HMS Exeter (68) was a
York classThe York class was the second and last class of gunned cruisers built for the Royal Navy under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. They were essentially a reduced version of the preceding County class, scaled down in an effort to extract more, smaller ships from the treaty limits...
heavy cruiserThe 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...
of the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
that served in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She was laid down on 1 August 1928 at the
DevonportHer Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three UK operating bases for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is the largest naval base in Western Europe and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the...
Dockyard,
PlymouthPlymouth 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...
,
DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
. She was launched on 18 July 1929 and completed on 27 July 1931. She fought against the German pocket battleship
Graf SpeeGraf Spee may refer to:*Graf Maximilian von Spee, German admiral in World War Ior to several German ships that were named after the admiral:* SMS Graf Spee, incomplete Mackensen class battlecruiser of World War I, scrapped in 1923...
at the 1939
Battle of the River PlateThe Battle of the River Plate was the first major naval battle in World War II. The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee had been commerce raiding since the start of the war in September...
, suffering extensive damage that caused a long refit. Having been rebuilt, she was sent to the East Indies where she was sunk by the Japanese in 1942.
Design
Exeter was ordered two years after her sister
YorkHMS York, pennant number 90, was a York class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, on 18 May 1927 launched on 17 July 1928 and completed on 1 May 1930....
and therefore her design incorporated improvements in the light of experience with the latter. Her beam was increased by to cater for increases in topweight, and the boiler uptakes were trunked backwards from the boiler rooms, allowing for straight funnels removed from the bridge rather than the raked funnels necessary in
York to ensure adequate dispersal of the flue gasses. As a result, the masts were stepped straight, and the after funnel was thickened, to aid appearance. As the roof of the gun turret had proved to be inadequately strong to accommodate the catapult intended for
York,
Exeter had a pair of catapults angled out from amidships, with the associated crane stepped to starboard. Consequently, the bridge could be lowered (that of
York being tall to give command over the intended aircraft arrangements), and was of a modern, enclosed design that was incorporated into later cruiser designs.
Modifications
In 1932,
Exeter had side plating added amidships to the upper deck to enclose her open main deck as far as the after funnel (unlike the County class, the
Yorks were not flush-deckers). This provided additional enclosed spaces for accommodation and working. In 1935, the intended multiple
Vickers machine gunThe Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled .303 inch machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The machine gun typically required a six- to eight-man team to operate: one to fire, one to feed the ammunition, and the...
s were finally added, single
QF 2-pounder gunsThe 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 were reported to make when firing...
having been fitted in lieu. Early war modifications saw the replacement of the single guns with modern twin Mark XVI models on the ubiquitous mounting Mark XIX and a single
20 mm Oerlikon gunThe Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original designed by Reinhold Becker of Germany, very early in World War I, and widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others...
added to the roof of both 'B' and 'X' turrets. Radar Type 286 air warning was added requiring the pole masts to be replaced by tripods, this primitive metric set had separate transmitting (
Tx) and receiving (
Rx) aerials, one at each masthead. Radar Type 284 was fitted to the director control tower atop the bridge to provide ranging information and spot fall of shot.
Service
On completion,
Exeter joined the 2nd Cruiser Squadron with the Atlantic Fleet, where she served between 1931 and 1935. In 1934 she was assigned to the America and West Indies Station and remained there, with a temporary deployment to the Mediterranean during the
Abyssinian crisisThe Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a brief colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...
of 1935 and 1936, until 1939.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, she formed part of the South American Division with
CumberlandHMS Cumberland was a County class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy that saw action during the Second World War.-Career:Cumberland served on the China Station with the 5th Cruiser Squadron from 1928 until 1938, returning to the UK in March 1935 for a refit...
. Together with the
Leander class light cruisersThe Leander class was a class of eight light cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s that saw service in World War II. They were named after mythological figures, and all ships were commissioned between 1933 and 1936...
AjaxHMS Ajax was a Leander class light cruiser which served with the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom during World War II. She was made famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, the Battle of Crete, the Battle of Malta and as a supply escort in the Battle of Tobruk.- Before the War :Built...
and
AchillesHMNZS Achilles was a Leander class cruiser which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy in World War II. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, alongside HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter....
she engaged the German pocket battleship
Admiral Graf Spee in the
Battle of the River PlateThe Battle of the River Plate was the first major naval battle in World War II. The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee had been commerce raiding since the start of the war in September...
on 13 December 1939, which culminated in the scuttling of the
Admiral Graf Spee several days later.
Exeter operated as a division on her own,
Achilles and
Ajax as the other, in order to split the fire of
Graf Spee.
Exeter was hit by seven 11-inch shells and several near misses caused significant splinter damage. Sixty-one of her crew were killed and another twenty-three wounded. All three 8 inch turrets were put out of action and her speed was reduced to , forcing her to withdraw from battle.
Exeter made for
Port StanleyStanley is the capital and only true cityin the Falkland Islands. It is located on the isle of East Falkland, on a north-facing slope, south of Stanley Harbour, in one of the wettest parts of the islands...
in the
Falkland IslandsThe Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located approximately from the coast of mainland South America, from mainland Antarctica, and from Africa. There are two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, as well as 776 smaller islands...
for emergency repairs which took until January 1940, then returned to Devonport without assistance for full repairs between February 1940 and March 1941. On 10 March, 1941, during the repair and refit period, her commanding officer, Captain W.N.T. Beckett MVO DSC died at Saltash Hospital, from complications resulting from surgery related to injuries received earlier in his career. He died the day
Exeter was due to be re-commissioned. His replacement was Captain
Oliver Loudon GordonCaptain Oliver Loudon Gordon MVO RN was in command of the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter from 11 March 1941 until she was sunk in the Second Battle of the Java Sea on 1 March 1942....
