Volume 6 Issue 68

Published by
Orbis Publishing Ltd
@Aerospace Publishing Ltd 1984
Editorial Offices
War Machine
Aerospace Publishing Ltd
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Chris Bishop
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Artists: der of British Land Forces during the
Tony Gibbons
John Ridyard Falklands campaign.

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Of all the sights to stir the patrtofic spiit in the years hefore
WorldWarI, it wasthe serrtedsteel ranks of Dreadnoughts
that most effectively symbolized military potency, and the
possession of a strong fleet became a means to glortfy the
nation,
If it can be argued that only armies could wln World War I, rt is beyond
doubt that navies could have lost rt, To prosecute a war on such a scale
meant, for the Brittsh rn particuiar, contrnuous and guaranteed move-
ment of men and materials whrch, in turn, demanded fu11 control oi the
sea. Through this it was possibte also to effectively deny the sea to the
enemy; blockade could cut off the vital raw materials and foodstu_ffs in
whrch he was not self sufficient and, by tts grindrng remorselessness,
gradually erode hrs will to resist.
Close blockade, as practised during the earty tgth century, had been
rendered impracttcable by the submarine, the torpedo and the mine, so
this 'front-line' function of the battleshtp had drsappeared The geo-
graphical advantages enjoyed by ihe UK, however, enabled drstant
biockade to be rigorously applied by comparatively weak and obsolete
ships. These were buttressed by the full might of the Grand Fleet, its
nrain strength iying at Scapa Flow to deter the German Hiqh Seas Fleet
fiom either interfering wrth thrs slow strangmlatlon or rnduiging more
ambitious deep-sea adventures,
As rt happened, however, the Kaiser hedged his cherished fleet with
such suffocating operational restrictions that it existed largely as a
Looking forward on a'Kaiser' class
battleship in I I I 7 . Though Zeppelins
were used extensivelv bv the
Germans in co-operationwith the
Hrglr Seas F/ee t, they werc obviously
still rare enough to cause much
interest.
fleet-in-being, tyrng down the numerically more powerfui Rova- 1,.=.-
and offering battle only on its own terms, perhaps the grea-?:. t_:
appointment of the battleshrp fleets was that in this war, dunng ,,.,,:.
they could really have justified themselves, they occupied thJrr :_:=
-:
largely cancelling out each other's existence, Numbers were impcr.=,-..
the need to survive tempering boldness and originairty in manr. :,:__
manders. In the end, even as wtth the French revolutionary naw c: :,.,=r.
a century before, insufficient real use robbed the High Seas FlLe: :: ...
sense of purpose, so that it drifted into deterioration and revolt.
Though, between them, the warrrng powers could boast manv cac_:_
ships, few achieved much beyond those involved in the tiny ur"nu oi ...=
North Sea In retrospect rt may be said that the Royal Nar,ry ,.,:.-_=
retarning the Grand Fleet in its main roie, could have used its laige (a:.:
expendable) force of pre-Dreadnoughts far more adventurouily t._ _
variety of unorthodox ways.
!!1!" t::!j:Py theHishseas Fteet, probabty in 19tZ as the'Bayer.n,c/ass s.hrp
on the nght has amainmast and all have landed their torpedo'nets. The
G.
_ermgnl successfully preserved the greater part of their battle lleet as a
'ileet-n-berng', tying down the superior strength of the British.
..'$rL'-n -:
:. :: -rti :-,,:.:
%
USA
'Michigan'class
Had HMS Drea dnought not been built
precisely when she was. tt is concelv-
able that 'all-brg-qiun ships would have
been termed'Mrchigans , thrs pair hav-
rng been approved before the Brittsh
ship and embodyinq all the principles
of a healry and homogeneous main bat-
tery, The USS Micft igan and USS Souffi
Carolina"were laid down after the
Dreadnought, however, and took
three years to construct compared
with only one. A drawback of the de-
sign was that steam turbrnes were not
available for propulsion, but their
primary feature was their armament
layout. Thougrh the Dreadnought car-
ried 10 305-mm (12-in) guns, only eight
could be used in broadside as two tur-
rets were sited in the waist The 'Michi-
gans had only eighi qnrns but, well be-
fore the arrangement became gener-
al, mounted them in twrnned super-
firing turrets at each end.
Sensibly, the Amertcans also ship-
ped a secondary battery, albeit a light-
weight one of 22 76-mm (3-in) grLrns but
for the qreater part, behind protected
casemates in the superstructure at a
herght where they could always be
used,
A further innovatron was the basket
n-rast. Theorencally combtnLng max-
rmum strffness with minimum weight it
was far from universally loved and was
to remain peculiarly Amertcan,
Even before the Michigans were in
the water, two improved versions (the
'Delaware' class) were lard down, Only
one was turbine driven but both had
USA
E
€='Pennsylvania'
-Lmerican'post-ltlichigan' battleships
added firepower in logical steps, The
:ve-turret'Delawares' and'Floridas'
.ius developed into the six-turret
-,\ryomings' of 1911. As all of it was
:-:ed on the centreline, this armament
:emanded a long ship with a large
:rea to protect. In 1912, therefore, the
:::d was halted by a reversion to l0
Ir::s rn the 'New Yorks', though these
,:-:reased the calibre from 305 to
::: mm (i2 to 14 in). Again these were
;:::ped in frve turrets, but the follow-
----r raLr of 'Nevadas' had much im-
:::'=d protection at little penalty by
:r:!,rng a fow-turret arrangement
':; - ,',ins superfiring triples, It was
triples
--,::- ;::t a smali step to ship four
: ;-.: a broadside of 356-mm (14-in)
;-:j jr iile'Pennsylvania' class, This
-: , : -: r, as successful and retained in
-.. . .--',',tn; two classes to give a
- -:.::.eJUS seven-shtP grouP,
-:--:: -,',:s not outclassed until the in-
r r-:--r:- oi the 406-mm (16-in) qmn
: :: J-:l:rados'of1921,The'Penn-
7 :e P ennsylvanias' were the first US
-"i: ;-; ix mount all their
rl-lesJrip s to
i: a:: triple turrets, a
a:Tnaj?en t in
--::::::E .ral became a standard
-!-::. e - :a: _or actice.
an extra centreline main battery turret
and the standard 127-mm (5-in) calibre
was readopted for the secondarY
armament
Boatbooms and awnings rigged, the
Michigan and a 'Delaware' class ship
lie peacefully at anchor. Firstwith
superr'mposed turrets, she would
also have been the first all-big-gun
capital ship buffor Dreadnought's
rushed completion.
Below : I nitiatedbefore Dreadnought
bu t com pleted well afte rw ar d s, the
'Michigans' had all-superfi ring main
armament.This allowed allguns to
fire on both beams, in contrast to the
British vessel, which required two
extraguns.
; 'Michigan' class (asbuilt)
I
t
! Displacement: 16,000 tons standard
-i
l--iFjl
class
sylvanias' were both completed ln
19 I 6 as the USS PennsJzivania and USS
Arizona
The 'Pennsylvanias' were turbtne-
dnven but, in the 'New Mexico' class
that followed them turbo-electric drive
was introduced Inadequacies in
American healry gear production was
the overridinq reason for this, the tur-
bo-electric machinery requiring neith-
er reduction nor reversing qear, De-
spite being heavy and exPensive,
however, the system had advantages
in flexibility with any shaft capable of
I geared steam lurbines delivering
1j
ir
berng driven from any turbo qener-
ator, Further, propulsion motors could
be sited well aft, shortening shafts ald
allowing improved standards of water-
tight integrity,
Starting their career with character-
lstic basket masts, small bridge struc-
ture and a generally uncluttered
appearance, the'Pennsylvalias' were
remodelled between the wars,
emerqing almost unrecoqnizable wrth
heavy tophamper, massive tripod
masts and the paraphernaha of aLrcraft
operatron,
Specification
and 17,900 tons full load
Dimensions: Iength 138 07 m (453,0 ft);
beam 24,38 m (80,0 ft); draught 7.49 m
(24 6 ft)
Propulsion: rwo quadruple expansion
steam engines delivering 16, 500 ihp
(12304 kW) to two shafts
Speed: IB,5 ks
Armament: eiqht 305-mm ( I2-in) and
22 76-mm (3-in) gnrns, and two 533-mm
(21-in) torpedo tubes
Armour: belt 305 mm (12 in);
bulkheads 279 mm (l 1 in); barbettes
254 mm (10 in); middle deck 19 mm
(0.75 in); lower deck 38 mm (LS in)
Complement:870
The Arizona was shattered by a
magulne explosion during the Pearl
Harbor attack; with her died nearlY
1,200 crewmen. The Pennsylvania,
fulrher updated, obtained redress in
several operations, notably as one of
Admral Oldendorfs qrun line at the
Surigao Strait; post-war she survived
hvo Brlcini nuclear tests and was finally
expended as a bombing target,
Specification
'Pennsylvania' class (as built)
Displacement: 3 1,400 tons standard
and 33,000 tons full load
Dimensions: lenqth 185.39 m
(608.25 ft); beam 29.62 m (97. 17 ft);
drauqht B,79 m (28,84 ft)
Propulsion: four main and four cruising
31,500 shp (23490 kW) to four shafts
Speed:2I kts
Armament: 12 356-mm ( l4-in) and 22
127-mm (5-in) quns, andtwo 533-mm
(21-in) torcedo tubes
Armour: belt 356 mm ( 14 in);
bulkheads356 mm(14 in); barbettes
343 mm(13,5 in); upperdeckT6 mm
(3 in); lowerdeckT6 mm(3 in)
Complement:915
 The Rise olthe Dreqdnought
The Russo-J apanese war in I 904-5 demonstrated to the
world's naval thinkers the need for a radical changeof
emphasis in warship design. In most of the major maritime
nations plans were being advanced, but it wai Britain who
gave the world the Dreadnought.

