HMS Exeter (68)

HMS "Exeter" was the second and last heavy cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the late 1920s. Aside from a temporary deployment with the Mediterranean Fleet during the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–36, 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 pocket battleship, the , later that year in the Battle of the River Plate. She was severely damaged during the battle, and she was in the shipyard for over a year.
After her 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 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.
"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 and a draught of light load and deep load. She was powered by four Parsons geared steam turbine sets, each driving one shaft, using 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 . 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.
The cruisers lacked a full-length waterline armour belt. The sides of "Exeter"s 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. During that same refit, her pair of fixed catapults were finally installed for her Fairey IIIF floatplanes. In 1934–1935, two quadruple mounts for Vickers antiaircraft machineguns replaced the pair of two-pounder "pom-poms" originally installed.
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. Enclosures ("tubs") for single Oerlikon guns were added to the roof of both 'B' and 'Y' turrets, 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.
Construction and career.
"Exeter", the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, 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 to the America and West Indies Station and remained there, aside from a temporary deployment to the Mediterranean during the Abyssinian crisis of 1935–1936, until 1939.
Second World War.
Battle of the River Plate.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, she formed part of the South American Division with 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 off the mouth of the Río de la Plata, while HMS "Cumberland" was refitting in the Falkland Islands. The two other ships arrived on 12 December, and then the "Admiral Graf Spee" spotted the "Exeter" during the following morning.
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.
At 06:30, Langsdorff switched his fire to the light cruisers, but only inflicted shrapnel damage on them before some of "Exeter"s 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.
The ship was hit by a total of seven 283 mm shells that killed 61 of her crew and wounded another 23. In return, the cruiser had hit "Admiral Graf Spee" three times; one shell penetrated her main armour belt and narrowly missed detonating in one of her engine rooms, but the most important of these disabled her oil-purification equipment. Without it, the ship was unlikely to be able to reach Germany. Several days later, unable to be repaired and apparently confronted by powerful Royal Navy reinforcements (including HMS "Cumberland"), the "Admiral Graf Spee" was scuttled by her captain in the harbour of Montevideo.
"Exeter" made for Port Stanley for emergency repairs which took until January 1940. She was repaired and modernised at HM Dockyard, Devonport between 14 February 1940 and 10 March 1941; Captain W.N.T. Beckett was appointed to relieve Bell on 12 December 1940. Then, on 10 March 1941, the very day that "Exeter" was due to be recommissioned, Beckett died at Saltash Hospital from complications following exploratory surgery to repair poison gas injuries that he had received earlier in his career. His replacement was Captain Oliver Gordon.
To the Far East.
Upon returning to the fleet, "Exeter" primarily spent time on ‘working up' exercises, however she also conducted several patrols in northern waters, one on which she stopped in Iceland to refuel. On 22 May she departed from Britain (for the last time as it would turn out), escorting Convoy WS-8B to Aden (Yemen) via Freetown and Durban, South Africa (the beginning of which occurred at the very same time as the hunt for the . was taking place). "Exeter" henceforth became attached to the East Indies Squadron (later redesignated as the Far East Fleet).
"Exeter" then stayed on escort duty in the Indian Ocean (primarily off the coast of Africa) and the northern Arabian Sea (where she visited Bombay, India) until 13 October. On that day "Exeter" departed Aden for Colombo, British Ceylon) via Bombay, British India arriving on 24 October. "Exeter" then spent several days in a graving dock and after undocking (on the 29th) conducted exercises off Colombo and visited the Maldives.
Upon return to Trincomalee (Ceylon) from the Maldives on 14 November, "Exeter" then departed for Calcutta on the 16th to cover a small two-ship convoy that left Calcutta for Rangoon (Burma) on the 26th and 27th. After the successful completion of that duty she was then tasked to escort another ship from Calcutta to Rangoon on 6 December. However, during that convoy, on 8 December, "Exeter" was ordered to urgently proceed to Singapore to reinforce Force Z, as the Pacific War had just begun. "Exeter" arrived at Singapore during the afternoon of 10 December, too late to support and as they had both been sunk earlier that day, but some of the survivors from these two ships were treated in "Exeter"s sick bay.
