Courageous class
 The Glorious
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The Courageous- class was a class of warships in the Royal Navy . It consisted of the Courageous ( German bold ) and the Glorious (dt. Gloriously ); the half-sister Furious (dt. angry ) is counted by some authors as belonging to this class.
The ships were built during the First World War as "large light cruisers ". Occasionally they were also referred to as "light battle cruisers " (light battlecruisers). In fact, they couldn't be compared to any other type of ship.
After the First World War they were converted into aircraft carriers and used as such in the Second World War. Courageous and Glorious were lost early in the war.
Design and construction features as a large light cruiser
The design and construction of the ships go back to the plans of the First Sea Lord "Jackie" Fisher to land on the coast of Pomerania by the Royal Navy in the event of war with Germany . Heavily armed ships with shallow drafts, which also had to be fast to penetrate the Baltic Sea, were to serve as fire support . The Courageous class followed this specification.
In order to achieve the speed of 32 knots that was considered necessary, a slim hull and the high output of 90,000 hp were necessary. Together with the heavy armament and a hull that was significantly smaller than that of the last battlecruisers, this meant that there was not enough weight available for adequate armor protection.
The two ships displaced a maximum of 23,056 t with a total length of 239.6 m. They were armed with four of the 38.1 cm rapid fire guns in two twin turrets fore and aft (rear) and 18 10.2 cm rapid fire cannons in triplet mounts for torpedo boat defense . These were the same mountings as on the Renown class . The carriages were unsuccessful because they were cumbersome and had too little space for the gun crews. Two 53.3 cm underwater torpedo tubes were supplemented by four ( Courageous ) and twelve ( Glorious ) lateral overwater tubes in twin sets, since the underwater tubes could not be used at speeds of over 23 knots.
For armor that would have been able to stop heavy enemy projectiles, there was not enough weight. For this reason, so-called internal armor or relay armor made of high tensile steel (high tensile steel or HT steel) was developed. The armor on the outside of the ships was intended to delay impacting projectiles and cause them to explode; Longitudinal and transverse fragmentation bulkheads should limit the effects of the explosion. Overall, the armor strengths corresponded to those of cruisers .
The ships had a side armor 76 mm thick, which extended from the front to the rear gun turret and from the torpedo bulge to the upper deck. At the forecastle, the waterline was armored with 51 mm steel. The armor of the upper deck was 25 mm, the main armored deck was 19 mm thick with 25 mm thick embankments that merged into the top of the torpedo bulges . In addition, there was an upper armored deck of 25 mm above the front ammunition chambers. Aft, a 38 to 76 mm thick lower armored deck protected the shafts and steering gear. In the ship there was a longitudinal splinter bulkhead of 19 mm between the upper deck and the main armored deck and four armored transverse bulkheads of 76 mm (the rearmost 51 mm) thick. A double floor and a torpedo bulge on both sides and a torpedo longitudinal bulkhead 25 to 39 mm thick, which extended from the outer part of the double floor to the main armored deck, protected against underwater hits from torpedoes and mines .
The barbed armor of the heavy artillery was 178 mm thick, the armor on the turrets was between 108 and 330 mm thick. The armor of the front command tower was between 51 mm and 254 mm, that of the rear between 51 mm and 76 mm.
Four were used as drive Parsons - transmission turbines on four waves of 18 Yarrow- narrow tube boilers were fed with oil firing. The power was 90,000 hp for 32 kn.
In general, the ships are classified as faulty designs. The armor protection was far too weak for battles with similarly armed opponents. In fact, even the load-bearing formations were so weak that they were damaged by the recoil when the heavy artillery was fired. In addition, in the fire control system used in World War I, four guns were too few to guarantee a reasonable hit probability at the usual combat distances and speeds.
In the jargon of British seafarers, the ships were named Outrageous (German: “unheard of, monstrous”) and Curious (German: “strange”) as well as Spurious (German: “fake, imitated”) for the Furious .
Use as a battle cruiser
Since their original task was no longer applicable, the two ships were used to reinforce the battlecruiser division. On November 17, 1917, they were involved in the second naval battle near Helgoland , where the Courageous was damaged. After the war, the ships were used as an artillery training ship.
Conversion to aircraft carriers
Under the terms of the Fleet Conference # The Washington Fleet Conference of 1922 # Washington Fleet Agreement , both ships were converted into aircraft carriers from 1924 similar to the Furious . In their original configuration, they could not be retained because their heavy main armament would have taken up part of the battleship tonnage that the British Navy was entitled to under the contract, but they were completely unsuitable as battleships.