On Trafalgar Day, 1 904, 63-year-old 'Jacky' Fisher was appointed First Sea Lord,
embarking immediately on a series of f undamental changes that would take the
Royal Navy from the somnolence of the long, lotus yeariof the 'pax Britannica'
to the battleworthiness demanded by a waithat he saw as inevitable. Within a
year.the Dreadnou-ght had been laid down, her concept the best of a series
considered by his'Committee on Designs'. Fisherclaimed to have been refining
the idea since 1900 when, as Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean, he had
discussed it at length with William Gard, Chief Constructor at Malta.
Fisherwas notalone. Professional publications of majornaval powerswereall
familiar with the f lorid prose of the ltalian Vittorio Cuniberti, whose theories cut
little ice at home. His dream ship would be fast and carry the greatest number of
the.largest guns available, choosing her range to 'poui in a ierrible converging
fire' on any hapless battleship of the time. -
,by,aHaving.the world's largest f leet. the U K had no interest in rendering it obsolete
si,gnificant advance, but the impetus came with the improving p-erformance Dreadnought-se t new standards in cap ital s hips I arger and f as ter, w i th I O
of both torpedoes and guns, forcef ully demonstrated by pieviously unimagined large guns of homogeneou.s callbre. I n practice,- her-lack of second.i -
engagement ranges during the Russo-Japanese War of j 904-5. Fisher's s-ense armament was a drawback and, despite her turbine propulsion, she'proved
ot urgency may also have been heightened by knowledge that the Americans too slow for the Grand Ffteet, from which she was witidr;wn in I g I 6.'
- --
were abo.ut to pre-empt him, the Congress approving pi-ans for Admiral Sim's
rdeas in the two 'Michigans' early in 1905. practical considerations of blast effects. A single major gun cat c.:
?glegpy the
. Because of its higher"rate of fi16 and because more barrels could be carried, srmplrtred both magazine arrangements and fire control.-The rbas"onino :^::
the 254-mm_(1O-in) gun was prefened by Fisher to the 30b-mm (12-in) weapon resulted in the abandoning of a credible secondary battery was fault\i
but Admiral Bacon, a committee member, convinced him that fewer laroe ouns. rectified in subsequent classes.
a-:
married to n.igh speed, would lead ro 'scienrific and practical shoorinj'. bnce The 'Dreadnought Committee' was tasked also with defining d S;ci-
accepted, this argument led directly to the daring adoption of the steam*turbine, armoured cruiser, later to be termed the battle-cruiser. As a 30 per cinr sce=:
yet untried in the requ_ired power range, togetner with oil fuell;ng, that would *g: sought over comparable battleships, tne result wds a targe 's-
demand the pterctng of bulkheads on a far more modest scale than necessary in I1lS,n,
pacKed wtth
:
machtnery and protected on a scale that was acceptable o^ly w ^:-
coal-fired ships. used agatnst con,ventionalarmoured cruisers. Carryjng tne same 305_mrn (12. -
I,n HMS Dreadn oughtthe Royal Navy acquired a ship that could steam reliably maln battery calibre as the Dreadnoughtherself, the ilrst of these 'qlass-ian s:
at high speed and which could fight iis armament in all conditions. Firing arci mo^nsters, NMS lnvincible, was completed some 1b months lat"er in'Ma::-
were good, but the layout reflected Fisher's obsession with chase{ire:tem- 1 908.
Right: Though the main battery was
better afianged than that of
Dreadnough! the'Michigans'
re tained reciprocating s te am
machinery. They were also coal-
fired, which meant smoke at higher
speeds, as sfi orvn by South Carolina
making her full 1|Yz kts.
Below: The four 'Nassaus' were
G e rmany's fir s t D readnoughts, ye t
.;" .:i:,.: ::
still contrived to lookorthodox. By
restricting the main battery calibre
" -;;-""'
jsf,ft$i;:,<,ir::.
to only 280 mm (1 I in), six twin ry:5tr(t((;(ta5
*:lr5:aE$$ielr:::
turrets could be carried, two o{ them
on either beam. Typical German
features are the large gooseneck
boat cranes and uncased funnel
lops.
 'Courbet' class
Through a combination of backruard
naval thought and an inadequate in-
dustrial base, France for a while
ignored the Dreadnought revolutton
and built, between 1906 and 1911, the
six 18,300{on 'Dantons' whrch were
obsolete on completion, Only after this,
with the four'Courbet' class ships, did
they acknowlege the inevitable,
French designs were hallmarked bY
therr eccentric mast and funnel
affanqements, and the 'Courbets' had
thef three stacks divided betvveen a
forward pair and a single much farther
aft, a pole mast being planted almost
exactly amidships in the resulting gap
The 'Courbet' class were France's
fir st D readnoughts, comPleted long
after the other maiot maritime
nations had entered the battleship-.-
buildingrace.
ffit rj"n Alighieri' class
" While the resultant finng arcs were
As Vittorio Cuniberti was one of the
earhest protaqonists of the 'all-big-gmn'
capital ship, rt is not surprising that lta-
Iy's first Dreadnought was a Pure
embodiment of his ideas. These
espoused the greatest posstble num-
ber ofthe largrest available gmns, car-
ried on a fast hull, thus enabling the
ship to decide the ranQle at which to
pour rn an overwhelming fire, the large
number of barrels compensating for
their slow rate of fire,
Very much a prototype, the Danfe
Alighieri had a layout dictated by the
qeometry of givrng the main battery
the best possible flring arcs. Probably
because of fears of blast effects or in-
teraction, Cuniberti rejected superim-
posed furrets, and he wrsely avoided
sided or echeloned mountings, His all-
centreline arranQtement could
Tie Dante Alighieri bore a
resemblance to a battlecruiser in the
concentration oI the maximum
possible frrepower on thefastest
possible hullltwas one of the first
capital ships toemploy triple turrets
to house the I 2 305-mm ( I Z-in) main
guns.
r 344
As the mast carried no control toP,
there was no valid reason for its siting,
particularly as the overall layout was
thus incapable of taking a centreline
turret, Although supedmposed turets
were adopted fore and aft, therefore,
two sided turrets had to be tncorpo-
rated amidships to give the required
IO-gnrn broadside. This in tum meant
that the area to be protected-wad in-
accommodate only four turrets on the
lenqth, so he adopted the then ad-
vanced concept of the triple turret'
copied immediately afterwards by the
Austro-Hungarians for their'Virlbus
Unitis' class battleships. The forward
turret was sited on a ratsed forecastle,
two more were placed amidshiPs and
one was located aft, leavlnq space for
only two vestigral superslructure
blocks, Kept axially as short as possl-
ble, these comprised mainly two se-
vere croups of close-spaced pairs of
funnels each separated by a pole mast
In spite of the highly individual
funnel layout, the French'Courbets'
were not unpleasing in appearance
as first huilt. In the background is an
'Aube' class armoured cruiser
completed a decade earlier.
creased and, as the class was already
notable for its protected area (the
armour being continued unusually low
on the hull) the result had to be on the
thin side. Torpedo attack had always
fignrred largely in French thouqht, and
the 22 casemated secondary guns
were selected for late of fire rather
than werght of metal. Launched in
1911-2, the shrps were the Courbet,
France, Jean Bart and Pan's.
The France was wrecked off
Quiberon tn 1922, and the remainder
exceptionally good, the bridgte struc-
twe was impractically small and low,
and no control top was fitted, The lay-
out also demanded an immense areaof
protection which thus had to be on the
thin srde and which would have made
the ship lrrlnerable to attack by a more
orthodox Dreadnougtht.
Modrfications during the 1920s in-
creased her bridge size and added a
large tripod foremast with top. Even
before the Dante AJighieri was laun-
ched, the three 'Cavours' were laid
were remodelled soon after thts, Ex-
ternally the forward uptakes were
paired into a single, larger casing (ex-
cept in the Parrs) and a massive tripod
foremast with a control top was added
over the bridge. This layout, ifadopted
orrginally, would have allowed an all-
centreline main battery, which was not
seen until the following three 'Prov-
ence'class units which, carrying one
turret less for the same broadside,
could also have the calibre increased
to 340 mm (I3.4 in).
During the rapid German advance
in 1940, both Courbet and Paris saw
brief bombardment action but then
shared the fate of many major French
umts, wasted through the double loyal-
ties of an occupied 1and,
Specification
'Courbet' class (as built)
Displacement: 23, 200 tons standard
and 25,850 tons full load
Dimensions:]enqrth 168.00 m (551.2 ft);
beam 27,00 m (BB,58 ft); draught 9,00 m
(29.53 ft)
Propulsion: four sets ofgeared steam
turbrnes delivering 28,000 shp (20880
kW) to four shafts
Speed: 20,5 kts
Armament: 12 305-mm ( I2-in) and 22
138.6-mm (5,46-in) gn.rns, and fow 450-
mm (17,7-in) torpedo tubes
Armour:belt 270 mm (10.6 in)
barbettes 280 mm (l I in); upPer deck
50 mm ( 1,97 in); lower deck 70 mm
(2.76 in)
down, their design tempering some of
Cuniberti's more extreme features.
The earlier eccentdc parred funnels
were, for instance, combined in com-
mon casings, and superimposed tw-
rets (twins over triples at each end)
allowed an inctease of one barrel
whrle reducing the number of
amidships turets to onlY one,
Specification
'Dante Alighieri'class (as built)
standard
Displacement: 19, 500 tons
and 2i,800 tons ful1load
Dimensions: length 168,10 m (55L5 ft);
beam 26, 60 m (87.27 ft), draught 9, 20 m
(30 2 fD
Propulsion: four sets ofqeared steam
turbines delivering 32,000 shp (23862
kW) to four shafts
Speed: 23 kts
Armament: 12 305-mm (12-in) and 20
120-mm (4,7-in) gmns, and three 450-
mm (17,7-in) torpedo tubes
Armour: belt 250 mm (9,84 1n);
barbettes 250 mm (9.84 in); upPer
deck30 mm (1.2 tn): lowerdeck
20srm (0,8 in)
Complement:970
 Battleships of World War I

Development o,l
Fire Control Sgstens
The advance in fire controlsysfems wasrnadenecessa,ryby Thle Battle of Julland saw the Germar,
the rapidly increasing performance of warships and the andBritkhmethods or
unprecedented engagemenf range.sp ossible with the new, rangefinding and fire coniro:
powerful armament thenbeing fitted.' meethead-on.lr
rangefindingterms, the
. German navywas
superior;the Britisk
olthe 19th centur:ywere carrying {ewerlar:ge guns,
Capital ships toward the end : weremuchslower ic
so_every shot needed to tell. lmprovgd weaponS and projectile ballistics also
.predictability, fi1td the range, but hac a
offered consjslency- and which enabled iorward+hinkers to . more effective fire
approach gunnery in a more sclentific rnanner. To hit the enemv before hocould .. control system. The m
hit you demanded centralized'gun iohtrol from a director, e{uipped with the a::
.
meanS of measuring the iange and bearing oJ the.targetr iogbther with a
prediclion of wheie that target was likelv to be after the ca-lculated time of flight
:: :.indications of accuracT
weretheenormccs
spJ.qsiesmade by the ma;:.
of the proiectiles. 'armament. From the mat
ln lepl Watkins, using precision,optics and telephonrc communication, up- ,
top, a telescopic',,;e.,+'
dated the old sailing navy metnod of measurlng :rangq through taking tiie ' immediately showed whethe:
horizontal angles to the target from the.known length of baseline of one,s own : a salvo was over. under or. as
ship. The system remained.vulnerable, however, aid a6curate onlywide on the
shawn here, straddling the range
beam, ard was_soon super$eded by Barf s optical rangefindqi,which, though of of the.tatset.
only 1 37-m (4.sjt) baseline, enabled a single observeito moasure range on any
bearing. ,

The target's course and speed could berestimated after.a peiiod o{ observa-
tion, and then combined with onels own course and,speed to give a firing
soiution, this having to be modlfied by other variables sudh as Wind speed and
direction. Competitions stimulated the development of instrurhents to speed
ihe process so; for inqtance, in 1902 the Dumaresq was introduced, predicting
rates of 9f q1ge in target range and bearing. This was followed,by ihe Rang6
Clock, which gave predicted'ranges directly,and then the complex Dreyer Ffre
control Table, which relied on extremely accurately-cut gearing to m.x a'var ety
of inputvariables, the result of rwhich was elevati6n-ahl train'ing settings thai
could be transmitted to each gun turrei. Onie all of these had reforted r6ady, a
central firing key was.closed to loose. a salVo sirtrultaneouslv.
Praitice formed this salvo into a tight group, and fall of siiot relatrve to tne
target was spotted from the high control top so thatrcorrections could be
srgnalled (up or down, left or rightf until sijbsequent salvoes aihieved a ,strad-
dle'.
Gunnery rn the Victorian navy envisaged typtcal engeigement.s at ranges not
exceeding 2750 m (3,000 yards). Enrhusiasts such ai'Gckylf isher and percy
Scort changed all th,s, firing the fleet with a spirit of innovation and comce: : _ -
torchallenge.trophies Scou,forinstanee,daiVexercisedhisgunnerswiiir..-::
he termed his 'Dotter', sirnulati,ng ship' movement and firirig without ire :,_
penditure olammunltion. His comnranbs, HMS Scy/la'and HhTS Terribte l-'.=
al1 grnnery records ;n their time.
Extens,ve trials on specialued test ranges, followed by regular l\3 ::..:
practices, enabled ships tO calibrate,theif weaponsand to prbve them in i.ea, :: :
conditions. By 1912, iangeS of j 37 lE ,m (1 b.000 yardsl 'were not cons'::l:
-
CXCCSSJVE.
Amer,can and German practice was generally behind that of t^e Br::;- -,- .- ,
but ran roughly parallel. The Germans, hLowever, did have rhe ce-=.. :.
t,n're,
superb long-based stereoscopic rangefinders which, in the riqnr hancs :: _ :
gettherangefarmorerapidlythanthewell-triedBritishmethod'of Js1:-;-r-:
salvoes. Experience was to show that this. difference could be cruciar ::-:-:
outcomeof.an.aciion.' , ,

