HMS Exeter was the second and last heavy cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the late 1920s, and the last heavy cruiser the Royal Navy would ever build. Aside from a temporary deployment with the Mediterranean Fleet during the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–1936, she spent the bulk of the 1930s assigned to the Atlantic Fleet or the North America and West Indies Station. When World War II began in September 1939, the cruiser was assigned to patrol South American waters against German commerce raiders. Exeter was one of three British cruisers that fought the German heavy cruiser , later that year in the Battle of the River Plate. She was severely damaged during the battle, and she was under repair for over a year.
After repairs were completed the ship spent most of 1941 on convoy escort duties before she was transferred to the Far East after the start of the Pacific War in December. Exeter was generally assigned to escorting convoys to and from Singapore during the Malayan Campaign, and she continued on those duties in early February 1942 as the Japanese prepared to invade the Dutch East Indies. Later that month, she was assigned to the Striking Force of the joint American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM), and she took on a more active role in the defence of the Dutch East Indies. The culmination of this was her engagement in the Battle of the Java Sea later in the month as the Allies attempted to intercept several Imperial Japanese Navy invasion convoys. Exeter was crippled early in the battle, and she did not play much of a role as she withdrew. Two days later, she attempted to escape approaching Japanese forces, but she was intercepted and sunk by Japanese ships at the beginning of March in the Second Battle of the Java Sea.
Most of her crewmen survived the sinking and were rescued by the Japanese. About a quarter of them died during Japanese captivity. Her wreck was discovered in early 2007, and it was declared a war grave, but by 2016 her remains, along with other WWII wrecks, had been destroyed by illegal salvagers.
Design and description
Exeter was ordered two years after her sister ship and her design incorporated improvements in light of experience with the latter. Her beam was increased by to compensate for increases in topweight, and her boiler uptakes were trunked backwards from the boiler rooms, allowing for straight funnels further removed from the bridge rather than the raked funnels on York to ensure adequate dispersal of the flue gases. As the gun turrets had proved not strong enough to accommodate the aircraft catapult originally intended, Exeter was given a pair of fixed catapults angled out from amidships in a "V" shape, with the associated crane placed to starboard. Consequently, the bridge was lowered (that of York being tall to give a view over the intended aircraft), and was of a streamlined, enclosed design that was incorporated into later cruisers.Raven & Roberts, pp. 139, 141
Exeter was slightly lighter than expected and displaced at standard load and at deep load. The ship had an overall length of , a beam of Raven & Roberts, pp. 141, 414 and a draught of Whitley, p. 94 at deep load. She was powered by four Parsons geared steam turbine sets, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by eight Admiralty 3-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . The ship could carry of fuel oil which gave her a range of at .Lenton, p. 53 The ship's complement was 628 officers and ratings.
The main armament of the York-class ships consisted of six BL Mk VIII guns in three twin-gun turrets, designated "A", "B", and "Y" from fore to aft. "A" and "B" were superfiring forward of the superstructure and "Y" was aft of it. Defence against aircraft was provided by four QF Mk V anti-aircraft (AA) guns in single mounts amidships and a pair of two-pounder () light AA guns ("pom-poms") in single mounts. The ships also fitted with two triple torpedo tube above-water mounts for torpedoes.Raven & Roberts, p. 414
The cruisers lacked a full-length waterline armour belt. The sides of Exeters boiler and engine rooms and the sides of the magazines were protected by of armour. The transverse bulkheads at the end of her propulsion machinery rooms were thick. The top of the magazines were protected by of armour and their ends were thick. The lower deck over the machinery spaces and steering gear had a thickness of .
Modifications
In 1932 Exeter had her side plating extended to enclose her open main deck as far back as the fore funnel.Raven & Roberts, p. 266. During that same refit, her pair of fixed catapults were finally installed for her Fairey IIIF floatplanes.Whitley, p. 92. In 1934–1935, two quadruple mounts for Vickers antiaircraft machineguns replaced the pair of two-pounder "pom-poms" originally installed.Lenton, pp. 53–54
While under repair in 1940–1941 after her battle with the Admiral Graf Spee, the Royal Navy decided to upgrade her armament and fire-control systems. The bridge was rebuilt and enlarged to accommodate a second High-Angle Control System aft of the Director-Control Tower (DCT) on top of the bridge, her single four-inch AA guns were replaced with twin-gun mounts for Mark XVI guns of the same calibre and a pair of octuple mounts for two-pounder "pom-poms" were added abreast her aft superstructure.Friedman, p. 118 Enclosures ("tubs") for single Oerlikon guns were added to the roof of both 'B' and 'Y' turrets,Whitley, p. 95 but these weapons were never installed, because of shortages in production, and lighter tripod-mounted machine guns were substituted. The pole masts were replaced by stronger tripod masts because the Type 279 early-warning radar had separate transmitting and receiving aerials, one at each masthead. In addition, a Type 284 fire-control radar was fitted to the DCT.Lenton, p. 54
Construction and career
