HMS Erebus (I02)

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	12 October 1915 at Harland & Wolff (Govan)
Launched:	19 June 1916
Commissioned:	2 September 1916
Fate:	Scrapped July 1946
General Characteristics
Displacement:	7200 BRT
Length:	405 feet
Beam:	88 feet
Draught:	11ft 8 inches
Propulsion:	Reciprocating engines, 2 shafts, 6,000 HP
Speed:	12 knots
Range:
Complement:	226
Armament^[1]:	Main: 2 15-inch (1x2) Secondary: 8 4-inch (8x1) Anti-aircraft: 2 x 12 pdr 2 x 3 inch 2 x 2 pdr 4 machine-guns
Protection^[2]:	bulkheads: 4 inches barbettes: 8" 4.25" turrets: 13" magazines: 4 feet control tower: 6" main deck: 2" - 4" torpedo protection bulges
Aircraft:	None

HMS Erebus (I02) was a World War I monitor launched on 19 June 1916 and served in both world wars. She and her sister Terror are known as the Erebus class. They were named for the two bomb ketches sent to investigate the Northwest Passage and subsequently lost in 1845.

Monitors were designed as stable gun platforms operating close inshore to support land operations and were not intended to contest naval battles. Erebus was equipped with two 15 inch /42 (381 mm) guns (removed from HMS Marshall Ney^[3]) in a single forward turret mounted on a tall barbette to extend the range of fire (up to 40,000 yards).

The Erebus class were designed to outrange German World War I heavy shore batteries and they were also fitted with highly effective torpedo protection bulges on each side of the hull.

[edit] World War I

During World War I Erebus bombarded German naval forces based at the Belgian ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge. She was damaged by a remote controlled, explosive motor boat.

[edit] World War II

The Erebus served as a gunnery training ship between the two world wars, but she had a refit, completed in August 1939, and served as guardship at Cape Town.

In the early war years, Erebus served with the Eastern Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet, where she was used to run supplies to besieged Tobruk and bombard enemy concentrations. In 1943 she was damaged while bombarding Sicily during the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Erebus was used for coastal bombardment during the Normandy Landings on June 6, 1944, firing at the batteries at Barfleur en La Pernelle. On the 10th of August 1944, she was used against the defenders of the harbour at Le Havre. She was damaged by the battery at Clos des Ronces and was out of action for some time. In November 1944, she supported Operation Infatuate, the amphibious assault on Walcheren, Netherlands.

She was scrapped in July 1946. It is believed that one of Erebus' 15-inch guns was used to equip HMS Vanguard, the Royal Navy's last battleship ^[4].