Shipbucket

Abdiel Class Cruiser Minelayers.

Until 1936 the RN had lacked the funds to pursue specialist minelaying ships. Till then the RN had used older destroyers that had been fitted for minelaying for the task when required. Those ships were nearing 20 years of age and were growing less reliable each year.

The new design had learnt from the failure of the earlier Adventure class ships. These ships were to be greyhounds. At 435 by 42 feet they were not overly large, but in that space, two sets of the new J-N class machinery systems were fitted. This produced 100,000shp. From that, on trials, the Abdiel made 44 knots at 110% overload power. At normal full power the ship comfortably made 42 knots. Easily the RN's fastest ships. Armament had not been stinted with four twin 4.5" UD mountings. The AA armament utilised the brand new 40mm gun in single mountings, six being fitted. Up to 160 mines could be carried.



Four were originally ordered, 2 in 1937, 2 in 1938. Due to early losses, repeat orders for four more were placed in 1940 and 1941.

Abdiel: Sunk 1940, mining the inner leads Norway, torpedoed by U-boat.
Latona: Sunk 1940, bombed by Italian aircraft.
Argonaut: Sunk 1941, bombed by German aircraft in Skerki Channel.
Astraea: Sunk 1943, torpedoed by U-Boat in North Sea.
Welshman: Sunk 1942, torpedoed by U-617 off Crete.
Manxman: Scrapped 1975.
Iphigenia: Sunk 1944, by Kamikaze hit off Okinawa.
Ariadne: Scrapped 1962

I can only say that given the agonizing about how much armament was to go on the OTL Abdiels, they seem over-armed and short on funnel for fast minelayers.

The funnels are off a 100,000shp battlecruiser. It was either the twin 4" or 4.5", I chose the 4.5". I cant fit anything in a turret due to deck penetration of the mine deck. Only leaves the two choices. These are a bit bigger than the OTL Abdiels, able to take a bit more.

Just as a comparison, I have added in the French Mogador which was a bit bigger than my Abdiel, 1-2 knots faster, and armed with 8x5.5".

Not as graceful as the OTLs and I'm not 100% sure I'd mount that many 4.5s on them if any due to what they mounted OTL but they certainly look business like enough.

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AU Projects: | Banbha et al. | New England: The Divided States
Blood and Fire

River Class Frigates.

With the Flower Class corvettes under construction, a larger, faster more durable escort was designed and put into production. The RN envisaged the day when they could go on the offensive against the U-Boat menace and they wanted to have the ships available to do the job. The River Class and its offshoots eventually numbered over 200. Both ASW and AA were accorded equal weight so that these ships could be used anywhere from the Arctic to the Pacific. ASW had a Hedgehog forward, and depth charge racks and throwers aft. AA armament centred around the two twin 4" MkXVI mountings, while close in protection was catered for by eight 20mm cannons in 3 twin and two single mounts.

Halcyon Class Fleet Minesweepers.

Built to replace the WW1 ships of the Hunt and Aberdare types, these were full warships with steam turbine machinery. Because of this the design was unable to be mass produced. The fine tolerances required for producing the turbine blades could only be done in a few places. Those manufactories were taken up with all the work they could handle with major warship construction.

The dozen ships completed between 1934 and 1940 proved an excellent investment. As well as their primary duties as minesweepers these tough little ships were attached to Arctic Convoys so that the approaches to Murmansk and Archangel could be swept ahead of the convoy as it entered port. Both Russian and German mines were likely to be encountered in supposedly swept areas.

The original basic armament was two low angle 4", the later members of the class were completed with high angle 4" and some of the earlier ships were upgraded to the later standard. Close range AA was originally 4x0.5" Vickers in a quad mount and four 0.5" Browning machine guns in single mounts. From 1940 the AA guns went to one twin 20mm and four single 20mm.

Excellent additions Krakatoa.
The AU Adventure looks very good. The Halcyons look the part too.

Is 1941/42 not a tad too early for Hedgehog? Maybe have a 12pdr there as a stop-gap?

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Hedgehog entered service in 1942. The idea for the original land weapon was investigated during the 1920's. It really depends on how much work with ASDIC and depth charges can be done before the war and whether some inventor has an epiphany earlier in the war for the Hedgehog to enter service earlier. While my Frigate may enter service in 1941, it would probably not receive Hedgehog till 1942-43. The only way it may get it earlier is if it is the trials ship for the system. Reading the info in Wiki, the earlier I can get Hedgehog into service, the better. Depth charge attacks only resulted in a 7% chance of a sinking. Hedgehog attacks had a 25% success rate.


One of the things I like about Hedgehog, is that minesweepers and the like can use Hedgehog and act as escorts as long as they have Asdic fitted, without losing their primary role.

4" version of Argonaut minelayer. Make anybody happier?

I'd still probably on reflection ditch the middle pair of twin 40mm to even things out, maybe supplant them with some Oerlikons elsewhere. As it stands with the eight 4" guns they're capable of putting up a great volume of fire if not particularly accurate.

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AU Projects: | Banbha et al. | New England: The Divided States
Blood and Fire