King George V Class (1911)

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King George V (1911) class
HMS Audacious
HMS Audacious
Overview
Type Battleship
units 4th
Shipyard

various

Order 1911
Keel laying 1911
Launch 1912-1913
Technical specifications
displacement

23,400 ts standard

length

182 m

width

27 m

Draft

8.5 m

drive
Armament
  • 10 × 13.5 inch (343 mm) Mark XI L / 50 in 5 twin towers
  • 16 × 4 inch (102 mm) Mark VII L / 50 in single mount
  • 4 × 3 pounder cannon
  • 3 × 533 mm torpedo tube
Armor

Belt armor

  • Bow: 102 mm
    Foredeck: 152 mm
    Stern: 64 mm

Side armor

  • 203 mm to 304 mm

Armored deck

  • 25 mm to 102 mm

Barbeds

  • 229 mm to 254 mm

Turrets

  • 279 mm

The British King George V class was built in a number of four ships. They were designed as a Dreadnought - battleships ; they were put into service shortly before the outbreak of the First World War . The King George V class from 1911 was planned as the successor to the Orion class battleships , on which they were also technically based.

The successor to the King George V class were the Iron Duke class battleships . Due to the restrictions decided at the Washington Naval Conference of 1922 , the remaining three ship units were scrapped or converted. This made it possible to build new battleships of the Nelson class .

design

The ships of the King George V class had a slightly larger displacement than their predecessors of the Orion class due to the reinforced armor . Among other things, the side armor and the underwater armor to protect against torpedoes were strengthened , but when the HMS Audacious sank in 1914, it was found that it was still too weak to withstand marine hits. The main artillery , consisting of ten 13.5-inch (343-mm) Mark V guns in five twin turrets, was the same as that of the Orion-class, but newly designed projectiles were fired with higher weights. Compared to the previous class, the main mast and the chimney were also slightly changed. Originally it was planned to equip the middle artillery with 6-inch- (152-mm) / Mk-VII-L / 45-guns in single mounts . However, the less powerful 4-inch (102-mm) Mark VII L / 50 cannon was installed in a single mount. Thus, the following ships of the Iron Duke class were the first battleships of the Royal Navy to receive full-fledged medium artillery .

Distinction

To distinguish them, the ships were marked with white rings on the funnels:

The King George V wore white rings around both chimneys, the Centurion only wore a ring around the front chimney, while the Audacious only wore white rings around the rear chimney, while the Ajax was completely without.

Ships built

Surname Shipyard Keel laying Launch Commissioning Calls Whereabouts
HMS King George V HM Dockyard, Portsmouth January 16, 1911 October 9, 1911 November 1912 Battle of the Skagerrak Decommissioned in 1919 and scrapped in 1926
HMS Centurion HM Dockyard, Devonport January 16, 1911 November 18, 1911 May 1913 Battle of the Skagerrak , Operation Vigorous , Operation Neptune Converted to target ship in 1927, converted to decoy in 1941 and sunk as a breakwater in June 1944
HMS Audacious Cammell Laird March 1911 September 14, 1912 August 1913 Sank after a mine hit on the Northern Irish coast on October 27, 1914
HMS Ajax Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company , Greenock February 27, 1911 March 21, 1912 October 31, 1913 Battle of the Skagerrak Decommissioned in 1924, scrapped in December 1926

literature

  • Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1970.
  • Robert Gardiner (Ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. Conway Maritime Press, London 1980.