'Kongo' class
Experience rn rts recent war with the
Russians had shown the Japanese naw
the value of superior speed to dictate
the course of an action, and the intro-
duction of the battle-cruiser by the
British soon after thrs war caused much
rnterest. Though lacking the necessary
expertise the Japanese required four,
crdering the lead shrp from Vrckers
and acquiring the necessary technical
support to build three sisters in home
I'ards Vickers was able to benefit by
improving on the destgn of the 'Lton'
class HMSPrrncessRoya,/ whrch it was
then constructtng so that the 'Kongo'
class for about the same speed carried
an erght-gun 356-mm (14 in) main bat-
C ompleted in I 9 I 2, Kongo w as a very
powerfulvessel, with eight 356-mm
tery in place of 10 343-mm (13 5-rn)
gmns, and wrth better protection. As
result, HMS Trgrerwas built as an anglL-
cized Kongo the latter still lookrng
very British in spite ofclipper bow and
round-section funnels,
The Kongo s three sisters were burll
in separate Japanese yards and rn ver-l
crediloble rrmes, the Hiei berng com-
pleted like Ihe Konga in 1912 and the
Haruna and Krnslrr'ma in 1913. Thev
Yaned only in detail. In the 1920s with heavy escorts, again took :,: :. - - _ .
a severe treaty limits on new construc- tn hand ror remodeilt: : - :
tion, all four were thoroughiy rebuilt. their hnes. rherr leno-f. -1.'t. .-
Their lrghr horizonral protection was by about B m(26.25fr a:. : -= :
thickened and anti-torpedo bulges installed power vrds :--::- '. ..
added. The latter addition reduced bled to achieve a ?.--< : -: r-
their speed by about 2 kts despite re- result ol advances -r. -.':.-....
boilering nology thrs was ac:..:' .: .'.. .
During the 1930s the Japanese navy stantial cut in weigrr:
vras developing its rdeas on fast carrier Extra elevatLon rr,-.lt . . :- ..
groups and requiring high speed borh primary anc .-' '
I menl, arrcraft a:.: Ii-: ..
.,! added and '-.= :.. .: =..
heavy too har -:=: ' ,..
The jobwas.'.=. : ..-'
fout were s ti.K - - : .-.
bv'heexplcs..- ":.-..
tle-cruLsor i=.
;.. i. . - .
spect wa: --.= .'..."..
.

( 1 4-in) guns and a speed of over

Savo
I*^-.^^-
Is],:.: :-..: .

nllletlCo-l ^i .:. ..
.:' ' -
27 kts. Built in England, she was to be -
tedly ar :., :-

drastically rebuilt in the 1930s in

order to fill the new role of carrier Specification
escort. She was sunk by the US
submarrhe Sealion rh JVovember
'Kongo'class -.:
t 944.
Displacemer.r :.-.
'Kongo' class (continued)

ard 27,500 tons tull load

Dimensions:length 214.70 m (704.4 ft);
beam 28,00 m (91,8 ft) draught 8.40 m
(27.6 ft)
Propulsion: four sets ofgeared steam
turbrnes deliverlng 64,000 shp (47725
kW) to four shafts
Speed: 27,5 kts
Armament:eiqht 356-mm (14-in) and
16 152-mm (6-in) suns, and eight 533-
mm (2l-ln) torpedo tubes
Armour: belt203 mm(B in); bulkheads
230 mm (9 in); barbettes 254 mm
( 10 in); deck 51 mm (2 in)
Complement: 1,221

Epitomizing the grace and Power of

the battlecruiser is the J aPanese
Kongo soon afler comPletion' She
washuilt in Britain as a model for
three home-built coPies, buther
desr'crn was so successful that it
fomied the basis of the Bfitish TigeL

'Fuso' class
Launched in 19l4-5 the two'F\rso'class
battleships Fuso and Yamasftrro were
contemporartes of the American
'Nevadas'and came between the Brit-
rsh 'lron Dukes' and 'Queen Eli-
zabeths', The l0-gnrn broadsides of the
two former classes were tncreased by
hvo fr.uther barrels but, lacking experi-
ence of constructing trlple turrets, the
Japanese adopted six centreline twin
mountinqs which, Ilke those in the
American 'Wyomings', demanded a togethei in the dark waters of the Suri-
Iong hull. Except for the odd little pairs
of 'satsumas' and 'Kawachis', the
Japanese had had no exPerience of
Dreadnougtht battleship deslgn and
construction, and the almost cruiser-
like 'Fusos' echoed this with their low,
clean lines, Fragility, however, was
only apparent as they carried a heavy
punch on a well-protected and subdi-
vlded hull, turbine-driven for 23 kts
For the first time, most gear was home-
built.
As with so many battleshiPs of this
era, the 'Fusos' expertenced a comPa-
ratively uneventful World War I, fol-
Iowed by a period of drastic recon-
struction precedinq a World War II of
hectic activity, Thus in the 1930s they
were extenslvely remodelled, being
tripod and bridgework made waY for
the extraordinary pagoda-like con-
struction that was to become such a
Japanese trademark, a structure that
grew ever more complex with time
Despite th:s thorough remoulding,
WorldWar 1I saw the 'Fusos' (like the
Ise and Hyuga) threatened Post-
Midway wrth conversion to hybrid air-
craft-carriers, They avoided this furth-
er surgery only to be sacrificed
qao Strait, running the gauntlet to
throw themselves at the massed guns
of Admiral Oldendorfs battle line in a
hopeless attempt to penetrate to Leyte
Gulf. 152-mm (6-in) gn:ns, and six 533-mm Everybody's idea of the archetYPal
(21-in) torpedo tubes Japanese battleship, flre Fuso t's seen
'here
Specification Armour: belt 305 mm (12 in); following her 1933 rebuilding.
Note how the six centreline turrets
'Fuso'class (asbuilt) bulkheads305 mm(12 tn); barbettes
Displacement: 30, 600 tons standard 203 mm (B in); upper deck 32 mm break the superstructure into three
and 31,000 tons ful]]oad (1,25 in); lowerdeckSl mm(2 in) dr'sfinclmasses. At this stage, she still
carried an aircraftcatapult on the
Dimensions: lenqth 205.21 m Complement: 1,195
(673.25 ft); beam 28.73 m (94.25 ft); roof of ' C' turret, abaft the' pagoda'.
drausht 8,69 m (28,5 ft)
Propr:lsion: four sets ofgeared steam
turbines delivering 40,000 shp (29BZB
kW) to four shafts
Speed: 23 }ts
Armament: 12 356-mm (14-in) and ]4
j

lengrthened by 7,5m (24,6ft) to take
advantage of a more Powerful but
lighter set of machinery, with oll firing
Main and secondary armaments had
their ranges improved by increased
elevation, horizontal protection was
thickened aetainst long-ranqe plung-
ing fire, and anti-torpedo bulges were
added. Externally the lorward funnel,
/il Fuso as buj,lt, displaying her notably
'r!' slim lines.For thefirsttime, the
maj or ity of the e quipment fitted to
the two'Fusos' was of J apanese
construction. Well protected, both
were to be extensively rebuilt during
the early 1930s.

ffi lb"nop,rs'class
Completed at the end of the Victortan
era, the six'Canopus' class tYPified
contemporary Britrsh battleships, with
a twin 305-mm (12-in) barbette mount-
ing at either end and a secondary 152-
mm (6-in) armamenl arranqed in pro-
tected casemates along each side
Thev had been designed particularly
ffiththe Chlna station in mind, and they
needed a restricted draugtht in order
to transit the Suez Canal, Much weight
was saved in the design by the incor-
poration of the new KruPP steel
armow which afforded the same Pro-
tective qualities on only tfito-thirds the
thicknes-s of the Hawey armour in the
earlier and similarlY sized 'Majestic'
class ships, A further weight-saving
measure was the omission of the
underwater sheathing and coppering
then still customary, ProPulsion
machinery was the universally-used
triple-expansion reciprocating en-
gine, but a 2-knot advantage was
gained over the 'Majestics' bY the
adoption of the water-tube boller
which, size for size, had a far larger
steam-rarsinq surface and could,
therefore, develop more energy. The
three umts completed rn 1900 were
HMS Canopus, HMS Gofiaffi and HMS
Ocean (the latter tuvo being lost in the
Dardanelles in 1915), whrle the three
completed in l90l were HMS GIotY,
HMS l/engreance and HMS Albion
Though the RoYal NavY in general

1346
 'Canopus' class (continued)
grreatly underutilized the resewe of
strength that it possessed in its older
battleships, the 'Canopus' class had its
share of action. C,omprising the cohe-
rent Bth Battle Squadron ofthe Channel
Fleet at the outbreak ofwar, the ships
were rapidly and widely dispersed,
Canopus goinq to the South American
station. With von Spee's squadron
coming eastward across the Pacific,
Admiral Cradock took a scratch col-
lectron of ships to intercept him, The
result was the disaster off Coronel on i
November l9]4. The Canopus was not
involved in the action, labouring with
machinery trouble through heavy seas
well to the south.
Specification
'Canopus'class
Displacement: 2,950 tons standard
1
Battleships of World War I
quns, and four 457-mm (lB-in) torpedo
tubes
Armour: belt 152 mm (6 in) amidships;
transverse bulkheads 254-305 mm ( 10-
l2 in); barbettes 305 mm (12 in); upper
deck 25 mm ( I in); lower deck 5I mm
(2 in)
Complement:680
Right:Though obsolete, the Royal
Navy's pre-Dreadnoughts, such as
the 'Canopus' class, still played very
active roles.
Left: Last British battleships of the
Victori an er a, tft e'Canopus' c/ass
had the new Krupp armour and
improvedwater tube boilers. Main
arm ament comprise d four 3 0 5 - mm
(l Z-in) guns.

