Critical's "A Detailed Look At HMCS Uganda/Quebec (C66)”

[Dunk_Master_Flex]

 

After what I’d count as my successful first ADLA with Haida a few days ago, I’ve decided to continue making these. This time, I will be reviewing the light cruiser HMCS Uganda. Some of you may ask why I’m not doing HMCS Ontario and the reason is that she is extremely similar to Uganda except lacking wartime service. Anyway, let’s get to it.

 

HMS Uganda is a light cruiser of the Ceylon class, sub-class of HMS Fiji that we currently have in World Of Warships at Tier VII. She was commissioned on January 3rd, 1943.

 

Her first notable deployment was also one of her most important. On May 5th 1943, HMS Uganda and HMS Charybdis were attached to escort the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary who was carrying Winston Churchill and his staff to Washington, DC. The escort was carried out at a continuous 30 knots and was uneventful. Uganda detached near the coast of Newfoundland and remained there for sometime before returning to Plymouth, Britain for a refit.

 

After her refit, Uganda was attached as escort to one of the troop convoys in the Mediterranean, heading to Sicily. On July 10th, 1943, Uganda was assigned as close bombardment support for Operation Husky, during the invasion of Sicily. In the next few weeks, Uganda alongside the cruisers HMS Mauritius, HMS Orion and the monitors HMS Erebus and Roberts supported the British Eighth Army during their various combat actions during the month of July.

 

HMS Uganda in an earlier paint scheme, note the crane for recovering aircraft.

When Operation Avalanche went underway on September 9th, 1943, Uganda was part of the bombardment fleet covering the Allied invasion of Italy at Salerno. While the landings were a huge success, the Germans units in the area launched a counterattack. As Uganda was among the ships directly inshore to provide on call gunfire to the British forces, she was in direct danger of German air attacks. September 13th 1943, that exact thing happened. She took a direct hit from a Fritz X gliding bomb. The bomb tore a jagged hole through seven decks and shot through her keel, exploding in the water underneath the ship. The underwater blast completely knocked her engines out and caused her to take on 1,300 tons of water. After repairing one engine, she was towed to Malta for repairs.

Tempting fate, Uganda set out for Charleston, South Carolina as there were no drydock facilities in the theatre to bring her back up to combat conditions. The cruiser took across the Atlantic with only one of her four propellers in working order and she arrived without problems on November 27th, 1943.

 

While under repair, HMS Uganda was acquired by the Canadian Government. She was officially transferred and recommissioned on October 21st, 1944 as HMCS Uganda. After an extended period of training, she joined the British Pacific Fleet at Sydney on the 9th of March, 1945 as the flagship of the RCN. For the rest of March and April, she escorted multiple carrier units and provided anti-aircraft screening.

 

During May, Uganda participated in even more anti-aircraft screening and the bombardment of military targets at Nobara and Sukuama. For the remained of May, June and July, she continued this pattern of escorting and bombarding shore targets while taking no losses.

 

Uganda bombarding an airfield at Sukuma, May 4th, 1945.

 

Funnily, her most famous engagement was on April 4th, 1945 and did not involve any enemy targets at all. The Canadian government changed the policy for all of it’s ships deployed to the Pacific theater. The crew of Uganda were already unhappy due to poor living conditions and the lack of a solid Canadian identity for their ship. After a policy change by the Canadian government needed the votes by the ship's crew to “re-enlist” for Pacific service, the result was 605 of her crew of 907 refuse to volunteer for further combat operations. The crew of Uganda felt that they had volunteered for hostilities only, mainly against Nazi Germany but now found themselves fighting Japan, a country they did not feel they should have been fighting.

 

Uganda escorting a British Pacific Task Force, 1945.

The British Admiralty in command of the ship's task force was absolutely pissed about the decision of the Uganda’s crew and said informed them they would not be relieved until until July 27th at the earliest. The cruiser carried on her service into June and July until she was relieved by the British cruiser Argonaut.

Uganda arrived Pearl Harbor for refueling before heading back home in Esquimalt, British Columbia. She suffered a boiler issue and limped into Pearl Harbor on August 4th. To the crew's dismay, the personnel at Pearl resented the crew for what they saw as them “quitting” the war. Uganda departed after a quick refueling and was homeward bound. On their way back to Canada, the crew received news about the atomic bombs being dropped on Japan and on their arrival home on August 10th, the Japanese began to accept their surrender.

