They were built to the limitations that the 1936 Second London Naval Treaty imposed on cruisers, which lowered the limit for a light cruiser set in the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty from 10,000 tons to 8,000 tons displacement. Externally they appeared as smaller derivatives of the 1936 s.
The Fiji-class cruisers however, like the that followed in the middle of the war, essentially carried the same armament on a 1,000-tons less displacement. The Fiji and Minotaur classes were very tight designs, built largely in war emergency conditions with little margin for any great updating postwar. The 62feet beam imposing crippling limits.
The Fiji class were distinguishable from the Towns as they had a transom stern and straight funnels and masts; those of the Towns being raked. The armour scheme was revised from that of the Towns; the main belt now protected the ammunition spaces for the 6inches guns but the belt itself was reduced to 3.5and in the machinery spaces. The 6-inch Mk XXIII gun turrets and ammunition spaces were laid out as per the Edinburgh group of the Town class, except the after turrets were positioned a deck lower as in the Southampton and Gloucester groups. The long turret version of the triple 6-inch gun fitted to the Fiji class were 25 tons heavier than the 150-ton turret on the Group 1 & 2 Towns and further cramped the design. The supply of ammunition to the 40NaN0 guns was also improved, dispensing with the complicated conveyor system.
Due to the limited size of the Fiji class, a number of the ships had their 'X' turret removed to fit additional light anti-aircraft (AA) guns. Ships of the first group were equipped with the High Angle Control System (HACS) for secondary armament AA fire while the Ceylon group used the Fuze Keeping Clock for AA fire control. Both groups used the Admiralty Fire Control Table for surface fire control of the main armament and the Admiralty Fire Control Clock for surface fire control of the secondary armament.[3] By the late 1940s most of the Fiji class had the updated Type 274 'lock and follow' surface fire control radar, which massively increased the chance of hits from the opening salvoes. In the 1950s (except during the Korean War and Suez crisis) no more than one of the MKXIII turrets was ever manned, with 'B' and 'Y' turrets mothballed due to the large number of crew required for their operation. This allowed for more liveable peacetime conditions by operating with a crew of 610–750 rather than the full wartime crew of 1,000–1,100.
The addition of radar sets meant that spotting aircraft were now surplus to requirements, allowing the removal of the aircraft facilities and catapult. Not only did this provide additional accommodation spaces for enlarged wartime crews, but there was no longer the need to carry large quantities of volatile aviation fuel; in 1940, had her bow blown off when a torpedo detonated the 5,700 gallons of aviation fuel stored forwards and was out of action for a year. Fiji and Kenya had never received the catapult, Nigeria had hers removed in 1941 and the other ships had theirs removed between 1942 and 1944.
The Ceylon group were completed without 'X' 6-inch turret, and between 1944 and 1945, those of Bermuda, Jamaica, Mauritius and Kenya were also removed. This allowed the carriage of additional light AA weapons, a quadruple QF 2 pdr pom-pom mounting Mark VII generally being carried in 'X' position. Bermuda, Jamaica and Mauritius had 2 additional quadruple pom-poms added (for a total of five) and between two and four single pom-poms in powered mountings Mark XV. In Kenya, all pom-poms were removed, and were replaced with five twin and eight single 40 mm Bofors guns. By the end of the war, Newfoundland had one and Uganda had two American pattern quadruple 40 mm Bofors mounts Mark III and Nigeria had four single mounts Mark III. Generally, 6 to 24 20 mm Oerlikon guns were also added in a mixture of single mounts Mark IIIA and twin powered mounts Mark V.
Postwar modifications of the class were very limited with improved Type 274 lock and follow surface fire control. Newfoundland had a fragile and unreliable 'glasshouse' version of Type 275 for twin 4-inch control,[4] Ceylon had the short range type 262 MRS1 AA control which was limited to about 4km (02miles) range for tracking. Bermuda and Gambia had much more advanced US Mk 63 radar with four High Angle Director-Control Tower (DCT) and separate radar disks on the mounts themselves[5] using systems that were released by the cancellation of 's 1955 long refit. Slightly improved new versions of the basic twin 4-inch gun mounts were generally fitted in extended refits in 1950; these had electric drive and could train and elevate at 20 degrees/sec to track subsonic jets.
US advice and offers under mutual assistance to replace the obsolete and inaccurate 4-inch guns with twin 3-inch 50-calibre turrets of similar weight and dimensions as the RN twin 4-inch Mark XIX turrets were rejected because the RN had huge stocks of 4-inch shells. These ships would have been altered for water sprays to wash off nuclear fallout and received the Type 960 standard long-range air search radar. Newfoundland received a greater extent of electrical updating and rewiring with more comprehensive AA fire control and was the only Fiji-class vessel updated close to the standard planned for the improved ships. The Fiji class were only refitted for shore bombardment and colonial patrol and presence. The mid-1950s refits of Ceylon, Gambia and Bermuda were very austere. They included increasing automation, the life of the geared steam turbines, and reducing manning below decks. There was simplification of the short range anti-aircraft defence to six to eight twin L/60 Bofors in Mk 5 twin mountings with a fire rate increased to 150 rpm per gun (280–300 rpm for each twin mounting). These would have stopped earlier WWII low-level or later Falklands War-type attacks, by which time the RN no longer fitted 40 mm, the last were withdrawn with in 1981.
