King George V Class (1939)
| King George V class | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Overview | |
| Type: | Battleship |
| Units: | 5 |
| Predecessor class: | Nelson class |
| Successor class: | Lion class |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement: | Standard: 44,000 tn. l. |
| Length: | over everything: 227 m |
| Width: | 31 m |
| Draft: | 10 m |
| Speed: | 28 kn |
| Range: | 15,600 nautical miles at 10 knots |
| Drive: | 4 screws over 4 shafts |
The King George V-class was a class of five modern battleships of the British Royal Navy , which in World War II were used. They were the most modern of the World War and - apart from the Vanguard - the last battleships built in Great Britain.
Special features were the unusually strong armor for a British ship of this type and the armament with ten 356 mm guns in two quadruple turrets and a raised front twin turret. The first, not yet fully completed ship sent into battle, the Prince of Wales , was badly damaged on May 24, 1941 in a battle with the German battleship Bismarck ; the lead ship King George V was then involved in the hunt for the Bismarck .
The Prince of Wales was sunk again about six months later by Japanese aircraft off Malaysia as the only unit of the class; the others survived the war without serious damage. Despite a few minor weaknesses, they proved themselves quite well and were not finally decommissioned until the 1950s. The King George V was the flagship of the Home Fleet from 1940 to 1948 .
history
prehistory
The ships were designed within the confines of the Washington and London Naval Conferences. Under the 1922 agreements, battleships were limited to a displacement of 35,000 tons . At the 1936 conference, it was agreed to extend this period and limit the maximum caliber to 356 mm (14 inches ), although at that time only Great Britain, the United States and France were still signing the agreement. Italy and Japan had already withdrawn from this agreement, and the German Reich was not represented at these conferences from 1919 to 1935 due to the Versailles Treaty with the limitation of displacement to 10,000 ts and the associated lack of capital ships from 1919 to 1935 and thus never these restrictions subject.
Fixed to 35,000 ts
The limit to 35,000 ts - which the Royal Navy considered the smallest effective battleship size - was also desirable for financial reasons. In the late interwar years, the British government had little money to counteract the armament of Germany , Italy and Japan that began in 1935 . As a result, the battleships of these countries exceeded this limit in some cases considerably. Due to the ever increasing demands on the air defense capabilities of modern warships and the associated weight and space consumption, the Royal Navy considered the 14-inch caliber (356 mm) to be the best choice for a ship of this size, in order to achieve the best possible compromise between armament and To achieve armor.
Political entanglements
When the British more or less voluntarily chosen to limit the caliber of the main guns in the other navies, contrary to the intended targets, the design of these ships came under heavy criticism in the press. Conservative circles in Great Britain even went so far as to describe these - albeit ultimately not rightly - as outright faulty constructions. The design planners now had to take on the thankless task of justifying their work and argued in return that the ten 356 mm cannons made the weight of a broadside fired (adding the weight of all shells fired at once) higher despite the smaller caliber be compared to older British battleships with eight 381 mm guns as well as comparable foreign battleships with a main artillery of 8 × 38 cm, such as the German Bismarck class , or 9 × 38.1 cm, such as the Italian Littorio -Class . They emphasized that the 356 mm guns could penetrate virtually any standard ship armor at normal combat distances and would also be able to fire salvos in quicker succession. In addition, they parried criticism that, due to the prevailing rather bad weather in the North Atlantic, the greater range of foreign guns of larger caliber was not required, since visibility was already limited due to the weather and thus the optical distance measuring systems could not use their full potential. Another argument of the designers was that the ten guns of the new British ships could fire numerically larger volleys with ten shells and thus increased the probability of a hit.
In return, the ships of the King George V class could have been fought at greater distances by the opposing battleships with their larger, faster-flying and superior grenades, which made it much more likely that they themselves would subsequently be hit hard would have been. In practice, the bad weather in the North Atlantic would not have changed the advantages of foreign ships with larger calibers. Under ideal conditions, the ships with ten shells could fire at least one (for opponents with nine main guns) or two (for eight main guns) more shells per broadside, but this was practical because of the frequent malfunctions of the quadruple turrets and the often wet fore section due to the unfavorable bow shape never realistic.
