HMS Enterprise
Contents
Description
The Emerald-class, HMS Enterprise (D52), 1944 is a rank III British light cruiser with a battle rating of 4.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.83 "Masters of the Sea" as part of the British fleet closed beta test.
General info
Survivability and armour
Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.
Mobility
Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 71 | 30 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 61 | 26 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Armament
Primary armament
Provide information about the characteristics of the primary armament. Evaluate their efficacy in battle based on their reload speed, ballistics and the capacity of their shells. Add a link to the main article about the weapon: {{main|Weapon name (calibre)}}. Broadly describe the ammunition available for the primary armament, and provide recommendations on how to use it and which ammunition to choose.
Secondary armament
Some ships are fitted with weapons of various calibres. Secondary armaments are defined as weapons chosen with the control Select secondary weapon. Evaluate the secondary armaments and give advice on how to use them. Describe the ammunition available for the secondary armament. Provide recommendations on how to use them and which ammunition to choose. Remember that any anti-air armament, even heavy calibre weapons, belong in the next section. If there is no secondary armament, remove this section.
Anti-aircraft armament
An important part of the ship's armament responsible for air defence. Anti-aircraft armament is defined by the weapon chosen with the control Select anti-aircraft weapons. Talk about the ship's anti-air cannons and machine guns, the number of guns and their positions, their effective range, and about their overall effectiveness – including against surface targets. If there are no anti-aircraft armaments, remove this section.
Additional armament
Describe the available additional armaments of the ship: depth charges, mines, torpedoes. Talk about their positions, available ammunition and launch features such as dead zones of torpedoes. If there is no additional armament, remove this section.
Usage in battles
The Enterprise is one of the first British cruisers, and should get players used to the rest of the British cruisers. The Enterprise boasts a fantastic AA battery, good speed and turning, an adequate main battery, and poor armour.
The main guns on the Enterprise have their pros and cons. It comes with 7 guns total, spread out over a dual-gun turret at the bow, and 5 other cannons across the ship. It can bring 6 to a broadside, which isn't a huge amount, but its 7 rounds/per minute RoF can be deadly to other cruisers, and can often be underestimated. The WW1-era guns have high amounts of HE per shell, meaning that despite their fire rate, they remain competitive with their newer relatives. Also, because of how the guns are spread out, knocking them out can be a challenge for enemy ships, who are often used to firing at the bow turrets. The guns also have good muzzle velocity, making them decent at long range, and the SAPBC shells have surprisingly good penetration. At close range, you can even punch through heavy cruiser armour. As with all cruisers, staying well away from battleships except to launch torpedoes is advised, as the SAP is incapable of penetrating them outside of small weakspots, while they can shoot straight through you.
The real strength of the Enterprise is found in its powerful AA battery. A cluster of 20 mm cannons, backed up by some 4-inch and 40 mm guns, makes this ship a menace for aircraft of all sizes. Stay close to your allied ships and you can be a useful anti-aircraft screen, while using them to take the brunt of damage from enemy ships. The Enterprise has somewhat good armour, with decent antifragmentation deck armour and good belt armour, though its ammo racks are very weakly protected. Thankfully, they are below the waterline, but bigger guns can still punch through.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Good gun handling and reload makes the Enterprise's firepower fairly effective and often underestimated
- Fantastic AA battery can cause trouble for aircraft of any size
- Good top speed and turning means it can move around the battlefield deftly
- Fast, high damage torpedoes can be deadly at close range
- HE shells have the highest explosive filler mass of all cruisers at her battle rating
Cons:
- Small number of guns leads to inaccurate broadsides
- Torpedoes have a very small range, though this is improved handily with the torpedo mode upgrade
- Tiny crew size can make fires and flooding very dangerous
- Armour protection is a mixed bag, with ammo racks especially vulnerable to big cruiser guns
History
Design and development
HMS Enterprise (D52) was one of two Emerald-class cruisers built for the Royal Navy at the end of the First World War. The Emerald-class cruisers were designed as a successor to the Danae-class with greater speed and forward firepower. In this they succeeded, being 33 knots to the old ships' 29 and with three guns firing forward to their two. Their larger displacement also bought significantly greater range for patrol duty. Though successful, this came at a cost; Emerald was over 50% larger than Danae and had twice the horsepower, making the ships vastly more expensive to build. Enterprise was completed too late to see service during the First World War, but served extensively in the East Indies during the interwar period. During construction she was given an experimental twin turret instead of her forward single mounts, which proved to be successful, evolving into the designs of the later Arethusa and Leander class cruisers. Enterprise served extensively during the Second World War in the Atlantic and within home waters; she was eventually scrapped in 1946.
Enterprise displaced 7580 tons standard and had a crew complement of 572 officers and crew. Her main armament consisted of seven BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk 12 mounts in five single and one dual turret. Secondary armament consisted of several 4-inch (102 mm) guns, as well as numerous lower-calibre anti-aircraft guns. Throughout the course of her service, Enterprise’s anti-aircraft armament was improved several times. Powered by steam turbines, Enterprise was capable of making 33 knots (61 km/h) on 80,000 shaft horsepower.
Operational history
After her commissioning, HMS Enterprise was assigned to the East Indies squadron, remaining there until 1928. Her service resulted in the creation of the Enterprise Cup (from a trophy donated by the sailors of the Enterprise), which remains a hotly-contested rugby competition in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. After returning to the UK for refit, Enterprise returned to the East Indies, remaining there until 1937.
At the start of the Second World War, Enterprise was sent back to the Atlantic where she spent the first several months of war as a convoy escort. She later evacuated 10 million dollar’s worth of British gold (625 million today adjusting for inflation) to Canada as part of Operation Fish, and repeated the same actions transporting a third of the Norwegian gold reserve to the British isles as part of the Norwegian evacuation, dodging air attack in the process. She later participated in the negotiations with the Vichy French fleet, and subsequently, the bombardment of the French Fleet at the Mediterranean port of Mers-El-Kebir.
In early 1941, Enterprise was reassigned to the East Indies squadron to hunt for the German raider Admiral Scheer; after the start of the war in the Pacific, she rescued sailors from the heavy cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire which had been sunk by Japanese forces. In between, she fought in Iraq, being stationed at Basra in order to destroy a pro-German revolt in the country. In early 1942, Enterprise was redeployed to the home fleet, and later participated in the Battle of the Bay of Biscay, where she sank a German torpedo boat using torpedoes. She served as part of the bombardment force during the D-Day landings, slowly making her way up the coast and into the Netherlands by late-1944 in her duty as naval gunfire support. Following the conclusion of these duties, she was reduced to reserve in October 1944.
Her age and obsolescence made her useless to a rapidly shrinking, post-war Royal Navy. Plans were drawn up for her transfer to Canada; however, after these fell through, she was refitted for troop repatriation. After repatriating British troops in 1946, HMS Enterprise was sold for scrap.
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
References
- Helgason, G. (1995). HMS Enterprise. Retrieved January 26, 2021, from https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/1215.html
- Mason, G. B. (1999). HMS Enterprise. Retrieved January 26, 2021, from https://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-06CL-Enterprise.htm
- Friedman, N. (2011). British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After, accessed 16 April 2021. (pages 64-65)
| Britain light cruisers | |
|---|---|
| Emerald-class | HMS Enterprise |
| Dido-class | HMS Dido |
| Leander-class | HMNZS Leander |
| Arethusa-class | HMS Arethusa |
| Town-class | HMS Belfast · HMS Liverpool · HMS Southampton |
| Tiger-class | HMS Tiger |
| Abdiel-class* | HMS Abdiel |
