HMS Duke of York in March 1942, while escorting convoy PQ 12 |
|
| Career (UK) | |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | King George V-class battleship |
| Name: | HMS Duke of York |
| Namesake: | Duke of York |
| Ordered: | 16 November 1936 |
| Builder: | John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland |
| Yard number: | 554[1] |
| Laid down: | 5 May 1937 |
| Launched: | 28 February 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 4 November 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | November 1951 |
| Struck: | 18 May 1957 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in 1957 at Shipbreaking Industries, Ltd., Faslane, Scotland |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 42,046 long tons (42,721 t) deep load |
| Length: | 745 ft 1 in (227.1 m) (overall) 740 ft 1 in (225.6 m) (waterline) |
| Beam: | 103 ft 2 in (31.4 m) |
| Draught: | 34 ft 4 in (10.5 m) |
| Installed power: | 110,000 shp (82,000 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 8 Admiralty 3-drum small-tube boilers 4 sets Parsons geared turbines |
| Speed: | 28.3 knots (52.4 km/h; 32.6 mph) |
| Range: | 15,600 nmi (28,900 km; 18,000 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement: | 1,556 (1945) |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
Type 281 air warning radar Type 273 surface warning radar Type 284 radar. 4 x Type 285 gunnery radar. 6 x Type 282 radar for "pom-pom" direction. Radar's added between 1944-1945, Type 281B radar added. 2 x Types 277, 282 and 293 radars added.[2] |
| Armament: | 10 × BL 14 in (360 mm) Mark VII guns 16 × QF 5.25 in (133 mm) Mk. I DP guns 48 × QF 2 pdr 40 mm (1.6 in) Mk.VIII AA guns 6 × 20 mm (0.8 in) Oerlikon AA guns |
| Armour: | Main Belt: 14.7 inches (370 mm) Lower belt: 5.4 inches (140 mm) Deck: 5–6 inches (127–152 mm) Main turrets: 12.75 inches (324 mm) Barbettes: 12.75 inches (324 mm) Bulkheads: 10–12 inches (254–305 mm) Conning tower: 3–4 inches (76–102 mm).[3] |
| Aircraft carried: | 4 × Supermarine Walrus seaplanes |
| Aviation facilities: | 1 × double-ended catapult (removed early 1944) |
| Notes: | Pennant number 17 |
HMS Duke of York (pennant number 17) was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy. Laid down in May 1937, the ship was constructed by John Brown and Company at Clydebank, Scotland, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 4 November 1941, subsequently seeing service during the Second World War.
In mid-December 1941 Duke of York transported Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the United States to meet President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On 1 March 1942, Duke of York provided close escort for convoy PQ 12, along with the battlecruiser Renown, the cruiser Kenya and six destroyers. In October 1942, Duke of York was involved in the Allied invasion of North Africa, but saw little action as her role only required her to protect the accompanying aircraft carriers.
On 26 December 1943 Duke of York was part of a taskforce which made contact with the German battleship Scharnhorst. During the engagement which followed, Scharnhorst hit Duke of York a number of times, but was herself hit by several of Duke of York's 14-inch shells, silencing one of her turrets and hitting a boiler room. After temporarily escaping from Duke of York's heavy fire, Scharnhorst was struck several times by torpedoes, allowing Duke of York to again open fire, contributing to the eventual sinking of Scharnhorst after a running action lasting 10 and a half hours. In 1945 Duke of York was assigned to the British Pacific Fleet as its flagship, but suffered mechanical problems in Malta which prevented her arriving in time to see any action before Japan surrendered.
Duke of York was laid up in November 1951 and on 18 May 1957 she was ordered to be scrapped, which was carried out by Shipbreaking Industries, Ltd, in Faslane.
Contents |
The Terms of the 1930 Treaty of London extended the ban on battleship construction introduced in 1922, and by 31 December 1936 it was realised that Britain was woefully short of modern battleships. During this period the Admiralty set in motion plans for the construction of a new battleship class, resulting in the drawing up of designs for the King George V class. The proposed ships were projected to have limited armament as the Washington Treaty was still in effect. Because of the urgent need for battleships the Admiralty did not have enough time to re-work the plans to a more suitable 16-inch main gun arrangement.[4]
Duke of York was laid down at John Brown & Company's shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland, on 5 May 1937 and was launched on 28 February 1940. Duke of York was completed on 4 November 1941 and then joined the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow.[5]
Duke of York displaced 36,727 long tons (37,300 t) as built and 42,076 long tons (42,800 t) fully loaded. The ship had an overall length of 700 feet (213.4 m), a beam of 103 feet (31.4 m) and a draught of 29 feet (8.8 m). Her designed metacentric height was 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) feet at normal load and 8 feet 1 inch (2.46 m) feet at deep load.
