Fast battleship

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Historically, a fast battleship was a battleship of which the design featured an emphasis on speed which was unusual, compared to the normal practice of the time. The term is especially appropriate when applied to a design which was not only faster than the preceding battleship class, but also faster than subsequent classes as well. The extra speed of a fast battleship was normally required so as to equip the vessel for roles additional to the normal service of a battleship within the line of battle.

A fast battleship was distinguished from a battlecruiser in that it would have been expected to be able to engage hostile battleships in sustained combat on at least equal terms. The requirement to deliver increased speed without compromising fighting ability was the principal challenge of fast battleship design.

Unlike battlecruiser, which became official Royal Navy usage in 1911, the term fast battleship was essentially an informal one. The warships of the Queen Elizabeth class were collectively termed the Fast Division when operating with the Grand Fleet. Otherwise, fast battleships were not distinguished from conventional battleships in official documentation; nor were they recognised as a distinctive category in contemporary ship lists or treaties. There is no separate code for fast battleships in the US Navy's hull classification system, all battleships, fast or slow, being rated as “BB”.

Contents 1 Origins 2 The Early Dreadnoughts 3 The Queen Elizabeth class 4 Combat Experience at the Battle of Jutland 5 The Admiral Class 6 Other designs, 1912-1923 7 The Washington Treaty Era 8 References 9 Notes

[edit] Origins

Between the origins of the armoured battleship with the French Gloire and the Royal Navy’s Warrior at the start of the 1860s, and the genesis of the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class in 1911, a number of battleship classes appeared which set new standards of speed. The Warrior herself, at over 14 knots under steam, was the fastest warship of her day as well as the most powerful. Due to the increasing weight of guns and armour, this speed was not exceeded until Monarch (1868) achieved 15 knots under steam. The Italian Italia of 1880 was a radical design, with a speed of 18 knots, heavy guns and no belt armour; this speed was not matched until the 1890s, when higher speeds came to be associated with second-class designs such as the Renown of 1895 (18 knots) and the Swiftsure and Triumph of 1903 (20 knots). In these late pre-dreadnought designs, the high speed may have been intended to compensate for their lesser staying power, allowing them to evade a more powerful opponent when necessary.

From about 1900, interest in the possibility of a major increase in the speed of Royal Navy battleships was provoked by Sir John (“Jackie”) Fisher, at that time Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet.^[1] Possibly due to Fisher’s pressure, The Senior Officer’s War Course of January 1902 was asked to investigate whether a ship with lighter armour and quick-firing medium guns (6-inch to 10-inch (150mm – 254mm) calibre), with a 4-knot advantage in speed, would obtain any tactical advantage over a conventional batleship.^[2] It was concluded that “gun power was more important than speed, provided both sides were determined to fight”; although the faster fleet would be able to choose the range at which it fought, it would be outmatched at any range. It was argued that, provided that the fighting was at long range, an attempt by the faster fleet to obtain a concentration of fire by ”crossing the T” could be frustrated by a turn-away, leading to the slower fleet “turning inside the circle of the faster fleet at a radius to the difference in speed” ^[3] (Figure 1). War games conducted by the General Board of the US Navy in 1903 and 1904 came to very similar conclusions^[4].

Fisher appears to have been unimpressed by these demonstrations, and continued to press for radical increases in the speed of battleships. His ideas ultimately came to at least partial fruition in the Dreadnought of 1906; like Warrior before her, Dreadnought was the fastest as well as the most powerful battleship in the world.

[edit] The Early Dreadnoughts

Dreadnought was the first major warship powered by turbines. She also included a number of other features indicating an increased emphasis on speed:

• An improved hull form was developed, with increased length-to-beam ratio.
• The thickness of the main belt was reduced to 11 inches, compared to 12 inches for preceding classes.
• The belt terminated at the upper deck, the usual ‘upper belt’ being deleted
• The forecastle was raised, allowing higher sustained speed in heavy seas.

In the decade following the construction of the Dreadnought, the Royal Navy’s lead in capital ship speed was eroded, as rival navies responded with their own turbine-powered “dreadnoughts”. Meanwhile, in Britain, Fisher continued to press for still higher speeds, but the alarming cost of the new battleships and battlecruisers provoked increasing resistance, both within the Admiralty and from the new Liberal Government that took office in 1906. As a result, a number of potentially significant fast battleship designs failed to achieve fruition.

A notable abortive design was the 22,500-tons “X4” design of December 1905. This would have been a true fast battleship by the standards of the time, carrying the same armament and protection as Dreadnought at a speed of 25 knots. In the event, the British lead in dreadnought and battlecruiser construction was deemed to be so great that a further escalation in the size and cost of capital ships could not be justified. The X4 design is often described as a “fusion” of the Dreadnought concept with that of the battlecruiser, and it has been suggested that she “would have rendered the Invincibles obsolete ^[5]".

Fisher was again rebuffed in 1909 over the first of the 13.5in-gunned “super-dreadnoughts”, the Orion class; of the two alternative designs considered, one of 21 knots and the other of 23 knots, the Board of Admiralty selected the slower and cheaper design. Fisher had his dissent recorded in the Board minutes, complaining that “we should not be outclassed in any type of ship ^[6]”.

[edit] The Queen Elizabeth class

In the event, Fisher’s aspirations for faster battleships were not fulfilled until after his retirement in 1910. Following the success of the 13.5 inch gun, the Admiralty decided to develop a 15 inch gun to equip the battleships of 1912 construction programme. The initial intention was that the new battleships would have the same configuration as the preceding Iron Duke class, with five twin turrets and the then-standard speed of 21 knots. However, it was realised that, by dispensing with the amidships turret, it would be possible to free up weight and volume for a much enlarged powerplant, and still fire a heavier broadside than the Iron Duke.

Although War College studies had earlier rejected the concept of a fast, light battlefleet (see above), they were now supportive of the concept of a Fast Division of 25 knots or more, operating in conjunction with a conventional heavy battleline, which could use its advantage in speed to envelop the head of the enemy line (Figure 2). Compared to Fisher’s idea of speeding up the entire battlefleet, the advantages of this concept were that there would be no need to compromise the fighting power of the main fleet, and that it would be possible to retain the use of the existing (and still brand-new) 21-knot ships. Up to this time, it had been assumed that the role of a Fast Division could be fulfilled by the battlecruisers, of which there were at that time ten completed or on order ^[7]. However, it was realised that there were now two problems with this assumption. The first was the likelihood that the battlecruisers would fully committed in countering the growing and very capable German battlecruiser force. The second was that, as the then First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, put it, our beautiful “Cats” had thin skins compared to the enemy’s strongest battleships. It is a rough game to pit … seven or nine inches of armour against twelve or thirteen ^[8]”.

The new battleships would, in fact, be the most heavily-armoured dreadnoughts in the fleet. The original 1912 programme envisaged three battleships and a battlecruiser. However, given the speed of the new ships, it was decided that a new battlecruiser would not be needed. In the event, five ships were built, the extra unit, Malaya, being funded by the Federated Malay States. The battleship design for the following year’s programme, which became the Revenge class, also had 15-inch guns, but reverted to the 21-knot speed of the main battlefleet. Again, no battlecruiser was included, a decision which suggests that the fast battleships were perceived at that time as superseding the battlecruiser concept.

[edit] Combat Experience at the Battle of Jutland

When the fast battleship concept was put to the test at the Battle of Jutland, the Queen Elizabeths had been temporarily attached to Vice-Admiral Beatty’s Battlecruiser Fleet at Rosyth (this was to release the Invincible class battlecruisers of the Third Battlecruiser Squadron for gunnery practice at Scapa Flow). The Queen Elizabeths proved an outstanding success, firing with great rapidity, accuracy and effect, surviving large numbers of hits from German 28.4 cm (11-inch) and 30.5 cm (12-inch) shells, and successfully evading the main German battlefleet during the so-called run to the North. In the fighting, Warspite was severely damaged, suffered a steering failure and was obliged to withdraw, while Malaya suffered a serious cordite fire which nearly caused her loss ^[9]. However, both ships returned safely to port. This was in notable contrast to the performance of the battlecruisers, of which three (out of nine present) were destroyed by magazine explosions after a relatively small number of hits.

