John's History of British Warships

HMS Sheffield, The Begining 1937

Having served on HMS Birmingham for two and a half years and then briefly on HMS Sheffield, or old shiny as she was efectionately known, I would like give a brief bit about this grand old ship.

The city of Sheffeild was late in having a fighting ship. Nottingham's first ship was built in 1703, London's first man of war in 1636 and Newcastle's first dated from 1653. But it was not until July 23rd 1936 thet the first HMS Sheffield slipped into the tyne at 6 30pm, launched by Her Royal Highness Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent.

HMS Sheffield was one of ten Town class light cruisers that were being built rapidly, in anticipation of the forthcoming hostility with Germany. Her sister ships were, Southampton, Newcastle, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Gloucester,  Belfast and  Edinburgh.

As the first to be completed was Southampton, all the ships tended to be referred to as Southampton Class. Their design was developed from previous classes of British cuisers, but the class was to excel itself in the coming conflicts and remains today the most famous class of cruiser.

HMS Sheffield was to become a special ship due to her affiliation with the city of Sheffield.All her fittings that would have normally been made of brass were made of stainless steel ( hence her nickname 'old shiny' ) a corrosion resistant shiny steel with a high chronium content, discovered in Sheffield by Harry Brealey in 1913. These items included railings, stancheons, staghorns and even the ships bell. The royal Navy thought that this trial was worthwhile in order to see if stainless steel would reduce the amount of work required by the crew in cleaning the brassware. In fact, her bell was the first stainless steel bell to be fitted to a ship and was made by Hadfiels of Sheffield, where Meadowhall shopping Centre now stands.It was the first bell they ever made, 'Hadfields' were more used to producing railway track, tin hats and amour piercing shells.

Another first for the Sheffield was that she was the first ship in the Royal Navy to have Radar or, as it was known pre war, radio and direction ranging equipment. Indeed as war neared the only other ship in the royal navy with radar was the battleship Rodney.

Sheffield contributed more than just stainless steel to HMS Sheffield. The ladies of the city provided a silk Union Jack and White Ensign to the ship. These flags were flown every time the vessel went into combat. Now they hang in a Sheffield Cathederal. Also many other Sheffield City companies gave cutlery, coasters, silver tankards and paintings.

The ' Shiny Sheff' as she was known had been launched without her guns, Superstructure or funnels, masts and electrics.It took thirteen months to complete the ship and on wenesday August 25th 1937, the White Ensign was hoisted and Captain W.Mark- Wardlaw accepted the first HMS Sheffield from her builder. Vickers Armstrong of Newcastle and set sail for Chatham on the Thames, the ships new base.

Sheffield spent the next few month's 'working up' getting the new crew used to their new ship. On October 13th 1937 she visited Immingham near Hull so that the people of Sheffield could visit their new ship and the ship's company could visit the City they represented. Over the three days that the ship was open to the public, she was visited bu over 20,000 people and, in return, around two hundred of the ships company came to Sheffield to watch Sheffield United play Sheffield wenesday at Hillsborough, Wenesday one 1 nil.

In the evening a dance was organised for the sailors at the Town Hall, two hundred girls were carefully selected by a commitee of Sheffield ladies. It is reported in the ships records that the sailors were dissapointed at this event because the girls were chosen for their virtue and the crew being young sailors expected something different.

After this introduction to the City of Sheffield, HMS Sheffield joined the home fleet. The Home Fleet tended, as the name suggests, to spend most of its time around the United Kingdom. However it did spend a few months a year in the Mediteranean, exercising with the Royal Navy's Mediteranean fleet. Sheffield visited Gibraltar and Tangier in her first year of service.

In July of 1938, back in the UK, Sheffield's first captain left to be replaced by Captain E de F Renauf CVO and it was during this time that John Logie Baird 'inventor of the television', visited Sheffield to examine her new radar which could spot aircraft up to forty miles away. The scanner was located on the foremast and was nicknamed the cukoo's nes by the crew due to its unusual appearance.

Sheffield was also making her name known within the fleet at sport. her crew beat every opponent in Tug of War culminating with a record 21 minutes pull with her sister ship Southampton's crew at Gibraltar.

On one occasion whilst at Gibraltar fifty of Sheffields crew visited the German Pocket Battleship Graf Spee, at anchor in the bay. The Graf Spee scuttled herself after the battle of the river plate in 1939.

HMS Sheffield, the war years.
As war broke out, the first HMS Sheffield was patrolling the North Atlantic in a postion some two hundred miles south of Iceland. the crew did'nt know what to expect: would there be a great German breakout ? would the Luftwaffe attack ? In the end not much happened. this was a stage of the war knowns a the ' Phoney War'
For Sheffield, her first encounter with the enemy occured on 20th Oct, 1939, when she came across the German freighter 'Gloria' near Norway. No shots were fired but a British prize crew boarded the 'Gloria' to sail her to the safety of Kirkwall in the Orkneys. Old shiny spent the next four months patrolling the North Atlantic, an exhausting, cold, wet and dull job.
At the begining of 1940, Sheffield gained her third captain, Charles Larcom, on January 18th the Sheffield suffered her first casualty. A young sailor, John Penn, was thrown overboard in heavy seas and never seen again.
Germany invaded Norway on April 7th so Sheffield headed north with her sister ships Glasgow, Manchester and Southampton along with the battleship Rodney. The mission seemed poorly planned. The British were bombed by German Stuka dive bombers and withdrew. Fortunately damage was minimal, but a lesson was rapidly learned, British ships could not operate near enemy coastlines without air support.
As Sheffield withdrew to Scapa Flow the Luftwaffe struck again with a raid of around sixty aircraft. The raid lasted an hour, six attackers were downed and no vessels hit.
The whole Norwegian campaign was a shambles, Sheffield and Glasgow returned to Norway on april 14th. At Namsos, ninety miles north of Tronheim, they landed a force of some two hundred of their crew, including stokers and other non fighting trained men, armed with first world war rifles, with the intention of fighting off crack German paratrooper units. Equiped with gear from the 1914-18 war, what could young stokers do against well trained, well equiped soldiers ?. Fortunately three days later, rather cold and hungry, the sailors returned to the warmth of their ship.
Sheffield returned again to Norway on April 22nd, this time with aircraft hangers loaded with guns and trucks for the army, along with around seven hundred soldiers. These reinforcements were bound for Molde, south of Tronheim, to continue the liberation of Norway. However, events were not going well. with dreadful weather, no air cover and poorly equiped troops, the British counter attack failed.By April 28th Sheffield was evacuating British troops and Norwegians from advancing Germans. One of these evacuees was only a few hours old.
During May a German invasion of Britain was anticipated so Old shiny was kept in readiness, anchored off Immingham ready to attack the invasion fleet.
On June 9th Italy declared war on Britain. Sheffields paintwork had been changed from all over grey to camouflage shades of blue and grey.The concept was not to hide the ship but to make identification harder.
The Phoney War was over now and Sheffield docked for ten days of repairs. The crew had nine days leave before Old shiny was off to Pastures new, but no one was told where.

Shortly I will be adding some more on this ship. JBD