King George V class battleship (1911)

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Class overview
Name: King George V
Preceded by: Orion-class
Succeeded by: Iron Duke-class
Completed: Four ordered and commissioned
General characteristics
Class and type: Battleship
Displacement: 23,400 tonnes
Length: 598 ft (182 m)
Beam: 89 ft (27 m)
Draught: 28 ft (8.5 m)
Propulsion: 18 boilers, 4 turbines, 4 shafts; 31,000 shp
Speed: 21 knots (39 km/h)
Armament: 10 × 13.5-inch (342.9 mm) Mk V guns
16 × BL 4-inch (101.6 mm) Mk VII guns
4 × 3-pounder guns
3 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour: Belt: 8 to 12 inches
Decks: 1 to 4 inches
Barbettes: 3 to 10 inches
Turrets: 11 inch

This is the 1911 class; for the 1939 class see King George V class battleship (1939)

The King George V class battleships were a series of four Royal Navy battleships built just prior and serving in the First World War. The King George V class immediately followed the Orion class upon which they were based.

Contents

[edit] Design

They were of slightly larger displacement than the Orions; the extra tonnage allowed for some small enhancements were incorporated into the design. The most obvious differences of appearance compared to the Orions were the repositioning of the main mast and fore-funnel and the conspicuously slab sided funnels themselves.

They used the same 13.5-inch Mark V gun, but firing a slightly heavier (1,400 lb as against 1,250 lb) shell. Their Secondary armament was re-arranged to improve fire distribution ahead, which had been indicated by tactical modelling to be the most dangerous area for torpedo boat attacks.

Armour was slightly redistributed and, it was thought, improved. Underwater protection was also improved, although these changes did not save the Audacious when she stumbled into a single German mine late in 1914.

There were slight revisions to the superstructure and masts. Their powerplant was intended to give a design speed of 1-knot (2 km/h) more than the Orions. This gave them slightly easier speed, but in practice they steamed mostly in the company of slower ships anyway.

Overall, they were a successful design, although received without particular enthusiasm by the public and press. They had been substantially promoted as a great advance over the Orions. In particular, it was expected that they would carry 6 inch guns for secondary armament. In fact it was the subsequent Iron Duke class battleships that first received 6 inch secondaries.

[edit] Service

The ships remaining after the end of the First World War were all decommissioned in the 1920s to allow for the two Nelson class battleships under the Washington Naval Treaty. They carried the same armament as the Orion's.

[edit] Ships

Builder: HM Dockyard, Portsmouth
Laid down: 16 January 1911
Launched: 9 October 1911
Completed: November 1912
Operations: Battle of Jutland
Fate: Decommissioned in 1919 and scrapped in 1926
Builder: HM Dockyard, Devonport
Laid down: 16 January 1911
Launched: 18 November 1911
Completed: May 1913
Operations: Battle of Jutland, Operation Neptune
Fate: converted to target ship 1927 Converted to decoy 1941/42. Sunk as a breakwater in June 1944
Builder: Cammell Laird
Laid down: March 1911
Launched: 14 September 1912
Commissioned: August 1913
Operations:
Fate: Struck by mine off Northern Ireland, sank on 27 October 1914.
Builder: Scott's at Greenock
Laid down: 27 February 1911
Launched: 21 March 1912
Commissioned: 31 October 1913
Operations: Battle of Jutland
Fate: Decommissioned in 1924 and sold for scrap on 9 November 1926

[edit] See also

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King George V class battleship (1911)
Preceded by:Orion class · Followed by:Iron Duke class
List of battleships of the Royal Navy