During the renovation, the armament and superstructures were removed. The ships were given two hangar decks , above that a continuous flight deck and an island consisting of a chimney with a small navigating bridge on the starboard side . A flight deck led from the upper hangar deck to the bow, via which fighter planes were supposed to take off directly from the hangar (fighter launch deck ). The hangars were 4.88 m high, 1 foot higher than the Furious . The upper flight deck was 195 m long on the Glorious and only 181 m on the Courageous . Two compressed air catapults were installed in the front of the upper flight deck. The lower hangar opened aft onto a low quarterdeck. Along this route, seaplanes were deployed and picked up again with a crane attached under the aft end of the flight deck. When seaplanes ceased operations in the 1930s, the stern was raised one deck.
Propulsion system, the armor of the hull was retained, the flight deck was additionally armored with a thickness of 25 mm.
The original on-board squadron was to consist of 52 aircraft:
- 3 swarms of 6 and 1 swarm of 4 fighters (22 aircraft in total).
- 3 swarms of 6 artillery observation or reconnaissance aircraft (18 in total)
- 2 swarms of 6 torpedo bombers (12 in total)
Most sources indicate an equipment with 48 aircraft, whereby the occupancy of an aircraft carrier always depends on the aircraft types and their availability.
The ships received 16 12 cm L / 40 anti-aircraft guns and a number of anti-aircraft guns . Most recently, the ships carried 24 4-cm automatic cannons in three octuple mounts. Four fire control devices were available at the “corners” of the ship.
Originally, the conversion should be based on the Furious model . However, it ultimately differed as a result of controversial discussions as described in relation to the superstructures and the gun armament.
The configuration with an island instead of a smooth deck was controversial, as it was feared that the superstructure would disrupt flight operations through air turbulence and the Washington Treaty did not allow a subsequent change. The light aircraft of this period were very susceptible to turbulence. However, the chimney saves around 200 tonnes of weight compared to the horizontal flue gas ducts and fans. In addition, the space savings, together with the elimination of the anti-sea cannons, left more space for hangars and workshops and enabled more aircraft to be carried. In addition, the heat of the exhaust ducts of the Furious at full power made staying in the adjacent areas unbearable and the exhaust emissions at the tail produced turbulence exactly in the flight path of aircraft landing.
The first British aircraft carriers had received anti-ship guns of the caliber 14 cm or 15.2 cm, as they were to operate with the advance guard of the fleet. There they had to be able to defend themselves against the attacks of enemy cruisers and destroyers according to the ideas of the time . When the conversion of the Glorious and Courageous was due, new cruisers were equipped with 20.3 cm guns ( heavy cruisers according to the Washington Naval Agreement). Equipment with lighter guns for cruiser defense was considered pointless, 20.3 cm guns would have restricted the space for the hangars too much. Therefore only the mentioned anti-aircraft weapons were installed. The 12 cm guns fired cartridge ammunition in which the propellant charge was surrounded by a brass case. In the case of a lightly armored ship, this offered a considerable safety advantage over the cartridge pouches made of fabric for the heavier artillery in the event of combat damage. The retrospectively foresighted decision to forego sea target weapons was very controversial at the time.
The 38.1 cm towers were used in the construction of the last British battleship Vanguard during World War II .
Whereabouts
Both ships were lost early in World War II:
- The Courageous was sunk on September 17, 1939 by torpedoes from the German U- 29 submarine.
- The Glorious was sunk on June 8, 1940 during the evacuation of Norway by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau (one of only two aircraft carriers in history to be sunk by artillery fire alone).
literature
- Siegfried Breyer: Aircraft carrier 1917–1940. (= Marine-Arsenal. Volume 7 special issue). Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Wölfersheim-Berstadt 1993.
- Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. JF Lehmanns Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-88199-474-2 .
- Bernard Ireland (text), Tony Gibbons (illustrations): Jane's Battleships of the 20th Century. Harper Collins Publ., London 1996, ISBN 0-00-470997-7 .
- John Jordan: Warships after Washington. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2011, ISBN 978-1-84832-117-5 .
- Hans-Joachim Mau, Charles E. Scurell: Aircraft carrier - carrier aircraft. Weltbild-Verlag (licensed edition for Bechtermünz Verlag), Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-122-8 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the information in this section and the data table come from: Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. P. 131 and p. 181-188.
- ↑ Ireland, Gibbons: Jane's Battleships of the 20th Century. P. 118.
- ^ Except for Breyer, see Ireland, Gibbons: Jane's Battleships of the 20th Century. P. 118; Anthony Preston: The World's Worst Warships. Conway Maritime Press, London 2002 (Reprint 2003), ISBN 0-85177-754-6 , pp. 90-95.
- ^ Anthony Preston: The World's Worst Warships. Conway Maritime Press, London 2002 (Reprint 2003), ISBN 0-85177-754-6 , pp. 90-95.
- ↑ a b c d e Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905-1970. P. 131 and p. 181-188.
- ^ A b Breyer: Aircraft carrier 1917–1940. Pp. 15-16.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Jordan: Warships after Washington. Pp. 165-168.
- ↑ Mau, Scurell: aircraft carrier - carrier aircraft. P. 274f.
- ^ Jordan: Warships after Washington. P. 163.
- ^ Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. P. 206.