HMS Vanguard (23)

HMS Vanguard was a British fast battleship built during World War II and commissioned after the end of the war. She was the only ship of her class and was the biggest, fastest and last of the Royal Navy's dreadnoughts,^[2] and the final battleship to be launched in the world. Work on the ship's design commenced before the war because the Royal Navy anticipated being outnumbered by the combined German and Japanese battleships in the early 1940s. The British had enough guns and gun turrets in storage to equip one battleship that could be built relatively quickly. The Lion-class battleship design was modified to suit the different main armament to save time, but the work was started and stopped several times during the war. Her design was revised several times, even after construction had begun, to reflect war experience and these changes prevented her from being completed during the war.

Vanguard's first task after completing her sea trial at the end of 1946 was, early the next year, to convey King George VI and his family on the first Royal Tour of South Africa by a reigning monarch.^[3] While refitting after her return, she was selected for another Royal Tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1948. This was cancelled, however, by King George's growing ill health, and Vanguard briefly became flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet in early 1949. After her return home in mid-1949, she became flagship of the Home Fleet Training Squadron. Throughout her career, the battleship usually served as the flagship of whichever unit she was assigned to. During the early 1950s, Vanguard was involved in a number of training exercises with NATO forces. In 1953 she participated in Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Review. While she was refitting in 1955, the Admiralty announced that the ship was going to be put into reserve upon completion of the work. Vanguard was sold for scrap in late 1959 and was broken up beginning in 1960.

Design and description

By early 1939 it was clear that the first two Lion-class battleships could not be delivered before 1943 at the earliest and that further battleship construction would be necessary to match the German and Japanese battleships already under construction. The main constraint of the construction of any new battleships was the limited capacity available to build large-calibre guns and their gun turrets. Using four twin 15-inch (380 mm) mountings in storage offered the possibility of bypassing this bottleneck and allowed the construction of a single fast battleship more quickly than building more Lion-class ships. The turrets were originally used by the battlecruisers Courageous and Glorious during World War I and were removed during the conversions of these ships to aircraft carriers in the 1920s. To save time, the Lion design was modified to accommodate the four turrets and preliminary design work began in July 1939. The flat transom stern was retained as it was estimated to improve speed at full power by ⅓ of a knot. This made Vanguard the only British battleship built with a transom stern.^[4][5]

Design work was suspended on 11 September after the start of World War II, but resumed in February 1940 after the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, expressed an interest in the ship. The design was modified to increase protection against shell splinters on the unprotected sides of the ship's hull, the armour of the secondary armament was increased to resist 500-pound (230 kg) semi-armour-piercing bombs and the splinter belt's thickness fore and aft of the main armour belt was reduced by 0.5 inches (12.7 mm) in compensation. A small conning tower was added aft and four Unrotated Projectile mounts were added to supplement the six octuple-barrel 2-pounder anti-aircraft mounts already planned.^[6]

More pressing commitments forced the preliminary design work to be suspended again in June and, when it resumed in October, the design was modified again in light of recent war experience. Greater fuel capacity was added and the armour protection improved, but these changes deepened the design's draught so that it exceeded the 34-foot (10.4 m) limit of the Suez Canal. The thickness of the main belt was reduced by 1 inch (25 mm) to save weight, but the primary method chosen to reduce the draught was to increase the beam by 2.5 feet (0.76 m). This exceeded the width of the docks at Rosyth and Plymouth, which severely limited the number of docks that could handle the ship, but these changes were approved by the Board of Admiralty on 17 April 1941.^[7]