 

Uganda spent the rest of the war as a training ship in British Columbia before being paid off in 1947. In August of 1951, the escalation of the Korean War prompted the return to service and modernization of Uganda. The cruiser was recommissioned as HMCS Quebec (C31) and moved to the largest Canadian Navy port of Halifax to replace the ships sent to Korea. In September of 1952, Quebec and the sole Canadian carrier Magnificent participated in Exercise Mainbrace. After various training operations and attending the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, Quebec became the first Canadian ship to sail around Africa. In 1960, the two Canadian cruisers Quebec and Ontario were sent to Japan to be broken up.

 

HMCS Uganda wasn’t the luckiest ship in the world but hey, she wasn’t a lazy ship either!

 

Onto her stats.

 

Hit Points

 

Using the handy formula of 9898 + (1.8525 x 11,024) to calculate cruiser HP, I have deduced that Uganda will have a pool of 30,320 hitpoints. This would give her the fifth highest HP of Tier VI, not bad,

 

Armor

 

Uganda has almost identical armor to Fiji, sharing her rather feeble qualities. Even at Tier VI, she has nothing advantageous of note. Follow the motto for regular British cruisers, if you get exposed, you die extremely easily.

 

Main Armament

 

Uganda is armed with three 152mm BL Mk XXIII guns in triple turrets with two mounted on the bow as “A” and “B” turrets and “Y” turret on the stern. These are the same guns as Fiji but would lose the best in class rate of fire but keep the rainbow arcs and good range of 15.4 km. The main thing you might notice is that Uganda loses the furthest mounted stern “X” turret over Fiji who already has firepower issues. I would address this by giving her the same shells as Belfast with her AP losing the unique RN properties but the option to use HE shells. This will help her against battleships but still very average for a Tier VI cruiser.

 

Secondary Armament

 

Uganda mounts the exact same four twin mounted 102mm QF Mk XVI guns with their 3 second reload, 5 km range and 6% fire chance. These guns aren’t the worst but don’t count on them to do any heavy lifting.

 

Torpedo Armament

 

Seeing how Uganda is basically following Fiji to a T at this point, this is where I would like to change her. Giving her Edinburgh’s 10 km torpedoes with their 62 knot speed and weaker 15,533 damage. She has two triple launchers, one on each side of the ship in the same places as Fiji. In order to make this somewhat fair, I am going to increase her torpedo reload time from 72 seconds to 82 seconds. Overall, Uganda has longer ranged torpedoes but she can only fire three at a time and has to present her side to launch them effectively.

 

AA Armament

 

This is where Uganda shines, as her design had hoped. In the refit we are considering, Uganda had her two catapults removed in order to bring even more AA guns aboard. The following AA armament is her 1944 refit and is the most accurate I can possible find with the help of mofton earlier tonight.

 

- Four twin mounted 102mm QF Mk XVI dual purpose guns.

- Five quad mounted 2pdr QF Mk VIII AA guns.

- Four single mounted 2pdr QF Mk VIII AA guns.

- Four dual mounted 20mm Oerlikon Mk II/IV AA guns.

- Eight single mounted 20mm Oerlikon Mk II/IV AA guns.

 

As a large number of these mountings are not currently in the game and I have no benchmark to reliably estimate these stats since WG changes these at will. That being said, this is one of the better mid to close range AA sets of Tier VI and investing into AA will make Uganda quite the annoyance for carrier captains.

 

Anyone with a better grasp on AA mountings, ranges and damage, feel free to take a crack at more exact numbers.

 

Concealment

 

Since Uganda is almost identical in size to Fiji, her concealment should be the same at 11.5km surface and 7.3 air detectability range. Just like Fiji, this stealth is needed to keep Uganda alive. This stat is alright for Tier VI.

 

Maneuverability

 

Uganda will share Fiji and the British cruiser lines slightly ridiculous handling characteristics. Uganda is 0.5 knots faster than Fiji at 33 knots, still not a speed demon but it’s something. Her rudder shift would be the same zippy 8.6 seconds as Fiji and her turning circle would also match at 590m.