and 14,300tonsfullload
Dimensions:lenqth 118,87 m (390,0 ft);
beam 22,56 m ( 74.0 ft); draught 7,87 m
(25.85 ft)
Propulsion: rvvo sets oftriple-
expansion steam engines delivering
13,500ihp(10067kW)totwoshafts ,
Speed: l8.Skts /'
Armament:lour305-mm(1Z-in). 12 152-
mm(6-in), 10 l2-pdrandsomesmal]er- --( r

ffi "invincible'class
As the world's first battle-cruisers, the on any tarqet, enough to counter any Admiral Sturdee's destruction of the ed in these irstances through corre:
three'Invincible' class ships marked a armoured crurser, whose scale of pro- hvo 'Scharnhorsts' (among the finest application. With the olfensive dc:-
real revolution in warship develop- tection was also logically adopted, armoured cruisers afloat) at the Battle trine inbred to the Royal Navy, hol';e;-
ment, The first of the class, HMS /n- Admiral Beatty's dramatic interven- of the Falklands confumed the sound- er, lt was only a matter of time '.:---
flexible, was laid down only days be- tion at the Heliqoland Brght fracas and ness of Fisher's ideas, which had work- these enormous ships had their gl-s
fore the Dreadnought was launched jaws broken by somethrng out of 'r:e-:
but, where the latter represented class. Thrs occurred with horrl:,--;
Ioqical (if sudden) progression, the finality at Jutland, when tirree ba::r:-
newcomers were of an entirely new cruisers, of different classes l:*: :--
breed, All major fleets operated cludrng the lnrzincrble. were de---'.'::
atmoured cruisers, some of which by magaztne explosiors caused i'.' .--'.
were comparable with smaller con- inflrcted aL medlum range. F::-:.=:
temporary battleshrps. Admiral protectionwas worked in after .i= l: -
Fisher's brainchildren were to make tle, but the reputailon was sla:=:=:
these ther.r naturai prey, beinq able to and the baltle-cruiser's bnei ii; :-=:
sacriflce protection to Inouit a Dread- already reached its eventnqt
nought-sca1e armament on a Dread-
nought-scale hull packed with machin-
ery for unprecedented speed. Used
properly, the battle-cruisers would
use their speed and range to force or
decline action as circumstance de-
manded. All three units were com-
pleted in 1908, the other two being Above : T his photogr ap h s how s the Below: Designed to combat
HMS /ndomifab,le and HMS /nflexi- smoke problem that caused armoured cruisers, the' I nvincible'
ble. invincible's fore fu nnel to be class was armoured against fire from
The battle-cruisers needed 3l boil- lengthened,in 1915. sucft yesse,ls.
ers to the Dreadnought's lB, deman-
ding a hull some 12.2 m (40 ft) greater
in lengrth, a feahre which also permit-
ted extra fineness of line. Three une-
qually-spaced funnels marked the
boiler room layout. T\ivo fewer matn
battery gmns still enabled six to bear

i
I
TheLioninAction force out in pursuit, to be ambushed in turn and
Emhodyingallthestrengthsandweaknessesof Fisher'sbattlecruiserconcept,Lion destroyed by the main body of the High Sgas
was every inch a thoroughbred. Fast and powerful, butvulnerable tofire fromheavy Fleet which was to render distant support, De-
yessels, ihe sight of Lioiat the head of Beatty's battlecruiser fleet was a stirring sighl coded radro- intercepts had, however, warned
iiicndisguiieatnenisiiriaittyitnign'p6eia,Wnttyarmouredvessels. :X?t#'j,t "::i:S?3",',it"f"SitJffirT,?J3t'S;
Vice Admlral Warrender's 2nd Battle Squad-
tffr:??:3HrTl1?[';€l
The masnificent HMSlion was the warhorse of from the Humber were available, but had not f?:-ffi?rl*:dll':3J,
David Beatty, the impetuously couraqeous been inlbrmed olthe decision of AdmiralJeili- ran into the German main body which, timtdly
genius commanding the Grand-Fleet's Battle- coe, the commander-in-chiei to back these assuming that it was about to encounter th.e
|ruiserSquadron. l,ikeallof herkindshecar- with Beatty's force and Commodore Goode- whole Grand Fleet, turned away. Tlpicalll
riecl a pun-ch that could crack a battieship, yet nougrh's six light cruisers These were ody Beatty gave chase, his four battle-cruisers (led
was perilously vulnerable to any plunglng re- 65 km (40 miles) from Heligoland and neither Py tire .Lion) actually pursulng a force of 22
turn fire. Th'e deflclencies of iuch-battle- commander hesitated. Like the cavalry in a battleshrps,hvoarmouredcruisers,sevenlighi
cru.isers were recognized and accepted as the Western drama they surprtsed TyrwEltt as cruisers and 54 destroyersl This farcical situa-
type could not be ulsed effectively 6y the cau- much as his tormentors by their entry. Thrce tion was ended abruptly by the news that both
tious, and caution was one word thai Beatty German light cruisers were sunk, SMS Ariadne Scarborough and Hartlepool were being shel-
never learned by the Llon herself with three 343-mm ( 13 5-1n) 1ed. Hipper had split his battle-cruiser liorce for
As a rear admiral, Beatty had been salvoesatbarely4STSm(5,000yards), Speedl- thetaskandwasinadisadvaatageouspQsition
appolnteci by Churchill in March l9l3 and, in ly withdrawing before the enemy s heavy hard by an enemy coast and able to withdraq'
tie tTmonthiremainlngtotheoutbreakof war forces could cross their tide-bound bars, the safely oniy eastward through a gap in the de-
he hacl infused a real fighting spirit into the Brltishfoundpublicacclaimawaitingthembut, fensive minefield. But rnto this gap were
squadron with endless qunneri eiercises con- in truth, it had been a shambies of an encoun- thundering both Beatty and Warrender, their
dlctecl at previously ummagined ranges and ter, unco-ordinated and poorly planned, Only forces sepalated by the shallow southwesi
speeds. if was as well, foi Beatty's battle- Beatty's instant acceptance of risk had lifted it patch of the Dogger Bank. Then the weather
cruisers were to be involved in every action of from an untldy skirmish to a naval event, doing previously flne, turned to rain squalls, wlt!Poor
note in the North Sea. In a letter to his wlfe, wonders in the process for the morale of both visibility. Despite this the inimitable Good-
Beatty wrote that 'We've lived for 40 years in fleet and nation, enough.latched onto the now-retiring Hipper

&?L?i"o"ifi?'"!"Hf.,l""YffiffiJ:*'#'l:: Germanraid !'t'I.!""?'?'fifrlS?y""f.?:ijlTl11','i:i3H;,f

easily rattled.- Wliatever comes, the battle- In December 1914, two of Jellicoe's battle- the Germans slipped through. Beatty was
cruisbrs wr11 give a good account of them- cruisers were sent south, repeating the exer- heartbroken ('the blackest week of my itfe'l
selves.' How rfght he was. cise on von Spee at the Falklands. The Squad- but, rather unfarrly,_ supported censure of
Wrth the wai not yet a month old, Commo- ron now had enormous prestige (yet could still Goodenough rather than his own inadequate
dore Tyrwhitfs Harwich Force was sent deep attract petty official displeasure at their rate of signal stafl
intotheHehgolandBighttodisruptanddestroy ammunitionexpenditure!)butwereabouttobe Only a month later, 1n Jqlugry 1915,- both
any of the e"nemy [g6t forces that conducteil more severely tested. , . Beatty atrd the outraged British p-ublic had-a
regular patrols. 'ihe"Harwich Force was itself Now all too aware of the detachment of the chance for a measure of revenge. Sigmal trafrc
suiprrse-d severai enemy light cruisers arriv- two battle-cruisers, the Germans selzed their warned of another German operation: Hipper.
ing unexpectedly and pressiig it hard in a very chance oi a bombardment raid on the English wlth a light screen, but backed by the might of
co-nfuseci action in po6r visibiiity. Thus caught east coast, using the battle-cruisers of Beatty's the High Seasfieet, wasbound for the Dogger
on the Germans'veiy doorstep, 'ilrwhitt cali-ed able counterpart, Admiral Hipper. By this pro- Bank area with a vague brief to deal with any
forasslstance.Heknewthattwobattle-cruisers vocation,itwashopedtolureBeatty'sreduced British liqht forces that may have been out.

Left: Admiral Sir David Beatty k seen aboard Lion

with his FLag Captain, Captain A.E. Chatfield.
Beatty served with distinction during the Boxer
Rebellion of I 900 , when he was promoted to
captain at the exceptionally early age of29. The
youngest admira,lsr'nceiVelson, ft e led the British
battlecruiser squadron, and later the battlecruiser
fleet, with all the elan of a light cavalryman. Itwas
on the bridge of Lion that Beattymade a c,lassr'c
understatement: having seen the destruction of
Indefatigable and Queen Mary, he turned to
Chatfield to say, 'There seems to be something
wrong with our bloody ships today'

Right:'Lion'classbaffJecrujsers at sea prior to the

battle of J utland. Princess Royal and Lionwere both
damaged during the battle, but even then escaped
the fate of theirsrslersftip. Queen Mary was
engaged simultaneously by the German
batflecrurers Seydlitz and Derfflinger rrhen ftifs
forward and inQ magazine led to anexplosion that
took the ship and the lives of 67 officers and I ,209
men, leaving only a handful of survivors. Note the
anti-torpedo nets, whichwere swung out on
booms under the threat of torpedo attack.
Above : The I'ionb funne,lspacin g betrays the
manner in which the already generous volume
devoted to the 42 boilers and turbine machinery
was splitby sitingthe fourth turret amidships.
Seen lrere a I /n vergor don early in J g J 5, Lion ias
already landed the boats from the atter
superstructure. Note the paintscft eme.
Right: Splendid cafs * Lion and Tiger exercise with
an'R'-class battleship in the oItinE..Losses suffered
at t utland, though fully j ustified when weighed
aganslresu/tt discredited the battlecruiser
concept and, lacking any clear cut postwar role,
they were among the first to be taken out of sewice
following the W ashing ton Treaty.

Beatty sailed with five battle-cruisers and
Goodenough's lst Light Cruiser Squadron, ren-
dezvousing with Tfrwhitt's Harwlch Force in
the grey of darnm south-east of the bank. Vrr-
tually at that instant, the latter ran into Hlpper's
screen and, as day broke, the .Ljon led the
British line rn a tail chase of the already fleeing
enemy, whose force was slowed somewhat by
the hybrid cruiser/lcattle-crurser SMS Blicher
By fuIl daylight, in clear conditions, Ihe Lion
had closed to withrn 18300 m (20,000 yards) of
Ihe B|ficher (at the rear of Hipper's line), and
opened fire with her forward 343-mm (13 S-in)
guns. As the range dropped to 16000 m (17,500
yards), Beatty signalled each ship io engage lts
opposite number but, as Hipper had only four
ships, this was ambignrous and resulted in SMS
Dedflinger, ahead ol Ihe Blijcher, not being
engaged at all. Undisturbed, she made good
practice, and undoubtedly contributed to the
severe punishment soon sustained by the llon,
Her fuel contaminated by holed tanks and pow-
er generators farling, the fton slowed, signall-
ing the remarnder to close the enemy, This was
followed by an order to turn elght points to
avoid a totally nonexistent submarine. Beatty,
losing touch as the battle moved away, signal-
led 'Course NE', followed too quickly by 'En-
gage the enemy's rear'. The two srgnals were
read ln conjunction, and taken to mean that the
force should engage the hapless Blitcher
whrch, shattered and ablaze, was falling well
behind the remalnder, With no power for sig-
nal projectors and at a range where flags could
no longer be interpreted, Beatty lost control of
the battle. In vain did he shift his flag, for Hip-
per's three survivors were beyond reach and
the Blficher fought to the very end,
.Lion damaged
Though the enemy had lost a usetul ship and
SMS Seycllllz had narrowly missed blowing up,
an annihilating vrctory had been iost through
poor gunnery, poor initiatlve and poor sigrnall-
ing. As a fuming Flsher wrote, 'What excuse
The.Lion inAction