When the main body of the Grand Fleet came into action, the Queen Elizabeths were unable to reach their intended station ahead of the battleline, and instead joined the rear of the line, seeing little further action. Meanwhile, the six surviving battlecruisers assumed the “Fast Division” role, operating ahead of the battleline with some success, exploiting the advantage of the light to damage the head of the German line with virtual impunity.

Jutland was a crippling blow to the reputation of the existing battlecruisers. However, it also reinforced the views of the commander-in-chief, Sir John Jellicoe, that the Queen Elizabeths were too slow to operate with the Battlecruiser Fleet on a permanent basis. Based on combat reports, Jellicoe credited the German König class battleships with 23 knots, which would mean that Queen Elizabeths, which were good for just 24 knots, would be in serious danger if they were surprised by a battlefleet headed by these ships.

[edit] The Admiral Class

Even before Jutland, Jellicoe and Beatty had expressed concern at the lack of new construction for the Battlecruiser Fleet, and the inadequacy of the ships already provided. Early in 1916, they had rejected proposals for a new fast battleship design, similar to the Queen Elizabeth but with reduced draught, pointing out that, with the five new Revenge class nearing completion, the fleet already had a sufficient margin of superiority in battleships, whereas the absence of battlecruisers from the 1912 and 1913 programmes had left Beatty’s force with no reply to the new 30.5 cm (12-inch) –gunned German battlecruisers ^[10]. Jellicoe had believed that the Germans intended to build still more powerful ships, with speeds of up to 29 knots, and hence had called for 30-knot ships to fight them. Although two new battlecruisers (HMS Renown and Repulse) had been ordered in 1914, and were being constructed remarkably quickly, Jellicoe had argued that, although their speed was adequate, their armour protection (dramatically reduced at Fisher’s insistence) was insufficient.

The 1915 design had therefore been recast as a 36,000 ton battlecruiser with 8 15-inch guns, and a speed of 32 knots^[11]. The main belt was only 8 inches thick, sloped outwards to give the same protection as a vertical 9-inch belt. A class of four ships had been authorised, the first being laid down on 31 May – the day that Jutland was fought.

The losses at Jutland led to a reappraisal of the design. As noted above, the British were now convinced that their fast battleships were battleworthy but too slow, and even their largest battlecruisers unfit for sustained battle. As a result, the new ships were radically redesigned in order to achieve the survivability of the Queen Elizabeths while still meeting the requirement for 32-knot battlecruisers. The resulting ships would be the Admiral class battlecruisers; at 42,000 tons by far the largest warships in the world. In 1917 construction was slowed down, to release resources for the construction of anti-submarine vessels; when it became clear that the threatened new German battlecruisers would not be completed, the last three were suspended and unltimately cancelled, leaving only the lead ship to complete as the famous HMS Hood.

Although the Royal Navy always designated Hood as a battlecruiser, some modern writers such as Anthony Preston have characterised her as a fast battleship^[12]. On the other hand, even in her revised design she was intended for the duties of a battlecruiser, and she served in the battlecruiser squadrons throughout her career. Moreover, the scale of her protection, though adequate for the Jutland era, was at best marginal against the new generation of 16-inch-gunned capital ships that emerged soon after her completion in 1920, typified by the US Colorado class and the Japanese Nagato class.