Vanguard's design was revised again, while the ship was under construction in 1942, to reflect lessons learned from the loss of the King George V-class battleship Prince of Wales and operations with the other battleships. The space between the inboard and outboard propeller shafts was increased from 33.5 to 51.5 feet (10.2 to 15.7 m) to prevent a single torpedo from wrecking both shafts and watertight access trunks were added to all spaces below the deep waterline to prevent progressive flooding through open watertight doors and hatches as happened to Prince of Wales. This change and the relocation of some of the 5.25-inch (133 mm) ammunition handling rooms from the lower deck to the middle deck seriously delayed the ship's completion. The design requirement that the guns of 'A' turret be capable of firing straight ahead at 0° of elevation was sacrificed to allow her freeboard forward to be increased and her bow was reshaped to make it less prone to shipping water and throwing sea spray in head seas. The ship's fuel supply was increased to 4,850 long tons (4,930 t) to prevent the fuel shortage problems suffered by King George V and Rodney during their pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck. The Unrotated Projectile mounts were deleted from the design and the light anti-aircraft armament was increased to a total of 76 2-pounders in one quadruple and nine octuple mounts and 24 Oerlikon 20 mm cannon were also added in 12 twin mounts. Space for these was made available by removing the two floatplanes, the catapult, and their associated facilities.^[8][9]

A proposal was made in 1942 to convert Vanguard to an aircraft carrier and the Director of Naval Construction said that doing so along the lines of the Audacious class would present no major difficulties, but would require six months to redesign the ship. The proposal was formally rejected on 17 July.^[9]

General characteristics

Vanguard had an overall length of 759 feet 4 inches (231.4 m), a beam of 108 feet (32.9 m), and a draught of 36 feet (11.0 m) at deep load. She displaced 44,500 long tons (45,200 t) at standard load and 51,420 long tons (52,250 t) at deep load. The ship was significantly larger than her predecessors of the class, being almost 50 feet (15.2 m) longer and displaced about 6,000 long tons (6,100 t) more than the older ships at deep load. Some 2,200 long tons (2,200 t) of this was because Vanguard was overweight. The ship had a complete double bottom 5 feet (1.5 m) deep and she was divided into 27 main compartments by watertight bulkheads.^[10]

Vanguard was well regarded as a good seaboat, able to keep an even keel in rough seas. This was due to the large flare applied to the bows after experience with her predecessors, the King George V-class ships. The latter had been built with almost no sheer to the main deck forwards to allow 'A' turret to fire straight forward at zero elevation, resulting in a poor seaboat that took a lot of water over the bows. During NATO exercises in the 1950s Vanguard's main deck was dry in heavy North Atlantic swells while the forward turrets of American Iowa-class battleships were awash. At full load, Vanguard had a metacentric height of 8.2 feet (2.5 m).^[11]

As a fleet flagship, her complement was 115 officers and 1,860 men in 1947. Air conditioning was provided for many of the ship's control spaces and asbestos insulation was provided on exposed surfaces. Steam heating was provided for her armament, instruments, look-out positions and other equipment to make Vanguard suitable for operations in the Arctic. An Action Information Centre was fitted below the main armour deck with facilities to track aircraft and ships around Vanguard.^[12]

Propulsion

In the interests of saving time, the four-shaft unit machinery design from the Lion-class battleship was duplicated with alternating boiler and engine rooms.^[7] Vanguard had four sets of single-reduction geared Parsons steam turbines housed in separate engine rooms. Each set consisted of one high-pressure and one low-pressure turbine, driving a propeller that was 14 feet 9 inches (4.5 m) in diameter. The turbines were powered by eight Admiralty-type three-drum water-tube boilers in four boiler rooms at a working pressure of 350 psi (2,413 kPa; 25 kgf/cm²) and temperature of 700 °F (371 °C).^[13] The engines were designed to produce a total of 130,000 shaft horsepower (97,000 kW) and a speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph), but achieved more than 136,000 shp (101,000 kW) during the ship's sea trials in July 1946, when she reached a speed of 31.57 knots (58.47 km/h; 36.33 mph).^[14] After trials, the three-bladed propellers on the inboard shafts were replaced by five-bladed propellers in an unsuccessful attempt to reduce vibrations of the inboard propeller shafts.^[15]