.
On returning to the fleet in 1941 she was engaged on escort duty for Atlantic convoys, including the escort of convoy WS-8B to the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
during the
BismarckThe German battleship Bismarck is one of the most famous warships of the Second World War. The lead ship of her class and named after the 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Bismarck displaced more than 50,000 tonnes fully loaded and was the largest warship then commissioned.Bismarck...
episode. After this, she went on to the
Far EastThe Far East is a term used in English mostly equivalent to East Asia and Southeast Asia, sometimes to the inclusion of South Asia for economic and cultural reasons."Far East" came into use in European geopolitical discourse in...
.
On the entry of the
Empire of JapanThe Empire of Japan was a Japanese political entity that existed during the period from the...
into the war in December 1941,
Exeter formed part of the
ABDACOMThe American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, code name ABDACOM, was a short-lived, supreme command for all Allied forces in South East Asia, in early 1942, during the Pacific War in World War II...
naval force intended to defend the
Dutch East IndiesThe Dutch East Indies, or Netherlands East Indies, was the Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II.It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the former Dutch East India Company that came under the administration of the Netherlands in 1800...
(Indonesia) from Japanese invasion.
Fate
On 27 February 1942,
Exeter was damaged in the
Battle of the Java SeaThe Battle of the Java Sea was a major naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Allied navies suffered a disastrous defeat at the hand of the Imperial Japanese Navy, on February 27, 1942, and in secondary actions over successive days. The American-British-Dutch-Australian Command ...
when she received an 8-inch shell hit to a boiler room and was subsequently ordered to Surabaya for repairs. The destroyer
HMS ElectraHMS Electra was a Royal Navy 'E' class destroyer . She was ordered on 1 November 1932 as part of the 1931 Naval Build Programme; launched on 15 February 1934 at the Hawthorn Leslie Shipyard at Hebburn, Tyneside...
was sunk covering her withdrawal. Two days later, when she attempted to reach the
Sunda StraitThe Sunda Strait is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean...
, she was intercepted by the Japanese heavy cruisers
Nachiwas the second of the four-member Myōkō class of heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy—the other ships of the class being Myōkō, Ashigara, and Haguro. She was named after a mountain in Wakayama Prefecture....
,
HaguroHaguro was the last of the four-member Myōkō class of heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was named after Mount Haguro in Yamagata Prefecture. The other ships of her class were Myōkō , Nachi , and Ashigara ....
,
Myokowas the name-ship of the four-member of heavy cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy — the other ships of the class being the Nachi, Ashigara, and Haguro....
and
AshigaraAshigara was a Myōkō class heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The other ships of her class were Myōkō , Nachi , and Haguro...
and the destroyers
Akebonowas the eighteenth of twenty-four destroyers, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy following World War I. When introduced into services, these ships were the most powerful destroyers in the world....
,
Ikazuchiwas the twenty-third destroyer, or the third , built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the inter-war period. When introduced into services, these ships were the most powerful destroyers in the world....
,
Inazumawas the twenty-fourth destroyers, or the fourth of , built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the inter-war period. When introduced into services, these ships were the most powerful destroyers in the world....
,
YamakazeYamakaze was a of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her name means "Mountain Wind" .On the night of 11 January 1942, the tried to escape Tarakan Island, but was sunk by Yamakaze Yamakaze was a of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her name means "Mountain Wind" (Wind From the Hills).On the night of 11...
and
Kawakazewas a of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her name means "River Wind".In February 1942 the ship participated in the Battle of Java Sea.On 7 August 1943, Kawakaze was on a troop transport run to Kolombangara. In the Battle of Vella Gulf she was sunk by gunfire and torpedoes of , and , between...
on the morning of 1 March 1942. The
Second Battle of the Java SeaThe Second Battle of the Java Sea was the last naval action of the Netherlands East Indies campaign, of 1941–42. It occurred on 1 March 1942, two days after the first Battle of the Java Sea...
ensued, now more appropriately called The Battle off Bawean Island, and
Exeter was soon badly damaged by gunfire, one hit causing the loss of all power to the ship. Scuttling charges were set and she soon began sinking, initially listing to port only to be hit to starboard by a torpedo from the destroyer
Inazuma which sat her back upright and rolled her to starboard before she finally sank about noon. Her escorting destroyers,
HMS EncounterHMS Encounter was an E class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was launched by Hawthorn Leslie in 1934.In the Second Battle of the Java Sea , HMS Encounter and USS Pope were directed to escort HMS Exeter away from the action. On the evening of 28 February 1942 the heavy cruiser and two destroyers...
and
USS PopeUSS Pope was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the first ship named for John Pope....
were also lost;
Pope temporarily escaped the initial melee, only to be sunk by aerial attack a few hours later. About 800 Allied seamen, including the commander of
Exeter, Captain
Oliver GordonCaptain Oliver Loudon Gordon MVO RN was in command of the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter from 11 March 1941 until she was sunk in the Second Battle of the Java Sea on 1 March 1942....
, were picked up by the Japanese and became prisoners of war.
The wreck was located and positively identified in February 2007.
Exeter lies in Indonesian waters, at a depth of about 200 ft (60 m), 90 miles north of Bawean Island - some 60 miles from the sinking position given by her captain.
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