[edit] Other designs, 1912-1923

During the First World War, the Royal Navy was unique in operating both a Fast Division of purpose-built battleships and a separate force of battlecruisers. However, the period 1912-1923 period saw a series of advances in marine engineering which would eventually lead to a dramatic increase in the speeds specified for new battleship designs, a process terminated only by the advent of the Washington Naval Treaty. These advances included^[13]:

• small-tube boilers, allowing more efficient transfer of heat from boiler to propulsive steam;
• increases in steam pressure;
• reduction gearing, which allowed propellers to rotate at a slower, and more efficient, speed than the turbines that powered them^[14];

By the early 1920’s, the wealth of the USA and the ambition of Japan (the two Great Powers least ravaged by the Great War) was forcing the pace of capital ship design. The Nagato class set a new standard for fast battleships, with 16-inch guns and a speed of 26.5 knots. The Japanese appear to have shared Fisher’s aspiration for a progressive increase in the speed of the whole battlefleet, influenced partly by their success at outmanoeuvring the Russian fleet at Tsushima, and partly by the need to retain the tactical initiative against potentially larger hostile fleets. The immediate influence of the Nagatos was limited by the fact that the Japanese kept their actual speed a closely-guarded secret, admitting to only 23 knots^[15]. As a result, the US Navy, which had hitherto adhered steadily to a 21-knot battlefleet, settled for a modest increase to 23 knots in the abortive South Dakota class of 1920.

The Japanese planned to follow up the Nagatos with the Kii class, (ten 16-inch guns, 29.75 knots, 39,900 tons) described as "fast capital ships" and, according to Conway’s, representing a fusion of the battlecruiser and battleship types. Meanwhile, the Royal Navy, alarmed at the rapid erosion of its pre-eminence in capital ships, was developing even more radical designs; the 18-inch gunned N3 battleship and the 32-knot, 16-inch gunned G3 class. Officially described as battlecruisers, the G3s were far better protected than any previous British capital ship, and have generally been regarded, like the Kiis, as true fast battleships^[16]. The G3s were given priority over the N3s, showing that they were considered fit for the line of battle, and orders were actually placed. However, both the British and the Japanese governments baulked at the monstrous cost of their respective programmes, and ultimately were forced to accede to US proposals for an arms limitation conference; this convened at Washington DC in 1921, and resulted in the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. This treaty saw the demise of the giant fast battleship designs, although the British used a scaled-down version of the G3 design to build two new battleships permitted under the treaty; the resulting Nelson class vessels were completed with the modest speed of 23 knots.

[edit] The Washington Treaty Era

All battleships built after the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty had a much higher speed than those built prior to the treaty and were regarded as fast battleships. Most of these ships were built just prior to, or during WW2. Some of these include:

• German Bismarck class
• British King George V class
• Japanese Yamato class
• American North Carolina, South Dakota and Iowa class
• French Dunkerque class
• Italian Vittorio Veneto class

[edit] References

• 1.DK Brown Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860-1905. Caxton Editions 2003. ISBN 1-84067-529-2
• 2. DK Brown The Grand Fleet: Warship Design and Development 1906-1922. Caxton Editions 2003. ISBN 1-84067-531-4
• 3. John Roberts Battlecruisers. Caxton Editions 2003. ISBN 1-84067-530-6
• 4. Winston S Churchill The World Crisis, 1911-1918. Free Press 2005. ISBN 0-7432-8343-0
• 5. Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, 1906-1921 Conway Maritime Press, 1985. ISBN 0-85177-245-5
• 6. NJM Campbell Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting Conway Maritime Press, 1986. ISBN 0-85177-379-6
• 7. Anthony Preston, The World’s Worst Warships, Conway Maritime Press 2002; ISBN 0-85177-754-6).
• 8. Norman Friedman, Battleship Design and Development 1905-1945, Conway Maritime Press 1978; ISBN 0-85177-135-1.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Roberts, p.11
2. ^ Ibid, p.16
3. ^ Ibid, p.17
4. ^ Brown, “Warrior to Dreadnought”, p.188
5. ^ Roberts, p.26
6. ^ Roberts, p.32
7. ^ Three Invincible class, three Indefatigable, two Lion class, HMS Queen Mary and Tiger
8. ^ Churchill, “The World Crisis”, Part 1, Chapter 5.
9. ^ Campbell, p 132
10. ^ Roberts, p 56
11. ^ Roberts, p 58
12. ^ Preston, p 96
13. ^ Friedman, p 92
14. ^ Friedman, p 92
15. ^ Conways, p 231
16. ^ Conways, p 41