 

Consumables

 

Uganda would mount the standard Damage Control Party consumable and RN Tier VI Smoke Generator but since she had her catapults removed, she loses the ability to mount spotter aircraft or catapult fighters. To emphasize her increased AA armament, Repair Party would be replaced by US Tier VI Defensive Fire. This would give Uganda a unique place among her RN cruiser brethren, being able to beat away aircraft with ease as she frequently did during her Pacific career.

 

Pros

 

- Fast rate of fire for her 152mm guns.

 

- Better than average AA armament.

 

- Ability to mount Defensive Fire.

 

- Has access to HE shells.

 

- Below average detection range.

 

- Very nimble handling characteristics.

 

- Longer range torpedoes compared to Fiji or Leander.

 

- Slightly faster than Fiji.

 

 

Cons

 

- Loses one turret compared to Fiji.

 

- Cannot mount Repair Party.

 

- Average HP.

 

- Mediocre armor.

 

- Shares rainbow arcs with her RN sisters.

 

- Large and relatively easy to hit citadel.

 

Overall, I think HMCS Uganda would be a great addition to the Commonwealth tech tree at Tier VI. She differs from Fiji by trading off HP, a turret and consumables for enhanced AA, defensive fire and longer range torps.

 

One of the few color photos of Uganda wearing her most common blue stripe and grey camouflage.

 

Thanks for reading and as always, feel free to correct any mistakes you find!

 

 

[ArmouredCarriers]

Good wrap.

Problem is she's just a FIJI with historically accurate upgrades.

I guess they could load her with gimmicks, like Perth, to justify a premium.

[Dunk_Master_Flex]

Good wrap.

Problem is she's just a FIJI with historically accurate upgrades.

I guess they could load her with gimmicks, like Perth, to justify a premium.

 

Well that's why she's on the Commonwealth tech tree as a Canadian ship. The British have plenty of premium cruiser's for themselves.

 

I don't really have an affection towards gimmicks and to be frank, that's one of the reasons I'm not enjoying the RN cruiser line.

 

Uganda offers something different, better AA, marginally longer range torpedoes, HE shells and defensive fire in exchange for her healing, hitpoints, plane catapult and a turret. 

 

Losing that lower turret will be trouble, since the "Y" turret doesn't have as good arcs as the Fiji's "X" turret.

[mofton]

Nice review, and thanks for the shout out, I did little.

 

I don't think it's an issue that she's gimmick-less, I'm ok with that. Maybe we've been spoiled by premiums with a little extra something. Some Prinz Eugen's are to be expected.

 

I have some reservations about this ship at T7. Fiji is the starting point, and Fiji is pretty fantastic so a weaker ship will not necessarily be bad, but too much weaker and you're in trouble.

 

Fiji works at T7 with a repair party, smoke and 12 guns firing RN AP.

Uganda would lack HP, repair party and bring only 9 guns to the table, though a la Perth she'd get HE/AP.

 

That's a significant weakness, however Perth with HE/AP and creeping smoke vs. Leander's AP, heal and blob smoke is actually balanced, if not as good. She does at least keep the firepower and the creeping smoke may be better than the blob.

 

There's an argument to be made for T6 here. With 9 guns she's closer to Leander/Perth in firepower. She would have an edge in HP/armor but lose out in concealment which is important. If she lost smoke, certainly a 6. Even with it, if losing Def. AA I can see it as a possibility.

 

Is getting HE/AP an advantage over the RN-AP only configuration is my wonder.

[Dunk_Master_Flex]

I don't think it's an issue that she's gimmick-less, I'm ok with that. Maybe we've been spoiled by premiums with a little extra something. Some Prinz Eugen's are to be expected.

 

I have some reservations about this ship at T7. Fiji is the starting point, and Fiji is pretty fantastic so a weaker ship will not necessarily be bad, but too much weaker and you're in trouble.

 

Fiji works at T7 with a repair party, smoke and 12 guns firing RN AP.

Uganda would lack HP, repair party and bring only 9 guns to the table, though a la Perth she'd get HE/AP.

 

That's a significant weakness, however Perth with HE/AP and creeping smoke vs. Leander's AP, heal and blob smoke is actually balanced, if not as good. She does at least keep the firepower and the creeping smoke may be better than the blob.

