Nelson class (1925)
| Nelson- class | |
|---|---|
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| Overview | |
| Type: | Battleship |
| Units: | 2 |
| Predecessor class: | Revenge class |
| Successor class: | King George V Class |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement: | Standard: 33,000 ts |
| Length: | over everything: 216.5 m |
| Width: | 32.3 m |
| Draft: | 10 m |
| Speed: | 23.8 kn |
| Range: | 16,500 nautical miles at 12 knots |
| Drive: | 2 screws over 2 shafts |
The Nelson-class ships were British Royal Navy battleships built under the restrictions of the Washington Naval Agreement of 1922. The two ships of the class were named after the famous British admirals Lord Nelson and Lord Rodney . Both ships were used in World War II .
Origins
The original plans of the Admiralty after the World War took into account in particular the experiences from the Skagerrak Battle , which demonstrated the frailty of the concept of higher speed propagated before the war. Under the work of John Arbuthnot Fisher as the first sea lord , whose principle for battles was “ Speed is the best protection ”, the construction of battle cruisers was especially promoted. In the battle in May 1916, however, it had become clear that the faster ships could also be hit with modern fire control technology. In conjunction with the lighter armor, the German deep-sea fleet was able to detonate a number of British ships in a battle cruiser. Only the arrival of the superior armed and armored British battleships and a tactically successful crossing-the-T maneuver forced the German fleet to retreat.
The Royal Navy's first post-war plans therefore envisaged heavily armored and heavily armed battleships (design N3, 457 mm guns) and battle cruisers (design G3, 406 mm). Similar designs were also made in Japan and the United States at the time, but were less extreme. During this time, the renewed arms race was put to a halt with the Washington Fleet Conference, which limited the tonnage for new battleships to 35,000 ts and the maximum armament to 406 mm guns. For this reason, the Royal Navy had to end its previous projects, although the building material for four ships had already been ordered. The Navy therefore had to start a new project, which eventually resulted in the Nelson class. The limitations of the treaty on the one hand, and the need to increase firepower and armor on the other, and to keep the weight down, led to a radically new design in warship building. The result of this compromise were the Nelson-class battleships . They were well armed and armored, but light and small enough to comply with the naval agreement.
draft
Despite the restrictions imposed by the fleet contract, a new type of battleship was developed by interpreting the text of the contract using partial aspects of the drafts G3 and N3 - front armor and armored superstructures with a block-like structure. During the negotiations on the Washington Naval Agreement , care had been taken to ensure that the weight of the fuel and the boiler feed water were not included in the calculation of the decisive standard displacement. It had been argued that in order to protect the great British Empire, ships needed to carry more fuel and water, and that they did not want to be disadvantaged compared to countries like the United States , whose capital ships could operate much closer to their bases. In combination with the weight-saving arrangement of the main artillery, the Nelson-class ships could be presented within the permissible 35,000 ts limit of the contract.
construction
In order to save weight on the armor, all turrets of the main armament were mounted close together on the foredeck, which shortened the length of the heavy armor protection required for their magazines. In the Nelson class , not all three towers could be arranged in terraces one above the other, so tower "C" was on the same level as tower "A" behind the elevated tower "B".
Because of the unusual silhouette in combination with poor maneuverability, the class was somewhat reminiscent of tankers used at the time . A series of fleet tankers from World War I had names that ended in "-ol". The Nelson and her sister ship Rodney were also called Nelsol and Rodnol in the Royal Navy .
Main armament
The main armament with nine 406-mm-L / 45-BL-16-inch-Mk-I-guns was housed in triplet turrets weighing 1,600 tons and was based on the concept of the "G3" both in caliber and in the combination in triplet turrets. -Battle cruiser which the Royal Navy had considered building towards the end of the First World War. Combining all the main artillery turrets on the forecastle made it possible to concentrate the weight available for the armor on a very small area and thus to make the protection more effective.
The guns could attack targets up to 32,000 meters away. They fired an AP shell weighing only about 920 kg, so that the penetration force in the target was hardly better than that of the previous 380 mm L / 42-15 inch MkI guns. Their lifespan was also significantly longer with 330 to 250 rounds and the guns lighter. The wrong decision to switch to 406 mm guns in combination with light grenades for the main armament was based on the wrong conclusions that the relevant bodies for the equipment of warships had drawn from an unrepresentative training shooting. When interpreting the data, it had been assumed that a lighter projectile that flies very quickly and hits an armored target at a steep angle would have a higher chance of penetration.
Middle artillery
The middle artillery of twelve 152 mm L / 50 cannons Mk XXII was arranged near the stern in six twin turrets. The guns, which weighed around nine tons, fired a shell weighing around 50 kg at relatively long distances of up to 25,590 meters. The rate of fire was rather low at five to six rounds per minute.