In the end, the designers succeeded in silencing the sometimes very harsh critics in the press before the first unit was commissioned, but the ships still had a latent reputation for faulty construction. The de facto defeat of the Prince of Wales in the battle against the Bismarck on May 24, 1941 seemed to prove the opponents right, the participation of the type ship King George V in the sinking of the Bismarck a short time later made up for the damage to some extent. The surprising sinking of the Prince of Wales off Malaysia on December 10, 1941, almost six months after the clash in the North Atlantic, which was a great shock to the British, gave the opponents far less impetus than initially feared, as in this fight against aircraft the heavy artillery was not primarily affected.
It was not until December 26, 1943 in the Arctic Ocean , about 100 km north of the North Cape , that the Scharnhorst was seriously damaged by the Duke of York , which restored the reputation of the King George V class . Two British combat groups, consisting of the battleship in the lead role and three light and one heavy cruiser as well as at least eight destroyers , succeeded in sinking the German battleship after a hard unequal battle. The British public ignored the fact that the Scharnhorst, with its nine 28 cm guns, was armed much more weakly than the Duke of York and that it was ultimately destroyers who sank them.
draft
hull
The design of the hull differed significantly from any previously built British battleships. For the first time this was completely welded instead of riveted , which promoted stability and at the same time reduced weight.
The bow shape was rather conservative and almost vertical, so no " Atlantic bow ", which was due to the fact that the Royal Navy demanded to be able to fire the front heavy artillery unhindered at an elevation angle of 0 °. This advantage, which is rather small in practice, was bought at the cost of the fact that the forecastle absorbed a lot of water, especially in bad weather or heavy seas . This on the one hand worsened the seaworthiness , on the other hand it made it difficult to operate the front heavy artillery and also led to failure of the front quadruple storm due to water ingress.
A characteristic of the class was the command tower placed directly behind the front heavy turrets on a raised structure (which looked roughly like a halved hexagon towards the front) with a slight offset to the front . This feature was also carried over to the modernization of other British battleships and battle cruisers (see for example Warspite and Renown ).
The hull was designed with an emphasis on maximum protection as well as weight savings in order to stay within the construction displacement of 35,000 ts, which is why it was a bit shorter. This made it possible to keep the citadel with the important internal facilities such as the engine rooms relatively compact and thus save tank weight in length, whereby the hydrodynamic properties of the hull, on the other hand, were slightly worse and the possible maximum speed was slightly reduced with the same drive power.
Another typical feature of the class was the clearly visible protruding side armor on the sides , which tapered forward and backward until it gradually merged seamlessly into the fuselage. All in all, with the exception of its main weakness - the almost always "wet" foredeck - the hull turned out to be a good compromise under the given political and economic constraints.
Armament
The draft, which was completed in April / May 1936, originally provided for a main armament or main artillery of twelve 14-inch guns (35.6 cm) in three four-turrets (two in front and one aft). This was later reduced to ten guns in two quadruple turrets, one at the front and one aft, as well as an elevated twin turret behind the front turret for reasons of weight and center of gravity. The weight saved was then used to reinforce the armor . In addition there were 16 guns of the middle artillery with a caliber of 5.25 inches (13.30 cm) as well as numerous anti-aircraft guns of smaller caliber (including the famous Pom-Pom multiple anti-aircraft guns).
The exotic quadruple storms, which otherwise only occurred in two French battleship classes ( Dunkerque class , Richelieu class ), turned out to be more of a curse than a blessing in use, as they required much more maintenance and made operation difficult due to the limited space inside . In addition, there were numerous malfunctions in the early days of their use, which among other things caused the guns to fail in battle. It was not uncommon for the water on the forecastle, which was absorbed when the sea was rough, to cause irregularities in operation. Its artillery performance was quite convincing despite all the obvious disadvantages, even if it by no means came close to that of the German 38.0 or Italian 38.1 cm guns.
Armor
When designing these new units, consequences were drawn from the disappointing performance, especially of the lightly armored battle cruisers in the Skagerrak Battle of 1916, in which the inadequately armored British ships suffered severe damage or could easily be sunk. The British Admiralty therefore demanded the greatest possible armor , both vertically and horizontally.
With side armor of up to 15 inches (381 mm) and 6 inches (152 mm) top armor , they were among the best-protected combat ships of their time. Their lateral vertical armor was only surpassed in terms of nominal value by the Japanese super battleships Yamato and Musashi .
