The light turret and barbette protection remains a serious Achilles heel of the ship, like on preceding British light cruisers. The rest of the ship is much more lightly protected. The shell rooms adjacent to the magazines are much more lightly protected, at only 25.4 mm anti-fragmentation armour, but a hit there, while causing serious damage, will not be immediately fatal to the ship, unlike a magazine penetration. Altogether, the magazines are very well protected against light cruiser fire, and are difficult to penetrate even with heavy cruiser guns at range and when angled. The roofs of the boxes are protected by 51 mm of armour. The main gun magazines are protected within armoured boxes, with 114 mm upper and 76 mm lower side protection. However, the deck armour over the machinery is only 31 mm thick, which is mostly enough to protect against long range light cruiser fire, but not much more. This provides good protection against even heavy cruiser guns at longer ranges when angled. The machinery is protected by a thick 114 mm citadel belt, with 63.5 mm ends. The Southampton has much better overall protection than previous British light cruisers. Compared to previous British light cruisers such as the Leander and Arethusa, the Southampton is a substantial advance in terms of firepower and protection. The Southampton is the lead ship of the Southampton-class of light cruisers, a part of what became known as the Town-class that were the most capable light cruisers available to the Royal Navy at the outbreak of World War II. It was introduced in Update 1.89 "Imperial Navy". The Town-class, HMS Southampton (C83), 1940 is a rank V British light cruiser
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |