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Warship Wednesday, September 10, 2025: Scots, East!

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

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Warship Wednesday, September 10, 2025: Scots, East!

Imperial War Museum photo GOV 2739

Above we see, almost exactly 75 years ago, a Balmoral capped and STEN-gun toting CPL John MacDonald of the 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, waiting to embark on the modified Fiji (Uganda)-class light cruiser HMS Ceylon (C 30) in Hong Kong on 25 August 1950 for an emergency sealift to help defend the embattled enclave of Pusan, South Korea.

MacDonald’s war chariot made sense. Despite her name, Ceylon was built in Scotland and “paid for” by its residents. Korea was her second major Pacific war.

The Ugandas

A borderline “treaty” cruiser of interwar design, the Fijis amounted to a class that was one short of a dozen with an 8,500-ton standard displacement. In WWII service, this would balloon to a very top-heavy weight of over 11,000. Some 15 percent of the standard displacement was armor.

As described by Richard Worth in his Fleets of World War II, the design was much better off than the previous Leander-class cruisers, and essentially “the Admiralty resolved to squeeze a Town [the immediately preceding 9,100-ton light cruiser class] into 8,000 tons.”

With a fine transom stern, they were able to achieve over 32 knots on a plant that included four Admiralty 3-drum boilers driving four Parsons steam turbines, their main armament amounted to nine 6″/50 (15.2 cm) BL Mark XXIII guns in three triple Mark XXI mountings in the case of our cruiser and her two immediate full sisters (HMS Uganda and HMS Newfoundland).

A strong secondary battery of eight QF HA 4″/45 Mark XVIs in four twin mountings gave excellent DP capabilities.

The standard Fiji/Colony-class cruiser had four Mark XXI turrets, as shown in the top layout, while the “Improved Fijis/Ceylon-variants of the class mounted three, as in the bottom layout. Not originally designed to carry torpedo tubes, two triple sets were quickly added, along with more AAA guns, once the treaty gloves came off. (Jane’s 1946)

Meet Ceylon

Our vessel is at least the fourth (and surely the last) Royal Navy warship to carry the name of the British colony of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, which was under Crown rule from 1796 to 1948.

The first was an ex-East Indiaman that served as a 38-gun fifth rate and then as a 40-gun frigate from 1793 through 1857. She is perhaps best known for her stirring overnight action off the island of Bourbon in 1810 against two French ships.

“Naval Combat Between The Frigate La Venus And The British Frigate HMS Ceylon” by Pierre-Julien Gilbert. On the night of September 16/17, 1810, the 40-gun Junon-class frigate Vénus, along with the 20-gun privateer corvette Victor, encountered and captured Ceylon off the coast of the island of Bourbon, now the island of Réunion, losing her fore-mast and her topgallant masts in the process. The next day, a British squadron composed of HMS Boadicea, HMS Otter, and the brig HMS Staunch in turn captured Vénus and recaptured Ceylon and her surviving crew. Victor managed to escape.

The second and third were private craft taken up from service in the Great War (ex-Seaton, 149grt, and ex-Lady Ina, 311grt). The latter, serving as a group leader in the special yacht squadrons in the Mediterranean, earned a battle honor for the Dardanelles from June 1915 to May 1916.

Our subject cruiser was built by Stephen and Sons, Ltd., Govan, in Scotland, under the Admiralty’s 1938 Build Programme. Laid down four months before WWII on 27 April 1939 as Job No. 1469, the same yard had previously built her sister, HMS Kenya (C14), as Job No. 566.

Ceylon was launched on 30 July 1942, christened by Lady Dorothy Macmillan, and, after 11 months of fitting out, commissioned on 29 June 1943, with Capt. Guy Beresford Amery-Parkes, RN, in command.

Left to right: July 1943. Capt. Guy Beresford  Amery-Parkes, Commanding Officer of HMS Ceylon, and his XO, CDR Frank Reginald Woodbine Parish, DSO. Parish earned his DSO in 1940 as skipper of the destroyer HMS Vivacious. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM (A 17715)

A regular with 32 years’ service on his jacket, Amery-Parks had entered the RN as a cadet at Dartmouth at age 13, shipped out for his first war as a 16-year-old midshipman in August 1914 on the cruiser HMS Amphitrite, and saw service at Jutland on the Bellerophon-class dreadnought HMS Superb as an acting sub-lieutenant. During the 1930s, he had served as XO on two cruisers, HMS Delhi and Frobisher, before a stint as gunnery officer on the battleship Warspite. Fast forward to WWII, he had almost gone down with the minesweeping sloop HMS Sphinx (J69) when she was sunk in 1940 and had previously commanded the net layer HMS Guardian (T 89) during the invasion of Vichy-held Madagascar in 1942.

After an amazingly successful “Warship Week” National Savings campaign in February 1942, the future HMS Ceylon was adopted by the civil corporation of the city of Dundee in Scotland, with a population of 164,000. The city had raised a whopping £3,782,775 in loans to the Exchequer between 31 January and 7 February 1942, about twice as much as the cost of HMS Ceylon, so the Admiralty got a good deal on that one.

City representatives swapped out plaques and other items on the stern of “their” cruiser on 2 July, before an assembled crew under the watchful bores of Ceylon’s big guns.

The Lord Provost (center) addressing the ship’s company at the presentation ceremony. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM (A 17712)

Dundee’s plaque for the cruiser Ceylon, 2 July 1943, Glasgow. The Lord Provost of Dundee, Lord Provost Garnet Wilson, accompanied by Bailie Colin Baird, Bailie Caldwell, and other members of the Corporation, presented a plaque to the British Cruiser HMS Ceylon to commemorate her adoption by the citizens of Dundee. The Captain of the Ceylon made a return presentation to the citizens; a plaque replica of the crest of the Ceylon, which was handed over on behalf of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM A 17713.