The towers were equipped with a largely automatic ammunition feeder, so that their operating personnel and the size of the towers could be reduced. Without any significant armor, it made its tightly packed line-up in two groups of three on the stern vulnerable. The ammunition bunkers and reloading areas for ammunition were designed in a correspondingly complex manner in order to prevent the fire from penetrating the transport system into the bunker in the event of explosions in the towers.
Torpedoes
As is usual with many designs from the time of the First World War, the ships were armed with torpedo . These weapons had been removed from most battleships and battlecruisers because, on the one hand, they were of little use in engagements over long distances where the main artillery could fight enemy targets and, on the other hand, if they were hit, they were deadly by the explosion of their own torpedoes Could endanger your own ship.
The Nelson class , however, continued to carry two tubes with a diameter of 622 mm inside the hull under armor protection in front of tower "A". From there, torpedoes could be fired to port or starboard through torpedo hatches located below the waterline. The torpedoes, which weighed around 2.5 tons, carried a 320 kg warhead.
Air defense
The class was developed at a time when the aerial threat was still considered secondary. The armament was therefore initially based on six 120 mm L / 40 single-shot guns QF 4.7 inch Mk VIII. The weapons were grouped individually on the stern, four above the middle artillery at the funnel base and two at the stern. Each gun could shoot a 23 kg bullet around 9,700 meters. A well-rehearsed team could fire up to twelve rounds per minute with the Mk VIII. These weapons were initially supplemented by a good dozen older Lewis and Vickers machine guns for short combat ranges.
From the beginning of the Second World War, the air defense system was constantly being changed and supplemented. As an interim solution, for example, launchers for the “ Unrotated Projectile ” were installed on HMS Nelson at the beginning of the war . These rocket launchers, mounted in pairs on the roofs of the two rear towers of the main artillery, were able to fire 20 rockets each, which released explosive devices around 300 meters away, which were connected to small parachutes by a cable over a hundred meters long, which slowly closed the explosive charge Let the ground sink. In this way a kind of barrier should be shot in front of enemy planes. The system proved to be useless against enemy aircraft and potentially dangerous for your own ship and was dismantled again in 1941.
In the further course of the war, fast-firing machine guns of 20 mm and 40 mm caliber were used in ever increasing numbers. The HMS Rodney finally carried six eight-fold 40 mm L / 39 QF 2 “Pom-Pom” guns and up to 61 individual 20 mm L / 70 Oerlikon automatic cannons.
Armor
Armor weight was saved not only by the centralized main armament but also by the inclined belt armor on the inside. It was up to 356 mm thick, but the inclined arrangement of the armor increased the effective thickness of the armor for horizontally incoming projectiles, and the installation on the inside, around 1.2 meters from the outer hull, was intended to dissipate the energy of torpedo explosions along with other measures . So it was believed that classic torpedo bulges could be dispensed with, which would have provided a generous expansion space for explosion gases. The outer shell was not armored, it should only offer protection against splinters and small-caliber fire. The Nelson class received comparatively heavy horizontal armor with up to 152 mm.
Machine systems
The Nelson class had little space for machinery due to its special armor concept with the protection lying far inside and the artillery setup with the heavy towers in the middle of the ship. The steam boilers were, unlike usual, arranged behind the turbines. This enabled the chimney to direct the exhaust smoke from the boiler out of the ship as far away as possible from the bridge structure. Because of the limited space, the smoke would otherwise have had to flow out of the chimney very close to the bridge, which could have impaired the view from the bridge tower.
The machinery consisted of eight Yarrow steam boilers , which burned heavy oil from tanks in the double bottom of the ships in order to evaporate water. The pressurized steam then drove two Brown-Curtis steam turbines , each of which set the two three-bladed screws in motion with a total of up to 45,000 WPS at 160 revolutions per minute via a shaft. That was enough for a speed of up to 23 knots, but it was too slow for modern fleet operations, such as operations in conjunction with fast aircraft carriers.
weaknesses
Superstructures
Because of the non-elevated arrangement behind the other towers, the field of fire of tower "C" was restricted by the barette of tower "B", so that overend fire to the front was only possible with towers "A" and "B". Overend fire to the aft was not possible at all, as the superstructure block covered the field of fire to all three towers aft.
The rearward arrangement of the superstructures impaired maneuverability in the wind, as the air resistance of the superstructures turned the ship into the wind like a weather vane when moving slowly. This was especially a problem in narrow ports with many ships occupied - the ships were generally difficult to berth and cast off. That was also because they had two propellers and a single central rudder that was out of the propeller's current. They are said to have been easy to maneuver at sea.
