Erebus class monitor

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The Erebus class of monitors of the Royal Navy consisted of two ships: HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.

HMS Erebus was built by Harland and Wolff, Govan. Laid down 12 October 1915, Launched on 19 June 1916 and commissioned in September 1916.
HMS Terror was built by Harland and Wolff, Belfast, Laid down 26 October 1915, launched 18 May 1916 and commissioned in August 1916.

HMS Terror was lost in the Mediterranean on 23 February 1941, after being damaged by Luftwaffe Ju-87 "Stuka" dive bombers the previous day.

HMS Erebus was scrapped in 1946.

[edit] General Characteristics

(from Conway's all the world's fighting ships 1906-1921)

Displacement: 8000 tons standard, 8450 tons full load
Length: 405ft
Beam: 88ft
Draught: 11ft 8 inch
Machinery: 4 oil fired boilers, 2 shaft reciprocating engines, 6000 hp
Speed: 12 knots
Armour:
- Belt and bulkheads: 4 inch
- Barbette 8 inch barbette,
- turret: 13 inch
- deck: 4 inch
- anti-torpedo bulges: 9 ft wide
Armament:
- two 15-inch /42 Mk 1 guns in a single turret
- two single 6 inch guns,
- four single 3 inch anti-aircraft (AA) guns.
Crew: 204 original, rising to 315 later

They were refitted later. This revised the secondary armament and they weere equipped with eight 4-inch single mount guns, two single mount 3-inch AA , and two quadruple .50 inch Vickers machine gun AA mounts.

[edit] Service

The class was to see most of its service in the Naval Gunfire Support (NGS) role. During World War I they operated off the German-occupied Belgian coast bombarding naval forces based at Ostend and Zeebrugge. HMS Erebus was damaged by a remote controlled explosive motor boat and HMS Terror was torpedoed by motor torpedo boats.

Both ships were placed in reserve between the wars but returned to service in World War II where they were again used to provide fire support to British troops.