have we to offer?' The.Ljon, hit by an estimated

16 heavy shells, languished under repair for
four months,
On return to service, she was flagship of
Beatty's reorganized Battle-Cruiser Fleet of
three homogeneous squadrons. A quiet year
followed, enlivened only by a couple of sea-
plane raids on the enemy coast and yet another
failure to apprehend a hit-and-run attack, on
Lowestoft and Yarmouth in Aprrl 1916. Only five
weeks later came Jutland,
The battle is covered elsewhere but, during
the initial 'run to the south', a shell from SMS
Liitzow removed the better part of the roof of
'Q' turret, the resultant exploslon and fire in
which would have destroyed the ship except
for the couraqeous action of a mortaiiy-
wounded Royal Marine officer who promptly
flooded the magazine, earning a Victoria
Cross. Within 30 minutes Beatty was to see two
more of his ships blow up from the same cause,
prompting the famous remark to his flag cap-
tain that 'there seems to be something wrong flag of Vice Admiral Pakenham but, although at Above: An unusual overhead view of Lionshows
with our bloody ships today'. sea as much as ever, was not again to see the dominant effect on the layout due to the single
The trjon and her consorts sighted Admiral action, turret amidships. Much useful superstructure area
is lost due to the need for angling it to give the
Scheer's Hrgh Seas Fleet, closed it, reported A victim of the Washington Treaty condi- maximum firing arcs, and litfle canbemountedon
and then drew it to the north onto Jellicoe's tlons, she was scrapped at Jarrow in i924, it because of blas t d am age. N ote that her torpedo
gnrns, finally forcing round the head of the Ger- nets have been landed.
man line to gain time, After the indecisive bat-
tle fleet encounter, in the failing light of late
dusk, a frustrated Beatty was still in contact with
Hipper, unable to goad Jellicoe into further
major contact before darkness,
The anti-climax of the end of Jutland was
painful for Beatty after his all-oui efforts, The
fton had sustarned 12 heavy hrts, HMS Ztqer I0
and HMS Princess rRoyal six and, on the pas-
sage back to Rosyth, the flagship committed 99
dead to the deep. She reported ready for ac-
tion within two days and was fully repaired
within seven weeks,
Beatty's association with the shrp ended ear-
ly in I9l7 on his appointment as Commander-
in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, The lron took the

r350
 Battleships of World War I

Above: Jutland. tionrsseen sf eaming at fuLl speed

shortly before receiving the near-disastrous hiton
'Q'turret. Boldhandlingof the battle crukers by
Beatty meant casualties but ensuredsuccessr'n ftr's
primary aims of scouting and reporting,
containing Hipper and luring theffigh SeasF/eet
onto J ellicoe's massed guns.

Above and below; Lion as sfte app eared just prior

to her trial atJutland. The tripod foremast and
built-up bridge structure gave Lion a more
rnodern aspect than her original configuration,
and her rear two funnels have been raked to the
level of her forefunnel, matching those offt ersr'sler
ships. Her torpedonels weresoon tobe removed.
NlZ
Ut€ Y:'Renown'class
Crders for the 'Revenge' class bat-
rleships were placed in 1914 but then
shelved because lt was considered
that they would not be completed in
time for the short war that was antict- , during World War I, being involved in
pated. Followinq the emphatic suc-
cess of the battle-cruisers at the Falk-
lands battle of December 19 14, howev-
er, Admiral Fisher had two units hastily
redesigned for delivery tn an impossi-
ble 15 months as the 'Renown' class,
That they were completed in a little
over 18 months as HMS Renourn and
HMSRepuJse was a credit to the buil-
ders, particularly as extra horizontal
protection had to be incorporated at a
Iate stage following the awful experi-
ences of Jutland.
The 'Renowns' were the first hvo-
funnelled British battle-crursers and
the flrst to mount 38l-mm (1S-in) guns,
though only srx of these were shipped
due to availability over the very short
construction period. At a time when
which was sited in the new triple
mounting that was to fall.far short of
exDectations,
bnly the Repuise saw any real action
the messy and indecisive affair in the
German Bight in Novembei. 1917.
Creat efforts were made between the
wars to rectrfy the ships' shortcomings,
Ihe Renown being particularly thor-
oughly modernized, With tmproved
protection a new secondary armament
and a main battery capable of gneater
elevation, she both took and delivered
punishment, being vdry active as a'unit
of Force H, The Repulse was less for-
tunate, being sunk with HMSPrince of This late wartime picture shows vertical armour belt above the
Wales by an overwhelmtnq Japanese Renown (foregrround) and Repulse th waterline. This was rectified soon
air assault that put flve torpedoes into a near-identical phase. Noteworthy af ter the war. &enown patticulafly
her. is thedoublerow of scuttles along was to undergo coAsiderable
the hull, betraying the absence of any modification.
Specification
'fenown'class (asbuilt) ' ,

the UK was building the fast and well-
protected 'Queen Elizabeth' class 'su-
per-Dreadnouqhts', the'Renowns' rep-
resented a step backward, though
their 32-kt speed placed them ln
class of their own.
Therr gleatest weakness was in ver-
tical protection and, despite subse-
quent modernizations, this was not
easily rectified since the lower edge of
the shallow main belt was supported,
just below the load waterline, on the
upper slope of the large anti-torpedo
bulges whrch, for the first time, had
been made an inteQlral part of the hull
structure, Another unsatisfactory fea-
ture was the reversion to a lO2-mm
(4-in) secondary armament, most of
Displacement: 27,950 tons standard
and 32,725 tons fuil load
Dimensions: lenqrh242.0I m (794.0 ft);
beam 27.43 m (90.0 ft); draught 8,23 m
a (27 0 ft)
Propr:lsion: four sets ofgeared steam
turbines delivering 126,000 shp
(93958 kW) to fourshafts
Speed:32 kls
Armament: srx 38 l-mm ( 15-in), 17 102-
mm (4-in) and huo 76-mm (3-in) AA
gmns, andtwo 533-mm (2l-in) torpedo
tubes
Armour:belt 152 mm(6 in); bulkheads Renown js seen after the fitting oI Even with oil-firing they were still
102 mm (4 in); barbettes l78 mm (7 in); aircraft flying-off platforms on both capable of generating vast quantities
maindeckT6 mm(3 in); deckover 'B' anda{ter turrets, and the of smoke, and the forefunnel had to
steering giear 64 mm (2.5 in) searchlights re- arr anged on be raised even before completion.
Complement:970 separate towers by the after funnel.

ffi iiellerophon'class
The three 'Billy Ruffians' would have
been four but for a slower-than-
expected foreigTn resPonse to HMS
Dreadnought L,aid down within
months of the latter's completion, they
incorporated only minor changes on
A.bove : The' B illy Ruffi an' (i.e.
Bellerophon) an d her two sisters
were, es s enti ally, improved
Dreadnoughts. They had a similar
main battery, similarly disposed.
virtually the same dimensions. Ten 45-
calibre 305-mm (I2-tn) guns were
arranged similarly in five turrets; of
these the foremost was at forecastle
deck level and the remainder one
deck lower, hvo of them sided in the
waist and two on the centreltne aft,
Theoretically, the layout allowed be-
hveen srx and eight bear in any
gr-rns ro
direction. All completed in 1909, the
'Bellerophons' were HMS Beller-
opion, HMS Temeraire and HMSSU-
perb.
One great improvement over the
Dreadnought herself was the substitu-
tionof 102-mm (4-in) secondary gruns in
place of the prototype's near-riseless
12-pdr weapons, The'al1-big-gnm' doc-
trine had been taken too lrterally and
the ship was practlcally helpless
against determined torpedo boat
attack (a mistake later echoed in the
all-mrssile armaments of the early
1960s). Sixteen larger weapons en-
abled the 'Beilerophons' to engage
such targets at safer ranges, although
eight of the gnrns were sited vulnerably
on the turret roofs. That the torpedo
was beinq taken very seriously was
evidenced by improved subdivision,
notably a 5l-mm (2-in) longrtudinal
bulkhead running the greater length of
the ship on each side.
The Dreadnought's masting
arrangements had been highlY un-
satisfactory, a single tri.pod foremast
set abaft the forward funnel and sup-
porting the control top in smoke and
heat. The follow-ons had two lofty tri-
pods, each forward of a funnel, with the
control tops pre-war providlng the
base for tall WT extensions.
The steam rurbine machinery was
simiiar to that in the prototype with the
boilers accepttnq coal, oil or patent
fuel, all three of which were carried,
Following the Bellerophons were
three more virtual repeats, HMS St
Vincent, HMS Collingwood and HMS
Vanguard of the 'St Vincent' class,
whose malor advance was the adop-
Un&?eDreadnought fie
'Bellerophons' had their foremasts
ahead of their forefunnels, which had
the great advantage of keeping the
control tops out of the smoke. Main
and secondary armament was
otherwise u nch anged from
Dreadnought.
-''-l'-i..
 ellerophon' class (continued)
ts
-:n of an Lmproved S0-calibre gmn rn
-:e
main battery, All six ships went
=ough Jutland without a single casual-
but the Vanguard was destroyed by
:-.'
= nagazrne explosion rn 1917. The re-
::arnder fell victim to the terms of the
'Vash-rngton TYeaty in the 1920s.
'Colossus' class
tsoth'Colossus' class ships (HMS Col-
ossus and HMS.FlercuJes, both com-
pleted in 191 1) were vutual repeats of
-:e single HMS lVeptune, laid down
some six months before, and showed
:lo significant improvements over her.
The Nepfune herself carried the same
nain battery as the precedrng'St Vin-
--ents but. in answer to foreign prac-
:ce, this was laid out so that 10-gun
broadsides were posstble. To achieve
ris, the two waist hrrrets were dis-
posed en echelori, enabling them to
1e across the deck, albeit on res-
xcted arcs, Considerable extra stif-
:emng and blast-proofing needed to
be rncorporated as a consequence,
-he layout also demanded more
-ength, though this was mitigated
nmewhat by the adoption, for the first
--,re in lhe Royal Nalry, of superrm-
posed turrets aft.
All 16 102-mm (4-in) guns of the
secondary armament were sited.be-
'*nd blast screens withrn the super-
s:ructure blocks, The new layout also
severely limited the stowage space for
--ie many boats then carried, so drs-
:rctive flying decks were rntroduced
::r the purpose, As these were
jeemed likely to be destroyed in ac-
::n, thus fouling the amrdships gmns,
>K 'i,gincourt'class
-{MS Agincourt was unique. She was
:rdered from Elsrmck by Brazil in the
:curse of one of the periodic 'one-
*pmanship' exercises conducted by
-:e larger South American states to thts
lay, Four impressive designs had
i:een short-listed, that chosen revert-
rg to the 305-mm (12-in) gun (at a time
-,.;nen the British standard was 343-
::n/13,5-in) for reasons of commonai-
with two ships already serving.
-:_r
Iven so, no less than 14 barrels were
irounted, in seven twin turets, the
r--:ost in any battleship. All were sited
:r the centreline to permit l4-grun
i:rcadsides, a spectacle that reported-
..,''i/as not to be mlssed. Thrs arrange-
:rent demanded a very long hull with,
:.nsequently, a reduced standard of
lrotection to cover it. The secondary
:rd tertiary batteries were on an
:qually lavish scale, with 20 152-mm
.:-Ln) and 10 76-mm (3-in) quns,
Shortly after the ship's launch as the
Rio deJaneiroin 1913, her owners dis-
:rvered that their ambitions had out-
rripped their purse and put her up for
sale. She was acquired by Twkey, on
Agincourt rs seen in her original form
with flying- ho at decks. The centr aI
turrets had restricted arcs ol fire,
and the long hull was weak and
underprotected.
+.
Battleships of World War i
Specification Propulsioru four sets ofgeared steam ,Armour belt 254 mm (10 l,
'Bellerophon'class turbines delivering 23,000 shp ( tZlS I amidships; transverse br-rlka: a
Displacement: 18,800 tons standard
and 22, 100 tons fulI load
kW) to four shafts 203 mm (B rn): barbetres 22: : -- :::-
Dimensions: lenqth 160,32 m (526.0 ft)
Speed:21kts
Armament: 10 305-mm (12-rn), 16 102-
upper deck 19 mm (0.75 ir. :_ :
' : _
deck 76 mm (3 in); Iower cie:r . _ ::.
beam 25. 15 m (82.5 ft); drausht B.3l m mm (4-in) and four 3-pdr suns, and (4 in)
(2! 25 ft) three 457-mm (18-rn) torpedo tubes Complement: 735
Scapa's low hills form the
inhospitable backdrop to the
Colossus and the llree
'Bellerophons', all oJ which were
sewing in the Fourth Batile
Squadron.
one at least was removed in war,
Another effect of the main battery
layout was the fragmentation of the
ship's internal arangements, Despite
this, the shtps were innovatory in being
fitted with separate cruising twbines
to improve fuel economy at lower
speeds,
The superimposition of X-turret de-
creased the ships' stability range.
probably the reason behind the rever-
sron in the two repeat ships to the herself was the onlv Grand fleel bat-
Propulsion: four sets of geaiec s ..t :-:
Dreadnought's layout of a stngle, lofty tle,ship of the clasb to suffer heavy- turbines delivering 25 000 s:.-, . :: i :
tripod. Though often criticized, thls cahbre shell damage, but on an insuf- kW)tofowshafts
arangement must have proved satrs- ficrent scale to venfy the soundness ol Speed:21 kts
factory, as it was repeated in further thls new arrangement. Armament: 10 305-mm (12-Ln; =:.: -:
classes, Indeed, the rVepfune's after 102-mm (4-in) and three : : :.:-._:
grr-rns,
control top was later removed as belng Specification (21-in) torpedo tubes
almost uninhabitable through smok6 'Colossus'class Armour: belt 279 mm ( I 1 Ln)
and heat, A cwious change of thought Displacement: 20, 220 tons standard transversebulkheaG254mr:. . __
in the design of the follow-on pair was and 23,050 tons fu]] load barbettes 2?9 mm ( I I in,;: n'r:-j. t=-,'
the abandonment of longrtudinal antr- Dimensions: lenqth 166.42 m (546,0 fr) 38 mm (1,5 in); mrddle deck 44 : ::-
torpedo bulkheads in favour ofslightly beam25.91 m(85.0 ft); drauqhtZ,Z0 m (1.75 in); lowerdeck 102 mn.1 _*
heavrer belt armour, The Cojossus (2s 25 ft) Complement: 755
whose account another battleship was
being completed in the UK, and re-
namedSu,lfan OsmanL Both, perhaps
unfortunately, were completed in the
very month ofthe outbreak ofwar and,
despite being very much 'odd-balls',
were appropnated by the Royal Nary
as the Agmcourl and HMS Errn. This
windfall was, however, acquired at
great cost for the irate T\rrks were pla- Unique in the Grand Fleet, the to accommodate seyen cer
L'e.li e
cated by a prompt German offer of Agincourt is seen here at gunnery turrets is apparent.
immedlate replacement, which action practice. The immense fiength of hull
greatly influenced Tlukey's entering
the enemy camp. Despite the un- tricted firing arcs, Offered for sale Specification
doubted firepower of the ship, it was again to Brazil after the war, she was 'Agincourt'class
fortunate that she was never severely rejected and prematurely found her
tested in action for the hull was weak as
Displacement: -:: : :. - : :
27.E-l'-'.
well as berng underprotected, and
way to the breakers in the early 1920s l:ai
and 30,250 tons full
in the company of much othei useful Dimensions:ler:qrj..-l :. .. : -. : -
three of the seven turrets had res- tonnage. beam?7.I?m(B9 l- ::=-; :-_-
(27 0 ft)
Propulsion: four s:--. :: _;.
furbines deLve::::::4 - -r
- = : r= --
kW) to four shai-<
Speed:22 kts
Armament: l-a:,:-:_.-
mm (6-rn) ala -, -:-::-:-
and three 5-?.3-::::- : - -:
tubes
Armonr: be-: ::: ::- : -- : _. : = - =
l52mm'.5:. i,::--:=.--- = --
matnde:k:!:::- . : * -_::-: --- :r .
38 mm (: : :.' .: ,l:: :=:: -: - - . _.
Complement: - 2- -
Iutland Indefatigable, ildtft fi er sisfer New Zealartd, forming
the Second B attle Cruiser Squadron at J utland, is
Alter two years of shadow boxing , the spring of I 9 I 6 saw the tw9 greatest fleets in seen alftigrfi speed.They could bedistingukhed
theworldatsea andstea ming towards eachother.If theymet, then abattleunlike from the'Invincibles' by their equispaced funnels,
any p reviously f ought c ould E e e x pected. T he pl ace w as J qtlay d B ank ; the date 3 I allowing for improved chances of a full broadside
UAi.Over tn6fottiwing twodaysiome25 vesselsweretohelast,withalmost9,l0A with echeloned amidships turrets. Note the very
high baat stowage.
sailors dead on bofh sides.