 

There's an argument to be made for T6 here. With 9 guns she's closer to Leander/Perth in firepower. She would have an edge in HP/armor but lose out in concealment which is important. If she lost smoke, certainly a 6. Even with it, if losing Def. AA I can see it as a possibility.

 

I honestly thought the same thing at first however, I'll explain.

 

I don't want Fiji at Tier 6 because the ship would be extremely boring and lacking any kind of role. She's basically a straight upgrade up from Leander/Perth in most ways, even stripping away her 10km torps, Defensive AA, smoke and everything I've added on.

 

I want something different, I'm not for boring "Prinz Eugen" style ships. Premium ships should offer advantages and disadvantages when compared to their tech tree counterparts, especially since you have to pay for them.

 

She is more comparable to Cleveland however, Cleveland is very likely to get pushed up when the US cruisers get a split line. Uganda just seems a bit too good for Tier VI since she is on the high end for almost every stat. She has some serious AA for Tier VI, she has close to the best gun range, she has some of the best rate of fire while keeping good maneuverability and decent concealment.

 

I wanted Uganda to be a side grade to Fiji. She trades off a turret, healing, hitpoints and hydroacoustic to fix two of the largest problems with the RN line, lack of fire starting against larger ships and the inability to stall a carriers attacks against you. Unlike Belfast, you get torpedoes to strike against battleship drivers from a decent distance and you can burn them to the bottom from your smokescreen. You can still hunt DD's and other light cruisers however, that's mainly Belfast's thing.

 

It's a trade off, you don't want anything being OP.

 

 

 

[Lord_Magus]

Since Fiji got placed at T7 I always assumed any ship of the Ceylon subclass would be T6, where 3x3 6" guns is on par with Nurnberg and Budyonny. 25% less firepower than Fiji or Belfast would hurt, even with Edinburgh's Mk IX** torps. At T6 she'd have to be balanced against Leander, but that's where stats like dispersion and concealment factor in. Along with hidden stats like sigma.

 

If AA is going to be the ship's strong point as a reason for T7 then HMCS Ontario might be better choice with a 5th twin 102mm QF Mk XVI plus a 1945 AA suite (according to Navypedia) of 4x4 and 4x1 2pdr QF Mk VIII 2pdr QF Mk VIII, 4x1 40mm Bofors Mk III, 8x2 and 6x1 20mm Oerlikon Mk II/IV. I really hesitate to suggest that though since stats aside Ontario has nothing notable to say about her other than "is Canadian." Uganda at least actually fought in battles. But a cruiser with only 9 6" guns at T7 that ship will need all the help it can get and the Swiftsure class is an improved version of the Ceylon subclass.

 

BTW I believe fr05ty's current refinement of the cruiser formula is HP = 9898 + (1.8525 x tonnage). That would give Uganda/Quebec 30320 HP and Ontario 31165.

[Dunk_Master_Flex]

Since Fiji got placed at T7 I always assumed any ship of the Ceylon subclass would be T6, where 3x3 6" guns is on par with Nurnberg and Budyonny. 25% less firepower than Fiji or Belfast would hurt, even with Edinburgh's Mk IX** torps. At T6 she'd have to be balanced against Leander, but that's where stats like dispersion and concealment factor in. Along with hidden stats like sigma.

 

If AA is going to be the ship's strong point as a reason for T7 then HMCS Ontario might be better choice with a 5th twin 102mm QF Mk XVI plus a 1945 AA suite (according to Navypedia) of 4x4 and 4x1 2pdr QF Mk VIII 2pdr QF Mk VIII, 4x1 40mm Bofors Mk III, 8x2 and 6x1 20mm Oerlikon Mk II/IV. I really hesitate to suggest that though since stats aside Ontario has nothing notable to say about her other than "is Canadian." Uganda at least actually fought in battles. But a cruiser with only 9 6" guns at T7 that ship will need all the help it can get and the Swiftsure class is an improved version of the Ceylon subclass.

 

BTW I believe fr05ty's current refinement of the cruiser formula is HP = 9898 + (1.8525 x tonnage). That would give Uganda/Quebec 30320 HP and Ontario 31165.

 

That's the main reason I never did this on HMCS Ontario. The ship really never did a single thing, therefore it's kind of a boring choice. I'm leaning on T6 myself too now that you guys have brought it up.

 

I'll make the appropriate changes.