compliance with the tonnage restriction of the Washington Naval Treaty, and up to at full combat load. ''Dorsetshire'' was propelled by four
Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingto ...
steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
s that drove four screw propellers. Steam was provided by eight oil-fired 3-drum water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at and produced a top speed of . The ship had a capacity of of fuel oil as built, which provided a cruising radius of at a speed of . She had a crew of 710 officers and enlisted men.Gardiner & Chesneau, p. 28 ''Dorsetshire'' was armed with a main battery of eight BL Mk VIII 50-cal. guns in four twin turrets, in two superfiring pairs forward and aft. As built, the cruiser had a secondary battery that included four
dual-purpose gun A dual-purpose gun is a naval artillery mounting designed to engage both surface and air targets. Description Second World War-era capital ships had four classes of artillery: the heavy main battery, intended to engage opposing battleships and ...
s (DP) in single mounts. She also carried four QF 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns, also in single mounts. Her armament was rounded out by eight torpedo tubes mounted in two quadruple launchers. In 1931, ''Dorsetshire'' began to carry a seaplane; a
catapult A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of stored p ...
was installed the following year to allow her to launch the aircraft while underway. In 1937, her secondary battery was overhauled. Eight QF 4-inch Mk XVI DP guns in twin turrets replaced the single mounts, and the single 2-pounders were replaced with eight twin-mounts. During the Second World War, her anti-aircraft battery was strengthened by the addition of nine guns.


Service history


Pre-war

''Dorsetshire'' was laid down at the Portsmouth Dockyard on 21 September 1927 and was launched on 21 January 1929. After completing fitting-out work on 30 September 1930 she was commissioned into the Royal Navy. Upon commissioning, ''Dorsetshire'' became the
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron. In 1931, she was part of the Atlantic Fleet during the Invergordon Mutiny. During the incident, some of her men initially refused to assemble for duty but after an hour and a half, the ship's officers had restored order and no further unrest troubled ''Dorsetshire'' during the mutiny. From 1933–1935, she served as the flagship for the Commander-in-Chief, Africa; she was replaced by . By September 1935, ''Dorsetshire'' was assigned to the China Station. From 1–4 February 1937, ''Dorsetshire'', the
aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
and the cruiser participated in an exercise to test the defences of Singapore against a hypothetical Japanese attack.


Second World War

At the start of the Second World War in September 1939, ''Dorsetshire'' was still on the China Station.Konstam, p. 31 In October, ''Dorsetshire''—with other Royal Navy ships—was sent to South American waters in pursuit of the German heavy cruiser , which was attacking British merchant traffic in the area. ''Dorsetshire'' was assigned with her
sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...
and the aircraft carrier . ''Dorsetshire'' had just arrived in Simonstown, South Africa, from Colombo on 9 December, with orders to proceed to Tristan da Cunha and then to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands to relieve . After departing Simonstown, she received the order to join the hunt for ''Admiral Graf Spee''.Grove, p. 33 She left South Africa on 13 December in company with the cruiser and was in transit on 17 December when the Germans scuttled ''Admiral Graf Spee'' following the Battle of the River Plate. ''Exeter'' had been badly damaged in the battle with ''Admiral Graf Spee'', and ''Dorsetshire'' escorted her back to Britain in January 1940, before returning to South American waters to search for German supply ships. On 11 February, her reconnaissance aircraft spotted the German supply freighter ''Wakama'' off the coast of Brazil, which was promptly scuttled by her crew. ''Dorsetshire'' arrived on the scene shortly thereafter, picked up ten officers and thirty-five crewmen and sank ''Wakama'' to prevent her from being a navigational hazard. The following month, the President of Panama, Augusto Samuel Boyd, sent a formal complaint to the British government protesting against ''Dorsetshire''s violation of the Pan-American Security Zone in the ''Wakama'' incident. In May, ''Dorsetshire'' underwent a short refit in Simonstown, before returning to Britain for a more thorough overhaul. On 23 June, she set out from Freetown to watch the French
battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
, which left Dakar for
Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
two days later. While ''en route'', ''Dorsetshire'' rendezvoused with the aircraft carrier ''Hermes'' off Dakar. ''Richelieu'' was ordered to return to Dakar by Admiral François Darlan later that day and she arrived on 27 June. ''Dorsetshire'' continued to monitor the French Navy off Dakar and on 3 July, the French
submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
s and attempted to intercept her. ''Dorsetshire'' was able to evade their attacks through high-speed manoeuvres. On 5 July, ''Hermes'' and the Australian cruiser joined her there. On 7 July, the squadron was ordered to issue an ultimatum to the French fleet, to either surrender and be interned under British control or to scuttle their ships; the French refused, so a fast
sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
was sent in to drop
depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...
s under the stern of ''Richelieu'' to disable her screws. On 4 September, she was dry-docked at Durban and on the 20th she arrived back in Simonstown. She sailed for Sierra Leone the next day. Operating in the Indian Ocean, on 18 November she bombarded Zante in Italian Somaliland. On 18 December she departed to join the search for the heavy cruiser , which had recently sunk the British refrigerator ship ''Duquesa'' in the South Atlantic. The British were unsuccessful in their search and ''Admiral Scheer'' remained at large.