The Lord Provost of Dundee and members of the Corporation inspect the ship. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM (A 17714)

HMS Ceylon at anchor in the Clyde, July 1943. IWM (FL 7789)

HMS Ceylon at anchor in the Clyde. IWM (FL 7788)

Ceylon was girded and ready for war, spending most of August in large-scale tactical exercises off Scapa Flow.

It Ain’t Half Hot Mum

Nominated for service with the British Eastern Fleet based in Ceylon, her namesake colony, our cruiser was given extra 20mm Oerlikon mounts for added AAA defense against Japanese aircraft.

On 30 October 1943, she shoved off for parts East via the Bay of Biscay, Gibraltar, Port Said, and Aden, arriving in Bombay on 27 November. She was assigned to RADM A.D. Read’s 4th Cruiser Squadron at Trincomalee, joining the Town-class light cruiser HMS Newcastle and sister HMS Kenya.

She was feted upon arrival in Colombo, the hometown ship sorts, at least by name.

“A” Turret of HMS Ceylon fires a broadside while at sea off Colombo, 5 January 1944. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21901)

Royal Naval gunners on board HMS Ceylon explain the workings of a twin Oerlikon gun to Mr. A. Mamujee. On the right are Mr. J.A. Martensz and the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21891).

Pith helmets all-round! Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton and a group of Ceylon personalities watch the gunnery practice on board HMS Ceylon during her visit to Colombo. Note the beret-clad RM officer in the distance and the slouch hat in the foreground. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21900)

The Bishop of Colombo preaching at Morning Service on board HMS Ceylon as she swings at anchor in the colony, 5 January 1944. Note the flags of Allies KMT China, Belgium, and France behind the pulpit. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21907)

After morning service on board HMS Ceylon. Left to right: The Bishop’s Curate; HMS Ceylon’s Chaplain; The Bishop of Colombo, Right Revd Cecil D Horsley; Commanding Officer of HMS Ceylon, Captain G B Amery-Parkes, RN. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21906)

Ceylon spent the first part of 1944 on a series of exercises with her squadron, culminating with a sweep into the Bay of Bengal, Operation Initial, in March, centered around the battlecruiser HMS Renown, battleship HMS Valiant, and aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious.

April 1944 saw our cruiser as part of Task Force 69, built around the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth (flying the flag of Admiral J.F. Somerville, KCB, KBE, DSO, RN, C-in-C Eastern Fleet), Valiant, and the Free French Richelieu.

The force was an over-the-horizon screen during Operation Cockpit, a carrier raid by the Eastern Fleet (TF 70 and the carriers Illustrious and USS Saratoga) against Sabang in the Japanese-held Dutch East Indies.

Operation Transom in May 1944 was a near repeat, swapping out Sabang for occupied Surabaya, with Ceylon this time screening the carriers themselves.

Richelieu, HMS Valiant, and HMS Renown Cruising About the Indian Ocean On 12 May 1944, Operation Transom

The next month would see Operation Councillor, another carrier raid on Sabang (June 10-13), followed by Operation Pedal, a series of strikes in the Andaman Islands.

July 1944 would see another run at Sabang (Operation Crimson), this time screening the battlewagons Queen Elizabeth, Valiant, and Richelieu, along with the battlecruiser HMS Renown, and the carriers Illustrious and HMS Victorious. Our cruiser fired in anger for the first time, hitting enemy positions in shore bombardment during the operation, her 6-inch guns accompanied by Queen Elizabeth’s 15s. In all, the light cruiser sisters HMS Nigeria, Kenya, Ceylon, and HMNZS Gambia fired 324 6-inch shells during the raid, along with a similar number of 4-inchers.

More of the same came in August with Operation Banquet, striking Padang with the battlewagon Howe now riding shotgun with the flattops HMS Indomitable and Victorious. Following the end of a very hectic five months of operations and a year deployed, Ceylon made for Durban, South Africa, in September, where she spent the rest of the year in refit.

January 1945 saw Ceylon back with the armored carriers Illustrious, Indomitable, and Victorious for strikes against oil refineries in Sumatra at Pangkalan-Brandan (Operation Lentil) and Palembang (Operation Meridian).

April 1945 saw Ceylon again bring her big guns into action with Operation Bishop, a surface bombardment of Burma’s Car Nicobar to provide cover for Operation Dracula– the amphibious landings off Rangoon. Ceylon and the cruiser HMS Suffolk of Bismarck fame were tasked to soak enemy AA positions just before sunrise on 30 April, clearing the way for later air strikes. HMS Cumberland of Graf Spee fame and Ceylon shifted to ruining Japanese airstrips with 8-inch and 6-inch shells the next morning.

This capped the run of Capt. Amery-Parkes, who was relieved by the incoming Capt. Kenneth Lanyon Harkness, DSC, RN, on 12 May.

August 1945 saw Ceylon steaming as part of Force 11, centered on the battleship HMS Nelson and four escort carriers, under Operation Beecham, the occupying amphibious landings at Penang. For this, her RM detachment was paired with those from three other cruisers and Nelson to form a light battalion (400 men), dubbed Force Roma, which was going to take the surrender of 3,000 emplaced Japanese defenders.

In the end, Force Roma was kept on their ships as, on 28 August, Japanese VADM Sueto Hirose arrived aboard Nelson to negotiate the formal surrender of the Japanese forces in Penang. The Indian 26th Division would instead arrive for occupation duty in mid-October, with the Japanese tasked informally with keeping order until then.