At 14. 20 on 3 I May 19 16, the British ligrht cruiser

HMS Galafea made an'enemy in sight'signal
and, wlth her consorts, went on to engage Ger-
man light units that had stopped a neutral mer-
chantman. The British shlps were attached to
Admiral Beatty who, with six battle-cruisers
and flrur 'Queen Elizabeth' class battleships,
almost immediately came in to assist But the
German ships also possessed heavy backing in
ihe shape of Admiral Hipper's five battle-
cruisers: these too bore in, sighting Beatty at
15, 20. It was a fine, if hazy, spring afternoon and
the position just west of the iutland Bank, One oi
ihe greatest and most contentious of sea battles
was about to commence,
Hipper was in fact out to be seen, hls task
being to lure out a sizable British squadron,
preferably Beatty's, and lead it back into the
arms of the main body of the High Seas Fleet for
destruction, This body built around 16 Dread-
noughts and six pre-Dreadnoughts under the
oveiall command of Admiral Scheer, was fol-
lowing some B0 km (50 miles) to the south, and
f expected Beatty steered to cut Hlpper off
as
from his bases, he would find himself niceiy use of the superior range of thelr larger guns. the enemy qunners found HMS Queen Mary'.
caught between two fires, Hipper manoeuvred to keep the ranges short, several hits amidshlps resulted probably in
Unfortunately for German plans, much of thelracks parallel and the course southward flash penetrating doum to 'Q' turret handling
iheir routine radio traffic was being monitored towards Scheer. His shootlng was rapid and room and magazine, the ship breaking in two in
and decoded by the British who, with adequate accurate and, at i6.02, HMS Indefatigable aI a series of colossal explosions, HMS /,jon, Beat-
warning of an impending operation, had also the tail of the British line was smitten by three ty's flagship, had narrowly missed a slmilar fate
sailed the full available strength of the Grand simuitaneous hits, suffered an expiosion and 'when hit at 16.00.
Fleet under Admiral Jel1icoe, whose 24 Dread- began to settle aft, A minute later she took
noughts were about 113km (70 miles) to the another salvo forward and disintegrated in a
Throughout the battle the hazy conditions were
north of Beatty. massive magazine exPlosion. accentuated by funnel and grun smoke' This was
For the moment, as they closed each other, Within minutes, the slower HMS Queen E1j- the scene from the light cruiser Birmingham at
neither battle-cruiser admiralwas aware of the zabethhadcrept within range, and her forward about I 6.00, just before thelndefatigable b/ew up.
presence ofthese enormous concentrations. It 381-mm (15-in) q-ins began to punish the tail of Beatty's battle crutsers are lo lh e right and the Fifth
was 15 48 before the opposing forces opened the German line. Beatty impetuously strove to Battle Squadron, under fire from Hipper, ta the left,
-with light cruisers beyond.
fire, the haze not altowing the British to make close further and paid the price at 16.26, when
 Battleships of World War I

Shortly before the end of lhe Queen Mary,

:oth Beatty and Hipper had ordered destroyer
-:rpedo attacks on the other to relieve the
pressure, Under this new threat, Hipper broke
:i the action temporarrly at 16,36 by a turn to
:e eastward. At this juncture, however, the
'.ght
cruiser HMS Soufftamplon, commanded
ly the admirable Commodore Goodenough,
s.ationed a little ahead of Beatty, siqhted the '#:*.
-ead ships of Scheer's main body pounding up
:cm the south. Hipper had done his job per-
and the stage was now Beatty's. Though
=ctly
..:rprised by the advancing armada, Beatty did
:oi wait to be annihilated, turning on his heel at
-3.46 and taking the shortest course to Jellicoe's
p':sition, now some 80 km (50 miles) to the north
,',-est, Beatty had now become the lure, the
::eans of delivering the unsuspecting Scheer,
:-:w in exuberant full cry, into the grateful
:ands of the Grand Fleet, To do this successful-
-,; he had both to survive and to ensure that
:ipper's marauding battle-cruisers did not
At I 8.30 Hood'stTagsfiip Invincible was /eadhg fft e was heavily hit on 'Q' turret amjdsft jps. The picture
s-ght Jellicoe prematurely,
British line as it torced the head of the High Seas shows the roaring inferno of the magazine fue that
Beattylures Scheer Fleet around to the eastward. At 18.33, under fire preceded the fatal explosion.
from aboutfive enemy ships at shortrange, she
Beatty's attached battleships were some-
-,thattardy in executing thelr l6-point turn but,
:Jhng in astern, covered his rear and, between
-3 50 and 17,30, made good practrce on the
lnflicting 20 hits for only 1.3 in return,
=nemy,
-;-:pper remained tenaciously in contact with
:eatty, the poor visibility which limited their
gradually lmproving in favour of the
=xchanges
-a:ter who, with the lowering sun behlnd hlm,
s:cceeded in forcing an enemy disengage-
at 17.51. In turning away, however, Hip-
=ent
per faced disaster in running straight into a
:ew opponent in the shape of Rear Admiral
-iood's 3rd Battle-cruiser Squadron but suc-
:eeded in turnlng south west and gaining sanc-
:jary at the head of Scheer's lbrce, which was
:eering about north east. The time was 18. 10
ard, between them, Beatty and Hood had pre-
;ented the sorely-punished Hipper from sight-
-::g Jellicoe's van.
Only about 19 km (12 miles) now separated As Jellicoe's fleet turned to starboard by divisions was thatof thelnvincible, destroyed 20 minutes
at 1 8. 5 5 follow ing S cheer's' battle turnaway', the earlier. OnIy three suruivorswere rescaed by the
SMSKdnigat the headof the German line from Benbowpassed this remarkable sight. Her crew destrorer Badger, ako uisible.
-AISMarlborough,
the closest of Jellicoe's bat- cheered, assuming thewreckwas German, butit
--eships. These were steaming tn six parallel
:clumns (each of four ships) and needed to be
ieployed into line without delay, This man-
:euvre would take at least 15 minutes and had
:: be correct first tlme. Jellicoe was undecided
::r account of a dearth of reliable information on
-:e enemy's bearing, speed and disposttion. At
-::s juncture (18. 14) Beatty, ln the rapidly nar-
:c'wing gap between the two fleets, made con-
:act, the Marlborough sighting his gmn flashes.
--eiiicoe acted swlftly, deploying into line on his
r'crt column, steering to the east with the port
::lumn leader HMS King George Vat the head
=:rd himself, in the flagship HMS lron Duke,
--,-,ng ninth in line,
With the Queen Elizabeth bringing up the
:ear, the Grand Fleet presented a solid wall oi
::ls some 9 6 km (6 miles) in length, and not a
:-cment too soon. Even as they manoeuvred
i::o posltion, the 'Queen Elizabeths' of the Sth
Hipper's battlecruisers at Jutland, despite boflr Invincible and Queen Mary, yet hersell
3att1e Squadron sighted the German line at survived 2 I recorded hits , returning with over
suffering more actual hits, showed a remarkable
:-cse range. They attracted heavy fire, at
capacity for survival. TheDertfltnger (seen al a 3,000 tons of water in her hull.
-,.;hich juncture HMS Warspite's helm jammed,
Iater date) was instrumental in the destruction of
:ausing the ship to describe two complete cir-
:-es and to sustain 13 large-calibre hits. now, successfully brossed the enemy's T' and German line just melted from the s:gh: :::-=
At the head of the British llne, Beatty and was pouring an intolerable fire into the head of British gnrnlayers, Jellicoe's line s*'.u::gr :: :-:
--:od were again joustinq with their opposite Scheer's column, which was in a poor position south east by divisions and mrght ha;e :--i.q=:
:-':mbers when HMS Inuincible was hit, disin- to reply. At 18.33, therelbre, Scheer risked all the Germans, who were movrrg l','es:,', - j r :.
::3irating even as had the other hvo battle- on a simultaneous 16-point turnaway; peace- for the tenacity ol Gocdenouqrhs s::-:-:-;
:::isers before her, The British llne had, by time practice paid off as, without collislon, the cmlsers,
Jutland
Possibly not appreciatrng his favourable
position, Scheer now surprrsingly agatn turned
16 points, running strarght at the British who,
wrth the gloom at therr backs, made the most of
their chance, inflrcting about 35 quick hrts vir-
tually without reply. Hipper's LLitzow had had
to retire with severe damage, but Scheer sent
the remaining four battle-cruisers, already sev-
erely damaged themselves, on a suicidal
charge at Beatty, synchronized with a des-
troyer attack, These diversions worked and, as
Jellicoe turned away before the threat of the
torpedoes, Scheer was able to make a third
about{urn,
Little daylight was left and the British had
become disengaged, between 19,35 and 20,00,
the Grand Fleet very dehberately coming
around onto a westerly course, Sunset was at
and the enemy was in a ragged line head-
20, 19
ing southward for the Horns Reef channel and
home,
The battle-cruisers were still in contact, and
Beatty began to show impatience at Jellicoe's
apparent lack of urgency in forcing a decision only 8 km (5 mlles) distant, the contact was not A 'Nassa u ' cJass battleship fires a salvo from her