The total weight of the armor on these ships was around 14,000 tons , which made the ships into battleships with one of the highest percentages of armor in relation to the normal total displacement of 35,000 ts , which is relatively modest compared to comparable ships .
The turrets of the main artillery were also heavily armored with 406 mm at the front, 305 mm at the sides and 280 mm at the rear; the command tower , on the other hand, was comparatively lightly armored with a thickness of just over 100 mm. This was due to the fact that the Royal Navy was of the opinion that a heavily armored command tower was of little use, since it obstructed both the view and the guidance of the ship and the shock or shock effect of a hit by heavy artillery that located here Personnel would have incapacitated anyway. The relatively compact citadel was enclosed by bulkheads at each end and had a maximum thickness of 318 mm.
However, the side armor was not quite up to date, as it was not beveled. Therefore, it did not quite achieve the protective effect of the Italian Littorio class of nominally 350.05 mm, for example , whose deck armor was also thicker with up to 207 mm above the ammunition chambers. The side armor of the Yamato class - the second thickest in history with a nominally 410.00 mm - was also beveled and thus had a much higher level of protection compared to vertically arranged armor of the same thickness.
One weakness of the ships' side armor that was revealed in action was that it did not reach far enough below the waterline . Here it was only 3 inches or 76 mm thick. When the damage to the Prince of Wales after the bombardment by the battleship Bismarck and the accompanying heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen was examined on May 24, 1941 during the battle in the Denmark Strait in dry dock , experts from the Royal Navy discovered three heavy 203- in addition to various hits by the Bismarck . mm hit of the Prinz Eugen below the waterline. One had penetrated the inner torpedo bulkhead in the forward area , very close to the forward 356 mm main magazine - a hit that could have led to the destruction of the ship. The battle cruiser Hood was sunk after a few volleys by a similar hit by the Bismarck .
Nevertheless, the side armor of the ships was by no means poorly designed. It was constructed according to the principle of the "liquid sandwich" and offered the magazines, engine rooms and boiler rooms under experience-based combat conditions a very good protection against side shells - and torpedo hits .
Propulsion system
As with heavy cruisers, the propulsion systems were designed according to the "unit propulsion" principle, that is , a boiler room belonged to each turbine room . This saved both space and weight. The performance of the machinery, the eight Admiralty -Dreitrommel-Dünnrohr- steam boilers with superheaters and four Parsons turbines with single gear was and turned out to be largely reliable, fell - mainly because of the lower for the available space - with a maximum of 125,000 WPS somewhat lower than in comparable contemporary battleships from other countries, which led to a somewhat lower maximum speed of 28.0 kn .
The "Unit Propulsion" type should prove to be a serious disadvantage in a battle - again with the Prince of Wales - when she was in the context of Force Z with the battle cruiser Repulse in the waters of Malaysia near Kuantan in search of a suspected Japanese Invasion fleet was located. On December 10, 1941 (about six months after the battle with the Bismarck in the North Atlantic), she was attacked by Japanese bombers and torpedo planes . An air torpedo indeed met the well-protected by the side armor port wall and caused virtually no damage, but another hit apparently the bearing block on which the running at full speed shaft of the outer port - screw left the ship's side.
As a result of the hit in the wave trousers of the port outer wave, strong vibrations developed up to the stop of the wave, which caused numerous damage to the installations and seals of the watertight compartments inside the ship. The shaft running at high speed was torn from its bearings, which led to further severe damage to the interior of the ship. Through the destroyed shaft tunnel , thousands of tons of water quickly seeped into the associated machine or turbine room and, because of the damaged bulkheads, also into several neighboring generator rooms .
Due to this structural weakness, the power supply to the entire aft half of the ship failed. That made leak detection difficult. Due to the failure of the electric fan, the crew had to leave further engine rooms after a short time. Due to the power failure, half of the anti-aircraft gun on deck that was stationed on the aft half of the ship failed. The ship took by the extensive flooding inside strong list to port one that manual rotation of the flak towers considerably more difficult. The Prince of Wales , the lead ship of the association, was by this chain reaction after a single torpedo hit not only unmanageable but practically combat-incompetent and declined by another torpedo hits about two hours later.