Vanguard was designed to carry 4,423 long tons (4,494 t) of fuel oil and 427 long tons (434 t) of diesel fuel. With a clean bottom, she could steam at a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) for 8,250 nautical miles (15,280 km; 9,490 mi).^[14] The ship had four 480-kilowatt (640 hp) turbogenerators and four 450-kilowatt (600 hp) diesel generators that supplied the common ring main at 220 volts. Their total output of 3,720 kilowatts (4,990 hp) was the largest of any British battleship.^[16]

Armament

The ship's main armament consisted of eight 42-calibre BL 15-inch Mk I guns in four twin hydraulically powered gun turrets designated 'A', 'B', 'X' and 'Y' from bow to stern. When the turrets were modernised their maximum elevation was increased to +30°,^[9] although the guns were loaded at +5°. They fired 1,938-pound (879 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,458 ft/s (749 m/s); this provided a maximum range of 36,500 yards (33,400 m). Their rate of fire was two rounds per minute.^[17] Vanguard carried 100 shells per gun.^[18]

The 15-inch turrets had been designed when the customary practice was to place the magazine above the shell room and it was not cost-effective to modify the ammunition hoists to accommodate the opposite arrangement adopted after the Battle of Jutland demonstrated the dangers of the exposing the magazines to long-range gunfire. The ship was provided with a powder-handling room above the shell room to mimic the arrangement that turret's hoists were designed to handle and another set of hoists moved the propellant charges from the magazines to the powder-handling room. The charges were stowed in cases to reduce their exposure to fire.^[19]

The secondary armament consisted of sixteen 50-calibre QF 5.25-inch Mk I dual purpose guns in eight twin gun mounts.^[18] They had a maximum depression of −5° and a maximum elevation of 70°. They fired a 80-pound (36 kg) high-explosive shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,672 ft/s (814 m/s). Their normal rate of fire was about 7–8 rounds per minute. At maximum elevation, the guns had a maximum range of 24,070 yards (22,010 m).^[20] 391 rounds were provided for each gun.^[18]

Short-range air defence was provided by 73 Bofors 40 mm AA guns in a variety of mountings. Vanguard had ten sextuple-barrel power-operated mounts concentrated in the superstructure and stern, a twin-barrel mount on 'B' turret, and 11 power-operated single mounts on the upper deck and rear superstructure.^[18] All mounts could depress to −10° and elevate to a maximum of +90°. The 40-millimetre (1.6 in) gun fired a 1.97-pound (0.89 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,890 ft/s (880 m/s) to a distance of 10,750 yards (9,830 m). The gun's rate of fire was approximately 120 rounds per minute.^[21] Space was not available to stow the standard allowance of 1564 rounds per gun and Vanguard only carried 1269 rounds per gun.^[22] Two of the single guns on the quarterdeck were removed in 1949 and five others during a major refit in 1954. All of her multiple Bofors mounts were removed at this same time.^[23]

Fire control

Vanguard was unique among British battleships in having remote power control (RPC) for her main, secondary and the tertiary guns along with the Admiralty Fire Control Table Mk X for surface fire control of the main armament. There were two director control towers (DCT) for the 15-inch guns, each carrying a "double cheese" Type 274 fire-control radar for range finding and spotting the fall of shot. Each DCT could control all four turrets while 'B' turret could control 'A' and 'X' turrets. 'X' turret could only control 'Y' turret. There were four American Mark 37 DCTs for the 5.25-inch guns, each carrying the twin domes of Type 275 gunnery radar. Lastly, each Mark VI sextuple 40 mm Bofors mounting was provided with a separate CRBF ("close range blind fire") director fitted with a Type 262 radar, although the ship never mounted her complete outfit of those directors. The STAAG Mk II 40 mm Bofors mounting carried its own Type 262 on the mounting itself. Other radar sets carried were Type 960 air and surface search, Type 293 target indication and Type 277 height finding.^[24]

When the 15-inch gun turrets were modernised, their existing 15-foot (4.6 m) rangefinders were replaced by 30-foot (9.1 m) ones in all except for 'A' turret and they were fitted for RPC in azimuth only. The turrets were also provided with de-humidifying equipment and insulation to improve their habitability.^[9]

