HMS Iron Duke (1912)
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| Construction data | ||
| Ship type | Battleship | |
| Ship class | Iron Duke class | |
| Builder: | Portsmouth Dockyard | |
| history | ||
| Keel laying : | January 12, 1912 | |
| Launch : | October 12, 1912 | |
| Completion: | March 10, 1914 | |
| Whereabouts: | Scrapped in 1948 | |
| Building-costs: | ||
| Ship dimensions | ||
| Displacement : | Construction: 25,820 ts Maximum: 30,380 ts |
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Length between perpendiculars: Length of the waterline : Length over all: |
L pp : 176.8 m L KWL : 187.5 m L o.a. : 190.2 m |
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| Width: | 27.5 m | |
| Draft : | 9 m | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Boiler system : | 18 steam boilers from Babcock & Wilcox with coal / oil firing | |
| Machinery: | 4 sets of Parsons steam turbines | |
| Number of propellers: | 4 three-leaf | |
| Drive power: | 29,000 PSw | |
| Speed: | 21 kn | |
| Driving range: | 6,540 nm at 10 kn | |
| Fuel supply: | 1,020–3,300 t coal 1,070–1,630 t heating oil |
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| Crew: | 925–1,022 men | |
| Armor | ||
| Belt armor: | 203-305 mm | |
| Pages: | 63-152 mm | |
| Deck: | Upper deck: 25 mm Main deck: 38 mm Armored deck: 51-63 mm |
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| Towers : | 102-279 mm | |
| Barbettes : | 178-254 mm | |
| Casemates : | 51-152 mm | |
| Front control station: | horizontal: 152 mm vertical: 279 mm |
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| Control station aft: | horizontal: 51 mm vertical: 102 mm |
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| Armament | ||
| Sea target guns: | ||
| Flak : | 2 × 3 in (76.2 mm) | |
| Salute guns: | 4 × 1.85 in (47 mm) | |
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Torpedo tubes 21 in (533 mm): |
4 sideways under water | |
The HMS Iron Duke was a British Royal Navy battleship that was used in World War I and served as the flagship of the Grand Fleet in the Battle of the Skagerrak . The ship was named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington .
technology
The ships of the Iron Duke class were the first British capital ships to receive full-fledged medium artillery , while all predecessors since the dreadnought had limited themselves to light guns for defense against torpedo boats . This measure became necessary because newer foreign destroyers with the previous 4 in - (10.2 cm) guns could no longer be fought with a chance of success. They were also the first British battleships to be armed with so-called anti-balloon cannons in order to be able to fight airships .
The main weak point of this design was the lack of torpedo bulkheads . This has not been used since the Orion class , as the ship's width was determined by the size of the available dry docks and the small distance to the outer wall did not offer sufficient expansion space for explosive gases. The side walls of the turbine rooms were made of armored steel, but not those of the boiler rooms, so that they were only protected against surface hits. The boilers of these ships were the last on battleships of the Royal Navy that were still fueled with coal.
The two 6-inch (15.2-cm) guns, which were initially set up in casemates to the side of the rearmost gun turret Y , were removed in 1915 because they could hardly be used in rough seas due to the low freeboard height. Instead, they were placed on the boat deck to the side of the forward funnel.
history
From August 1914 to November 1916, the Iron Duke was the flagship of the Grand Fleet under the command of Admiral John Jellicoe and also took part in the Battle of the Skagerrak in this capacity . Then she was assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron (2nd battle squadron) until 1919.
From 1919 to 1926 she was part of the Mediterranean fleet . During the Russian Civil War it was used in the Black Sea and in 1919 shelled Bolshevik positions in the Bay of Kaffa in the Gulf of Feodosia .
From 1926 to 1929 the Iron Duke was used in the Atlantic fleet. The London Naval Agreement of 1930 then required the disarmament to the training ship , while the three sister ships had to be scrapped.
In order to meet the terms of the contract, the turrets B and Y , the fire control station, the torpedo tubes and the entire armored belt were expanded. Furthermore, part of the boiler was removed in order to limit the maximum speed to a maximum of 18 knots. In this configuration, the ship remained largely until 1939. Then tests were carried out on board with the new twin flak towers, which were intended for the King George V class . For this purpose, an approx. 2.5 m high structure was built above the barette of the former Y tower , in which such a flak tower was built. However, instead of the 5.25-in (13.3-cm) tubes, it had 4.5-in (11.4 cm) caliber tubes.
Whereabouts
On October 17, 1939, the Iron Duke had to be beached in Scapa Flow . According to official information, she was hit by bombs during a German air raid by four Junkers Ju 88s of I./Kampfgeschwader 30 on the naval base. But it is also possible that she was the second ship torpedoed by U 47 in its attack on the Royal Oak ; but this has always been denied. After sealing the hull, all armament was removed and the Iron Duke was used as a depot ship until the end of the war . As such, she was hit (again) by bombs on March 16, 1940 in an attack by I./KG 26 and I./KG 30 in Scapa Flow together with the cruiser HMS Norfolk . The ship was sold in 1946 and scrapped in 1948.
literature
- Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. JF Lehmanns, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-88199-474-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the Sea War 1939–1945, October 1939. Retrieved January 25, 2017 .
- ↑ Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronik des Maritime War 1939–1945, March 1940. Accessed on January 24, 2017 .
Remarks
- ↑ L pp = length between perpendiculars or length between perpendiculars: distance between the axis of the rudder stock and the trailing edge of the leading edge in the construction waterline.
- ↑ I. Group of Kampfgeschwader 30
- ^ I. Group of Kampfgeschwader 26
