Starting around the time that steam cruisers became popular in the 1870s, the Royal Navy tended to organise such ships into groups called Cruiser Squadrons. Squadrons were commanded by a Rear-Admiral whose title was given as Flag Officer Cruiser Squadron n, or CSn for short (e.g. the officer commanding the 3rd Cruiser Squadron would be CS3).
During peace time the grouping was primarily for administrative purposes, but during war the whole squadron tended to be operated as a unified fighting unit and such units would train in this formation during peace. In the main fighting fleets (Home Fleet and Mediterranean Fleet) members of a given squadron were normally of the same or similar classes. The use of Cruiser Squadrons died out as the number of such ships decreased following World War II.
- 1st Cruiser Squadron-1939 Mediterranean Fleet, Second World War and afterwards - Mountbatten?
- 2nd Cruiser Squadron -1914 Grand Fleet, HMS Minotaur, HMS Hampshire, HMS Shannon, and HMS Cochrane. 1932 Home Fleet in the interwar period. HMS Dorsetshire, HMS York and HMS Exeter in 1932.
- 3rd Cruiser Squadron- Mediterranean Fleet
- 4th Cruiser Squadron:- 1939 East Indies Station HMS Gloucester, HMS Liverpool, HMS Manchester; 1945 British Pacific Fleet HMS Swiftsure, HMS Argonaut, HMS Black Prince, HMS Euryalus, HMNZS Gambia
- 5th Cruiser Squadron-1939 China Station HMS Cornwall HMS Dorsetshire HMS Kent HMS Birmingham
- 6th Cruiser Squadron-1939 South Atlantic Station
- 7th Cruiser Squadron-1940 Mediterranean Fleet HMS Gloucester, HMS Neptune, HMS Orion, HMAS Sydney and HMS Liverpool
- British 8th Cruiser Squadron-1939 West Indies Station
- British 9th Cruiser Squadron
- British 10th Cruiser Squadron - First World War operated Northern Patrol checking trade routes to Germany
- British 11th Cruiser Squadron
- British 12th Cruiser Squadron
- British 15th Cruiser Squadron 1942 Mediterranean Fleet HMS Cleopatra, Arethusa, Dido, Euryalus and Orion
- 18th Cruiser Squadron-1939 Home Fleet. Home Fleet/Nore 1940 - War Diary March-May 1940
- British 1st Light Cruiser Squadron
- British 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron
- British 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron
- British 4th Light Cruiser Squadron
- British 5th Light Cruiser Squadron
- British 6th Light Cruiser Squadron
- British 7th Light Cruiser Squadron
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, squadrons, royal and/or navy:
“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“Feminism is an entire world view or gestalt, not just a laundry list of women’s issues.”
—Charlotte Bunch (b. 1944)
“As you know, God is generally on the side of the big squadrons against the small ones.”
—Roger De Bussy-Rabutin (1618–1693)
“This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessèd plot, this earth, this realm, this England.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The Navy is the asylum for the perverse, the home of the unfortunate. Here the sons of adversity meet the children of calamity, and here the children of calamity meet the offspring of sin.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)