I think that puting the smoke device on british cruisers gave them a great advantage in the battle against BB's and other cruisers. As soon as they receive hits from another ship specially bb they use it. So they break contact fire then torps and the bb is history. As far as i know all kind of ships during the WWII had that device, of all countries. Maybe i am wrong but it seems no fair at least for the rest of cruisers specially the ones with the weakest armor from other countries.