Penang conference on board HMS Nelson. 28 August to 2 September 1945, on board the British battleship HMS Nelson, flagship of Vice Admiral H T C Walker. During the Penang surrender and re-occupation negotiations. Rear Admiral Uzuni and the Japanese governor of Penang signed for the Japanese, after which the documents of agreement were signed by Vice Admiral H T C Walker at 2115 hours on 1 September 1945. Royal Marines of the British East Indies fleet formally took over the island on 3 September 1945. Photo by Hales, G (Lt), IWM (A 30472)

By 9 September, Ceylon was covering the planned Operation Zipper landings of Allied troops on the Malayan coast, which were a whole lot less bloody than originally envisioned.

During the Japanese surrender ceremony at Singapore on 12 September, selected members of her ship’s company formed part of the guard of honor for the ceremony.

The Union Jack being hoisted over Singapore after the signing ceremony, 12 September 1945. The honor guard was provided by Force W, including HMS Ceylon, and the Indian 5th Division. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 30489)

Following the liberation of Malaya and Singapore, Ceylon was ordered home, which meant she *had* to stop off at Colombo on the way for a week-long port call.

“Men of HMS Ceylon. 30 September 1945, Colombo, on board HMS Ceylon, the day before she sailed for home at the end of her commission with the British East Indies fleet. The men are grouped by area: Dundee interest. Front to back: Able Seaman J Ramsay, Dundee; Able Seaman D Dallas, Kirkadly, Fife; Able Seaman E Mollison, Dundee; Engine Room Mechanic G Mekkinson, Cupar, Fife.” Photo by Cochrane, R W (Sub Lt), IWM (A 30708)

Ceylon arrived at Portsmouth on 25 October 1945, having steamed 115,000 nm during the war, and was promptly paid off into the Reserve fleet. She had earned the battle honors Sabang (1944) and Burma (1945) during her service.

Uganda class cruisers Ceylon, Newfoundland, Jane’s 1946

Korea!

After four years of slumber, Ceylon was brought out of mothballs in Portsmouth in early 1950 to relieve the cruiser HMS Birmingham with the 4th Cruiser Squadron of the East Indies Fleet. Her skipper would be Capt. Cromwell Felix Justin Lloyd-Davies DSC, RN, who had commanded the light cruiser HMS Glasgow (21) in the latter months of WWII.

While the old Birmingham was slated for an in-depth two-year refit, Ceylon was given a much more modest refresh and left for the Far East on 15 April 1950, with the intention of her crew to “work up” along the way. She arrived at Trincomalee on 22 June.

In a desperate response to the invasion of South Korea on 25 June 1950 and the subsequent United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) 82, 83, 84, and 85, Great Britain became one of 22 countries contributing either combat forces or medical assistance to support South Korea under the UN flag. That muscle, besides the British Far East Fleet, required some boots on the ground. In response, Ceylon was dispatched to the Far East on a “temporary secondment of about three months”

With that, 27 Brigade, which had garrisoned Hong Kong since 1949, would dispatch its Brigade Headquarters and two battalions– 1st Bn, Argyll and Sutherland and 1st Bn, Middlesex Regiment– to the desperately holding Pusan Perimeter immediately. Rather than schlep them there in slow troopships, it was decided that Ceylon– transferred to the Far East Fleet– would carry the Argylls while the carrier HMS Unicorn would tote the “Die Hards” of the Middlesex.

Severely under strength (as was every other UN battalion sent to Korea in 1950), the Argylls rapidly absorbed 17 men from the Royal Leicesters, 25 from the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, 38 from the South Staffordshire Regiment, and 53 from the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, all volunteers, to bring the Battalion up to its 600-strong Korean war establishment.

General Sir John Harding, the Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Forces, and Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, the High Commissioner for South East Asia, came down to the docks to see the two battalions off to war while the band of the Scottish Borderers played them out while the Argylls own band, augmented by Ceylon’s RM band, matched them from the cruiser’s quarterdeck.

From the deck of HMS Ceylon, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, the High Commissioner for Southeast Asia, addresses men of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders paraded on the dock below, before they board the cruiser for the journey to Pusan, South Korea. IWM (GOV 2741)

Men of the 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, boarding the cruiser HMS Ceylon for the journey to Pusan, South Korea. In the background, the band of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers plays on. IWM (GOV 2738)

As detailed in Lt.Col. G I Malcolm’s “The Argylls in Korea,” the “Jocks” were crammed in every space the cruiser would allow for the short yet almost enjoyable 1,200 nm sprint to Pusan, one that involved not only running through notorious late summer China Sea rain squalls but the also a darkened ship run past Formosa (Taiwan) at night, just in case the Red Chinese were on alert in those waters.

Almost as soon as the Battalion had reached Holt’s Wharf, officers and men found themselves stowed away in the ship’s interior, allotted to wardroom, gunroom, petty officers’ mess, and mess decks, and made to feel they were the welcome guests of the ship’s company. Thus, laid the foundation of a very happy comradeship. The ordinary sailors, knowing from their experience on the China station that a feeling of insecurity is engendered in ‘Pongos’ who find themselves with neither land nor whitewash in sight, made all the necessary allowances for their passengers. Certainly, no soldiers had better hosts, and once they understood (‘hauled in’) the basic English of naval vocabulary and timekeeping, they all felt that a life on the ocean wave, at any rate in decent weather, had much to commend it.

They shoved off at 1830 on 25 August and docked at Pusan at noon on the 29th, an elapsed time of about 90 hours, with a Korean Army band welcoming them to a hastily learned “God Save the King.”

A well mustachioed Sergeant of the 1st Battalion, The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders supervises the disembarkation of British troops for HMS Ceylon at Pusan. IWM (MH 32736)

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders line the decks of HMS Ceylon as she comes alongside at Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans 

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders line the decks of HMS Ceylon as she comes alongside at Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans 

The kilt-clad Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders band from HMS Ceylon, Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders land from HMS Ceylon as she comes alongside at Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans

By the evening of 30 August, the Argylls would be on the move to the front and would suffer their first of 171 casualties in their first eight-month tour of Korea while deployed along the Naktong river south-west of Taegu on 6 September.

