HNLMS De Ruyter

[Daltron]

This ship is one of my favorite non-mainstream cruiser designs built. It's very unique, and the gun arrangement is very cool!

 

 

Being designed in the Great Depression, she was made to save as much money as the designers could squeeze out of her. Unfortunately, though, the Dutch were in a crappy pansy-Greek phase of 'pacifism' and 'peace'. In my mind, this should have put us directly at odds with the United States. I mean, for example, when I heard about N. Korea launching that nuke the other day, the first thing I thought was 'boy, they need the crap freed out of them'. War is our awesome nature. Anything that doesn't involve the violent shoving-of-apple-pie-up-the-butt and forcible sweet-tea drinking is contrary to our nature. I mean, that's the whole reason we started the Guantanamo Bay Detainment Facility, right?

 

But I digress.

 

This wave of Athenian thinking made the Dutch classify this ship as a 'Flotilla Leader' instead of a cruiser, even though she was armed with seven 5.9 inch guns. The 5.9 inch guns made her really a light cruiser, however, these guns left her pretty underpowered. Which is kinda stupid.

 

 

The class was designed to supplement the Java class, so that if one Java was in the shop, the De Ruyter could fill in. The cost-cutting left her underpowered for this role, as mentioned with the armament, and also the armor.

 

Instead of four double turrets, she had the number two turret replaced with a single-gun mount.

 

She was the leader of ABDA command in the Pacific, leading unsuccessful campaigns against the Japanese for the crappy ABDA. Seriously, this command did hardly anything right. She saw action in the Dutch East Indies, the Battles of Bali Sea and Badung Strait.

 

Her last battle was in February 1942 in the Battle of the Java Sea. She was leading the last remaining ABDACOM ships, which were surprised by the Japanese cruisers Haguro and Nachi. She was hit by a single OP Long Lance torpedo from Haguro. A testament to her crappy armor, this sank her in about three hours. 350+ men died, including the resident admiral and the captain. Her bell was recovered after the war and she's now a war-grave.

 

Wiki Stats:

 

Class & type: De Ruyter-class light cruiser

Displacement: 6,545 long tons (6,650 t) (standard)

Length: 170.9 m (560 ft 8 in)

Beam: 15.7 m (51 ft 6 in)

Draft: 5.1 m (16 ft 9 in)

Installed power: 66,000 shp (49,000 kW)

 

Propulsion:

3 × Parsons geared steam turbines

6 × Yarrow boilers

2 × shafts

 

Speed: 32 kn (59 km/h; 37 mph)

Range: 6,800 nmi (12,600 km; 7,800 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)

Complement: 435 max

 

Armament:

 

7 × 150 mm (5.9 in) guns (3x2; 1x1)

10 × 40 mm (1.57 in) Bofors anti-aircraft guns (5x2)

8 × 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Browning machine guns

 

Armor:

 

Belt: 5 cm (2.0 in)

Deck: 3 cm (1.2 in)

Turrets: 3 cm (1.2 in)

 

 

Aircraft carried: 2 × Fokker C-11W floatplanes

Aviation facilities: 1 × catapult

 

Name: de Ruyter

Laid down: 16 September 1933

Launched: 11 March 1935

Commissioned: 3 October 1936

Fate: Sunk by torpedo in the Java Sea 28 February 1942

[Haguro]

Yes!!! Haguro strikes again.   :Smile_izmena:  I guess I'll have to do a write up on the IJN Haguro now... :Smile_glasses:

 

Nice camo pic. Never seen it before.  Where did you find it?

[Daltron]

Haguro, on 14 February 2013 - 05:56 AM, said:

Yes!!! Haguro strikes again.   :Smile_izmena:  I guess I'll have to do a write up on the IJN Haguro now... :Smile_glasses:

Nice camo pic. Never seen it before.  Where did you find it?

Wikipedia page since that's the only source for photos you can get anymore -__-

[Sampsonite]

Another history lesson, another ship I had never seen.....thanks!