Protection

The ship's armour scheme was based on that of the King George V class with a thinner waterline belt and more splinter protection.^[25] Originally the belt armour was equal to that of the older ships, but it had to be reduced to offset weight increases when the design was modified to reflect wartime experience. The 460-foot (140.2 m)^[26] main belt was composed of Krupp cemented armour (KCA) 13 inches (330 mm) thick, but increased to 14 inches (356 mm) abreast the magazines. It was 24 feet (7.3 m) high and tapered to a thickness of 4.5 inches (114 mm) at the bottom edge of the belt. Fore and aft of the 12-inch (305 mm) transverse bulkheads that closed off the central citadel, the belt continued almost to the ends of the ship. Forward it tapered to a thickness of 2 inches (51 mm) and a height of 8 feet (2.4 m) and aft to the same thickness, but a height of 11 feet (3.4 m). At the aft end of the steering gear compartment was a 4-inch (100 mm) transverse bulkhead. After the Battle of the Denmark Strait in 1941, 1.5-inch (38 mm) non-cemented armour bulkheads were added on the sides of the magazines to protect them from splinters from any hits from diving shells that might have penetrated the ship's side beneath her belt.^[18][27]

When the gun turrets from the World War I-era battlecruisers were modernised, their KCA faceplates were replaced by new ones 13 inches thick and their roofs were replaced by 6-inch (152 mm) non-cemented armour plates. Their sides remained 7–9 inches (180–230 mm) in thickness. The barbettes for the 15-inch guns were 13 inches thick on the sides, but tapered to 11–12 inches (279–305 mm) closer to the centreline of the ship. The thickness of the side and roof armour of the 5.25-inch turrets was 2.5 inches (64 mm) in thickness. Their ammunition hoists were protected by armour 2–6 inches (51–152 mm) thick.^[28][29]

Intended to resist the impact of a 1,000-pound (450 kg) armour-piercing bomb dropped from a height of 14,000 feet (4,300 m), Vanguard's deck protection was identical to that of the King George V class. It consisted of six-inch non-cemented armour over the magazines that reduced to 5 inches (127 mm) over the machinery spaces. The armour continued forward and aft of the citadel at the lower-deck level. Forward it tapered in steps from five inches down to 2.5 inches near the bow. Aft, it protected the steering gear and propeller shafts with 4.5 inches of armour before tapering to a thickness of 2.5 inches near the stern. Unlike the Germans, French and Americans, the British no longer believed that heavy armour for the conning tower served any real purpose given that the chance of hitting it was very small; Vanguard's conning tower was therefore protected with 3 inches (76 mm) of armour on the face and 2.5 inches on the sides and rear. The secondary conning tower aft had 2 inches (51 mm) of armour on its sides.^[18][27]

Vanguard's underwater protection was enhanced when she was redesigned in 1942 to reflect the lessons learned when Prince of Wales was sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers. It still consisted of a three-layer system of voids and liquid-filled compartments meant to absorb the energy of an underwater explosion. It was bounded on the inside by the 1.75–1.5-inch (44–38 mm) torpedo bulkhead. Her enlarged oil tanks reduced the empty spaces that could flood and cause the ship to list and greater provision was made to pump these spaces out. The longitudinal bulkheads of the side protection system were raised one deck higher to further sub-divide the spaces behind the waterline armour belt. The side protection system had a maximum depth of 15 feet (4.6 m), but this decreased significantly as the ship narrowed at its ends. Over the length of the citadel, this system was found to be proof against 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of TNT during full-scale trials.^[30][31]

