HMS Norfolk
Contents
Description
The County-class, HMS Norfolk (78), 1943 is a rank IV British heavy cruiser with a battle rating of 5.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Direct Hit".
The Norfolk is a Dorsetshire-class heavy cruiser, part of the so-called 'County class' of post-Washington Treaty cruisers built by the British in the late 1920s for ocean power projection and trade protection. As a 'treaty cruiser', the Norfolk sacrificed armour protection in favour of heavy 8-inch gun armament and high speed and endurance.
General info
Survivability and armour
Due to the displacement limits imposed on the County class, the Norfolk does not have much in the way of armour. Most of what little armour she has is concentrated around the main 8-inch gun magazines, which are protected inside an armoured box of 102 mm in the sides, 76 mm on the ends and on the deck. These boxes are located below the waterline, and make her quite resistant to ammunition detonations from destroyer or light cruiser main guns at range.
The machinery is protected by only 25 mm of armour on the sides, ends, and deck, and is thus vulnerable to even destroyer main guns. The main gun turrets and barbettes are similarly poorly protected.
The rest of the ship has no armour plating worth mentioning. This means that the ship tends to take a lot of damage from even HE shells. In particular, like most British cruisers, the Norfolk has an open bridge which is highly vulnerable to getting disabled.
Mobility
The Norfolk is fairly fast for a heavy cruiser. However, she is still a heavy cruiser, and thus her handling and acceleration/deceleration characteristics are still relatively cumbersome compared to those of lighter ships.
| 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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armament
Primary armament
The Norfolk's main armament consists of eight BL 8-inch Mark VIII guns distributed in four twin turrets. These guns have acceptable accuracy, though they will struggle to gain consistent hits at longer ranges. The shortest possible reload achievable on with a fully trained crew is 12 s, which is one of the fastest reloads among the heavy cruisers currently in the game. There is no first-stage ammunition stowage, thus the reload is consistent no matter how much ammunition is left in the magazines.
The 8-inch guns have only two types of shell: HE and SAPC. The HE shell contains a powerful bursting charge of 10 kg of TNT, the highest of any 8-inch/203 mm gun. The SAPC shell combines decent penetration with a respectable 5.2 kg TNT filler.
The main guns have an unusual amount of elevation: this is because they were meant to be able to engage aircraft. However, as there is no time fused or VT fused shell available for the British 8-inch gun currently in the game, the Norfolk is unable to take full advantage of this feature.
Secondary armament
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
The Norfolk is equipped with two quadruple torpedo tubes, one set located on each side of the ship.
Usage in battles
Pros and cons
Pros:
- High rate-of-fire for a heavy cruiser.
- Large explosive fillers in HE and SAP shells.
- Heavy anti-aircraft armament.
- Relatively high top speed.
- Equipped with air-search radar.
- Well-protected main gun ammunition magazines.
Cons:
- Little to no armour protecting the ship outside of the magazines.
- Mediocre main gun accuracy.
- Can be matched against battleships.
- Unarmoured and vulnerable bridge.
- Tends to lose crew quickly due to exposed secondary and anti-aircraft mounts.
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).
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
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company | |
|---|---|
| Destroyers | |
| G-class | ORP Garland |
| K-class | HMS Kelvin |
| Battle-class | HMS Cadiz |
| Hunt-class | La Combattante* |
| Light Cruisers | |
| Town-class | HMS Liverpool |
| Heavy Cruisers | |
| County-class | HMS Norfolk |
| Battlecruisers | |
| Renown-class | HMS Renown |
| *HMS Haldon in French service | |
| Britain heavy cruisers | |
|---|---|
| Hawkins-class | HMS Hawkins |
| York-class | HMS York |
| County-class | HMS Kent · HMS London · HMS Norfolk |
