HMAS Hobart: Австралия және Ұлыбританияның жеңіл крейсерінің тарихы

1936 1962 modified Leander class light cruiser of the Royal and Royal Australian Navies

HMAS Hobart was a modified Leander class light cruiser which served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during World War II. Originally constructed for the Royal Navy as HMS Apollo, the ship entered service in 1936, and was sold to Australia two years later. During the war, Hobart was involved in the evacuation of British Somaliland in 1940, fought at the Battle of the Coral Sea and supported the amphibious landings at Guadalcanal and Tulagi in 1942. She was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in 1943, then returned to service in 1945 and supported the landings at Tarakan, Wewak, Brunei, and Balikpapan. Hobart was placed in reserve in 1947, but plans to modernise her and return her to service as an aircraft carrier escort, training ship, or guided missile ship were not followed through. The cruiser was sold for scrapping in 1962.

The ship was one of three Modified Leander class light cruisers constructed for the Royal Navy. The main difference to the previous five Leanders was that the newer ships had their machinery and propulsion equipment organised in two self contained units (separated fore and aft), allowing the ship to continue operating if one set was damaged. To cover the separate machinery spaces, the side armour was extended from , negating the weight reduction created by the separation. During design, it was planned to modify the forward most and aft most 6 inch turrets to be fitted with three guns instead of two, but the plan was cancelled when it was determined that the required alterations would cause several negative side effects, including reducing the ship's top speed and causing problems with effective fire control. The cruiser was laid down at HM Dockyard, Devonport, England on 15 August 1933 as HMS Apollo. She was launched on 9 October 1934 by Lady Florence, wife of Admiral Sir William Boyle. On 15 November 1937, the ocean liner , which operated between Liverpool and Valparaíso, Chile, via Bermuda, the West Indies and the Panama Canal, stopped at Bermuda on its way to Chile with the body of former Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald who had died aboard on 9 November. MacDonald's body was transferred to the Royal Navy at Bermuda for return to Plymouth. All of the Bermuda based cruisers of the America and West Indies Station were away from Bermuda at that time except for HMS Orion and HMS Apollo. As Apollo was undergoing a refit at the dockyard, it would have fallen to Orion to deliver MacDonald's body, but as she had been temporary flagship since had departed on 27 October for Trinidad (due to civil unrest there) she could not leave the station and Apollo was consequently hurried through her refit instead. Orion was tasked with the memorial service for MacDonald, whose body was taken aboard the Royal Navy tug Sandboy once the Reina del Pacifico was in Bermudian waters and landed on Front Street in the City of Hamilton along with the Royal Naval Dockyard Chaplain, the Orion's Chaplain, an Honour Guard, sentries and coffin bearers. MacDonald's coffin was borne on a gun carriage to the Church of England's Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, in a procession that included the ship's company of Orion and a detachment of the Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), serving in the Bermuda Garrison and based at Prospect Camp Scotland. At the cathedral, Arthur Browne, the Bishop of Bermuda, conducted the memorial service, which was followed by a lying in state. Thousands visited to pay their respects. MacDonald's body and his daughter departed Bermuda the following day aboard Apollo, arriving at Plymouth on 25 November. His funeral was in Westminster Abbey on 26 November, followed by a private cremation service at Golders Green. After cremation, his ashes were taken to Lossiemouth, where a service commenced in his house, "The Hillocks" followed by a procession to Holy Trinity Church, Spynie where they were buried alongside his wife Margaret and their son David at in his native Morayshire.

The ship was purchased by the Australian Government in 1938, with the transfer of the seaplane tender to the Royal Navy as part of the payment. The cruiser was used as an escort in Australian waters until June 1941, when the ship's seaplane and catapult were removed, Crace transferred his flag back to Canberra, and Hobart was sent to the Mediterranean to relieve sister ship There was only minor damage, but the fuelling operation could not be completed, and Hobart was unable to join the Allied force that was defeated during the Battle of the Java Sea two days later. At 07:00 on 7 May, Rear Admiral Crace, embarked aboard Australia as commander of Task Force 44, was ordered to take his ships (Australia, Hobart, US cruiser Chicago, and US destroyers Perkins, Walke, and Farragut) to the Jomard Passage, and engage any Japanese ships found en route to Port Moresby, while several US carrier groups engaged a Japanese force headed for the Solomon Islands. The ships reached their patrol area around 14:00, fired on a group of eleven unidentified aircraft at maximum range with no damage dealt at 14:27, and were attacked themselves by twelve Japanese twin engine torpedo bombers at 15:06; no ships were damaged for the loss of five aircraft. At 15:16, nineteen Japanese heavy bombers dropped their payload on the Allied ships; no ships were hit directly, the only casualties (aboard Chicago) were from shrapnel. A few minutes later, the ships were attacked by another three heavy bombers, flying at a higher altitude to the first group; the bombing was much less accurate. The task force remained in their assigned area until 01:00 on 10 May, when Crace ordered them to withdraw south to Cid Harbour on Whitsunday Island; the lack of reports and intelligence concerning either the Americans or Japanese led him to conclude that both forces had withdrawn, and there was no immediate threat to Port Moresby. On 7 August, Hobart supported the amphibious landings at Guadalcanal and Tulagi. The torpedo struck the port quarter and caused serious damage. The cruiser arrived in Sydney on 26 August, and was docked at Cockatoo Island Dockyard for repairs and refurbishment; the quantity of damage meant that she was out of service until 1945. Following her return, Hobart was involved in the landing at Tarakan on 25 April 1945, at Wewak on 11 May, at Brunei in June, and at Balikpapan in July. Following the war, Hobart spent 1946 and 1947 in Japanese waters. Hobart received eight battle honours for her wartime service: "Mediterranean 1941", "Indian Ocean 1941", "Coral Sea 1942", "Savo Island 1942", "Guadalcanal 1942", "Pacific 1942–45", "East Indies 1940", and "Borneo 1945".

Hobart was paid off into the reserve fleet on 20 December 1947. This planned role changed in 1952 following a series of financial cutbacks and the realisation that the destroyers were suitable carrier escorts; instead, Hobart was to replace Australia as the training cruiser.