The Town-class was a 10-ship class of light cruiser

Light cruiser

A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...

s of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. The Towns were designed to the constraints imposed by the London Naval Treaty

London Naval Treaty

The London Naval Treaty was an agreement between the United Kingdom, the Empire of Japan, France, Italy and the United States, signed on April 22, 1930, which regulated submarine warfare and limited naval shipbuilding. Ratifications were exchanged in London on October 27, 1930, and the treaty went...

 of 1930.
The ships were built in three distinct sub-classes, the Southampton, Gloucester and Edinburgh classes respectively, each sub-class adding on further weaponry.

Armament

Like their US and Japanese counterparts of that era, the Town-class cruisers were "light cruisers" in the strict terms of the Treaty. The London Treaty defined a "light cruiser" as one having a main armament no greater than 6.1 in (155 mm) calibre, all three major naval powers sought to circumvent the limitations on heavy cruiser numbers by building "light cruisers" that were equal in size and effective power to heavy cruiser

Heavy cruiser

The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range, high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 203mm calibre . The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, although the term 'heavy cruiser' only came into formal use in 1930...

s. These ships made up for their smaller calibre guns by carrying larger numbers of them.

All of these ships carried BL 6-inch Mk XXIII guns

BL 6 inch Mk XXIII naval gun

The 50 calibre BL 6 inch gun Mark XXIII was the main battery gun used on the Royal Navy's conventional light cruisers built from 1930 through the Second World War.-Description:...

 in triple turrets, with the centre gun mounted 30 in (76.2 cm) behind the two outer guns to prevent interference between the shells in flight and to give the gunners more room to work in. The turret roofs had cutouts at the front to allow extreme elevation, originally intended to give the guns an anti-aircraft capability

Anti-aircraft warfare

NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...

, although the guns could not be trained or manually loaded quickly enough in practice for continuous anti-aircraft fire so the Royal Navy designed the ABU, which allowed the guns to be preloaded with time fuzed shells, and then fired when the target aircraft reached the preset range. These ships were equipped with the HACS

HACS

HACS, an acronym of High Angle Control System, was a British anti-aircraft fire-control system employed by the Royal Navy from 1931 onwards and used widely during World War II...

 AA fire control system for the secondary armament and the Admiralty Fire Control Table

Admiralty Fire Control Table

thumb|Admiralty Fire Control Table in the transmitting station of [[HMS Belfast |HMS Belfast]].The Admiralty Fire Control Table was an electromechanical analogue computer fire-control system that calculated the correct elevation and deflection of a Royal Navy cruiser or battleships' main armament,...

 for surface fire control of the main armament.

Southampton class

The Southampton class was the first and the subsequent two sub-classes were also known as modified or improved Southamptons. They had originally been built in response to the US Brooklyn-class

Brooklyn class cruiser

The Brooklyn-class cruisers were seven light cruisers of the United States Navy which served during World War II. Armed with 5 triple turrets mounting 6-inch guns, they and their near sisters of the St. Louis class mounted more heavy-caliber guns than any other US cruisers...

 and Japanese Mogami-class

Mogami class cruiser

The were a class of four heavy cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the mid-1930s. All four fought in World War II, and were sunk.-Design:...

 light-cruisers.

Gloucester class

The subsequent Gloucesters had a redesigned deck and received thicker armour on the gun turrets.

Edinburgh class

The Edinburgh class were longer at 614 ft (187.1 m) compared to 592 ft (180.4 m), initially to allow an increase in the main armament from twelve 6 in (152 mm) guns in four triple turrets as in the two previous sub-classes, to sixteen 6 in guns in four quadruple turrets. The idea was soon shelved however, due to the difficulties in actually manufacturing an effective quadruple 6 in turret, and so the class reverted to the original main armament design, although improved through a "long trunk" Mk XXIII turret design, which reduced the crew requirements and increased the speed of the ammunition hoists. Four extra 4 in (102 mm) "High Angle Low Angle" guns and eight extra 2-pounder (40 mm) gun

QF 2 pounder naval gun

The 2-pounder gun, officially designated the QF 2-pounder and universally known as the pom-pom, was a 1.575 inch British autocannon, used famously as an anti-aircraft gun by the Royal Navy. The name came from the sound that the original models make when firing...

s and further armour protection were added instead.

Later improvements

All were heavily modified during the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and after the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

; , and had one aft turret replaced by two quad 40 mm Bofors guns during the Second World War, since there was insufficient space to fit the needed extra anti-aircraft guns and retain the turret. This was not a problem in the Edinburghs, because they were longer and had more room. They still had substantial modifications to their weaponry, including addition of 40 mm Bofors guns. The addition of radar equipment during the Second World War, aided the ships' combat effectiveness.

Service

The first Town-class ship were launched in 1936 and commissioned in 1937, just two years before the outbreak of war. The Town-class saw much service during the Second World War and took in many famous actions, such as the sinking of the German battleship . Four were sunk during the war, , , , and . Many of the surviving ships saw successful service during the Korean War. The last Town-class ship to decommission was Sheffield in 1967. One Town-class warship — — remains, moored on the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 as a museum-ship of the Imperial War Museum

Imperial War Museum

Imperial War Museum is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. The museum was founded during the First World War in 1917 and intended as a record of the war effort and sacrifice of Britain and her Empire...

, a role she has performed since 1971.

Ships

Pennant Pennant number In the modern Royal Navy, and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth, ships are identified by pennant numbers...	Name	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
Southampton Class
C76	Newcastle HMS Newcastle (C76) The seventh HMS Newcastle was a Town-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She belonged to the Southampton subclass. In the Second World War following extensive battle damage sustained in the Mediterranean, she spent some time being repaired in New York.She also saw action in the Korean...	Vickers-Armstrongs	4 October 1934	23 January 1936	5 March 1937	Sold for scrap August 1959
C83	Southampton HMS Southampton (C83) HMS Southampton was a member of the first group of five ships of the "Town" class of light cruisers. She was built by John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland and launched on 10 March 1936....	John Brown & Company, Clydebank Clydebank Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton, the town with which it was combined to form West Dunbartonshire, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and...	21 November 1934	10 March 1936	6 March 1937	Sunk off Malta Malta Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in... , 11 January 1941
C24	Sheffield HMS Sheffield (C24) HMS Sheffield was one of the Southampton sub class of the Town-class cruisers of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She took part in actions against several major German warships. Unlike most Royal Navy ships of her time, her fittings were constructed from stainless steel instead of the...	Vickers-Armstrongs	31 January 1935	23 July 1936	25 August 1937	Scrapped at Faslane, 1967
C21	Glasgow HMS Glasgow (C21) The seventh HMS Glasgow , built on the Clyde, was a Southampton-class light cruiser, a sub-class of the Town-class and commissioned in September 1937. She displaced 11,930 tons and had a top speed of 32 knots . She was part of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet; she escorted the...	Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde.- History :... , Greenock Greenock Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...	16 April 1935	20 June 1936	9 September 1937	Sold for scrap July 1958
C19	Birmingham HMS Birmingham (C19) HMS Birmingham was a member of the first group of five ships of the "Town" class of light cruisers. She was built at Devonport Dockyard , and launched on 1 September 1936.-Early career:...	Devonport Dockyard HMNB Devonport Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England... , Plymouth Plymouth Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...	18 July 1935	1 September 1936	18 November 1937	Broken up in 1960
Gloucester Class
C11	Liverpool HMS Liverpool (C11) HMS Liverpool , named after the port city of Liverpool in north-west England, was a Town-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy in service from 1938 to 1952....	Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited was a British shipbuilding company in the Govan area on the Clyde in Glasgow. Fairfields, as it is often known, was a major warship builder, turning out many vessels for the Royal Navy and other navies through the First World War and the... , Govan Govan Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....	17 February 1936	24 March 1937	2 November 1938	Sold for scrap July 1958
C15	Manchester HMS Manchester (C15) The second HMS Manchester was a Town-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, belonging to the Gloucester subclass. She was laid down by Hawthorn Leslie at Hebburn in March 1936, launched in April the following year and commissioned in August 1938...	Hawthorn Leslie, Hebburn Hebburn Hebburn is a small town situated on the south bank of the River Tyne in North East England, sandwiched between the towns of Jarrow and Bill Quay...	28 March 1936	12 April 1937	4 August 1938	Scuttled on 13 August 1942 off Tunisia Tunisia Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
C62	Gloucester HMS Gloucester (C62) HMS Gloucester was one of the second group of three ships of the "Town" class of light cruisers. She was launched on 19 October 1937 prior to commissioning on 31 January 1939....	Devonport Dockyard HMNB Devonport Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England... , Plymouth Plymouth Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...	22 September 1936	19 October 1937	31 January 1939	Sunk, 22 May 1941
Edinburgh Class
C35	Belfast HMS Belfast (C35) HMS Belfast is a museum ship, originally a Royal Navy light cruiser, permanently moored in London on the River Thames and operated by the Imperial War Museum....	Harland and Wolff shipyard Harland and Wolff Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries is a Northern Irish heavy industrial company, specialising in shipbuilding and offshore construction, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland.... , Belfast Belfast Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...	10 December 1936	17 March 1938	5 August 1939	Museum ship since 21 October 1971
C16	Edinburgh HMS Edinburgh (C16) HMS Edinburgh was a Town-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy, which served during World War II. She was one of the last two "Town"-class, which formed the Edinburgh sub-class...	Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Swan Hunter Swan Hunter, formerly known as "Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson", was one of the best known shipbuilding companies in the world. Based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, the company was responsible for some of the greatest ships of the early 20th century — most famously, the RMS Mauretania which... , Newcastle-upon-Tyne	30 December 1936	31 March 1938	6 July 1939	Sunk 1942

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