HMS Jamaica (44)
HMS Jamaica, a of the Royal Navy, was named after the island of Jamaica, which was a Crown Colony when she was built in the late 1930s. The light cruiser spent almost her entire wartime career on Arctic convoy duties, except for a deployment south for the landings in North Africa in November 1942. She participated in the Battle of the Barents Sea in 1942 and the Battle of North Cape in 1943. Jamaica escorted several aircraft carriers in 1944 as they flew off airstrikes that attacked the in northern Norway. Late in the year she had an extensive refit to prepare her for service with the British Pacific Fleet, but the war ended before she reached the Pacific.
Jamaica spent the late 1940s in the Far East and on the North America and West Indies Station. When the Korean War began in 1950 she was ordered, in cooperation with the United States Navy, to bombard North Korean troops as they advanced down the eastern coast. The ship also provided fire support during the Inchon Landing later that year. Jamaica was refitted late in the year and returned to Great Britain in early 1951 where she was placed in.
She was recommissioned in 1954 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1955 Jamaica was used to play in the film Battle of the River Plate, in company with her wartime partner as. In 1956 the ship participated in Operation Musketeer, the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt to seize control of the Suez Canal. Jamaica was paid off in 1958 and sold for scrap in 1960.
Description
The Colony-class ships displaced about at standard load and at deep load. They had an overall length of, a beam of and a draught of. The ships were powered by four Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by four Admiralty 3-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of. The Colony class carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave them a range of at. The ships' complement was 733 officers and men in peacetime and 900 during war.and the crewman in the foreground has over his shoulder a cordite propellant charge.
The armament of the Colony-class ships consisted of a dozen 6-inch guns in four three-gun turrets, one superfiring pair fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament consisted of eight 4-inch dual-purpose guns in four twin turrets. They mounted two quadruple 2-pounder light AA guns. They also carried two above-water triple torpedo tube mounts for British 21 inch torpedo| torpedoes.
The Colony class lacked a full waterline armour belt. The sides of their boiler and engine rooms and the magazines were protected by of armour. The deck over the propulsion machinery spaces and magazines was reinforced to a thickness of. They carried an aircraft catapult and two Supermarine Sea Otter or Walrus seaplanes.
History
Jamaica was laid down on 28 April 1939 by Vickers-Armstrongs in Barrow-in-Furness, England as part of the 1938 Naval Programme and named for the Colony of Jamaica. The ship was launched on 16 November 1940 and completed on 29 June 1942. After working up, the ship provided distant cover to Convoy PQ 18 in September. She was assigned to the Centre Task Force of Operation Torch in early November and was unsuccessfully attacked by the Vichy French submarine Fresnel. The Arctic convoys had been suspended at PQ 18, but were scheduled to resume on 15 December with Convoy JW 51A. HMS Jamaica and, with several escorting destroyers, formed Force R under the command of Rear-Admiral Robert Burnett and were tasked to cover the convoy against any German surface ships. The convoy was not spotted by the Germans and arrived at the Kola Inlet without incident on 25 December.Battle of the Barents Sea
Force R sailed from Kola on 27 December to rendezvous with Convoy JW 51B in the Norwegian Sea, but the convoy had been blown southwards by a major storm. Several of its ships had been separated during storm and they confused the radar of Force R's ships as to the true location of the convoy. Thus Force R was north of the convoy on the morning of 31 December when the heavy cruiser attacked the convoy. Admiral Hipper was first held at bay by the British destroyers,, and. Initially driven off, Admiral Hipper returned, only to be engaged by Force R shortly before noon and was hit by three 6-inch shells from the cruisers. Two German destroyers, and, misidentified Sheffield as Admiral Hipper and attempted to form up on her. Sheffield sank Friedrich Eckoldt at a range of while Jamaica unsuccessfully engaged Richard Beitzen. Less than an hour later Force R spotted the pocket battleship Lutzow and Admiral Hipper and opened fire. Neither side scored any hits in the darkness before both sides turned away a few minutes later. Force R continued to track the German ships for several hours before they lost contact. Although the destroyer and the minesweeper were sunk by the Kriegsmarine, the convoy reached the Kola Inlet intact. Force R remained at sea to protect Convoy RA 51 that was returning to Great Britain until relieved by and.Jamaica was relieved of escort duties on her return in January 1943 and had her main gun barrels replaced in March. She rejoined the Home Fleet, but was refitted in Portsmouth from July to September. Sometime during the year she received six twin power-operated AA guns as well as four single guns. During November she protected the convoys RA 54B, JW 54A, JW 54B and RA 54B, but was not engaged. On 15 December she was assigned to Force 2, the distant escort for Convoy JW 55A, with the battleship and four destroyers. Force 2 was commanded by Admiral Bruce Fraser, Commander-in-Chief of Home Fleet, in Duke of York. For the first time the British distant cover force escorted the convoy all the way to the Kola Inlet. Their passage was uneventful, and Force 2 sailed on 18 December to refuel at Iceland. Before he reached his destination, Admiral Fraser received Ultra information that a sortie by the was likely to attack Convoy JW 55B, which was already at sea.
Battle of North Cape
German aerial reconnaissance spotted the convoy on 22 December, and Scharnhorst, escorted by five destroyers of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, sailed on 25 December to intercept it. The resulting engagement became known as the Battle of North Cape. The Germans were spotted on the morning of 26 December and were engaged by the covering force that consisted of the cruisers, HMS Sheffield, and four destroyers. Meanwhile, HMS Jamaica and HMS Duke Of York approached from the south west, barring the Scharnhorsts path of retreat. The German battleship turned for her base at Altafjord in the early afternoon after two brief encounters with the British cruisers. She was spotted by Duke of Yorks Type 273 radar at a range of and Duke of York opened fire half an hour later. Jamaica fired her first salvo a minute after, and hit Scharnhorst on her third broadside. She was forced to cease fire after 19 volleys as the German ship was faster in the heavy seas than the British ships, and was opening up the range despite heavy damage from the British shells. One shell from Duke of Yorks last volley penetrated into Scharnhorsts Number One boiler room and effectively destroyed it. This reduced the German ship's speed sufficiently for the British destroyers to catch up and make four torpedo hits using a pincer attack. This slowed the ship again, so that Jamaica and Duke of York also caught up and opened fire at a range of. They hit the German ship continually, but she was not sinking after 20 minutes of firing so Jamaica was ordered to torpedo her. Two torpedoes from her first volley of three missed and the third misfired, so the cruiser had to turn about to fire her other broadside of three, two of which appeared to hit. Belfast and the destroyers also fired torpedoes before Scharnhorst finally sank.Further convoys and the raids on the ''Tirpitz''
In February–March 1944, Jamaica served as part of the covering forces for Convoys JW 57, JW 58 and RA 58. She was detached from the latter to escort the aircraft carrier as she launched an air strike against the German battleship Tirpitz as part of Operation Tungsten. In July she formed part of the covering force for the carriers, and during an unsuccessful attack on the German battleship Tirpitz berthed in Kaafjord. Jamaica escorted the Convoys JW 59 and RA 59in August–September before starting a major refit in October that lasted until April 1945. The ship's 'X' turret was removed and replaced by two more 2-pounder mounts while her radar suite was modernized.
On 6 June the cruiser conveyed King George VI and the Queen on a visit of the Channel Islands. Jamaica joined the 5th Cruiser Squadron at Colombo in October and replaced as the squadron flagship in April 1946. The ship returned to Devonport for a refit in November 1947 and was transferred to the North America and West Indies Station in August 1948 after its completion. She was sent to Hong Kong in April 1949 and remained in the Far East until the Korean War began in June 1950.