Название: HMS Duke of Edinburgh: A Royal Navy armoured Cruiser
Автор: Andrew South
Издательство: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Серия: Warships of the Great War. Book 1
ASIN: B07FB3R6GS
Год: 2018
Страниц: 248
Язык: английский
Формат: epub, mobi, pdf (conv)
Размер: 10.1 MB

The Royal Navies First world War lasted 1561 days, and the 12,590 ton armoured cruiser, HMS Duke of Edinburgh served for 1461 of those days. She saw service in the Mediterranean, Indian and North Atlantic Oceans, and served in the Red and North Seas. In 1916 she lost her sister ship HMS Black Prince to German guns, and she was active in the Grand Fleet, Northern Blockade as well both the India army and the Atlantic convoys. Her war ended with a refit in Portsmouth, but by then she was obsolete and the war at sea all but won. Of those 1461 days, the Duke of Edinburgh fired her armament in anger three times on three different dates. The first time her guns spoke was against the Turks in 1914. Then she was in the heat of the battle at Jutland in 1916, and the final time was her lone 'Y' turret challenging a German U-boat in 1917. For 1458 days the Duke saw no action, and was either in port, on patrol or escorting. Her war time service was not quiet or without meaning, but it could be seen as dull.

But dull does not mean uninteresting. For that thousand plus days her crew served on a busy ship. Her available log books record over 50 occasions when the crews had to suffer the purgatory that the coaling of an early 20th Century warship was. They coaled in tropical heats and freezing winters, and suffered the black gritty dust that covered both them and their ship. They carried on board, in 1917 alone, a staggering 151 tons of fresh meat, vegetables and bread. Twice the log books note how they emptied the magazines of 183 tons of shells into lighters moored alongside. Having emptied the magazine twice, they refilled them twice. 183 tons of brass shells four times moved from ship to lighter or vice-versa. They battled North Atlantic storms and one of the coldest winters in US history. They may have only seen action for 3 of those 1461 days, but for the remainder they fought a different kind of battle.

Through the Duke of Edinburgh's transcribed log books we have an intimate and detailed picture of two periods of her war time service. From March 1914 to February 1915 and January 1917 to August 1918 we can, thanks to the superb work undertaken by the Naval-History website, follow her for every one of the days that comprise those two periods. With other sources we can share her time at Jutland and follow her from March 1915 until December 1916. Maybe without the finer details, but we can stay on board the cruiser as she fights her daily on board battles with a warship's routine. War may be dull in the majority but it is no less intresting as we follow the crew through their own Great War.