HMS raglan
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.jpg) HMS raglan |
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| Overview | |
| Type | monitor |
| units | 4th |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | November 1914 |
| Launch | December 1, 1914 |
| delivery | April 29, 1915 |
| Namesake | British General Baron Raglan |
| period of service |
1915-1918 |
| Whereabouts | Sunk on January 20, 1918 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
6,150 ts |
| length |
o.a. 102.02 m (334.5 ft) |
| width |
27.45 m (90 ft) |
| Draft |
3.1 m (10 ft 2 in) |
| crew |
198 men |
| drive |
|
| speed |
6 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Armor | |
| Belt armor |
102 mm (4 in) |
| Armored deck |
up to 52 mm (1–2 in) |
| tower |
256 mm (10 in) |
| Barbeds |
203 mm (8 in) |
| Board aircraft | |
| Sister ships | |
The HMS Raglan the Royal Navy was a monitor of the Abercrombie class . In January 1918 she was sunk in front of Imbros by the battle cruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim , the former SMS Goeben and the small cruiser Midilli , formerly SMS Breslau .
Building history
On November 3, 1914, Charles M. Schwab , chairman of the US steel company Bethlehem Steel , offered the then British First Lord of the Admiralty , Winston Churchill , eight 14-inch (35.6-cm) / L45-Mk-II Guns in twin turrets intended for the Greek battleship Salamis . Because of the British blockade, delivery to the German manufacturer of the ship, AG Vulcan Werft in Hamburg, was no longer possible. The Royal Navy acquired the towers and designed the Abercrombie- class monitors for them to carry out coastal bombardments.
The monitor hull was quickly constructed and the four ships were launched within six months. The hull design was not particularly good and only allowed a low speed, the planned 10 knots were far from being achieved by the ships. The single main tower stood in front of a tripod mast and this in front of a single chimney.
The design also included a seaplane for artillery observation. However, land planes were seen as more effective as the monitors would never be used on the open sea. In addition, the planned placement on the towers always means their removal before shooting, even if no use was planned.
In fact, airplanes were later used with the monitors.
During the planning phase, the ships were referred to as the Styx- class and named after eminent Americans: General Ulysses S. Grant , General Robert E. Lee , Admiral David Farragut, and General Stonewall Jackson . Since the US remained neutral, the names were replaced by M1 to M4 when commissioned before the names of British officers were chosen.
Usage history of the raglan
On December 1, 1914, the keel-laying of the later Raglan took place at the branch of Harland & Wolff Ltd in Govan . At that time the ship was still called Robert E Lee in honor of the US General Robert Edward Lee. Since the USA continued to be neutral, it was decided when it was commissioned on May 31, 1915 for the neutral designation HMS M 3 . Then she was named HMS Lord Raglan on June 20, 1915 and finally HMS Raglan on June 23, 1915 . Equipped with Harland & Wolff machines, it was the monitor with the highest speed of 7.64 knots in the acceptance tests. The torpedo protection bulges and the poor hull construction prevented the planned speed of 10 knots.
The four monitors were moved to the Dardanelles in June 1915 to provide fire support for the Battle of Gallipoli . The Raglan took off on June 28th, towing the old cruiser HMS Diana . She arrived on the spot on July 22nd and supported the landing in Suvla Bay in the ANZAC section on July 6th / 7th. August. Unfortunately, it also struck the British lines once, causing one death and three wounded.
After continuous support of the ground troops, the Raglan took an RNAS Short 166 on board in October , which was supposed to support the monitors with target observation during the bombardment of the city of Gallipoli. When the evacuation of the peninsula began, the Raglan was in reserve with other ships at Imbros, in particular to secure the evacuation of Helles in 1916. When the Turks attacked the British lines on January 7th, the Raglan was used with other ships. The evacuation could thus be completed on the night of January 8th to 9th.