She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines, driving four propeller shafts. Steam was provided by eight Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers which normally delivered 100,000 shaft horsepower (75,000 kW), but could deliver 110,000 shp (82,000 kW) at emergency overload.[N 1] This gave Duke of York a top speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph).[8][9] The ship carried 3,700 long tons (3,800 t) of fuel oil, which was later increased to 4,030 long tons (4,100 t).[5] She also carried 183 long tons (200 t) of diesel oil, 256 long tons (300 t) of reserve feed water and 430 long tons (400 t) of freshwater.[10] At full speed Duke of York had a range of 3,100 nautical miles (5,700 km; 3,600 mi) at 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph).[11]
Duke of York mounted 10 BL 14-inch (356 mm) Mk VII guns. The 14-inch guns were mounted in one Mark II twin turret forward and two Mark III quadruple turrets, one forward and one aft. The guns could be elevated 40 degrees and depressed 3 degrees. Training arcs were: turret "A", 286 degrees; turret "B", 270 degrees; turret "Y", 270 degrees. Training and elevating was done by hydraulic drives, with rates of two and eight degrees per second, respectively. A full gun broadside weighed 15,950 pounds (7,230 kg), and a salvo could be fired every 40 seconds.[12] The secondary armament consisted of 16 QF 5.25-inch (133 mm) Mk I dual purpose guns which were mounted in eight twin turrets.[13] The maximum range of the Mk I guns was 24,070 yards (22,009.6 m) at a 45-degree elevation, the anti-aircraft ceiling was 49,000 feet (14,935.2 m). The guns could be elevated to 70 degrees and depressed to 5 degrees.[14] The normal rate of fire was ten to twelve rounds per minute, but in practice the guns could only fire seven to eight rounds per minute.[15]
Along with her main and secondary batteries, Duke of York carried 48 QF 2 pdr (40-millimetre (1.6 in)) Mk.VIII "pom-pom" anti-aircraft guns in six octuple, power-driven, mountings. These were supplemented by six 20-millimetre (0.8 in) Oerlikon light AA guns in single, hand-worked, mounts.[16]
In mid-December 1941, Duke of York embarked Prime Minister Winston Churchill for a trip to the United States to confer with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She arrived at Annapolis, Maryland on 22 December 1941, made a shakedown cruise to Bermuda in January 1942, and departed for Scapa Flow on 17 January.[17]
On 1 March 1942 she provided close escort for convoy PQ 12 in company with the battlecruiser Renown, the cruiser Kenya, and six destroyers. On 6 March that force was reinforced with King George V, Victorious, Berwick, and six destroyer, since Admiral John Tovey believed that the German battleship Tirpitz might attempt to intercept the convoy. On 6 March the German battleship put to sea and was sighted by a British submarine around 19:40. No contact was made except for an unsuccessful aerial torpedo attack by aircraft from Victorious.[17]
In October 1942, Duke of York was sent to Gibraltar as the new flagship of Force H, and supported the Allied landings in North Africa the following month.[18] Duke of York came under air attack by Italian aircraft, but these were relatively small scale and swiftly dealt with by the "umbrella" provided by the aircraft from the accompanying carriers Victorious, Formidable and Furious. After this action Duke of York returned to Britain for a refit.[19]
Duke of York resumed her status as flagship from 14 May 1943 pending the departure of King George V and Howe for Operation Husky. Operation Gearbox in June 1943 involved a sweep by Duke of York and Anson, in company with the US battleships Alabama and South Dakota, to provide distant cover for minor operations in Spitsbergen and the Kola Inlet, while the following month diversionary Operations Camera and Governor of Norway were carried out in order to draw the Germans' attention away from Operation Husky.[19]
In 1943 the German battleship Scharnhorst moved to Norway, a position from which she could threaten the Arctic convoys to Russia. With the Tirpitz and two armoured ships also in Norwegian fjords, it was necessary for the Royal Navy to provide heavy escorts for convoys to or from Russia. One of these was sighted by the Germans in early December 1943, and it was believed that the following convoy would be attacked by the German surface ships. Two surface forces were assigned to provide distant cover to convoy JW 55B, which had left Loch Ewe on 22 December. On 25 December 1943, Scharnhorst was reported at sea. Force One cruisers, Belfast, Norfolk and Suffolk and four destroyers, made contact shortly after 09:00 on 26 December. A brief engagement occurred around 09:30, but Scharnhorst outdistanced her pursuers, and again outran them after a brief skirmish around noon.[20]