With her Jocks landed, Ceylon was soon made part of the Inchon landing force (Operation Chromite), taking part in diversionary shore bombardment. Ceylon put a landing party ashore on the island of Taechong Do, where they reported that a previously observed North Korean troop concentration had departed.

“We were off the North Korean coast, not a light anywhere. We felt the malevolent force of the Chinese ashore there. Morale was rock bottom,” recalled 18-year-old Midshipman (later RADM) Ian Mclean Crawford, AO, AM.

As she had sailed from Portsmouth in April with a “peacetime” complement, it wasn’t until October 1950 that augmentees from Europe arrived to bring her crew to strength. As noted by her reunion association, “Her first two patrols had been carried out with a much reduced company, which made the duty of Defence Stations hard going, as it had meant that the close-range guns crews were closed up from dawn to dusk each day.”

She continued her Korean service until she was relieved by HMS Belfast in February 1951.

While in Kure for a quick hull scraping, she hosted a family reunion between a subaltern with The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding)– a unit soon to be famous for holding off 6,000 Chinese at the Battle of the Hook– and his brother-in-law, an RM on Ceylon. The pair captured some great images of the vessel.

Kure, 10 July 1951. An unidentified petty officer ringing the bell of the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Ceylon as an RM bugler sounds a call over the ship’s tannoy (intercom) system. Photo by Harold Vaughan Dunkley AWM DUKJ4559

Kure, 10 July 1951. “Pointing out the opened breech of a gun aboard HMS Ceylon, is Marine F N Barker (far right) to his brother-in-law Lt P Dooks (Duke of Wellington Regiment), both of Bridlington, Yorkshire, England, who chanced to meet 11,000 miles from home, when Ceylon was in dry dock after a spell of duty off Korea.” Photo by Harold Vaughan Dunkley AWM DUKJ4557

Kure, 10 July 1951. “Dwarfed by one of the props of HMS Ceylon are brothers-in-law Marine F N Barker (right) and Lt P Dooks (Duke of Wellington Regiment), both of Bridlington, Yorkshire, England, who chanced to meet 11,000 miles from home, when Ceylon was in dry dock after a spell of duty off Korea.” Photo by Harold Vaughan Dunkley AWM DUKJ4558

On 26 August 1951, a seven-man raiding party made up of sailors from HMNZS Rotoiti and Royal Marine Commandos from Ceylon departed from Rotoiti and landed at Sogon-ni in North Korea to take prisoners for intelligence purposes. They were joined on the mission by a fire support team and US observers who would stay by the boats to provide cover if necessary. The party made contact with a Nork gun emplacement, and Able Seaman Robert Marchioni, RNZN, was killed in the exchange; body not recovered. Marchioni was the last New Zealand sailor to die in combat.

Sent to refit in Singapore, she arrived back off Korea in May and continued to serve regular stints on the gun line until July 1952, when HMS Newcastle arrived in theatre to relieve her.

  • On 4 February 1952, Ceylon and the destroyer HMS Cockade covered the landings by South Korean raiders on the Mudo Islands from LST-516 and 692.
  • On 26 June 1952, Ceylon was only narrowly missed by enemy coastal batteries near Popkyo-ri, in which two shells came within 1,000 yards of the cruiser. She responded with 24 rounds of 6-inch, smothering the observed gun flash positions and received no return fire.
  • On 29 June 1952, Ceylon supported a raid on Yongmae-do with the destroyer HMS Comus and frigate HMS Amethyst, in which the raiders returned at daylight with two prisoners.

During her Korean deployments (August ’50 – July ’52), Ceylon spent 458 days at sea, steaming some 77,800 miles, discharging 6,877 rounds of 6-inch, as well as 1,965 of 4-inch, plus large quantities of 20mm and 40mm close-range ammunition.

Capt. Lloyd-Davies would add a DSO to his WWII-era DSC for his command of Ceylon during the “police action.”

Salad Days

Following six months in ordinary in Singapore, Ceylon returned to service with a new crew (her old one returning to England on HMS Vengeance) and managed a series of peacetime ceremonial engagements over the next few years including being present at the birth of the Maldive Islands Republic in January 1953, the 150th anniversary of the first settlement in Tasmania in February 1954 (she would later also be on hand for Ghana’s Independence), and escorting the steamer SS Gothic during the Royal Tour of Australasia in April 1954, which included a visit to the ship by the Queen.

HMS Ceylon, dressed in Freemantle for the 1954 Queen’s visit

Modified Crown Colony-class light cruiser HMS Ceylon (C30), deliberately listing for an exercise. 14 August 1953. IWM (HU 129765)

HMS Ceylon escorts the Royal yacht SS Gothic along with HMAS Bataan (I91), HMAS Anzac (D59), and HMS Vengeance (R71), April 1954

9 April 1954. Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh with the Captain, Officers and Ship’s Company of HMS Ceylon. Seated on the Fo`c’sle, left to right: Midshipman Grassby, RNVR, Tunbridge Wells; Midshipman A Khan, RPN, Pakistan; Midshipman Chitham, London; Midshipman Malek, RPN, Pakistan; Midshipman Z Khan, RPN, Pakistan; Midshipman Allen, Wimborne; Midshipman Day, Lydney, Glas; Midshipman Snow, S Africa; Midshipman Broomfield, Catterwick; Midshipman Steil, Uganda; Midshipman Suanders, Uganda. Seated front row: Lieut Bannister, Reigate; Lieut (S) North, Doncaster; Inst Lieut Cottam, London; Lieut Cdr Stewart, Ceylon; Lieut Cdr Cheetham. Hatch End, Middx; Captain R M Harris, Bickley, Kent; Commander (S) Mellor, Withington; Commander (E) Grill, Blechingly, Surrey; Captain Foster Brown, Liss; HM The Queen; HRH The Duke of Edinburgh; Cdr Steiner, London; Surg Cdr Hovendon, London; Cdr (L) Webber, Henfield; Lieut Cdr Haley, Bexhill on Sea; Lieut Cdr Leak, Liverpool. IWM (A 32922)

She was then ordered back to England, arriving at Portsmouth on 1 October 1954.

