HMS Minotaur 1982 - The last RN cruiser

[ArnoldAmbrose]

 

The story:

     In 1947 the Royal Navy commenced designing a cruiser (design Z) of which a number of variants were considered. Variant D was chosen but ultimately the project was cancelled before construction began. News of the Russian Sverdlov class of cruisers however convinced the British government to fund a single cruiser of the design, the ship to be named HMS Minotaur. At over 15,500 tons standard she was a large ship with a flush-decked hull over 670 feet long. She had a beam of 70 feet and was very weatherly. Her guns were of a new design, fully automatic and DP (dual purpose) and all on two levels. The armament consisted of ten 6-inch guns in five twin turrets, three forward and two aft, disposed like those of the Japanese Mogami class of a decade earlier. These guns fired a heavy shell and had a rate of fire of 20 RPM per gun. She also carried sixteen 3-inch guns in eight twin turrets, each gun firing 90 RPM. The 3-inch turrets were arranged in four pairs, two on each beam. Between the forward and aft 3-inch turret pairs were sixteen 21-inch torpedo tubes, in four quad mounts, two on either beam. For fire control a DCT (Director Control Tower) and a HA (high angle) director were supplied for each pair of 6-inch turrets. Each 3-inch turret had it's own HA director. The directors could be cross connected if required or each turret operated under local control. No aircraft, light guns or anti-submarine weapons were carried. Her long slender hull gave her a theoretical speed of 32 knots although she topped 33.25 knots on trials. The automatic guns had teething troubles for the first few years but by slowing down the rate of fire to 15 and 75 RPM respectively these guns became reliable and deadly.

     When the battleship HMS Vanguard was scrapped in 1960 HMS Minotaur became the glamour ship of the RN. While there is no denying the power of aircraft carriers and nuclear ballistic submarines the general public liked to see guns, and HMS Minotaur had the biggest and mostest. Of course, that changed in 1977 when the battleship HMS Bellerophon (formerly the French Richelieu) was commissioned. This event naturally put the Minotaur's collective noses out of joint and the next two years were spent in friendly(?) rivalry with the Billy Ruffians, or Silly Ruffians as the Minotaurs liked to call them.

     In 1979-81 HMS Minotaur was given a belated refit. The forward shelter deck was extended further forward and 'B' turret was raised up on it. 'C' turret was removed and in it's place a sextuple GWS-25 Seawolf missile launcher and four MM-38 Exocet canisters fitted. Another GWS-25 launcher was fitted aft in place of the saluting guns, overlooking "X" turret. The aft superfiring 3-inch turrets and their directors were removed and in their place were fitted two six-barreled Vulcan Phalanx 20mm gatling guns and two 8-tube Corvus chaff launchers. These two Phalanx systems were for assessment by the RN and how the ship's two senior officers, Captain Edward Teach and Commander John Rackham, acquired them both has never been established. These two officers were also concerned that the ship's weapons, however reliable now were still dependent on the ship's electrical power so as a final last ditch defense they 'obtained' four single 40mm Bofor and four single 20mm Oerlikon guns. The also 'sourced' two RHIBs for rapid man-overboard recovery and two Hiab cranes to launch and retrieve them. These two Gentlemen seemed to have a knack of obtaining assets that took their fancy. The ship also received two STWS triple torpedo tubes. As HMS Minotaur was conceived and built before the days of helicopters operating from ships and her primary role being long range gunfire a flight deck and associated equipment was not deemed practical. However her long quarterdeck was often used for helo transfers but usually by suspended loads.

 

     In early 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands and HMS Minotaur was included in the task force sent south to recover them. Like HMS Bellerophon her first task on arrival was shore bombardment. Sometimes she operated independently of the battleship to keep the Argentines guessing and sometimes with her to destroy those targets that Bellerophon missed, which admittedly weren't many.

     As reported by that eminent naval historian @Alan P when the Argentine cruiser Belgrano was sighted HMS Bellerophon was sent to deal with her. Using such overwhelming firepower against the cruiser was deemed unsporting by the crews of both Belgrano and Minotaur alike, but the Minotaurs conceded that the admiral was, well, the admiral and had the right to chose which of his toys he wanted to play with. But HMS Minotaur's finest hour was to come that very afternoon. When Argentina purchased the American cruiser USS Phoenix they also purchased a sister-ship, USS Boise which they named 'Nueve de Julio'. This ship was decommissioned in 1978 but when the Falklands invasion was planned the Julio was quietly reactivated. And while Belgrano was being pummeled by Bellerophon Julio was sailing south towards the Falklands. She was detected by satellite and HMS Minotaur was ordered to intercept, which she did by mid afternoon. A Google search failed to reveal if Julio was armed with Exocets and Captain Teach, being a descendant of those notorious sea-faring gentlemen of Penzance believed that all should be fair in love and war, a view not universally shared. He decided on gun action, a decision that had the gun crews joyously skipping instead of the more usual running to their action stations.

