The life and times of the unique HMS Swiftsure

Conrad Waters reviews the career of HMS Swiftsure, the final Royal Navy cruiser to be delivered during World War II.

At 1100 on Friday 2nd June, 1944 – just four days before the D-Day landings – a Royal Navy cruiser was commissioned for trials alongside Vickers-Armstrongs’ shipyard on the River Tyne. The new HMS Swiftsure was to be the final Royal Navy cruiser delivered for wartime service when she was formally accepted from the builders later that month. Originally intended to be one of a large series of ‘Improved Fiji’ class cruisers, she was destined to serve as a class of her own.

Swiftsure traced her origins to decisions made on the British cruiser force during the darkest days of World War II. The outbreak of hostilities in September 1939 had brought to an end the regime of naval armaments treaties that had restricted cruiser displacement and armament during much of the inter-war period. Various schemes were devised for new and more powerful ships that could be built under this new-found freedom. A number of factors, most importantly the steady deterioration in the fortunes of Britain and her allies, meant none of these impressive designs saw the light of day.

By early 1941 it had become apparent that an existing cruiser would have to be adopted if further cruiser construction was to take place during the wartime years. The obvious way forward was to order a slightly modified version of the pre-war Fiji class. These ships had already been built in considerable numbers and the design was considered the best available in the current circumstances.

Three ‘Improved Fijis’ were authorised under the Royal Navy’s 1941 construction programme. They used the same hull and propulsion found in the original Fiji class. However, in line with a change implemented in the last three Fijis to be completed, the ‘Modified Fiji’ or Uganda class, they surrendered one of their four triple 6-inch gun turrets to accommodate a stronger close-range armament and other improvements. Fortuitously, their beam was also increased from 62ft to 63ft to provide the greater stability required for additional equipment.

Swiftsure was ordered from Vickers-Armstrongs’ Higher Walker yard in Newcastle-on-Tyne on 19th May, 1941. Her two sisters were contracted during the same month. Further orders for ‘Improved Fijis’ came at the end of the year, with more following in 1942. However, these cruisers incorporated a further increase in beam to 64ft, and came to be regarded as a separate class. Only one of these ships, HMS Superb, was built to anything like the original design. Some of the others were eventually delivered as the much modified post-war Tiger class, while others were cancelled as the aircraft carrier’s dominance became established. 

Of Swiftsure’s immediate sisters, Minotaur – due to give her name to the class – was finished to a slightly different design and sold to Canada as HMCS Ontario. The other, Tiger, was broadened and rebuilt as the lead ship of the redesigned Tiger class, eventually being delivered in 1959. Only Swiftsure was completed to enter Royal Navy service in the configuration originally envisaged.

Wartime operations
After commissioning for trials under the command of Captain Robert D Oliver at the start of June 1944, Swiftsure departed the Tyne on 16th June, bound for Rosyth. This acted as her base for the subsequent series of tests, which concluded with full power trials on 22nd June. 

Wartime hazards meant that the normal set of runs along a measured mile could not be carried out, but an estimated speed of 30.25 knots was achieved. The cruiser was accepted from the builders that same day. All-in-all, the ship’s officers were happy with the ship, although it was felt that detailed finish had fallen off compared with pre-war standards.

Following acceptance, Swiftsure worked up for operational service under the care of the 10th Cruiser Squadron at the Home Fleet’s base of Scapa Flow. She made a brief voyage southwards in early September 1944 to embark the First Lord of the Admiralty, Albert V Alexander, for a tour of the Mediterranean. Later that month, she was involved in a diversionary sweep off the Norwegian coast in support of the JW-60 Arctic convoy.

The defining stage of Swiftsure’s wartime career commenced in October 1944, when she departed home waters on the long voyage east to join the British Pacific Fleet. She arrived in Sydney on 28th December, 1944. Under a new commanding officer, Captain Patrick V McLaughlin, she led the 4th Cruiser Squadron in operations against the Sakishima Islands and Formosa (present-day Taiwan), and later participated in a bombardment of the Japanese base at Truk. Her new target indication equipment proved to be invaluable during these operations, allowing enemy aircraft to be identified and tracked at a much earlier stage than in other ships.

Swiftsure was undergoing refit in Sydney when Japan surrendered on 15th August 1945. She was immediately readied to form part of Task Group 111.2 to effect the re-occupation of Hong Kong in the face of fears that Britain’s Chinese Nationalist allies might seek to establish control themselves. 

Subsequently, on the morning of 30th August 1945, the cruiser embarked task group commander Rear-Admiral Cecil HJ Harcourt prior to leading a flotilla of destroyers into the colony’s Victoria Harbour to re-establish a British presence that was to endure for a further half century.

Peacetime service
Following her participation in the liberation of Hong Kong, Swiftsure continued to operate with the British Pacific Fleet as part of efforts to return stability to the war-torn region. She arrived back in home waters in August 1946, spending the following years either in operational reserve or under refit at Rosyth. It was only in March 1950 that she returned to the active fleet, joining the 2nd Cruiser Squadron in the Home Fleet.

Swiftsure’s remaining operational service was comparatively short. On 29th September 1953, while participating in the NATO ‘Mariner’ exercise in the Greenland-Iceland gap, she was involved in a collision with the destroyer Diamond. 

The destroyer struck the cruiser in the area of her bridge structure on her starboard side, with the brief contact causing relatively minor physical damage. Unfortunately, improper stowage of paint and other materials in Diamond’s forepeak caused a major blaze to erupt when these were flung into the hole in the cruiser’s side due to the force of the collision.

It took nearly five hours to extinguish a conflagration which caused major damage to Swiftsure’s forward superstructure. A subsequent investigation revealed significant deficiencies in the cruiser’s damage control response, which were exacerbated by crew shortages and few opportunities to conduct effective training. 

Although the fires were eventually brought under control without any fatalities, there were around 40 injuries of greater or lesser severity. Swiftsure herself was withdrawn from service and placed in reserve pending a planned modernisation.

The end of the line
Ultimately, Swiftsure never saw operational service again. Various modernisation plans had been under consideration for her since the late 1940s, some being close in scope to the major rebuilding implemented for the Tiger class. However, these were steadily scaled back on grounds of cost and practicality. By 1956 it had been determined that Swiftsure would be upgraded along similar lines to the standard ultimately achieved in the modernised Belfast. This would have encompassed enhanced command and control facilities located in a new bridge, but retention of much of the existing armament. Surviving plans reveal a ship that would have resembled a smaller Belfast.

However, it was not to be. Modernisation began at Chatham in early 1957 but, as work progressed, it became evident that it would be more costly and complicated than initially envisaged. Finally, in September 1959, work was suspended to release money and dockyard resources for other priorities. Various alternatives were considered to use the ship, including three innovative schemes for conversion to a commando carrier.

Ultimately, none of these were considered cost-effective, given Swiftsure’s likely limited remaining service life and, in October 1962, the cruiser departed Chatham on her final voyage to the shipbreakers. Demolition commenced at the yard of TW Ward Ltd at Inverkeithing, on the Firth of Forth, on 22nd October 1962 and, by the start of 1964, Swiftsure was no more.

• The author’s book on the Fiji class cruisers and their derivative designs will be released by Seaforth Publishing early in 2024.

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