As tradition has it, she again stopped off in Ceylon for a port call on the way back to Europe.

“Homecoming” of HMS Ceylon. September 1954, Trincomalee, Ceylon, as HMS Ceylon left Ceylon for Britain after serving in the Far East Station for four years. Note her homeward-bound pennant flying as she steams out of Trincomalee. IWM (A 33009)

Given an extended 22-month refit at Portsmouth, she emerged much more modern, landing her torpedo tubes and dated sensors for a newer Type 960 long-range air warning radar and picking up American Mark 63 radar FCS for her 4-inch guns. Emerging in July 1956, she was rushed to the Eastern Mediterranean to participate in the Suez operations (Operation Musketeer Revise), where she once again provided NGFS ashore.

She made another trip to Ceylon, visiting Trincomalee in October 1957 on the occasion of the base being handed over to the newly independent Ceylon Navy.

In Toulon

Her 1956-58 deployment

HMS Ceylon with HMS Royalist to her port side MOD 45140251

In 1958, she was once again pressed into service as a troop transport, carrying Jocks– 1st Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)– out of Jordan.

The last British soldiers, members of the Cameronians, to leave Jordan, 3 November 1958, where they had been since August to defend against a possible Iraqi invasion. NAM. 2008-07-34-19

After one last trip to Ceylon, as part of Exercise Jet in September 1959 as the flagship of RADM Sir Varyl Cargill Begg, HMS Ceylon returned to Portsmouth, where she was paid off on 1 January 1960, capping a hectic 14-year career that saw the sun set on much of the British Empire.

HMS Ceylon C30, refueling from an RFA, 1959

South America Bound

Just five weeks after she was stricken from the Royal Navy, ex-Ceylon was sold to the government of Peru and handed over on 9 February 1960.

Renamed BAP Coronel Bolognesi (CL-82) in honor of the heroic Peruvian Coronel Francisco Bolognesi, she would serve alongside her old sister ex-Newfoundland (BAP Almirante Grau, later Capitan Quinones), which had been transferred two months prior.

Ceylon/Bolognesi arrived at her new home port of Callao on 19 March 1960, fully dressed in her glad rags.

These are via the Peruvian Naval archives:

HMS Ceylon, Newfoundland, Peru, Janes 1960 Almirante Grau Coronel Bolognesi

She provided sterling work in humanitarian assistance during the 1970 Ancash earthquake, served in regular UNITAS exercises, and was later modified to operate a Bell 47G (H-13 Sioux) from her stern.

Sister Newfoundland/Almirante Grau/Capitan Quinones was reduced to a pier-side training hulk in 1979 and subsequently scrapped, leaving Ceylon/Bolognesi as the next to last of her class (other than ex-HMS Nigeria, which continued to serve with the Indian Navy until 1985 as INS Mysore) in service.

Ceylon/Bolognesi was decommissioned in May 1982 and then towed to Taiwan to be scrapped in 1985. She had made it 42 years.

Epilogue

Little remains of our subject.

I suspect her 1943 plaque presented to the City of Dundee may still be in a place of honor there. If anyone has seen it, please drop an image.

She is remembered in maritime art.

Watercolour HMS Ceylon by Jim Rae

British cruiser HMS Ceylon seen from Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Warramunga (I). The ship is off Sok-To island in the Yellow Sea, Korea, weighing anchor, to facilitate the return of the ship’s Captain from Ceylon. From 29th June to 9th July, HMAS Warramunga (I) joined the Chodo-Sokto Unit (TU 95.12.1) code-named CIGARRET (patrol area from Sokto to Choppeki Point) in the defence of the islands of Sokto and Chodo. Official war artist Frank Norton described the operations in a letter to the Memorial’s Director ‘”Warramunga’s patrol was very quiet as far as action – the group of ships were anti invasion force – protecting some islands off the North Korean Coast – patrolling between islands and mainland (a matter of a few miles) at night – firing star shells and checking any junks that might attempt to pass from one to the other…During the day, the groups of ships, British, American, Australian, and Korean, lay at anchor just off the coast.’ AWM ART40019

An HMS Ceylon Association exists with an online presence, although its last reunion was in 2018.

One of her 6-inch guns tampions, adorned with her elephant crest, recently surfaced on a Trinity Marine auction, which probably means the other eight are floating around the UK as well, perhaps saved before the cruiser went to Peru under a different name.

Ceylon’s first skipper, Capt. Guy Beresford Amery-Parkes, who had commanded her throughout WWII, post-war moves ashore as the Deputy Superintendent, Captain of the Dockyard & King’s Harbour Master, at HM Dockyard Portsmouth aboard HMS Victory. He left the service due to ill health in 1947, capping a 36-year career. He passed in October 1955 in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex.

Capt. Cromwell Felix Justin Lloyd-Davies, her impeccably named Korean War skipper, would retire in 1955 and pass in 1998 in Buckinghamshire, at a ripe old age of 95.

The last flag officer to fly his flag from her mast, Sir Varyl Begg– who was in charge of Warspite’s guns at Cape Matapan– went on to become a full admiral and talked the RN into the “through deck cruiser” concept that led to the Invincible class Harrier carriers, arguably Britain’s final cruisers.

As for the Jocks that Ceylon carried, the Argylls served with the British Army until 2006, when the historic regiment was amalgamated into The Royal Regiment of Scotland and today make up its Balaklava Company.