Meanwhile, Force two, including the Duke of York, the cruiser Jamaica and four destroyers, was closing and it was estimated that a night action with the Scharnhorst would commence around 17:15. Then Scharnhorst altered course, and at 16:32 contact was made, at a distance of 29,700 yards. Force two manoeuvred for broadside fire. Belfast, with Force One, fired starshells at 16:47 to illuminate Scharnhorst. This failed, so Duke of York fired a starshell from one of her 5.25-inch guns, taking Scharnhorst by surprise with her main battery trained fore and aft. By 16:50 Duke of York had closed to 12,000 yards and fired a full ten-gun broadside. Although under heavy fire, Scharnhorst straddled Duke of York a number of times and made two very close near misses. Splinters from these near misses came aboard Duke of York and one partially severed one of the legs of the tripod mainmast, which also destroyed a vital radar cable. A 5.9-inch shell passed through the port strut of the foremast.[21] At 16:55 a 14-inch shell had silenced turret Anton, while another struck at the waterline aft. Several seconds later a shell from Duke of York exploded in Scharnhorst's number one boiler room. Despite this damage, Scharnhorst regained speed and by 18:24 had opened the range to 21,400 yards, when Duke of York ceased fire after expending fifty-two broadsides.[22]
Force 2's destroyers then attacked with torpedoes, firing 28 torpedoes and scoring hits with three of the torpedoes. This slowed Scharnhorst down enough so that at 19:01 the Duke of York again opened fire, at a range of 10,400 yards. She ceased fire at 19:30 to allow the cruisers to close on Scharnhorst. Ten 14-inch shells had hit the German battleship, and these caused fires and the resulting explosions, knocked out turrets Anton and Bruno, and silenced almost all of the secondary battery. By 19:16 all of the main turrets aboard Scharnhorst had ceased fire and her speed had been cut to ten knots. Duke of York ceased fire at 19:30.[21] In the final stages of the battle British destroyers fired a total of 19 torpedoes at her, causing Scharnhorst to list badly to port, and finally sink at 19:45 after a running action lasting 10 and a half hours from the first positive sighting. She sank with the loss of over 1,700 men.[23] Following her sinking, and the retreat of most of the other German heavy units from Norway, the need to maintain powerful forces in British home waters was diminished.[17]
Duke of York operated in the Arctic and as cover for carriers in air strikes on the Tirpitz until September, when she was overhauled and partially modernized at Liverpool. Radar equipment and additional anti-aircraft guns were added. She was then ordered to join the British Pacific Fleet and sailed in company with her sister ship Anson on 25 April 1945. But a problem in Malta with the electrical circuitry delayed her. She reached Sydney on 29 July, too late to take any meaningful part in hostilities. She was present with King George V in Tokyo Bay for the surrender ceremonies. The following month she sailed for Hong Kong, to be present at the formal Japanese surrender there.[24] She was the flagship of the British Pacific Fleet when the Japanese surrendered, and remained so until June 1946, when she returned to Plymouth for an overhaul.[25]
Duke of York was flagship of the Home Fleet following the end of the war and remained in service until April 1949.[25] She was laid up in November 1951, and on 18 May 1957 she was ordered to be scrapped. She was broken up by Shipbreaking Industries, Ltd, in Faslane.[26]
During her career, Duke of York was refitted on several occasions to bring her equipment up-to-date. The following are the dates and details of the refits undertaken.[27]
| Dates | Location | Description of Work |
|---|---|---|
| April 1942 | Rosyth | 8 x single 20mm added.[28] |
| December 1942-March 1943 | Rosyth | 14 x single 20mm added.[29] |
| Early 1944 | 2x single 20mm removed; 2 x twin 20mm added.[29] | |
| September 1944-April 1945 | Liverpool | 2x 4-barrelled 40mm added, 2x 8-barrelled 2-pdr pom-pom added, 6x 4-barrelled 2-pdr pom-pom added, 14x twin 20mm added, 18x single 20mm removed, Aircraft facilities added.[28] Type 273 radar removed, Type 281 radar replaced by Type 281B radar, Type 284 radar replaced by 2x Type 274 radar; 2x Types 277, 282 and 293 radars added.[29] |
| 1946 | 4x 4-barrelled 2-pdr pom-pom added, 25 x single 20mm removed.[29] |
External links
|
|||||||||
