HMS New Zealand (1911)

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flag
Indefatigable class class
HMS New Zealand
HMS New Zealand
Overview
Type Battle cruiser
Shipyard

Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering , Govan , Scotland, Building No. 477

Keel laying June 20, 1910
Launch July 1, 1911
Namesake New Zealand
Commissioning November 19, 1912
Whereabouts Sold for demolition December 19, 1922
Technical specifications
displacement

18,500  ts , max. 22,130 ts

length

179.9 m

width

24.4 m

Draft

8.2 m

crew

800 men

drive

32 Babcock & Wilcox boilers
4 Parsons steam turbines
44,000 hp
4 screws

speed

25  knots , during test 26.89 knots

Range

6540 nm at 16 kn

Armament
  • 8 × 305 mm L / 45 Mk.X cannons
  • 16 × 102 mm L / 50 Mk.VII guns
  • 4 × 47 mm (3-Pdr)
  • 2 × 457 mm (underwater) torpedo tubes

from 1915:

Fuel supply

1000 tn.l. Coals,
max. 3170 tn.l. and 870 tn.l. oil

Armor
Belt Armor Armored
Deck
Towers
Barbetten
Command Tower


4–6  in (102–152 mm)
1–2 in (25–51 mm)
7 in (178 mm)
7 in (178 mm)
10 in (254 mm)

Sister ships

HMS Indefatigable ,
HMAS Australia

The HMS New Zealand was a battlecruiser of the Indefatigable class , the construction of New Zealand was funded. She was the second ship of the Royal Navy , which bore the name of the Dominion, after the battleship HMS New Zealand of King Edward VII-class battleship , the HMS in shortly before the launch of the battle cruiser 1911 Zealandia was renamed.

During the First World War , the ship was only used in the North Sea. The New Zealand took part in the 1914 naval battle near Heligoland , in 1915 in the battle on Doggerbank and in 1916 in the Battle of the Skagerrak . Only in the Battle of the Skagerrak did she receive an insignificant hit.

The battle cruiser made two voyages around the world. The first in 1913 after commissioning and a second from February 1919 to February 1920 with Admiral John Jellicoe on board. The battle cruiser was then assigned to the reserve and sold as obsolete on December 19, 1922 for demolition to meet the tonnage limits of the Washington Fleet Agreement .

History of New Zealand

In 1908 the British Dominion New Zealand decided to finance the construction of a battle cruiser to defend the Commonwealth . Since New Zealand did not have its own navy at the time, it made the ship available to the Royal Navy. The battle cruiser was to be used on the China Station of the Royal Navy, which also included New Zealand after the Australian Navy became independent . Australia had also commissioned the sister ship HMAS Australia as the flagship of its own fleet.

Both battle cruisers were slightly improved replicas of the HMS Indefatigable . Shortly before, the Royal Navy had commissioned the much larger Lion-class ships , HMS Lion and HMS Princess Royal , which were also completed before the "Dominion" cruisers.

By using the Indefatigable design again, the four 12-inch heavy artillery towers of the "Dominion" cruisers were erected with one tower each in front and aft and two diagonally offset wing towers. In this setup, the two side towers could fire at least in a limited area to the opposite side. However, the current battleship and battle cruiser designs already had 13.5 inch guns on the midship line. In terms of their heavy artillery, the New Zealand and Australia were already out of date when they were completed.

Both ships had a stronger side armor compared to the HMS Indefatigable and compared to the first battlecruisers of the Invincible class, a possibility of using all turrets on both sides. After the experiences from the Skagerrak Battle, the armored decks of both ships were also reinforced.

Pre-war deployment

The crew of HMS New Zealand , which was put into service at the end of November 1912 , also included three New Zealand officers. After an inspection by the English King George , the battle cruiser left Portsmouth on February 8, 1913 for a ten-month trip around the world of 45,132 nautical miles and 183 days at sea. Via São Vicente (Cape Verde) , Ascension , St. Helena , Cape Town (March 1st), Durban and Melbourne (March 31st), where the cruiser was received by the destroyers HMAS's Warrego , Yarra and Parramatta , it reached on April 12, Wellington . The New Zealand circumnavigated the two islands of New Zealand and visited almost every port. In the 10 weeks of visiting New Zealand, it was visited by around 500,000 residents. At the request of the British Admiralty, however, she returned to Great Britain. On June 25, 1913, the return journey began in Auckland via Suva , Honolulu (July 13) to Vancouver , where they met on July 28 with the station ships HMCS Rainbow and HMS Shearwater and made publicity for the participation of the Dominions in the costs of the Navy . The return journey continued via the Mexican ports of Mazatlán (August 16-18), Acapulco and Salina Cruz , Panama , Callao (September 8) and Valparaíso (September 17). Through the Strait of Magellan , the New Zealand moved back into the Atlantic and visited Montevideo , Rio de Janeiro and the main islands of West India. She arrived on October 27, Port of Spain , Trinidad , and met on 3 November in Dominica , the HMS Suffolk under Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock and the HMS Berwick . After further visits, the battlecruiser was supplied in Bermuda from November 13th to 18th and then continued to Halifax (November 21st to 30th). Since an expected coal ship did not arrive, the crossing to Portsmouth only had to be started with oil. The New Zealand voyage was the longest visiting voyage to date by a steam-powered British warship. The Minister of the Navy, Winston Churchill hoped that the trip would increase the interest of the British overseas possessions in the fleet. He expected the Dominions to contribute more to the costs of the armament, but rejected the Dominions' independent operational rights. With Prince Georg von Battenberg , the son of the First Sea Lord Prince Louis of Battenberg , the New Zealand had an officer with close ties to the royal family on board.