They served with distinction during the Second World War. Jamaica took part in a number of operations, including driving off the heavy cruisers and Lützow in 1942, the sinking of the battleship in 1943, and escorting carrier air attacks on the battleship in 1944. was sunk in 1941 by German aircraft during the battle of Crete. was lost on Arctic convoy duty in 1942; sailing at reduced speed due to damage in a surface action earlier she was set on fire by German air attack and scuttled. The survivors continued in service after the war, taking part in further actions, such as the Korean War.
and were sold to Peru in 1959 becoming the Coronel Bolognesi, and Almirante Grau respectively. These two were decommissioned by 1982. was sold to India who had it reconstructed in 1954–7 to the same standard as Newfoundland. As, the ship was heavily used from the time of her transfer, seeing action in the 1971 war with Pakistan,[6] and later converted to a harbour training ship in 1979. She was decommissioned by 1984 and then scrapped in 1985, and as such she was the longest-lived (41 years) member of her class.
All ships of the Fiji class were decommissioned from active service with the Royal Navy by 1962 and began being sold for scrap, though Bermuda was fully operational during 1961 and sometimes ventured to sea in 1962 as flagship of the Reserve Fleet. Gambia had been reduced to reserve in December 1960.
During the 1950s the larger Town-class cruisers were usually regarded as more habitable and comfortable in patrolling in the tropics and Far East, although being older their operational use generally ceased by 1958 and went for scrap the following year except for (which had at sea deployments as a reserve flagship until late 1960 and was then, maintained as a reserve headquarters ship) and which stayed in active seaworthy service until 1963. Sheffield and Belfast were the last of the wartime commissioned cruisers considered capable of reactivation for GFS and were in semi maintained reserve until the election of the Labour Government in 1964, which immediately decided to scrap them, pending short term use as accommodation ships and consideration for historical preservation.
The last Fiji-class cruisers were seriously deteriorating due to being in an unmaintained extended reserve status many years. Gambia was considered as an alternative for use as the London museum ship, as the ship's condition was more original than Belfast, but Gambia was sold for scrap in 1968, because the state of the ship made it more expensive to preserve than Belfast. .
| Name | Namesake | Builder | Ordered | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned | Fate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colony of Fiji | John Brown, Clydebank | 20 December 1937 | 30 March 1938 | 31 May 1939 | 5 May 1940 | Sunk in air attack during Battle of Crete, 22 May 1941 | ||
| Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria | Vickers-Armstrongs, Walker | 8 February 1938 | 18 July 1939 | 23 September 1940 | Sold to Indian Navy as in 1954 | |||
| Crown Colony of Mauritius | Swan Hunter, Wallsend | 13 March 1938 | 19 July 1939 | 4 January 1941 | Placed in reserve in 1952 and broken up at Inverkeithing in 1965 | |||
| Colony and Protectorate of Kenya | Alexander Stephens and Sons, Linthouse | 18 June 1938 | 18 August 1939 | 28 August 1940 | Placed in reserve in 1958 and broken up at Faslane in 1962 | |||
| Island of Trinidad (part of Crown Colony of Trinidad and Tobago[7]) | HM Dockyard, Devonport | 1 December 1937 | 21 April 1938 | 21 March 1940 | 14 October 1941 | Scuttled in Arctic Ocean following air attack, 15 May 1942 | ||
| Jamaica and Dependencies | Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness | 1 March 1939 | 28 April 1939 | 16 November 1940 | 29 June 1942 | Placed in reserve in 1958 and broken up at Dalmuir in 1960 | ||
| Gambia Colony and Protectorate | Swan Hunter, Wallsend | 24 July 1939 | 30 November 1940 | 21 February 1942 | Served with the Royal New Zealand Navy as HMNZS Gambia 1943–1946 Placed in reserve in 1960 and broken up at Inverkeithing in 1968 | |||
| Bermuda | John Brown, Clydebank | 4 September 1939 | 30 November 1939 | 11 September 1941 | 5 August 1942 | Decommissioned in 1962 and broken up at Briton Ferry in 1965 |
| Name | Namesake | Builder | Ordered | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned | Fate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crown Colony of Ceylon | Alexander Stephens and Sons, Linthouse | 1 March 1939 | 27 April 1939 | 30 July 1942 | 13 July 1943 | Sold to Peruvian Navy as in 1959 | ||
| Uganda Protectorate | Vickers-Armstrongs, Walker | 20 July 1939 | 7 August 1941 | 3 January 1943 | Transferred to Royal Canadian Navy as in 1944 | |||
| Dominion of Newfoundland[8] | Swan Hunter, Wallsend | 4 September 1939 | 9 November 1939 | 19 December 1941 | 21 January 1943 | Sold to Peruvian Navy as BAP Almirante Grau in 1959 |