The Cameronians served with the British Army until 1968, when the regiment made the rare yet respectable choice to disband rather than be amalgamated.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

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Warship Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020: Spaghetti & Stringbags

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020: Spaghetti & Stringbags

U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1977.031.085.071

Here we see a great bow-on shot of the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (87) underway in the Indian Ocean during the Spring of 1944, while the British flattop was operating with USS Saratoga (CV-3) during WWII. “Lusty” was one of the luckier of HM’s early fleet carriers during the conflict, and a handful of hopelessly obsolete aircraft flying from her decks, borrowing a bit of that luck, would pull off an amazing feat some 80 years ago today.

While today the U.S. Navy is the benchmark for carrier operations, the British would be incredibly innovative in the use of such vessels in warfare. This included being the first country to lose a carrier in combat when HMS Courageous (50) was lost to a German U-boat in the third week of the war and sistership HMS Glorious was embarrassingly lost to the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during the withdrawal from Norway in June 1940. With that being said, it was a good thing that Illustrious was on the way to make up losses.

Laid down at Vickers Barrow-in-Furness on 27 April 1937, 13 months after German troops marched into the Rhineland as part of the British rearmament due to such muscular action, Illustrious was the lead ship of a new class of a planned six aircraft carriers designed from the first steel cut to be modern flattops. Displacing 25,000-tons full load, they had a 740-foot overall length and the ability to touch 30-knots on a trio of steam turbines.

U.S. ONI sheet on the Illustrious class

Carrying up to 4.5-inches of armor– to include an armored flight deck designed to withstand 1,000-pound bombs– and protected by 16 excellent QF 4.5-inch Mark I guns, both of which would have rated her as a decent light cruiser even without aircraft, the class could carry 36 aircraft in their hangars, which was smaller than American and Japanese carriers of the same size, but keep in mind the Brits guarded their birds inside an armored box. Further, they were fitted with radar, with Illustrious having her Type 79 installed just before she joined the fleet.

HMS Illustrious (87) underway 1940. Note the 4.5″ (11.4 cm) Mark I guns in twin Mark III UD mountings. IWM FL2425

Commissioned 25 May 1940, during the fall of France, Illustrious was to do her workup cruise to Dakar but plans changed once the French surrendered, sending the carrier instead to do her shakedown in the relative safety of the West Indies. Meanwhile, Italy had clocked in on Germany’s side, declaring war on 10 June.

HMS Illustrious landing Swordfish in June 1940. Picture: Fleet Air Arm Museum CARS 1/171

By 30 August, she set out for the Mediterranean on her first operational deployment, sailing for Alexandria in convoy with Force F. Within a week, her airwing, which included Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers of Nos. 815 and 819 Squadrons, would be flying combat missions against Axis-held airfields on Rhodes.

While Illustrious carried a mix of quaint Fairey Fulmar and Sea Gladiator fighters, it was her embarked Swordfish, biplanes capable of just 124 knots and nicknamed “flying stringbags,” that made up the bulk of her strike capability.

Swordfish could carry a torpedo or up to 1,500 pounds of bombs or mines, although their combat radius while doing so was only about 200nm. Self-defense amounted to two .303-caliber Vickers guns.

On the 17th, Swords from Illustrious drew blood during shipping attacks on Benghazi harbor, sending the Italian Turbine-class destroyer Borea to the bottom while air-dropped mines would take out several merchantmen. The proven carrier then spent the next several weeks riding shotgun on convoys between Malta and Egypt.

Then, on 10 November, Illustrious was detached on Operation Judgement, a planned midnight home invasion of the Italian fleet’s main base at Taranto under the cover of darkness, where her airwing would target Rome’s mighty battleships at anchor. As an ace in the hole, they had up-to-date reconnaissance photographs of the harbor, taken by Martin Maryland light bombers flying from Malta.

The carrier strike force? Even including aircraft cross-decked from HMS Eagle, Illustrious could count a mixed bag of just 21 Swordfish of Nos. 813, 815, 819, and 824 Squadrons. To give them a boost in range, each would be fitted with a spare av gas tank that they only had to leave their rear gunner behind to accommodate– what could go wrong?

The first wave, of 12 aircraft, would launch at 20:40 on 11 November and consist of six Swords each with a single 18-inch torpedo, backed up by four Swords each with a half-dozen light 250-pound bombs, and two aircraft with a mix of 16 parachute flares and four bombs each.

The second wave (!), of nine aircraft, would launch an hour later and included five torpedo carriers, two with bombs and two flare-droppers. In all, the Brits planned to bring a total of 11 Mark XII torpedoes and 52 almost lilliputian bombs.

250-pound bombs that would later be dropped on the Italian fleet at Taranto on HMS Illustrious’s flight deck

The tiny force of biplanes faced some serious opposition.

Besides the masses of guns on the Italian ships themselves– which were under standing orders to keep their AAA batteries at least half-manned even when the vessels were anchored– around the Regia Marina’s primary roadstead were land-based anti-aircraft batteries that held no less than 21 4-inch, 84 20mm and 109 13.2mm guns at the ready in addition to smaller numbers of 125mm, 90mm, and 40mm guns. While there was no air-search radar at Taranto, the Italians did have at least 13 “war tuba” sound-detection devices capable of hearing aircraft engines as far out as 30 miles away. Two dozen powerful searchlights scanned the heavens.

Even if the British bombers could get inside the harbor, the Italians had over 23,000 feet of counter-torpedo netting ready to catch any trespassing Royal Navy fish. Further, there was a flotilla of 90 barrage balloons tethered by steel cables, deployed across the harbor in three rows.