by cutting off Scheer's line of retreat. Even as
Hipper's ships became little but drm silhouet-
tes, Beatty remained, pressing htm hard,
Actionavoided
Jelhcoe did not relish a night actron, which
would throw away his numertcal advantaqe on
a chancy encounter for which the Germans
were, in any case, better trained At
when a cruiser reported to the British lead ship
Ktng George I/ that enemy battleships were
prosecuted on the grounds that they were
probably Beatty's shipsi
The British admiral made his night disposi-
tions in the behef that Scheer could not slip
across his bows and would be prevented lrom
crossing asiern through his stationing there of
massed destroyer flotillas. Action would be re-
sumed at dawn.
20 45 Scheer did not oblige, his ltne passing in
stages through Jellicoe's light forces, These
fought bravely and at great sacrifice but in vain;
amjdshrbs-gun s. Though six turretswere included
in the design, only four could bear oneither beam.
The four 'Nassaus' formed the Second Battleship
Division atJutland but, being elderly,were
positioned well back in the line.
without heavy back-up they could not prevent
the enemy bursting through, Quite astounding-
1y, these furious actlons were observed by the
end of the British hne, the battleshrps neither
intervenlng nor informing Jeilicoe of what was
occurnng,

The batUe reached a decisive point at about I 8.30. Scheer's HighSeasFleed engrossed in chasing
Beatty's battle cruisers, was confronted byJellicoe and the Grand Fleet, some l0 km (6 miles) af heavy
guns'inalineacro.sshjsbows. ThebattleshipKingGeorgeV,headedtheBritishli4g,folloryedfyAjax,
fft e rest of the fleet led by the flagship, i.on
Centurion, Erin, Orion, Monarch, Conqueror, Thunderer and
Duke-

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 3.v 0100 on I June Scheer had broken
:-::ugh and, even though still challenged by
.,lrt forces up to 02.00, no longrer had the
l:and Fleet athwart his route home. At about
i l0 the lron Duke turned about, Jutland was
.'3r,
-he British had lost three battle-cruisers,
--,13e armoured cruisers and eight destroyers
- a battleship, a battle-cruiser, lour crutsers
. ,i five destroyers, Manpower losses were
: -10 British to 2,550 German dead, but the
.:.cry that the latter claimed was hollow for,
-:::ca11y, no beaten fleet ever chased a victor
: r:k into port and, strategically, the situation at
.=- had not changed,
Sritish gnrnnery had been ihe better, many
-=::e German ships being heavily damaged,
: -. :he latter survived because of their better
r -:-partmentation, because a grreater propor-
.-,: cf their displacement was devoted to pro-
'=:.:cn and because Brttrsh shells tended to
=,,:,:de on contact rather than on penetration,
-'rnng the nlght phase, the enemy made
, , : j use of hrs knowledge of British challenges ,Scfteerfaced anintolerable situation,with the head of his line
r-.r responses, While the British light forces receiving severepunr'sftmenf. Kontg, at the head of the line, was
=-
j fire through lack of posrtive identification, /osingspeed a ndwas taking water in the bow, and Grosser Klr:;s
:.= Sermans would suddenly overwhelm them and Markgnaf were also being hit. Scheer's remedy was a
,.- searchlights and gunfire, They also bluf- i',
manoeuvr e pr aclrsed in peace time : a simu ltaneous I 6 - po i n t ( ) 8
: r .o good effect, saving several damaged turn, reversing course in as si ort a time as possible.
..'--:s thereby, Poor British leadership that
-lr- was acted upon, and was reciified 25 #=*j=:==
-.-s later at Matapan.
-. ras been said that Jellicoe, cautious and
.-.=-',-:ly aware of his responsibilittes, 'fought to ':
:--e German victory impossible rather than
a
. ::-:rsh victory certain'. That about sums it up,

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 >K ibu"*n Elizabeth' class
One of the most successful classes of
capital ships ever built, the five units of
the 'Queen Elizabeth' class were also
the first true fast battleships, This re-
sulted from the decision to mount 38l-
mm (15-in) Qnlns, the current British
343-mm (13.5-in) weapon beingr
already surpassed by larger foreign
calibres. Though there was no ques-
tion of building ships large enough to
take the accepted lO-gnrn main bat-
tery, an eight-gnrn battery was deemed
acceptable as its broadside weight
was 6940 kg (15,300 lb) compared with
the 6350ks (l4,00Olb) of 10 343-mm
(13,S-in) cruns, The abandonment ofthe
amidships turret was further advan-
tageous rn that the machinery spaces
beneath were not fragmented. As a
result the 29,000-shp (21625-kW)
machinery of the preceding 'Iron
Dukes' could be increased to 75,000
shp (55927 kW), giving 24 ks desprte a
larger hull. With tmproved speed and
gun range, the 'Queen Ehzabeths'
were judgred able to accept protection
on a slightly reduced scale and therr
greatly increased bunker require-
ments were met by the adoption of
all-oil firing. One drawback was that
much bunker space lay between the
outer skin and the longrtudinal 'torpe-
do bulkheads', As otl is incompressible
this space could no longer satisfactori-
Iy absorb an explosion; moreover, if
essentiallyempty it couldwell be filled
with an explosive vapour. The three
i915 unrts were HMS Queen EIi-
zabeth, HMS l,Tarspite and HMS
Barham, while the two 1916 umts were
HMS Valranl and HMS Malaya
The powerful i6 152-mm (6-in)
secondary battery was feastble only
by siting the majority in casemates, a
layout already so completely discre-
dited as to guarantee that only the
nameship was thus completed,
Four of the class were present at
Jutland as the homoqeneous Sth Battle
Squadron which, because ofits speed,
was attached to Beatty's battle-cruiser
'Deutschland' class
Last of the German pre-Dreadnoughts,
the five'Deutschland' class ships con-
tinued the progxessron of small bat-
tleships dimensroned for the North Sea
and Baltic use rather than worldwide
deployment, Together with the very
similar'Braunschweigs' that preceded
them, they marked a major step for-
ward in the adoption of the 280-mm
(l i-in) gmn in place of earlier classes'
240-mm (9.4-in) weapon, Following
contemporary practice, the main bat-
tery of four guns was disposed in hvin
barbette mountings forward and aft A
heavy secondary battery of 14 170-mm
(6.7-in) weapons was flawed by being
sited in low casemates. Srx torpedo
tubes were carried (two on each
beam, one above the forefoot and one
offset beneath the counter), The ships,
all completed between 1904 and 1906,
were SMS Deutschland, SMS IIan-
nover, SMS Pommern, SMS Scfi /esr'en
and SMS Schleswig-Holstein,
Well armoured for their size, the
:a8
force rather than to the main body of
the Grand Fleet. They thus became
heavily engaged at a crrtical point of
the battle. Between them they suffered
27 major calibre hits, the Talanf com-
ing through unscathed but the trUa-rs-
pile taking 13, They were well able to
absorb rt and all were again fully oper-
ational by the following month, All
were modified rn varying degrees be-
tween the wars and all were active in
the second, in which only the Bariam
became a total loss,
Speciflcation
'Queen Elizabeth'class (as built) Tlre Queen Eliz abeth toward the end superimposed turrets. The lighting
Displacement: 29, 150 tons standard of thewar, recognizable by her masts puts the casemate guns into high
and 33,000 tons full load of virtually equal height. Soon after relief, only the Iorward ones being
Dimensions: length 196,82 m this, aircraft flying-off platforms fitted. The spotting balloon lies
(645,75 ft); beam 27,58 m (90,5 ft); wereaddedtoeachof the beyond.
drausht 9.35 m (30.66 ft)
Propulsion: four sets ofgeared steam
turbines delivering 75,000 shp (55927
kW) to four shafts
Speed:24 kts
Armament: eight 381-mm (15-in), 14
152-mm (6-in) and two 76-mm (3-in) AA
gn:ns, and four 533-mm (2 1-in) torpedo
tubes
Armour: belt 330 mm ( 13 in);
bulkheads t 52-mm (6-in); barbettes
254 mm(10 in); upperdeck44 mm
(1.75 in); maindeck32 mm(1.25 in);
middle deck 25 mm (1 rn); lower deck
76 mm (3 in)
Complement: 950
Lying in the stream on a starboard
anchor, with the port anchor'a-
cockbill', tfte Queen Elizabeth
presenfs a pea ceful scene with
awningsrigged.
Possibly the finest class of battleship
to see action inWorldWar I, the
'Queen Elizabeths' were fast and well
armoured.
ships had a protective lower deck that
ran full lenqth. At main deck level a
strip of light horizontal armour ran the
lenglh of each side of the central re-
doubt, protectinq the casemates. No
torpedo bulkheads were fltted, the in-
adequacy of the wing coal bunker
spaces for protection being demons-
trated when Ihe Pommern was torpe-
doed by a British destroyer in the clos-
ing stages of Jutland. The resulting
maqazine explosion destroyed both
the ship and her 839 crew,
A funnel originally served each of
Ploughing through a peaceful pre-
war sea, tfie Schleswigt-Holstein was
the very last German pre-
Dreadnought. Only one 280-mm ( I I -
in) turret is sited at each end, and all
seven casemated 170-mm (6.7-in)
guns are seen trained on the beatn.
The'blisters'of the original bow-
chasers have been plated ovet to
give extra accommodation space.
Smschlaad' class (continued) Battleships of World War I
-.:: -:::€ boiler rooms, but in later (418,64 ft); beam22.20 m (72.83 ft)
--: of the .Schiesien and draught 8.20 m (26,90 ft)
-.::-=:-.--:rions
!::-es,,ryig-Holstein the two for- Propulsion: three triple-expanslon
,t
-: s::ks were combined rn one, The 'Deutschland' class were steam engines delivering 20 000 rhp
i)r.
l:-= -1:ier ship had the doubtful dis- m ade imme diate ly obs o Ie te ( 14914 kW) to three shafts
:n---::- :f flring the first naval shots of by HMS Dreadnought. Two \i Speed:18kts
ii -r-r ,rJar II when, on I September were sunk in the Baltic. Armament: four 280-mm (l f -in), 14 i7l
- l': : .:-e bombarded the Polish posi- mm (6,?-in) and 20 BB-mm (3.46-in)
:.:,-- a: Westerplatte, near Danzig enrns, and six 450-mm ( 17. 7-in) torpeci:
. }ansk). Both old ships were , .:i j; tubes
:=-,=::-,-ed in Baltic waters in the final ..t'..j Armour:belt 240 mm (9,45 1n);
:-;:l:-s 3f the wal, bulkheads 170 mm (6,7 in); barbettes
250 mm (9,84 in); deck 40 mm (1.6 Ln)
Specification \l'i i
Complement: 743
5g:tschland' class (as built)
lreplacement: 12,980 tons standard 'lii',j
.-: -i 390tonsfullload
lq:rersions: lenqth 127 60 m \ l',
;i,. i'.'liii

