During World War One Great Britain suspended construction of capital ships
but continued to build cruisers. Most of these were designed to serve as scouts
for the Grand Fleet with a short radius of action, sufficient for North Sea
operations but insufficient for operation requiring a longer reach, such as
protection of trade routes. The war bankrupted the British government and both
army and navy were drastically slashed to greatly reduce their expense. Most of
the prewar and war built cruisers were worn out and had a short range, so only
the later war-built construction was retained. The E
class was the last of the British cruiser designs to be developed
during the war. Designed after the heavier Elizabethans of the Hawkins class, the ships were
designed to combat an opponent who was never built. Rumors came into the
Admiralty that the Germans were building new large light cruisers, so the E
class was designed to combat these wraiths. They were large
cruisers, displacing 7,550-tons and armed with seven single gun 6-inch Mk XII
guns. Provided with machinery developing 80,000shp, they were capable of 33
knots. HMS Enterprise was laid down in June 1918 and HMS Emerald on September 23, 1918. Since the war came to and end a few months later, the
construction of these two were put on hold and an order for a third class, the Euphrates was cancelled. After launching the hulls were towed to Royal Dockyards for
completion. For seven years work was done on an on and off status, reflecting a
building pattern more in tune with a navy of a banana republic, rather than the
Royal Navy. Finally both were completed in 1926.
Because of their larger size and newness of construction, they were retained
as the Royal Navy belatedly started to scramble to prepare for World War Two.
They were large enough to have catapults for observation aircraft added, as well
as raising the fore-funnel and adding HAC directors for AA gunfire. There were
plans to convert the pair to full AA cruisers with replacement of the 6-inch
guns with twin 4-inch DP mounts and multiple pom-pom mounts. However, the
arrival of World War Two cancelled this plan. Emerald received two quadruple .50 Vickers machine gun mounts but these were rather
ineffectual. From August 1942 to April 1943 she underwent a long refit which
landed two aft 6-inch guns, single 40mm guns and the quad Vickers MG mounts and
added two quadruple pom-poms and six twin power operated 20mm mounts. In April
1944 a further refit landed the catapult and added six 20mm single Oerlikons.
From commissioning Emerald spent most
of her time in the far east. In September 1939 she was with the 12th Cruiser Squadron on Northern Patrol duties. In 1940 she spent her time on convoy
duty. In 1941 she was transferred to the east for escort duties in the Indian
Ocean and remained as part of the Fast Group of the Royal Navy force in the
Indian Ocean for the start of the war in the Pacific. She returned to England
for a refit in August 1942. She was back in the east by April 1943. In 1944 she
returned to the Atlantic and supported Juno Beach Operations on D-Day. She was
placed in reserve in January 1945 and in 1947 was selected for target trials. As
a result she sank on October 24, 1947 but was raised in June 1948 just to get
her to the breakers later that month.
Neptun Model produces a 1941 fit of HMS
Emerald N-1147 before the addition of the pom-poms and
twin 20mm mounts.
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