''Bismarck''

In late May 1941, ''Dorsetshire'' was one of the ships deployed to hunt the German battleship in the North Atlantic. ''Dorsetshire'' had been escorting convoy SL74 from Sierra Leone to the UK on 26 May, when she received the order to leave the convoy and join the search for ''Bismarck''; she was some south of ''Bismarck''s location. ''Dorsetshire'' steamed at top speed, though heavy seas later in the night forced her to reduce to and later to . By 08:33, ''Dorsetshire'' encountered the destroyer , which had been engaging ''Bismarck'' throughout the night. The German battleship's gun flashes could be seen, only away, by 08:50. Shortly thereafter, ''Dorsetshire'' took part in ''Bismarck''s last battle; after the battleships and neutralised ''Bismarck''s main battery early in the engagement, ''Dorsetshire'' and other warships—including her sister —closed in to join the attack. ''Dorsetshire'' opened fire at a range of , but poor visibility forced her to check her fire for lengthy periods. In the course of the engagement, she fired 254 shells from her main battery. In the final moments of the battle, she was ordered to move closer and torpedo ''Bismarck'' and fired three torpedoes, two of which hit the crippled battleship. The Germans had by this time detonated
scuttling charges Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...
, which with the damage inflicted by the British, caused ''Bismarck'' to rapidly sink at 10:40. Admiral John Tovey, the British commander, ordered ''Dorsetshire'' and the destroyer to pick up survivors. A reported U-boat sighting forced the two ships to break off the rescue effort. Historians Holger Herwig and David Bercuson state that only 110 men were rescued: 85 aboard ''Dorsetshire'' and 25 aboard ''Maori''. Historian
Angus Konstam Angus Konstam (born 2 January 1960) is a Scottish writer of popular history. Born in Aberdeen, Scotland and raised on the Orkney Islands, he has written more than a hundred books on maritime history, naval history, historical atlases, with a ...
, however, writes that his research indicated a total of 116 saved, 86 on Dorsetshire (one of whom died), 25 on Maori, 3 rescued by and a further 2 picked up by the German weather ship . ''Rodney'', ''King George V'' and the destroyers , and ''Cossack'' had meanwhile begun to steam north-west to return to Scapa Flow. After abandoning the rescue effort, ''Dorsetshire'' and ''Maori'' caught up with the rest of the fleet shortly after 12:00. Late that night, as the fleet steamed off Britain, ''Dorsetshire'' was detached to stop in the
Tyne Tyne may refer to: __NOTOC__ Geography * River Tyne, England *Port of Tyne, the commercial docks in and around the River Tyne in Tyne and Wear, England *River Tyne, Scotland * River Tyne, a tributary of the South Esk River, Tasmania, Australia Peop ...
. She had suffered no casualties in the battle with ''Bismarck''.


Deployment to South Africa and the Indian Ocean

In late August, ''Dorsetshire'' participated in the search for the heavy cruiser . ''Dorsetshire'', ''Eagle'' and the light cruiser left Freetown on 29 August, though they were unable to locate the German raider. On 4 November, ''Dorsetshire'' and the auxiliary cruiser , were sent to investigate reports of a German surface raider in the South Atlantic but neither ship found anything. In November–December, WS-24, a convoy of 10 troop transport ships, steamed out from Halifax, Canada en route to Basra, Iraq. After arriving in Cape Town on 9 December, ''Dorsetshire'' took over the escort duties and the convoy was diverted to Bombay, where it arrived on 24 December. ''Dorsetshire'' was deployed in November, to join the search for the German commerce raider , that had been attacking Allied shipping off the coast of Africa. Admiral
Algernon Willis Admiral of the Fleet Sir Algernon Usborne Willis (17 May 1889 – 12 April 1976) was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the First World War and saw action at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. He also served in the Second World War as Commande ...
formed Task Force 3, with ''Dorsetshire'' and to patrol likely refuelling locations for ''Atlantis''. On 1 December, ''Dorsetshire'' intercepted the German supply ship ''Python'', based on Ultra intelligence. The German ship was refuelling a pair of U-boats— and —in the South Atlantic. The U-boats dived while ''Python'' tried to flee. ''UA'' fired five torpedoes at ''Dorsetshire'' but all missed her due to her evasive manoeuvres. ''Dorsetshire'' fired a salvo to stop ''Python'' and the latter's crew abandoned the ship, after detonating scuttling charges. ''Dorsetshire'' left the Germans in their boats, since the U-boats still presented too much of a threat for the British to pick up the Germans.


Loss

In 1942, ''Dorsetshire'', under the command of
Augustus Agar Commodore Augustus Willington Shelton Agar, (4 January 1890 – 30 December 1968) was a Royal Navy officer in both the First and the Second World Wars. He was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of th ...
, was assigned to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean. In March, ''Dorsetshire'' was assigned to Force A, which was commanded by Admiral James Somerville, with the battleship and the carriers and . Somerville received reports of an impending Japanese attack in the Indian Ocean—the Indian Ocean raid—and so he put his fleet to sea on 31 March. Having not encountered any hostile forces by 4 April, he withdrew to refuel. ''Dorsetshire'' and her sister ship ''Cornwall'' were sent to Colombo to replenish their fuel. The next day, she and ''Cornwall'' were spotted by reconnaissance aircraft from the heavy cruiser . The two British cruisers were attacked by a force of 53 Aichi D3A2 ''Val''
dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...
s southwest of
Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. In the span of about eight minutes, ''Dorsetshire'' was hit by ten and bombs and several near misses; she sank stern first at about 13:50. One of the bombs detonated an ammunition magazine and contributed to her rapid sinking. ''Cornwall'' was hit eight times and sank bow first about ten minutes later. Between the two ships, 1,122 men out of a total of 1,546 were picked up by the cruiser and the destroyers and the next day.Rohwer, p. 155


Footnotes


References

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Further reading

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External links


Official History map of the loss of Dorsetshire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorsetshire (40) Kent-class cruisers County-class cruisers of the Royal Navy Ships built in Portsmouth 1929 ships World War II cruisers of the United Kingdom World War II shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean Maritime incidents in April 1942 Cruisers sunk by aircraft Ships sunk by Japanese aircraft Naval magazine explosions