HMS Gambia (48)
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name: | HMS Gambia |
| Namesake: | Gambia Colony and Protectorate |
| Builder: | Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom |
| Laid down: | 24 July 1939 |
| Launched: | 30 November 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 21 February 1942 |
| Out of service: | Transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy on 22 September 1943 |
| Identification: | Pennant number 48 |
| New Zealand | |
| Name: | HMNZS Gambia |
| Commissioned: | 22 September 1943 |
| Out of service: | Returned to the Royal Navy on 27 March 1946 |
| United Kingdom | |
| Name: | HMS Gambia |
| Recommissioned: | 1 July 1946 |
| Decommissioned: | December 1960 |
| In service: | Returned to the Royal Navy on 27 March 1946 |
| Fate: | Scrapped by Ward, Inverkeithing, arriving on 5 December 1968 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Crown Colony-class light cruiser |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 169.3 m (555 ft) |
| Beam: | 18.9 m (62 ft) |
| Draught: | 5 m (16 ft) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 33 kn (61 km/h) |
| Range: | 6,520 nmi (12,080 km) at 13 kn (24 km/h) |
| Complement: | 730 |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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| Aircraft carried: | Two Supermarine Walrus aircraft |
HMS Gambia (pennant number 48, later C48) was a Crown Colony-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was in the service of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) as HMNZS Gambia from 1943 to 1946. She was named after the then Crown colony of the Gambia, and has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.
Construction
Gambia was conceived in the 1938 Naval Estimates and was laid down on 24 July 1939, at Swan Hunter's Yard at Wallsend. She was launched on 30 November 1940, by Lady Hilbery and commissioned on 21 February 1942.
Service history
Early wartime career
The cruiser saw active service in the East Indies with the British Eastern Fleet, and was involved in the Battle of Madagascar in September 1942. She then carried out trade protection duties in the Indian Ocean, but returned to home waters, calling at the territory of the Gambia on the way, where West African Chiefs in full regalia led thousands of their subjects to visit the ship named after their colony.
She refitted at Liverpool between June and September, following which she operated anti-blockade runner patrols in the Bay of Biscay in December, as part of Operation Stonewall.
Royal New Zealand Navy service
Because New Zealand's two other cruisers of the time, HMNZS Leander and HMNZS Achilles were damaged, it was decided in discussions with the Royal Navy Admiralty that Gambia would be recommissioned as HMNZS Gambia, for the use of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Gambia was transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy on 22 September 1943.
Gambia served with the British Pacific Fleet, and participated in attacks on Japanese positions throughout the Pacific. In February 1944 she was searching for blockade runners in the Cocos Islands area. She also supported a series of carrier raids against oil installations and airfields. She saw action off Okinawa, Formosa and Japan and took part in the bombardment of the Japanese city of Kamaishi on 9 August. She was under attack by Japanese aircraft at the time that a ceasefire was announced, and possibly fired some of the last shots of World War II.
She was present on 2 September 1945 in Tokyo Bay for the signing of Japanese Instrument of Surrender.
Return to the Royal Navy
Gambia was returned to the Royal Navy at Portsmouth on 27 March 1946. She underwent a refit and was recommissioned on 1 July 1946 for the 5th Cruiser Squadron with the Far East Fleet. She returned to the UK on 6 January 1948, and in January 1950 she was assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean, later serving with the 1st Cruiser Squadron on the same station until October 1954. In 1953, she and her sister Bermuda brought aid to the Greek island of Zakynthos when it was struck by a severe earthquake. Greek officials would later comment, "we Greeks have a long-standing tradition with the Royal Navy and it lived up to every expectation in its infallible tradition of always being the first to help".[1] In the same year she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.[2]
In 1955 she became flagship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron on the East Indies Station, but the decision not to continue the refit of the battleship Vanguard, meant funds were available for a life extension of Gambia and Bermuda, with additional finance and equipment from US assistance to NATO.[3] The refit gave them a final light anti-aircraft (AA) armament of 9 twin 40mm Bofors, refitted in positions than gave wider angles of fire and US Mk 63 and SPG-35 radar fire control [4] for the 4 inch mounts, similar that being fitted to the remaining United States Navy Baltimore-class cruisers, in 1956–7, although the twelve twin 3 inch/50 calibre guns on the US cruisers were far more accurate and effective, than the Royal Navy Mk 5 Bofors or X1X twin 4 inch. In May 1957 Gambia sailed again for the Persian Gulf station, as the last flagship on this station, and returned to Rosyth on 19 September 1958. On 4 November 1958 she recommissioned for the 1st Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean. She deployed to the Far East on 4 December 1959 to relieve the cruiser Ceylon in the Red Sea. The ship returned to the UK via South Africa with a visit to Freetown and the Gambia, before arriving in Portsmouth in July 1960. The last months of 1960 she served in the South Atlantic and the Home Fleet before entering the reserve in December of that year, her crew largely going to the new cruiser Blake.
Decommissioning and fate
Gambia was paid off to reserve in December 1960. She remained in reserve at Portsmouth until she was put on the disposal list and sold to Thos W Ward for scrapping. She left Portsmouth under tow on 2 December 1968 and arrived at Inverkeithing for breaking up on 5 December.
Notes
References
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
- Raven, Alan; Roberts, John (1980). British Cruisers of World War Two. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-922-7.
- Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
- Whitley, M. J. (1995). Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Cassell. ISBN 1-86019-874-0.
External links
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