1928–1939 Exeter, the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,Colledge, p. 119 was laid down on 1 August 1928, launched on 18 July 1929 and completed on 27 July 1931. The ship was then assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet, where she served between 1931 and 1933. In 1934 she was assigned, along with sister ship , to the 8th Cruiser Squadron based at the Royal Naval Dockyard in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, on the America and West Indies Station. She remained there, aside from a temporary deployment to the Mediterranean during the Abyssinian crisis of 1935–1936, until 1939.Whitley, pp. 94–95
After re-commissioning in England on 29 December 1936, Exeter departed two days later, returning to Bermuda via St. Vincent, in the Cape Verde Islands, Montevideo and Punta del Este in Uruguay (meeting and exercising with her sister and the light cruiser ), Rio de Janeiro and Ceará in Brazil, Barbados (where the three cruisers joined the remainder of the squadron), and Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. It was initially intended for the entire squadron to be at Bermuda to take part in the ceremony there for the 12 May 1937 Coronation of George VI and Elizabeth, but it was then decided to disperse the ships among the various colonies of the station, and Exeter left Bermuda on 6 May for Nassau, in the Bahamas, departed for Bermuda after taking part in the Bahamian parade. The ship had her bottom repainted at the dockyard in Bermuda at the end of May and her Royal Marine detachment conducted combined exercises with the Bermuda Garrison to practice raiding a hostile shore in June. The cruiser was scheduled to depart Bermuda on 21 June for a nine-month cruise, but the Governor of Trinidad signalled on 20 June for a cruiser to be sent to that colony due to riots that had broken out among strikers in the oil fields of Apex and Fyzabad, which had included the killings of two police officers. Workers in other industries had also staged sympathy strikes. Ajax, which was in Nassau at the time, was ordered to Trinidad and Exeter followed the next day. On 2 July the marines of Exeter joined with those of Ajax and two-hundred police constables to assault the village of Fyzabad. The ship's marines were withdrawn on 5 July after the situation in Trinidad had stabilised, and the heavy cruiser departed immediately for Balboa, Panama to continue its summer (Southern Hemisphere winter) cruise, which took her through the Panama Canal, up the Pacific coast of North America to HMCS Naden (the old Royal Naval Dockyard, Esquimalt), via San Diego, California. Exeters return trip took her to both coasts of South America before arriving at Bermuda on 28 March 1938 together with the light cruiser . The German sail training ship Horst Wessel visited Bermuda from 21 to 25 May and the crew of Exeter hosted the German cadets during their stay.
Second World War Battle of the River Plate
At the outbreak of World War II, she remained part of the South American Division with the Ajax. The division was transferred to the South Atlantic Station, with the addition of the heavy cruiser , under Commodore Henry Harwood. The ship, commanded by Captain Frederick Bell, was assigned to Force G to hunt for German commerce raiders off the eastern coast of South America on 6 October 1939. Two months later, Harwood ordered Exeter and the light cruiser to rendezvous with his own Ajax off the mouth of the Río de la Plata, while the heavy cruiser Cumberland was refitting in the Falkland Islands.Rohwer, pp. 6, 11 The two other ships arrived on 12 December, and then the Admiral Graf Spee spotted the Exeter during the following morning.Stephen, pp. 16, 18
Captain Hans Langsdorff decided to engage the British and closed at full speed. The British doctrine on how to engage ships like the Admiral Graf Spee had been developed by Harwood in 1936 and specified that the British force act as two divisions. Following this procedure, Exeter operated as a division on her own while Achilles and Ajax formed the other, splitting the fire of the German ship. They were only partially successful as the German ship concentrated her main armament of six guns on Exeter, and her secondary armament of eight guns on the light cruisers. Langsdorff opened fire on Exeter at 06:18 with high-explosive shells and she returned fire two minutes later at a range of . The German ship straddled the British cruiser with her third salvo; shrapnel from the near misses killed the crew of the starboard torpedo tubes, started fires amidships and damaged both Supermarine Walrus seaplanes. After eight salvos from Exeter, Admiral Graf Spee scored a direct hit on 'B' turret that knocked it out of action and shrapnel from the hit killed all of the bridge personnel except three. Bell, wounded in the face, transferred to the aft conning position to continue the battle. His ship was hit twice more shortly afterwards, but her powerplant was not damaged and she remained seaworthy, although her aircraft had to be jettisoned.Stephen, pp. 18–19
At 06:30, Langsdorff switched his fire to the light cruisers, but only inflicted shrapnel damage on them before some of Exeters torpedoes forced him to turn away at 06:37 to evade them. Her second torpedo attack at 06:43 was also unsuccessful. In the meanwhile, Langsdorff had switched his main guns back to the heavy cruiser and scored several more hits. They knocked out 'A' turret, started a fire amidships that damaged the ship's fire-control and navigation circuits, and caused a seven-degree list with flooding. After "Y" turret had temporarily been disabled, Bell said, "I'm going to ram the --------. It will be the end of us but it will sink him too". The turret was repaired and she remained in action until flooding disabled the machinery for "Y" turret at 07:30. At 11:07, Bell informed Harwood that Exeter had a single eight-inch and a four-inch gun available in local control, and that she could make . Harwood ordered Bell to head to the Falklands for repair.Stephen, pp. 20–23