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'Moltke' class
1: :gh Germany's first battle-cruiser
f"','l Von der Tann carried an eighl
J-:- :rarn battery disposed similarly to
::-: -a her British contemporaries, the
-:.-::rm (1 f-in) calibre threw a sigmr-
":--tiy lower broadside weight than
::= Bntish 305-mm (i2-in) battery,
=-,-::: befote lhe Von der Tann's
;::-:h, therefore, the first of an en-
--;ed pair of follow-ons was lard
::-rn. These two examples of the
'}!oltke' class retained the smaller
:-=-bre, though in an improved ver-
..:: but added an extra, superim-
;,:sed turret aJt. The forecastle deck
e-,-el was continued aft to this point,
:-=ng both of the amidships turrets ,9;,,i{
::-i the casemated secondary arma-
-::it. SMS Moltke wx completed in
,:-. SMS Goeben followrng in 1912.
--';rbine-propelled, their legend
:peed was inferior to that of their Brit-
.: equivalents though, in practice,
:::;r could well hold their own. Better
!::iected than even the later Britrsh
being', threatening the Black Sea and Looking distinctly weather-worn, the
--:n' class, they were shorter but
:eamrer, well subdivided and stable.
exercises designed to entice out ele-
ments of the British fleet into prepared Levant, In action several times, she Moltke wassrsferfo tfte Goebenaad
-he Moltke served with Admiral ambush, survived mining, grounding and near-srsf er of S ey dlitz. L a t e r G e rm an
-:-pper's battle-cruiser squadron The Goeben became something of a bombing. Days before hostilities en- batilecruiser s had a m or e comp ad
-:::ughout the war, twice surviving cause c6ldbrewhen, at the very outset, ded, she was finally handed over, to Iook, dropping the echeloned
:::pedoing by British submarines, She she evaded the British Mediterranean sewe as the T\rrkish I'ayuz to as late as amidships turrets infavour of fewer
m- the least damaged of Hipper's Fieet to reach T\rrkey as a replace- 1963, but larger gruns, sited in
r-ps at Jutland, though receiving fow ment for the latter's appropriated bat- superrinposed turrets at either end.
':.auy-calibre hits (one 305-mm/12-in tleships (see the Agincourt enlry). Specification
;-ercing her main belt at long range) Under Tlrrkish colours, but German- 'Moltke' class (asbuilt) and 25,000 tons firl] load
--C taking aboard ],000 tons of water, crewed, she spent the war largely1n- Displacement: 22, 6 I0 tons standard Dimensions: lenqth 186,50 m
i:e fought at Heligoland Bight and (6I LBB ft); beam 29,50 m (96 78 il
Jcgrger Bank and achieved notorrety draught 9,20 m (30, 18 fi)
:-,- assistinq in the bombardment of Propulsion: two sets of geared s:ea.i::
:r:bsh east coast towns, coat-trai[ng turbines delivering 85.500 sLp 'i: - i -
kW) to four shafts
Ostensibly slower than their British Speed:28 kts
co n tempor aries, the' M oltke' class Armament: l0 280-mm ( I l-Ln)
were more etfective fighting ships as 150-mm (5.9-in) qus, and ic ' =a
:--
a resultof superior protection. SMS T
(I9,7-in) torpedo tubes
Goeben en fere d Turkish waters in :. Armour:belt270 mm(10 5 :.
'914, and from thenoperatedunder 1., barbetres 250 mm (9.64 r.l :=:l<
the Turkish flag (although retaining t 50 mm (1.97 in)
her German crew till I 9 I 8). Complement: 1,053
 'i#ibor"nd'class
=
Germany's first Dreadnougrhts, the four
'Nassaus' of 1907, were remarkable
mainly for their conservatism, Limited
in lenglh and draught, they were made
exceptionally beamy, With the re-
quirement for an eight-gn-rn broadside,
yet lacking the length for sufficient
centreline turrets, the designers opted
for six hvin turets, set in a hexagton,
Although the hull was very well com-
partmented, it was badly broken up by
the main battery disposition. The re-
ciprocating engines and 280-mm (11-
in,; guns of the preceding pre-
Dreadnougrhts were retained,
The four'Helgoland' class units fol-
lowed in the next year, the ships being
essentially 'Nassaus' scaled up to take
a 305-mm (12-in) main battery. Thrs
was drsposed similarly, the ships
being almost equally portly. They
were also fitted with reciprocating en-
grnes. despite lhe fact that the pioneer
battle-crurser SMS Von der Tann had
been equipped with steam turbrnes in
the previous year, The machinery had
been upgrraded, however, from triple
to quadruple expansion and, when
pushed, the three engines could drive
the ships at 2 1 kts, as fast as their Brttish
contemporaries, An odd reverslon
was to three funnels, particularly sur-
prising as the three borler rooms were
adjacent, whereas in the two-funnelled
'Nassaus' these spaces were divrded
two-and-one. The first three units were
SMS Tirizngen, SMS Helgoland and
SMS Osffries/and, all completed in
1911, joined in 1912 by SMS Olden-
burg,
ry
'Baden' class
Rumours that caused the Brrtish to opt
for 3BI-mm (15-in) quns in the 'Re-
venge' and 'Queen Elizabeth' classes
were true, therr contemporanes, the
'Baden' class, receiving the marQnnally
smaller 380-mm weapon. As the Ger-
mans had consrdered their exlsting
305-mm (12-in) qmn to be only slightly
inferior to the British 343-mm (13,5-in)
gn-rn. they did not develop an equiva-
lent intermediate calibre, so the even-
tual step was the Clreater and the re-
sults inltially disappointing in SMS
Baden and SMS Bayern, each com-
pleted in 1916.
The preceding 'Kaiser' and 'Kdnig'
classes had each shipped a lO-gnrn
main battery, the former with superim-
posed after twrets and tvro echeloned
mounts amidships, and the latter much
improved with superimposrtion at
each end and a single centreline turret
in the waist. Like their British counter-
parts, the desiqners ofthe 'Baden' class
found that four of the larger twin
mountings was the best that could be
practicaily accommodated, the similar
arrangrement of two superimposed tur-
rets, forward and aft, also requiring a
shorter protected citadel. Though very
The topweight of the main battery
was probably the reason for the whole
14-gun secondary armament beingT
sited in the casemates too low to be of
any practical use.
At Jutland, the Thtringen shattered
the British armoured cruiser HMS
Black Pince in a chance night encoul-
ter. The Helgoland received one
heavy hrt and the Oslfjesland struck a
mine durinq the retirement, All four
were drsposed of as post-war repara-
tions, the Ostfriesland going to the Un-
ited States and being sunk tn cele-
brated but controversial aerial bomb-
ing trials, These would seem to have
indicated that topside direct hits could
be absorbed but the concussive effect
of a near mrss could prove fata1,
Specification
'Helgoland'class
Displacement: 22,440 tons standard
and 24,3i0 tons full load
Dimensions: lenqth 167,20 m
(548.55 ft); beam 28.50 m (93.5 l1);
drausht 8.90 m (29,2 ft)
Propulsion: three quadruple-
expansion steam engnnes delivering
thoroughly subdivrded by virtue oflon-
gitudinal bulkheads and coal bunkers
stretchrnq continuor:sly from 'A' to 'Y'
turets, the degnee of protection in the
'Badens' was afterwards reckoned to
be inferior to that of the Bntish 'Re-
venges'. Coal firing was inferior on
several counts (e,9, awkward bunker-
ing and refuelling and large quanttties
of smoke produced at speed) but
necessary because Germany could
not guarantee her oii supplies in time
of war,
Of the planned class of fow, onlY the
Baden and Bayern were ever com-
pleted and neither of these saw much
rseful action. Both of the others (Sach-
sen and Wtirttemberg) could have
been flnished well before the Armis-
tice, but again like the Britrsh, the Ger-
mans needed to put their priorities
28,000 ihp (20880 kW) to three shafts
Speed: 20 kts
Armament: 12 305-mm ( 12-in) and 14
150-mm (5,9-in) gmns, andsix 500-mm
( 19,7-in) torpedo tubes
Armour:belt30O mm (11,8 in);
bulkheads 300 mm (l l.B in); barbettes
270 mm(10,6 in); deck55 mm (2. 17 in)
Complement: 1,110
elsewhere in the prosecution of a
'short' war, In 1919 both ships were
scuttled by their crews at Scapa, the
Bayern successfully and the Eaden
berng beached by the Royal Navy.
Taken south to Podsmouth, she was
thorouqhly evaluated before beingt
sunk ln the Englsh Channel as a gnrn-
nery target.
Unlike British Dreadnoughts, the first
two classes of all big-gunned ships in
the Germannavy retained the less
efficient reciprocating engine. The
four vessels in the 'Helgoland' class
saw action with Battle Squadron I at
Jutland, nrftere Helgroland and
Ostfriesland received some damage.
G e rm any's on ly th r e e - fu nn e I le d
Dreadnoughts, the dis tinctive
'Helgolands' continued the six-tufiet
'hexagon' layout used earlier in the
'iVassa u ' c/ass, b ut with heavier gans .
Specification
tsaden'class
Displacement: 28, 060 tons standard
and 31,700 tons fu]Iload
Dimensions: Iength 180.00 m
(590,55 ft); beam30,00 m
(98,43 ft); drauetht 9,40 m (30,84 ft)
Propulsion: three sets ofgeared steam
turbines delivering 48,000 shp (35794
kW) to three shafts
Speed: 22 kts
Armament: eight 380-mm (]S-in), 16
I50-mm (5.9-in) andfour B8-mm (3.46-
in) guns, andfive 600-mm (23.6-in)
torpedo tubes
Armour: belt 350 mm (13.8 in);
bulkheads 200 mm (7.9 in); barbettes
350 mm (13,8 in); upper deck 120 mm
(4,7 in); middledeckS0 mm(L97 in);
lower deck 40 mm ( 1,6 in)
Complement: l,170
Developed as a reaction to rumours
of the Britkh'Queen Elizaheth' class,
the 'Baden' class ruas a ,less
successfu/ desr'grn . Coal fired, and
with a less effective main armament,
the two completed saw little in the
wayof action.