"Exeter" thus returned to Colombo the next day (11 December) and spent the next two months – until almost mid-February 1942 – escorting convoys (primarily from Bombay and Colombo) bound for Singapore – which fell to the Japanese on 15 February. During this time, in early 1942, "Exeter" was attached to the newly formed ABDA Command, (American-British-Dutch-Australian Command) which came into being in early January in Singapore, but soon shifted its headquarters to Java in the Dutch East Indies (present day Indonesia).
The Gaspar Strait sortie.
On 13 February, Allied reconnaissance aircraft spotted Japanese invasion convoys north of Bangka Island and the new commander of ABDA naval forces, Vice Admiral Conrad Helfrich of the Royal Netherlands Navy, was ordered to assemble the Allied Striking Force of "Exeter" and three Dutch and one Australian light cruisers at Oosthaven on the morning of 14 February. Escorted by six American and three Dutch destroyers, the force departed that afternoon. The Dutch Rear Admiral Karel Doorman, commanding the force, took his ships through the Gaspar Strait and then northwest towards Bangka Island. While passing through the strait, the Dutch destroyer struck a rock in poor visibility and another Dutch destroyer was tasked to take off her crew. The Japanese spotted the Allied ships around 08:00 and repeatedly attacked them. The first was a group of seven Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers from the light carrier that attacked "Exeter" with bombs around 10:30. The blast from a near miss badly damaged her Walrus, but the ship was only damaged by shrapnel. They were followed shortly afterwards by a group of 23 Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" bombers from the Genzan Air Group that inflicted no damage as they dropped their bombs from high altitude. Another group of six B5Ns attacked without effect at 11:30.
The repeated aerial attacks persuaded Doorman that further progress was unwise in the face of Japanese aerial supremacy and he ordered his ships to reverse course and head for Tanjung Priok at 12:42. The attacks continued as 27 G3Ms of the Mihoro Air Group then bombed from high altitude. Seven more B5Ns attacked fruitlessly at 14:30; a half-dozen more followed an hour later. The final attack was made by 17 Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers of the Kanoya Air Group shortly before dark. The Japanese attacks were almost entirely ineffectual, with no ship reporting anything more than shrapnel damage. In return, allied anti-aircraft fire was moderately effective with most of the attacking bombers damaged by shrapnel. In addition, one G4M crashed while attempting to land, and another was badly damaged upon landing.
First Battle of the Java Sea.
On 25 February, Helfrich ordered all available warships to join Doorman's Eastern Striking Force at Surabaya. The "Exeter" and the Australian light cruiser , escorted by three British destroyers, , , and , set sail at once, leaving behind one Australian cruiser and two destroyers that were short of fuel. After they had arrived the following day, Doorman's entire force of five cruisers and nine destroyers departed Surabaya at 18:30 to patrol off Eastern Java in hopes of intercepting the oncoming invasion convoy which had been spotted earlier that morning. The Japanese were further north than he anticipated and his ships found nothing. His own ships were located at 09:35 on the following morning, 27 February, and were continuously tracked by the Japanese. Doorman ordered a return to Surabaya at 10:30, and his ships were attacked by eight bombers from the Kanoya Air Group at 14:37. They claimed to have made two hits on the "Jupiter", but actually they missed the British destroyer. Just as his leading ships were entering harbour, he received reports of enemy ships to the north and Doorman ordered his ships to turn about to intercept them.