     Julio was intercepted 180 nautical miles NNW of the Falklands and ordered to depart the total exclusion zone. Her response was a ragged, diverse and inaccurate broadside which never the less sent a shell passing between Minotaur's funnels. Captain Teach had no choice but to engage, and Minotaur's accurate gunfire soon smothered the Julio with 6-inch shells. Within a short time Julio was on fire and when an explosion forward sent smoke and flame skyward Minotaur ceased fire. As the Argentine ship began to settle Captain Teach ordered all boats away to rescue the crew. Darkness was approaching and the crew were leaping into the water, most of their boats and rafts having been destroyed. (This act resulted in Teach receiving a humanitarian award several years later, by Argentina no less.)

     As a result of these two actions Bellerophon and Minotaur were to receive considerable attention from the Argentine Airforce. While they saved their dwindling supply of Exocets for Bellerophon the Argentines sent waves of A-4 Skyhawks against Minotaur. The cruiser's AA fire was impenetrable however, with a multi-tiered defense of Seawolf, 3-inch and Phalanx all claiming aircraft shot down. Even the Bofors and Oerlikons had a go, at one very brave and skillful pilot that evaded the storm of metal thrown at him. He survived and his bomb hit but failed to explode. It was successfully disarmed the next day.

     For the rest of the Falklands campaign HMS Minotaur alternated between shore bombardment and AA defense of the carriers. Other than the bomb hit she avoided any further damage, and later returned to Britain to a hero's welcome. Captain Teach was censured however for risking the ship by not engaging Julio with Exocets. But as he'd successfully sank an enemy cruiser they could hardly relieve him of command.

     Several years later HMS Minotaur had her Exocets replaced by Harpoons, and was sent on anti-pirate patrol off the Horn of Africa. On one clear day Captain Teach was ordered to prevent a pirate vessel attempting to escape after an aborted attack on a tanker. Minotaur achieved radar lock and mindful of his rap-across-the-knuckles after the Falklands he ordered a Harpoon fired at the vessel. The resultant wreckage was then obliterated with gunfire from every weapon that would bear. The cost of the ordnance used to destroy the open boat and four 150hp outboard motors - over 1 million pounds. As Captain Teach was simply obeying orders he again avoided an official reprimand, instead he was promoted out of the ship and became Rear Admiral in charge of Naval Procurement. Rear Admiral Teach decided to retire and was last heard of cruising the Caribbean. HMS Minotaur was decommissioned in 1991, sold and scrapped the following year.

 

HMS Minotaur in 1982:

The last two photos show the ship in 1987, after the Exocets were replaced with Harpoons.

 

     Anyone with an intimate knowledge of the RN and it's ships, and of the Falklands war will find this story full of holes and probably quite implausible. The ship, and the story are both 'what-ifs'. The model was a fun thing for me and built as a GB on the ATF..

    I'd like to draw your attention to the model by Alan P of his HMS Bellerophon (nee Richelieu). I earlier gained his permission for the links.

 

His model:

 

 

The build thread of HMS Minotaur:

Thank you all for your interest.   Regards, Jeff.

[Alan P]

Masterful, for both your modelling and storytelling. RAdm Teach would be proud! 

Thanks for the tag as well, I think we rewrote history enough for maximum satisfaction, Jeff 😂 All we need now is a modernised HMS Victorious in the mix and the Falklands story will be complete!

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday @Alan P and thanks. I wish you hadn't mentioned HMS Victorious - I've got an Airfix kit of her post WW2 in the stash. 😁 I bought it very cheaply with an idea of trying to convert her back to her WW2 guise. But I'm open to suggestions. 🙂 

     However, what ever I do with the kit will be quite a long way down the build queue at present. My next job will be to complete HMS Glamorgan in the Falklands 40th Anniversary GB.

I think I got our story's reasonably matched. Oh, and I take it you know who Teach and Rackham were? Regards, Jeff.

[Alan P]

1 hour ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Oh, and I take it you know who Teach and Rackham were? Regards, Jeff.

Arrrr matey

[Bertie McBoatface]

A retired Teach cruising the Caribbean? Priceless

[beefy66]

A wonderful build and as Alan say's a great story to back it up another cracker there Jeff.  👍

 

Stay Safe

beefy