Another difficulty was the size of the forward cannon deck. The area had to be kept free of superstructures, as they would have been destroyed by the pressure waves from the firing guns. This created a large area on the deck on which no flak could be attached. The problem was partially solved by adding flak to the towers, but the air defense remained a serious weakness throughout the service.
Armament
The close proximity of the main towers posed a threat to structural integrity. The crews were warned not to fire all 16 "guns at the same time as this would damage the decks - a serious handicap for a combat ship. This is a persistent rumor that was refuted in the final battle with the Bismarck when the Rodney fired the full broadside without being damaged. The rumor arose at the beginning of duty, when the wooden planking of the deck was not strong enough to withstand the shock wave. In the 1920s, however, thicker teak planks were built in, which solved the problem.
The cannons were never considered as successful as the earlier 15 "/ 42s. They suffered from signs of wear and tear and had a high degree of variation. As a result, the muzzle velocity was reduced, which in turn reduced the penetration power. A heavier bullet would have been necessary, but the cost of producing a new bullet, the cost of changes in operation and storage came at a time when the Royal Navy's budget was severely slashed and so no changes were made.
The use of triplet turrets created problems with the ammunition handling and loading machines. The attempt to implement many safety devices with lighter materials resulted in more complicated and relatively fragile equipment that had to be replaced during operation.
The pressure wave when the guns were fired was so strong on the bridge that the main battery was temporarily prohibited from firing in the aft direction. Despite many efforts, this problem could never be solved, even portholes made of special glass shattered. The weight-saving measures resulted in the use of light materials such as aluminum and fir wood (instead of teak ) for the decking. These were more susceptible to the effects of the main firing armament and required additional repair work.
Theoretically, the design with the main armament concentrated at the front reduced the risk if an enemy carried out the " Crossing the T " maneuver. However, this advantage was negated by the unfavorable location of the third tower "C", whose field of fire towards the front was almost completely covered by tower "B".
When the Washington Agreement expired in 1936, the Royal Navy abandoned the concept of front-centered main armament and reverted to a traditional design with the King George V class.
Armor
The armor, which was not drawn down very deep, increased the risk of projectiles penetrating under the armor. In the event of rolling movements or inclination due to damage, there was a risk that projectiles could hit the important areas of the ship practically unhindered. In publications by the Admiralty, the armor was always shown deeper than it really was. They weren't the only ships with this design flaw.
Nelson class ships
Nelson
The Nelson was laid down on December 28, 1922 as the lead ship of the class and launched on September 3, 1925. It entered service in August 1927. She was at times the flagship of the Royal Navy and initially served mostly together with her sister ship. In 1931 the team was involved in the Invergordon mutiny . With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the Nelson belonged to the Homefleet and was involved in the search for various German warships. She was transferred to Gibraltar, from where she left for the Mediterranean on an escort mission. It was damaged by a torpedo hit in September 1941. After the repairs were completed, she supported the Allied landings in North Africa and later the landings in Sicily . When she landed in Normandy in the summer of 1944, she ran into two mines. After its repair, it was used in the Pacific, transferred to the reserve at the end of the war and scrapped in 1949.
Rodney
The Rodney was laid down on December 28, 1922 and launched on December 17, 1925. It entered service in November 1927. At first she was mostly used together with her sister ship. In 1931 the crews of both ships took part in the Invergordon mutiny. Like the Nelson , she was initially deployed to intercept enemy ships near the British Isles - largely to no avail. When the battleship Bismarck advanced into the Atlantic in 1941 , the Rodney was involved in its sinking , torpedoing the enemy ship. It was later assigned to the "Force H" and was used intensively for fire support for the troops on land, especially during and after the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944. Towards the end of the war she was mostly in Scapa Flow because of her poor condition and was hardly involved in operations. After the war it was scrapped in Inverkeithing in 1948 .
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.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Angus Konstam: British Battleships 1939-45 (2): Nelson and King George V Classes. Osprey, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84603-389-6 , p. 4 ff.
- ^ A b c Les Brown, Robert Brown: ShipCraft 23: Rodney and Nelson. Seaforth, 2015, ISBN 978-1-84832-219-6 , p. 6.
- ↑ Britain 4.7 "/ 40 (12 cm) QF Mark VIII. On navweaps.com; accessed September 17, 2015
- ^ Les Brown, Robert Brown: ShipCraft 23: Rodney and Nelson. Seaforth, 2015, ISBN 978-1-84832-219-6 , p. 11.
- ^ Angus Konstam: British Battleships 1939-45 (2): Nelson and King George V Classes. Osprey, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84603-389-6 , p. 12.