While the Brits caught some breaks– two-thirds of the barrage balloons were not on station due to storms and a lack of hydrogen; and 2.9km of the torpedo nets were coiled up, in need of repair– it was still a dangerous mission as witnessed by the more than 12,000 shells of 20mm or greater from shore-based batteries alone during the strike.

Cobb, Charles David; Taranto Harbour, Swordfish from ‘Illustrious’ Cripple the Italian Fleet, 11 November 1940; National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/taranto-harbour-swordfish-from-illustrious-cripple-the-italian-fleet-11-november-1940-116445

In the end, just two Swords were lost while three of six Italian battleships present were seriously damaged, and the last of 18 recovered aircraft were aboard Illustrious by 0230 on 12 November.

The brand-new 35,000-ton fast battleship Littorio suffered three torpedo hits, while the older battlewagons Caio Duilio and Conte di Cavour picked up one each, with the latter so wrecked she would not be repaired for the duration of the war. Bombs lightly damaged the 13,000-ton heavy cruiser Trento, the destroyers Libeccio and Pessagno, and two fleet auxiliaries in addition to falling on the dockyard and oil depot. The fleet suffered nearly 700 casualties, although less than 10 percent of that figure was mortal.

The raid upset the balance of power between the strong Italian fleet and the weaker British force in the Med at a crucial period.

As a booby prize, the Italians captured two downed British Fleet Air Arm members and were left with several dud bombs and torpedoes to examine. Two RN aircrewmen were killed. The morning after the Taranto raid, the undamaged battleship Vittorio Veneto, assuming ADM Inigo Campioni’s flag from the crippled Littorio, led the Italian fleet to Naples. Campioni would be relieved of command three weeks later, replaced by ADM Angelo Iachino.

Interestingly enough, this attack took place while both America and Japan were at peace and each country’s navy took notes from the engagement, although they were applied very differently by the respective note takers a year later.

As encapsulated by the Royal Navy today, “The Fleet Air Arm’s attack on Taranto ranks as one of the most daring episodes in the Second World War. It transformed the naval situation in the Mediterranean and was carefully studied by the Japanese before their carrier-borne strike on the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in December 1941.”

Much more on Operation Judgement can be read at Armoured Carriers.com and the 26-page paper, The Attack at Taranto, by Angelo N. Caravaggio in the Naval War College Review.

Post-Taranto

How do you top a 20-aircraft raid from a five-month-old carrier that sidelined half of the Italian battlefleet? For the rest of the war, Illustrious was a one-ship fire brigade supporting operations in the Med to include earning honors for keeping Malta alive during Operation Excess.

Her luck ran out on the Excess run on 10 January 1941– hit by five bombs from a swarm of 18 He 111s and 43 Stukas 60 miles west of Malta. “Illustrious was the main target and was enveloped in waterspouts and mist of exploding bombs. Some bombers diving from an altitude of 12,000 feet delayed bomb release until they pulled-out lower than the height of Illustrious’ funnel.”

THE BOMBING OF HMS ILLUSTRIOUS AT MALTA. 10 JANUARY 1941, ON BOARD THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER. (A 9793) The view of the flight deck from the ship’s bridge.(Same as MH 4623). Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205143579

Even so, she reached Malta that day and would suffer 126 dead and 91 wounded by the time she departed the besieged island stronghold– the subject of continuing German and Italian air attacks the entire time she was there.

She was sent to Norfolk Naval Shipyard in the ostensibly neutral United States for repair, eventually arriving there via the Suez Canal on May 27.

HMS ILLUSTRIOUS At the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, following battle damage repairs, November 1941. NH 96323

Post repairs, Illustrious was soon back in the war, covering the landings at Diego Suarez in Vichy-held Madagascar during Operation Ironclad in 1942, where her Swords were back at work.

The Royal Navy battleship HMS Valiant fires its 38.1 cm guns during exercises as seen from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (87). 22 December 1942, Indian Ocean. The planes in the foreground are Fairey Fulmars of B Flight, 806 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, with Grumman Martlets of 881 NAS parked aft. Lt. D.C. Oulds, Royal Navy official photographer IWM A 15152

She then shipping back to the Med for the Salerno landings in 1943.

BIG SHIPS AT MALTA. OCTOBER 1943, ON BOARD HMS FORMIDABLE AT GRAND HARBOUR, VALLETTA, MALTA. (A 19815) The aircraft carrier HMS ILLUSTRIOUS steams into Grand Harbour, as men line the flight deck of HMS FORMIDABLE to watch her progress. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205152374

From there she set out for the Indian Ocean in 1944 where she worked alongside USS Saratoga and raided the Japanese-held island of Sabang (Operation Cockpit).

HMS Illustrious and USS Saratoga Trincomalee, Ceylon part of Operation Cockpit

HMS Illustrious (87) steaming past the U.S. carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) in the Indian Ocean, 18 May 1944. Note the crews of both ships assembled on deck to pay farewell. NNAM.1977.031.085.012

HMS ILLUSTRIOUS, part of the Eastern Fleet, stationary, coastal waters (photographed from the cruiser HMS MAURITIUS). IWM A 13559

HMS Renown and Illustrious in Trincomalee Harbor, Ceylon in early 1944.

Royal Navy aircraft repair carrier HMS Unicorn (I72, left) and HMS Illustrious (87), probably pictured at Trincomalee, Ceylon, in 1944. NNAM No. 1996.488.037.044

Corsairs in the armored box hangar of HMS Illustrious. Tight spaces!

A long way from Sea Gladiators! HMS Illustrious in the Indian Ocean. The flight deck being cleared of Corsairs at sunset ready for the Avenger dusk patrol to land on. May 1944

By January 1945, she was off Sumatra in the Japanese-held Dutch East Indies, launching raids on the vital Soengi Gerong oil refineries near Palembang while dodging kamikazes.

