Minotaur class cruiser (1943)

Class specifications

The class was originally to have consisted of eight ships, laid down in 1943, but by the end of World War II only Minotaur, Swiftsure, and Superb were complete, whilst the others were laid up. Minotaur was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and renamed Ontario. While the basic specifications and original armament were only a slight enlargement of the Crown Colony class with an extra twin 4-inch turret, the Minotaurs did represent a substantial advance towards more sophisticated weapon control and integration of command and control and AIO and developments towards operation room control of fighting ships. By 1944 the 7 Minotaur cruisers under construction represented four different groups, which were significantly different that they should probably be regarded as four different classes of cruiser. Swiftsure introduced the reliable 274 lock and follow radar, which increased the accuracy of the main armament to get on target fast. The second Superb extended this more advanced radar with the addition of 275 for anti aircraft fire control, although Superb′s version lacked the flyplane or the accurate finishing in the version fitted to later Battle-class destroyers. The third group of Minotaurs, the Tigers, were being built from quite early in their evolution with a different main battery consisting of three triple MK 24 6 inch turrets, which were DP, elevating to 60 degrees, and which automatically tracked and followed targets under 274/275 radar control. These guns and those for Hawke, the fourth Tiger were nearly complete by late 1946 and were stored at Rosyth, until the late 1950s, as alternatives to the Mk 26 automatic twin 6 guns that were eventually fitted. Hawke represents a further development, surprisingly scrapped on the slip in late 1945, with its boilers and machinery complete, and its guns nearly finished.

Three of the laid-up vessels were completed in the 1960s as Tiger-class cruisers. Two went on to be further converted into helicopter and command cruisers during the 1970s.

Modifications

Swiftsure was completed with sixteen twin and six single 20 mm guns, but had all the singles and eight of the twin removed in the summer of 1945, when she received, in lieu, eight 40 mm Bofors and five single 40 mm Bofors Mk III. HMCS Ontario (ex-Minotaur) was completed with the same close-range outfit as Swiftsure, and is reported to have had an outfit of six 40 mm and six 20 mm guns at the end of the war, all in single mountings. Superb was not completed until after the end of hostilities, and had a close-range outfit consisting of eight single 40 mm Mk III, two single 2-pounders, four twin hand-operated 20 mm and two single 20 mm guns.

After a collision between Swiftsure and the destroyer Diamond in the West Indies on 16 September 1953, Swiftsure was largely rebuilt to the pattern of the Belfast reconstruction in 1956–59. The work on Swiftsure was largely complete. However it was placed in reserve rather than fit it out with the only available armament, of its original labour-intensive, triple six-inch guns, two twin 4-inch and a pair of L/60 Bofors which would have been controlled by a six-channel MRS8 US supplied fire control system. The 1953 plan to modernize the ship with the new twin 3-inch 70 guns was rejected around 1954 because Swiftsure′s beam of 63 feet (19 m) did not allow enough space, and the cost of a full reconstruction of Superb as a fourth Tiger, with its full new armament was considered too expensive. The new 70 calibre twin 3-inch mounts were experimental and it was far from clear they would ever be reliable enough to be effective. A more limited update of the Swiftsure and Superb with new L/70 proximity fused Bofors was approved and cancelled, because the time and cost of Swiftsure′s modernisation was proving too great and it was clear, to fit four L/70 mounts needed conversion from DC to AC power and was too expensive on half-life ships. Options of the 965 radar on its new lattice mast and a data link were considered. The cost of finishing the Tiger-class cruisers (£35 million) was a major political issue, as was the new automatic guns jamming, partly rectified by 1958, after terminal damage to the credibility of the project. The completion of Lion and Blake was in real danger of being stopped in early 1960 and automatic gun cruisers were considered obsolete in the United States and Soviet Union. Problems with cracking that occurred in the update of Swiftsure as a result of the collision with the destroyer Diamond slowed the refit, raised costs and made recommissioning at the same time as Belfast impossible. Reentering service in 1960 with only Second World War-era cruiser weapons was too expensive, with no suitable modern weapons to fit and more than £1 million having been spent on the Swiftsure 'reconstruction' project by early 1959, mainly on structural modifications rather than weapons and electronics. In 1959-60, the Royal Navy fought hard to retain Swiftsure, as a new modernisation pattern as a cruiser - helicopter carrier. This design was largely implemented a decade later on its half-sisters Tiger and Blake. This was intended to allow more space on carriers for fighters and strike aircraft.

Ships

NOTE: There appears to have been a ninth member of the class, HMS Mars, but apart from the fact she was cancelled in 1946, her history is uncertain.