Carcass-class cruiser

## Carcass

Carcass as she appeared in December 1943

120,496 shp (89,890 Kw)

64 x 2-pdr [4 cm/39 (1.575")] QF Mark VIII

16 x 0.50"/62 (12.7 mm) MG Mark III

10 x 21" (53.3 cm) Mark IX torpedoes

### Armour

Belt: 8" - 5" (203.2 mm - 127 mm) over magazines6" - 4" (152.4 mm - 101.6 mm) over machinery

3" (76.2 mm) over ends

Deck: 3.5" (90 mm)

Barbettes: 10" (254 mm) over deck, 3" (76.2 mm) under deck

Turrets: 10" (254 mm) rear/ 9" (229 mm) sides/ 9.2" (234mm) roof

Conning towers: 8" (203.2 mm) [fore], 7" (178 mm) [secondary]

Torpedo bulkheads: 1.77" (45 mm) total

### Aircraft Facilities

5 x hangars2 x cranes

1 x cross-deck catapult

***HMS Carcass*** was a large cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the early 1940s. This was the first British cruiser built unhindered by the terms of the London Naval Treaty, and was initially to consist of two ships, with another two planned, but the deteriorating war situation meant only one was ever laid down and completed.

## Background

Interwar naval planning and design had proceeded from the assumption that the Washington and London treaties would remain in effect until such time that war broke out; to this end the Committee of Imperial Defence had prioritized acquiring a great number of 10,000t treaty-limited cruisers to protect Britain's colonial possessions and trade routes.

The first signs of a new cruiser arms race appeared in 1936 with the commissioning of the German *Deutschland*-class. Armed with a considerably heavy battery of six 28 cm guns, it was assumed (correctly) that these ships had been designed to overwhelm enemy cruisers and outrun enemy capital ships in a *guerre de course*. In response, the French laid down the *Dunkerque*-class of small battlecruisers, to which the Germans subsequently responded with the two-ship strong *Scharnhorst*-class and the Italians with the *Littorio*-class.

By 1936, both Italy and Japan had announced their intentions to withdraw from the terms of the London Naval Treaty and resume shipbuilding free of restrictions; by 1938, even the French and the Americans were pursuing large post-treaty cruiser designs, and the British would soon follow suit.

Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty., called for a "cruiser-killer" of up to 15,000 tons, of which multiple could be built quickly, cheaply and in large number, using an extensive stock of obsolescent large-caliber stock in storage. Such a design placed a premium on speed, operating radius and firepower, to which Churchill dismissively noted that it should also be protected against its own guns. Sir Dudley Pound, then First Sea Lord, instead proposed a ship of 20,000 tons or more; this was thought necessary to achieve a desirable balance of speed, armor and firepower. Such a vessel was to supplement construction of more conventional heavy cruiser types already planned.

In the end, fifteen proposals from various shipbuilding firms were sent in for review; almost all of them at the maximum allowable displacement of 22,500 tons. While Churchill was not pleased about this, and sent back all of the proposals, in 1940, however, his last act as First Lord was to approve Design No. 815, provisionally named *Carcass,* for immediate keel-laying under the 1940 Emergency War Programme.

## Design

A far cry from Winston Churchill's original vision of a 15,000 ton super-cruiser, *Carcass* displaced a full 7,500 tons more; as a result, the First Lord's vision of three ships simply could not be accomplished at the time the construction of such ships was approved, and in the end, the class would consist of two ships as planned, tentatively named *Carcass* and *Infernal*, after the 1759 bomb vessels of the same names.

*Carcass* itself bore characteristics closer to what First Sea Lord Pound desired; a top speed of 32 knots allowing for operation with battlecruiser squadrons and vertical and horizontal protection proportional to the 9.2"/47 Mark X main battery (over the magazines, the vertical protection over machinery thinned by two inches). Unusual for a cruiser of this size was the inclusion of a cross-deck catapult and provisions for up to five aircraft and hangars; initially, there was a concern over whether such a catapult would even be feasible on a mere 78.7 feet of beam; these concerns turned out unfounded and *Carcass* was completed with such a catapult similar to that found on the contemporary *King George V-*class battleships.

Notable was the fact that upon completion, the ship bore an extremely striking resemblance to the aforementioned *King George V*-class, owing to the rather imposing forward superstructure and the extensive rear deckhouses necessary to house five above-deck plane hangars; this itself was a result of the ship's rather extensive length of 722 feet between perpendiculars, longer than its battleship contemporary at the waterline. It was often a point of debate whether or not the 9.2"/47 main battery was actually a placeholder for a larger main battery of possibly up to 12"/50, though the Admiralty vehemently denied such a rumor.

## Description

### Propulsion

*Carcass'*  machinery arrangement consisted of six Admiralty three-drum boilers driving four Parsons geared turbines, each capable of 20,000 shp for a total of a little over 120,000 shp. This was enough to propel *Carcass* to a maximum speed of 32 knots (*Carcass* itself achieved a trial top speed of 32.5 knots with the boilers overloaded). The ship carried enough oil to sail 11,250 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 16 knots.

### Armament

Armament consisted of nine 9.2"/47 Mark X guns in three individually-sleeved three-gun mounts in an A-Bs-X arrangement; the justification behind this choice of main armament was that there was in excess of 100 units of this particular gun either in stock or in possession of the Royal Artillery.