On December 8, the battle cruiser became part of the 1st battle cruiser squadron of the British Home Fleet . With the squadron, the New Zealand visited Brest in February 1914 and in June also Russian Baltic ports such as Riga , Reval and Kronstadt .

A deployment in the Mediterranean that was well considered by the Admiralty was commented in the press as a violation of the agreement with New Zealand.

War effort

The first combat mission of the battle cruiser New Zealand was its participation in the naval battle near Helgoland on August 28, 1914 in the battle cruiser group under David Beatty , which was to serve as remote security when British destroyers attacked German security forces and intervene in the battle if the deep-sea fleet should run out. When the light British forces could not break away from the Germans on schedule, Beatty decided to intervene before heavy German units could leave Wilhelmshaven . When marching onto the battlefield, the New Zealand lost touch with the faster ships HMS Lion , HMS Princess Royal and HMS Queen Mary .

The three forward cruisers first sighted the HMS Arethusa , which was seriously damaged at an early stage and was just being attacked by the German cruisers SMS Strasbourg and SMS Cöln . Strasbourg was able to retreat in the fog, while Cologne and the SMS Ariadne , who then arrived, were shot down and sunk before Beatty gave the signal for all units to withdraw.

Although the New Zealand was seldom able to clearly identify targets, it fired 83 shells, of which 17 volleys from the bow turret, mostly on the Cöln . During the battle, the commander, Lionel Halsey , wore the Māori piupiu , which he had received from a Māori chief in New Zealand in 1913, over his uniform. This tradition was maintained during the war.

Two days after the battle, the New Zealand was reassigned to the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron when the HMS Inflexible returned to England from the Mediterranean. On January 15, 1915, when the battle cruiser was reorganized again , the New Zealand flagship of the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron (2nd Battlecruiser Squadron / 2nd BCS) of the Grand Fleet .

Fall of the Blücher

On the morning of January 24, 1915, Beatty's battle cruisers spotted the German reconnaissance forces at Doggerbank and began pursuing the retreating German battle cruisers. Despite the heavy fuel load, the New Zealand under Rear Admiral Sir Archibald Moore managed this time to at least keep up with the Princess Royal and to run over 26 knots. Beatty's flagship Lion and the Tiger , which will be used for the first time , ran a little ahead.

When the German battlecruisers managed to put the Lion out of action by concentrating their fire, a misleading signal from Beattys led to the concentration of the fire of all British ships on the already badly hit and fallen back armored cruiser Blücher and a temporary abandonment of the pursuit. The Blücher was finally sunk by a torpedo from a destroyer, but the three German battlecruisers, some of which were badly hit, managed to escape. The New Zealand only had the Blücher within range during the battle and fired 147 shells.

In the following years, the New Zealand took part in various forays into the North Sea. On April 22, 1916, the 2nd BCS got into thick fog northwest of Horns Reef . Because of the submarine danger on a zigzag course, the sister ships Australia and New Zealand rammed twice within three minutes. Australia fell out for months due to the damage, the New Zealand came back to the fleet on May 30 and took over from the Indefatigable as the flagship of the 2nd BCS under Rear Admiral William Christopher Pakenham .

The "von der Tann",
main opponent on the Skagerrak

The battle cruiser was already involved in the Battle of the Skagerrak the following day . In the association of battlecruisers under Beatty, the New Zealand ran as the fifth of the six British battlecruisers in the opening battle ("Run to the South") with the five battlecruisers of the I. Reconnaissance Group under Vice Admiral Hipper , which opened fire at 3:48 pm and after two Minutes scored the first hit on the leading Lion . At 4:03 p.m., two hits by SMS von der Tann caused the Indefatigable, which ran at the end of the British line, to explode, which sank with 1,017 men. The New Zealand had not been fired at until then and tried to hit SMS Moltke . von der Tann switched to New Zealand as a target and scored a hit near the stern turret with 59 shots, which damaged the armor and punched a hole in the deck. The tower couldn't be moved for a while, but nobody was hurt. Around 16:26, after hits from the Seydlitz and the Derfflinger , the Queen Mary with 1,266 men also sank . The three other British battlecruisers had also suffered heavy hits and died.

