HMS Ceres (D59)

HMS "Ceres" was a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was the name ship of the "Ceres" group of the C-class of cruisers.

Construction and early years

She was laid down on April 26 1916, launched March 24 1917 and commissioned into the navy on June 1 1917.In 1918 "Ceres" joined the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron and was assigned to operate in the Mediterranean as part of the 3rd Cruiser Squadron. During 1920 was operating in the Black Sea. In 1927 "Ceres" returned to the UK for deployment with the Home Fleet. During 1929-1931 she was refitted and placed in reserve, but reactivated in 1932 to join the Mediterranean Fleet. In November "Ceres" was again reduced to the reserve.

Wartime career

The Home and Mediterranean Fleets

On the outbreak of war in 1939 "Ceres" was recommissioned from the Reserve Fleet and placed on the Northern Patrol in the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland. In January 1940, "Ceres" underwent a refit at the yards of Harland & Wolff in Belfast, Northern Ireland in preparation for her reassignment to the Mediterranean. On February 15th, she was reassigned from HMNB Devonport to her new base at Malta, travelling via Gibraltar. During March she led contraband patrols in the Ionian Sea, and off the coast of Greece, checking ships transporting cargoes to the axis countries, as well as escorting allied convoys.

The Eastern Fleet and Indian Ocean

During April and May 1940, "Ceres" was assigned to the Eastern Fleet and based at Singapore. She was used to patrol off the Dutch East Indies coast in opposition to Japanese naval forces. In June she was assigned to operate in the Indian Ocean and based at Colombo and later Bombay, where she escorted tanker convoys from the Persian Gulf to the British colony at Aden. She then spent several months off the east coast of Africa, based at Mombassa, Kenya. Whilst on patrol off the coast of Somaliland she evacuated troops and civilians from British Somaliland to Aden, and she was later involved in convoy duties sailing around Cape Horn between Durban and Cape Town. Later that year she was sent to the Seychelles and other islands to search for German commerce raiders, who were preying on allied shipping in the area. From 4 until 9 August 1940 "Ceres" assisted with the evacuation of civilians and sick personnel from British Somaliland, which was occupied by the Italians. She also assisted in the evacuation of Commonwealth soldiers from Berbera in British Somaliland, transporting them to the relative safety of Aden.

In February 1941 "Ceres", in company with the cruisers HMS "Hawkins" and HMS "Capetown", and the destroyer HMS "Kandahar", blockaded Kisimayu in support of the offensive against Italian Somaliland, and the eventual reconquest of British Somaliland in March that year. She also rescued merchant navy prisoners of war from Brava and transported them to Mombassa. After this "Ceres" again returned to Colombo for repairs.

On New Year's Day 1942, in company with the sloop HMS "Bridgewater" she escorted the 18 ships of Convoy WS-14 to South Africa from the U.K. with reinforcements for the Middle East. "Ceres" spent two months in the Persian Gulf, and then arrived at Simonstown for a three month refit, where she was dry-docked. As with most of the ships of the 'C'-class, she was also fitted with six 20 mm single AA weapons to become an anti-aircraft cruiser. "Coventry", "Curacoa" and "Curlew" had already undergone conversion before the war, but the outbreak delayed "Ceres"' and "Cardiff's" conversions. She was then based at Aden and she also participated in the fall of Djibouti to the allied forces. She spent the rest of the year escorting convoys to Durban. She finally returned to Home Waters and her homeport of Devonport in October 1943. By now she had steamed over 235,000 miles in her career.

Home waters

In 1943 and 1944, HMS "Ceres" was used by the Royal Navy as "station ship" based at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. In late April 1944, HMS "Ceres" was refitted with radar and anti-aircraft weaponry and assigned to the US Task Force 127 to carry the Flag of the United States Navy Service Force during the invasion of Normandy. Subsequently, following the destruction of the artificial harbour off Omaha Beach during the Great Storm that occurred that approximately two weeks after 6 June, 1944 and as a result of the German demolition of the Port of Cherbourg in late June, HMS "Ceres" and her sister ship, HMS "Capetown", was assigned to the task of Shuttle Control, expediting the passage and unloading of vessels from the UK to Omaha and Utah Beaches. HMS "Ceres" remained "On Station" off Omaha Beach for the entire summer of 1944 from the early hours of 7 June until the end of August, 1944. When Cherbourg became available to shipping from the UK, HMS "Ceres" returned to Plymouth for overhaul and those US naval officers who had staffed the "Shuttle Control Operation" were reassigned. After the end of the war, and by now obsolete, she was again placed in reserve and used as an accommodation/base ship at Portsmouth. She spent less than a year in this new role however. "Ceres" was sold and broken up for scrap at Bolckow, Blyth in July 1946, after 29 years in service.

References

*Colledge
*Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company
* [http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/1192.html HMS "Ceres" at Uboat.net]