Secondary armament consisted of sixteen 4.5"/45 QF Mark III heavy anti-aircraft guns in BD mountings. Early versions of the design instead called for the 5.25" dual-purpose gun, but said gun's availability, as well as lackluster performance meant the designers finally settled on the smaller, more practical 4.5", with the assumption that the main battery would be enough to deal with fast, light warships such as destroyers.

Tertiary armament, as completed in 1943, consisted of eight octuple 2-pounder "pom-pom" guns, a total of 64 barrels, which was noted during the proposal stage as being "excessive", but had become the norm by the time it had entered service; somewhere between launch and commissioning, the option of substituting these for Bofors 40mm was considered, but ultimately, this never came to fruition due to time constraints. This was rounded off by sixteen 0.5" machine guns in four-row quadruple mounts.

Finally, *Carcass* also came armed with ten 21" Mark IX torpedo tubes in two quintuple launchers, with one set of reloads stored within the aft deckhouse; the assembly was designed to be reloadable in-combat, but in practice, this did not work as well as envisioned.

### Protection

Vertical protection consisted of a 14.76 foot (4.5 metre) incremental main belt, 3.28 feet (1 metre) of which was under the waterline. Over the magazines, the belt was 8" (203.2 mm) thick, thinning to 5" (127 mm) over a 4.9 foot (1.5 metre) taper. Over the machinery, the belt thinned to 6" (152.4 mm), tapering to 4" (101.6 mm). This was supplemented by 3" (76.2 mm) end belts to keep small-caliber shells from riddling the ends.

Horizontal protection consisted of a 2.55" (65 mm) main deck, as well as a 0.98" (25mm) weather deck, for a total of 3.5" (90 mm) horizontal protection. The weather deck extended over the forecastle, while aft, over the quarterdeck, the steering gear was protected by a 2" (51 mm) extension.

Underwater protection consisted of a three-layer void divided into two void layers with an oil layer in between, each divided by a total of three 0.2" (15 mm) sacrificial bulkheads and backed by a 2" (50.8 mm) holding bulkhead. Total system depth was 9.8 feet (3 metres).

The main battery protection consisted of a gunhouse with an 11" (280 mm) face, 10" (254 mm) rear, 9" (229 mm) sides, and a 9.2" (234 mm) roof. The barbettes were 10" (254 mm) over the armored deck, thinning to 3" underneath. The 4.5" BD mounts received an unusually heavy amount of protection; 5.5" (140 mm) faces, 6" (152.4 mm) rear, 5" (127 mm) sides and a 5.25" (134 mm) roof, along with 4" (101.6 mm) hoists.

Miscellaneous protection consisted of 8" (203.2 mm) over the main conning tower, something considered excessive by Pound, who desired a maximum of 3" splinter protection to allow shells to safely pass through. The aft conning tower was almost equally as protected, receiving 7" (180 mm) of protection.

## Ships

### Carcass

*Carcass* was laid down in mid-1940 in Clydebank, Scotland under the 1940 Emergency War Programme, encouraged heavily by Churchill, who was already Prime Minister by the time it was laid down. It was desired that the ship be completed as quickly as possible, as that same year, Churchill had taken interest in the *Lion*-class battleship, and *Carcass* had been laid down in one of the slips that could construct such a vessel; such a demand was exacerbated by the increasing demand for light escort construction, but by December, construction was well underway; *Carcass* was ready for launch in the first half of October 1941. The battleship-style superstructure and various electronic components, however, delayed *Carcass'* commissioning slightly, to September 1943. The second ship of the class, *Infernal,* was never laid down.

During speed trials *Carcass* exceeded her design speed by a half-knot; this was immediately advised against, as this caused the ship to begin taking in water in a similar manner to the King George V-class.

#### World War II

*Carcass* itself served a rather unremarkable career. She spent most of 1944 sailing back and forth between Portsmouth and Normandy to support landings of British and Canadian forces in the Gold and Juno Beach sectors, along with *Belfast.* In 1945, *Carcass* joined Task Force 63, consisting of *King George V*, the aircraft carriers *Illustrious*, *Indomitable*, *Indefatigable* and *Victorious*, three other cruisers and ten destroyers. Joined by *Howe* and re-designated Task Force 57, the British Pacific Fleet was again involved in operations in late March 1945, when it launched attacks on the Sakishimo-Gunto airfields, a task it repeated in early May. *Carcass* would spend the rest of her WWII tenure bombarding enemy installations.

With the conclusion of the Second World War, *Carcass* moved with other units of the British Pacific Fleet into Tokyo Bay to be present at the surrender ceremonies.

#### Post-war

*Carcass* was made flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet from 1946 to 1949; most of her actions during this period consisted of patrols in the Mediterranean; she had never fired in anger for the entirety of her postwar career. On January 7, 1950, she returned to Portsmouth and was placed in reserve. Notably, it had participated in the shooting of the 1956 film "*The Battle of the River Plate",* playing the role of the *Admiral Graf Spee*. Plans surfaced for *Carcass'* modernization around 1958, but after HMS *Belfast's* own costly refit, it was considered far too impractical, and the ship, already entering obsolescence, made one final voyage before entering reserve; an expedition towards the North Pole, mirroring its namesake's own attempt.

*Carcass* was finally decommissioned around 1965; she finally entered the scrapper's yard a year later, August 1966.