Raglan and sister ship Abercrombie stayed in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Sea after the Battle of Gallipoli, while Havelock returned to Britain in January and Roberts in February 1916 to serve as guard ships on the British east coast. In February and March 1916, the Raglan bombed Smyrna and other points on the Turkish west coast before, like the Abercrombie , it was used on the Saloniki front against Bulgaria and, among other things, set fields on fire. In May it was overhauled in Malta. In 1916 and 1917 it was mostly in Imbros to prevent an outbreak of the Turkish battle cruiser Goeben and the small cruiser Breslau , and also supported the Allied land offensives at Saloniki, Stavros and in Palestine , where it shelled Deir Seneid in Gaza and Ascalon .
On December 26, 1917, Raglan returned from supporting the Palestine Front to Imbros, where she formed the 2nd Detached Squadron of the Aegean Squadron with the small monitor HMS M28 and was supposed to continue to prevent Turkish and German outbreaks.
In the early morning of January 20, 1918, a foggy Sunday morning, the Turkish fleet came out of the Dardanelles with the Goeben , the Breslau and four destroyers. The Goeben set off a mine, but the damage hardly hindered it and the ships ran on to Imbros to sink the ships anchored there. A liner of the Lord Nelson class was supposed to be moored there , but the HMS Agamemnon was stationed in Mudros 25 miles away and the HMS Lord Nelson was in Salonika with the admiral in command.
The approaching ships were discovered on the Raglan shortly after 7:30 a.m. and an alarm was given by radio. At the same time, at 7:35 a.m., a battle with the Breslau began . Its fourth volley hit the command post of the Raglan , killing the artillery officer and wounding the commander. The 35.6 cm guns were loaded and ready to fire without a central guide when the Goeben hit the tower's barbette. Some of the riot ammunition detonated and killed some members of the gun crew. The first officer then ordered the heavily damaged ship at anchor to be evacuated.
The ships came within about 4 km when further shots hit the magazine and caused it to explode. The Raglan sank at 08:15 over the bow in only about 13 meters deep water, so that their poles out of the water rose. 127 men died during the battle, only 93 men survived. A court martial meeting on January 31 praised the crew's efforts under the conditions.
The raglan possessed at the time of sinking of the following weapons: 2 × 14-inch guns, 1 x 6-inch gun , 2 × 12 pdr-anti-aircraft guns , 1 × 3 pdr-gun, 1 × 2 pdr gun as well as 4 × .303 machine guns and could thus practically not defend itself against ships at close range.
The small M28 monitor was also sunk in the attack.
Then the Breslau east of Imbro received a mine hit and sank. The Goeben also suffered mines and had to aground on the Turkish coast. She was released despite considerable attack efforts by the British, but was long out of service as a warship.
The Abercrombie class ships
| HMS | Namesake | shipyard | Launch | fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 Abercrombie | James Abercrombie | Harland & Wolff , Belfast | 04/15/1915 | out of service at the end of the war, sold to TW Ward, Inverkeithing, for demolition in 1927. |
| M2 Havelock | Henry Havelock | Harland & Wolff, Belfast | 04/29/1915 | Sold for demolition in 1927. |
| M3 raglan | Baron Raglan | Harland & Wolff, Govan , | 04/29/1915 | Sunk off Imbros in January 1918 |
| M4 Roberts | Earl Roberts | Swan Hunter , Wallsend , | 04/15/1915 | Stationary training ship after the end of the war, attempts from 1930, demolition in 1936 |
literature
- Ian Buxton: Big Gun Monitors. Design, Construction and Operations 1914–1945. 2., revised and extended edition. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2008, ISBN 978-1-84415-719-8 .
- Frederick J. Dittmar, James J. Colledge: British Warships. 1914-1919. Ian Allen, London 1972, ISBN 0-7110-0380-7 .
- Randal Gray (Ed.): Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships. 1906-1921. Conway Maritime Press, London 1985, ISBN 0-85177-245-5 .