Aware of Doorman's movements, the Japanese commander, Rear Admiral Takeo Takagi, detached the convoy's two escorting destroyer flotillas, each consisting of a light cruiser and seven destroyers, to intercept the Allied ships in conjunction with his own pair of heavy cruisers ( and ) which were escorted by a pair of destroyers. His heavy cruisers opened fire at long range at 15:47 with little effect. The light cruisers and destroyers closed to ranges between and began firing Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes beginning at 16:03. All of these torpedoes failed to damage their targets, although one torpedo hit "Exeter" and failed to detonate at 16:35. Three minutes later, "Haguro" changed the course of the battle when one of her shells penetrated the British ship's starboard aft twin four-inch gun mount before detonating in the 'B' or aft boiler room, knocking six of her boilers off-line and killing 14 of her crew. The ship sheered out of line to avoid another torpedo and slowed, followed by all of the trailing cruisers. Moments later a torpedo fired from "Haguro" stuck the Dutch destroyer , breaking her in half and sinking her almost immediately. "Perth" laid a smoke screen to protect "Exeter" and the Allied ships sorted themselves into separate groups as they attempted to disengage. "Exeter" was escorted by one Dutch and all three British destroyers in one group and the other cruisers and the American destroyers formed the other group. The Japanese did not initially press their pursuit as they manoeuvered to use their torpedoes against the crippled "Exeter", which could only make , and her escorts.
The Japanese began launching torpedoes beginning at 17:20 at ranges of , but they all missed. For some reason, two Japanese destroyers continued to close before firing their torpedoes at and "Encounter" and "Electra" pulled out of line to counter-attack. They engaged and at close range as they closed. "Asagumo" was damaged by "Electra", but the Japanese ship sank the British destroyer at 17:46. Meanwhile, the "Exeter" continued south to Surabaya, escorted by "Encounter" and the Dutch destroyer . Doorman's repeated, unsuccessful, and ultimately fatal attempts to reach the transports concentrated the Japanese on the task of protecting the transports and allowed the damaged British cruiser to reach harbour.
Second Battle of the Java Sea.
The following day, after making temporary repairs and refuelling, the "Exeter", escorted by "Encounter" and the American destroyer , was ordered to steam to Colombo, via the Sunda Strait. They departed on the evening of 28 February, but they were intercepted by the Japanese heavy cruisers "Nachi", "Haguro", , and , and by the destroyers , , , and on the morning of 1 March.
At about 0800, the British ships spotted two of the Japanese cruisers, one of which launched its spotting floatplanes. Two others were seen closing in, and both launched their aircraft before opening fire at about 09:30. The Allied ships laid smoke and turned away to the east with the Japanese to their north and south. "Exeter" was able to reach a speed of before the first hit on her detonated in her 'A', or forward, boiler room and catastrophically knocked out all power around 11:20. Now defenseless as no guns could train or traverse, and wanting to save as many lives as he could, "and" to avoid the ships 'capture' by the Japanese forces, Captain Gordon ordered the ship to be scuttled. As a result, "Exeter" began listing over to port, and that list was said to be at "a considerable angle" by the time the abandonment was completed. Sensing a kill the Japanese destroyers closed in and fired torpedoes, two of which (out of a total of 18 fired by Japanese combatants) from the destroyer , hit the ship – starboard amidships, and starboard just forward of A Turret – (as confirmed when the wreck was first discovered in 2007) As a result "Exeter" rapidly righted herself, paused briefly, and then capsized to starboard. "Encounter" and "Pope" were also lost; "Encounter" approximately fifteen minutes after "Exeter", while "Pope" temporarily survived the initial melee, only to be sunk by several B5Ns a couple of hours later.
The Japanese rescued 652 men of the crew of the "Exeter", including her captain, who became prisoners of war. Of these men, 152 died in Japanese captivity.
Wreck site.
The wreck was located and positively identified by a small group of dedicated exploration divers specifically searching for the wreck aboard MV "Empress" on 21 February 2007. The wreck was lying in Indonesian waters at a depth of about , north-west of Bawean Island – some from the estimated sinking position given by Gordon after the war. Her wreck, a British war grave, had been destroyed by illegal salvagers when an expedition surveyed the site in 2016.