- photos
King George V
in the British Pacific Fleet in 1945.
Prince of Wales
shortly after commissioning in 1941.
Duke of York
in the Northern Sea in March 1942.
Anson
fired her main guns in a training exercise in 1942.
Howe
around 1943 with camouflage pattern.
_underway_at_sea_c1943.jpg)
King George V class ships
King George V
The King George V was laid down on January 1, 1937 as the lead ship of the class and launched on February 21, 1939. It entered service in December 1940. In March 1941 she was part of Operation Claymore's heavy cover group . She was later involved in the hunt for the damaged Bismarck and was one of the ships that shot at the battleship on May 27, 1941 until it sank. During an escort order in the summer of 1942, the King George V rammed the destroyer HMS Punjabi and was herself damaged. It covered allied landing efforts in Sicily and the landing in Italy in 1943 . In 1944 the ship was moved to the Pacific, where it was involved in several operations against Japanese troops. At the end of the war, the ship was present at the ceremony in Tokyo Bay at which the declaration of surrender was signed. She was the flagship of the Royal Navy until December 1946 , was assigned to the reserve in 1955 and scrapped from 1958.
Prince of Wales
The Prince of Wales was laid down on January 1, 1937 and launched on May 3, 1939. It entered service in January 1941. Not yet fully operational and with some civilian workers on board, she met the battleship Bismarck and the cruiser Prinz Eugen in the battle on Denmark Strait and was badly damaged. In August 1941, she transported Prime Minister Churchill to meet with US President Roosevelt to Iceland . After a stopover in the Mediterranean, she was relocated to the Pacific to form the "Force Z" there with the Repulse . When a Japanese invasion fleet approached, the "Force Z" ran out of Singapore to intercept the Japanese. However, the British fleet was provided by Japanese fighter planes, which sank both ships on December 10, 1941 . More than 300 Prince of Wales sailors went down with the ship in the South China Sea .
Duke of York
The Duke of York was laid down on May 5, 1937 and launched on February 28, 1940. It entered service in August 1941. As with some of their sister ships, their main task was initially in escort duties for the northern sea convoys. Later she was the flagship of the "Force H" during Operation Torch , the Allied landing in North Africa at the end of 1942. In 1943 she was used, together with her sister ship HMS Anson and two US battleships, to deflect the Allied landing in Sicily off Norway. At Christmas 1943 she was the core of the combat group that sank the battleship Scharnhorst in the sea battle off the North Cape . Towards the end of the war she moved to the Pacific. The ship was decommissioned in 1949 and sold for scrapping in 1957.
Anson
The Anson was laid down on July 20, 1937 and launched on February 24, 1940. It entered service in June 1942. Completion was delayed because the scarce resources were initially planned elsewhere. After escorting tasks in the North Atlantic, the Anson was used for actions that should distract the enemy from Operation Husky . She was involved in various operations aimed at the battleship Tirpitz . After the naval war in Europe was effectively over, the ship was moved to the Pacific, where, among other things, it was involved in the reoccupation of Hong Kong . After the war, the ship was placed in reserve in 1949 and finally sold for scrapping in 1957.
Howe
The Howe was laid down on June 1, 1937 and launched on April 9, 1940. However, as with the HMS Anson, completion was delayed due to other British priorities in the war. The ship finally entered service in August 1942. The ship was initially used with escort duties for northern sea convoys, but supported Operation Husky, the Allied landing in Sicily, in July 1943. After the capitulation of Italy, she moved to the Pacific with her sister ship HMS King George V and in 1945 supported the landing of US ground troops on Okinawa. After the end of the war, the ship was transferred to the reserve and finally demolished in 1958.
Successor class
The planned successor to the King George V- class was the Lion- class with a displacement of over 40,000 ts and nine 16-inch guns (406 mm), which, however, due to the war events and the meanwhile difficult industrial situation in Great Britain, ultimately did not take off as planned 1939 were built - instead with the Vanguard in 1946 a single battleship further developed on this basis was completed.
literature
- Tarrant, VE, King George V class battleships. Arms and Armor Press, London (1991), ISBN 1-85409-026-7 .
- Corelli Barnett, Engage the Enemy More Closely. (English), Penguin Verlag, ISBN 0-14-139008-5 .
- Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905 to 1970.