The intervention of the fast battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron turned the situation around, as their ships with their 38 cm guns scored heavy hits on the German battlecruisers. von der Tann changed the target again to Barham . However, she quickly suffered heavy hits herself, which at times led to the failure of all turrets and she could only fire with a heavy gun that could only be aimed at the New Zealand .

New Zealand fired the most projectiles of all capital ships involved with 420 shells during the battle. Only after meeting the deep-sea fleet did she also score hits on the old Schleswig-Holstein liner and even three on the retreating Seydlitz , which had previously received 19 heavy hits, but could be brought in. The New Zealand had lived up to her reputation as the happy ship again, but had little effect.

After the battle, in which the HMS Invincible with 1026 men was also lost, its two surviving sister ships were hardly used to advance. The two better armored "Dominion" cruisers received armor reinforcements between the central towers and on the barbeds. They continued to take part in the naval advances. The New Zealand was also at sea on November 17, 1917 in the so-called Second Sea Battle near Helgoland , but did not intervene in the battle. In 1918 it was equipped with aircraft platforms on the two central towers for a reconnaissance aircraft and a fighter aircraft.

The Dominion Tour

the New Zealand , 1919 in Australia

From December 1918 to February 1919, the New Zealand was overtaken for another trip around the world. For this purpose, the aircraft platforms and some of the 4 inch guns were removed and salute guns were put back up. The former Commander in Chief of the Fleet, Admiral of the Fleet John Jellicoe , was to inspect the defense of the British Empire and the naval policy of the overseas territories of the British Empire, to assess and to make proposals for a common and coordinated defense and naval policy. The New Zealand should serve him as a travel ship. The journey, which lasted from February 1919 to February 1920, led first to India, where the New Zealand arrived in Bombay on March 14, 1919 . Jellicoe made two journeys from there by train to Delhi and later to Simla to negotiate with Anglo-Indian agencies. The New Zealand had already visited Karachi with her passenger between his two trips at the beginning of April . On April 30th the journey to Australia continued with the admiral who had returned from Simla. On the way Colombo and the Cocos Islands were visited before arriving in Albany , Western Australia on May 15th . Jellicoe disembarked with his staff and continued the voyage ashore. The battle cruiser visited Melbourne , Hobart and Sydney , from where the journey with Jellicoe continued on August 16 to New Zealand. On August 20, 1919, the battle cruiser returned to its "home country" after six years and visited many ports in the following six weeks and took part in a variety of events. The ship and its passenger were very popular in New Zealand and, as in 1913, crowds again tried to view the battle cruiser. The popular Jellicoe returned to New Zealand as Governor General (until 1924) in late 1920. His report on the defense of the empire was not implemented, particularly because of the considerable financial consequences. A strong Far East fleet was not created because of the Japanese threat it saw, even though Singapore became the center of the British armed forces. New Zealand followed his suggestions and founded the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy in 1921 .

At the end of October, Jellicoe continued with the New Zealand via Fiji, Samoa , Christmas Island , Fanning Island and Hawaii to Canada, where the New Zealand arrived on November 8th. Jellicoe continued his journey overland again. He traveled across the continent by rail and negotiated in Ottawa from November 27th to December 5th . From there he visited other Canadian cities, including a. also St. John's (Newfoundland) and Halifax (Nova Scotia) . From December 16 to January 1, 1920 he was back in Ottawa. The New Zealand left British Columbia on November 25th and ran via San Diego and the Panama Canal to Kingston (Jamaica) . On January 8th, she took Jellicoe back on board in Key West , which had come there by rail from Ottawa via New York and Washington, DC .

The return journey was now via Havana , Kingston (Jamaica) and Port of Spain ( Trinidad ). There the New Zealand left for the longest section of the voyage (3850 nm) on January 21 and reached Portsmouth on February 3, 1920 after 347 days. The New Zealand had covered a total of 33,514 nm.

Final fate

After the return of the battle cruiser to England in February 1920, the New Zealand was decommissioned on March 15, 1920 and assigned to the reserve. According to the agreements of the Washington Naval Conference , it was sold for demolition on December 19, 1922 and then scrapped in Rosyth from 1923 .

literature

Geoffrey Bennett: The Skagerrakschlacht , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich (1976), ISBN 3-453-00618-6 Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905-1970 . JF Lehmanns, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-88199-474-2 . NJM Campbell: Battlecruisers , Warship special N ° 1, Conway maritime press, Greenwich (1978), ISBN 0-85177-130-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bennett, p. 91
  2. a b Campbell, p. 18
  3. ^ Bennett, p. 93.
  4. ^ Bennett, p. 92
  5. ^ Campbell, p. 47.