She was the first ship in Green Island’s Captain Cook dock, 11 February 1945

Speaking of which, she continued to reap the divine wind off Okinawa in April, with a Japanese D4Y3 Judy making contact with her deck, leaving the carrier with a vibration in her hull and the remains of a Japanese rubber dinghy as a trophy.

The Bridge and Island crew of HMS illustrious had a remarkably close call on 6 April 1945 when a kamikaze attack plane scored the thinnest of glancing blows with its wingtip ripping the ray dome just forward of the Bridge with the plane spinning into the sea causing no casualties to the crew

Sailing at a reduced speed of 19 knots for Sidney and emergency repairs, she ended the war in the dockyard.

Post-war

The Illustrious class entry in the 1946 edition of Jane’s Fighting Ships

Post-VJ-Day, Illustrious was used for deck-landing trials until being place in reserve in late 1947.

Armoured carrier HMS Illustrious carrying out flying trials in 1947. Seafire is on an out-rigger just forward of the island, and the aircraft aft is a Sea Fury

Hawker Sea Fury about to land on HMS Illustrious 1947. Just a great view of her stern QF 4.5″ gun batteries as well, with the turrets trained seaward

Recommissioned the next year, she was used for further trials and training duties, clocking in as a troop carrier to Cyrus in 1951.

HMS Illustrious, off Norway, 1954, at the tail-end of her career. Note the long-serving TBM Avengers on her deck and twin 4.5-inch guns forward. Via the Municipal Archives of Trondheim

She attended Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation Review at Spithead in June 1953 and continued to provide some service, she never again deployed as an operational carrier. 

Battleship HMS Vanguard at Spithead on June 1953, with the bruiser old aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious.

Illustrious was sold to BISCO for breaking-up at Faslane, arriving there on 3 November 1956.

As for her three sisters that were completed, HMS Formidable (67) and HMS Indomitable (92) had been broken up shortly before Illustrious leaving only HMS Victorious (R38) to soldier on, paid off in 1968 and scrapped the next year.

What could have been: Blackburn Buccaneer flies past Illustrious-class aircraft carrier HMS Victorious note Sea Vixen, Gannetts and Westlands on deck

Epilogue

While the name HMS Illustrious would go on to be used by an Invincible-class Harrier carrier, which was retired in 2016, several artifacts of the WWII-era vessel endure.

Of course, as a great ship, she was the subject of great maritime art:

HMS Illustrious entering the Basin at John Brown’s Shipyard, Clydebank (Art.IWM ART LD 1371) image: the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious is guided into the basin of John Brown’s shipyard at Clydebank in Scotland by three tug boats. Another Royal Navy warship is moored to the side of the dock. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/3031

Hamilton, John Alan; HMS ‘Illustrious’ under Attack: Excess Convoy, January 1941; IWM (Imperial War Museums); http://www.artuk.org/artworks/hms-illustrious-under-attack-excess-convoy-january-1941-7670

Cobb, Charles David; Operation ‘Excess’, ‘Illustrious’ under Air Attack, 19 January 1941; National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/operation-excess-illustrious-under-air-attack-19-january-1941-116447

Macdonald, Roderick; HMS ‘Illustrious’ under Air Attack, 10 January 1941. The scene of the attack is viewed from the cockpit of one of ‘Illustrious’ own Fairey Swordfish aircraft. By Roderick Macdonald circa 1980 via the Fleet Air Museum E00728/0001http://www.artuk.org/artworks/hms-illustrious-under-air-attack-10-january-1941-40645

Macdonald, Roderick; HMS ‘Illustrious’ under Attack in the Grand Harbour, Malta; Fleet Air Arm Museum; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/hms-illustrious-under-attack-in-the-grand-harbour-malta-40646

“Task Force of Two Navies” Watercolor by Dwight Shepler, USNR, 1943, depicting U.S. and British warships in the Pentland Firth during an operation toward the Norwegian coast, coincident with the Sicily invasion, July 1943. Alabama (BB 60) is in the lead, followed by HMS Illustrious and HMS King George V. Three British carrier-based fighters (two “Seafires” and a “Martlet”) are overhead. Official USN photo # KN-20381, courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC, now in the collections of the National Archives.

No place to land by Michael Turner, showing FAA Royal Navy F4U Corsairs return to their carrier HMS Illustrious after the April 1945 Kamikaze attack

And of a variety of scale models from Heller, Aoshima, Revelle, and others.

The plans for Illustrious are in the Royal Museums Greenwich.

The rubber survival dinghy recovered from the kamikaze that struck her deck off Okinawa is in the IWM.

Japanese Kamikaze pilot’s aircraft dinghy (MAR 595) Dinghy from a Japanese Kamikaze aircraft, recovered from HMS ILLUSTRIOUS, 1945. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30004058

While both her original ship’s bell– which was damaged in 1941 by the Germans off Malta– and her U.S.-cast replacement, presented while she was at Norfolk, are preserved.

This week, the Royal Navy is planning a spate of remembrance activities concerning the 80th anniversary of Taranto, keeping the memory of Lusty and her 21 stringbags alive.

Specs:
Displacement: 28,661 tons, full load
Length: 710 ft
Beam: 95 ft
Draft: 28 feet
Propulsion: 6 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 3 Parsons geared turbines producing 110,000 shp, three shafts
Speed: 30.5 knots, range= 10,700nm @ 10 knots
Complement: ~1,200 designed. Up to 1,600 during 1944-45
Armor: 3 to 4.5-inches
Aircraft: 36, later increased to 60
16 × QF 4.5-inch naval gun (8 × 2)
40 x QF 2 pounder naval gun (5 × 8)
Later fitted with:
3 x Bofors 40 mm gun (3 x 1)
38 x Oerlikon 20 mm cannon (19 x 2), (14 x 1)

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!