Career

Vanguard was laid down on 2 October 1941 by John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland, with the yard number of 567,^[32] and she was given an A1 priority after the Japanese invasion of Malaya in December in the hope of finishing her by the end of 1944. Construction of the light cruiser HMS Bellerophon and some merchant shipping was halted to expedite the ship's completion. This was unsuccessful because the bottleneck in building the ship was the amount of skilled labour working on the ship and these measures did not make more available.^[33] She was launched on 30 November 1944 by Princess Elizabeth and Captain William Gladstone Agnew assumed command on 15 October 1945. As a result of Japan's surrender, there was no need to rush her into service and the ship was not commissioned until 28 March 1946.^[34] Vanguard cost a total of £11,530,503, including £3,186,868 for the modernisation of the main armament.^[18]

After commissioning, the ship spent the next several months conducting sea trials and training until she began the necessary modifications to serve as a royal yacht in August for the forthcoming royal tour of South Africa.^[35][36] The Admiral's suite was reworked into accommodations for the Royal Family and their staff while the anti-aircraft mount on top of 'B' turret was replaced by a saluting platform. Agnew was promoted to Rear-Admiral with effect from 8 January 1947. The alterations were complete by December and Vanguard made a shakedown cruise into the Central Atlantic and made a port visit to Gibraltar on the return voyage. Initially escorted by the destroyers Orwell, Obedient, Offa, Opportune, and Rotherham, the ship rendezvoused with the Home Fleet to receive a 21-gun salute led by the battleships Nelson, Duke of York and the aircraft carrier Implacable on 1 February 1947. Later that morning, a Sikorsky R-4 helicopter landed aboard to pick up mail and photographic film.^[35]

Vanguard arrived in Cape Town on 17 February, escorted by the South African frigates Good Hope, Transvaal, and Natal on the last leg of her voyage. While the royal family toured the country on the first visit by a reigning monarch to South Africa, the ship exercised with ships of the South African and Royal Navies stationed there and made port visits to a number of South African cities. She sailed for home on 22 April and made brief visits to Saint Helena and Ascension Island en route. Vanguard arrived in Portsmouth on 11 May and Captain F. R. Parham relieved the newly promoted Agnew on 29 May. The ship began an overhaul in Devonport in July that lasted until August 1948. While she was refitting, Vanguard was tasked to carry the royal family on a tour of Australia and New Zealand,^[37] planned for January 1949. On 31 August, she began a shakedown cruise to the Mediterranean and returned to Devonport on 12 November.^[37][38] Around this time, Vanguard was considered, along with a number of other large warships, for conversion to carry anti-aircraft missiles, but nothing further was done along these lines.^[39]

George VI was now too ill for travel and the royal tour was indefinitely postponed later that month. Vanguard became the flagship of Admiral Sir Arthur Power, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet on 1 March 1949, and the ship made port visits to Algeria, France, Italy, Cyprus, Libya, Lebanon, Greece and Egypt before she arrived back at Devonport on 21 July. The newly promoted Rear Admiral Parham was relieved by Captain G. V. Gladstone a week later. The ship became the flagship of the Home Fleet Training Squadron under Rear Admiral Edward Evans-Lombe on 12 November. While returning from a brief training sortie to Gibraltar, Vanguard went to the aid of a small French merchantman whose cargo had shifted in a severe storm on 13 February 1950. The ship was able to tow SS Boffa until the storm abated, the cargo was redistributed and Boffa was able to resume her voyage under her own power. After reaching Weymouth Bay the following day, she saluted Vincent Auriol, President of France, during his state visit to Great Britain the next month.^[40]

Admiral Sir Philip Vian hoisted his flag as Commander in Chief, Home Fleet on 13 September 1950 and Vanguard joined the rest of Home Fleet on exercises with the Royal Canadian Navy and the Mediterranean Fleet. On 19 December, Admiral Vian transferred his flag to the carrier Indomitable which collided with Vanguard as the the carrier was docking at Gibraltar on 10 February 1951. The hole in the battleship's stern was not serious and Admiral Vian re-hoisted his flag in Vanguard shortly afterwards. After manoeuvres with Indomitable, during which her aircraft "sank" the battleship, the ship made port visits in Genoa and Villefranche-sur-Mer before returning for a brief refit in Devonport on 14 March. After completing her refit in May, she became flagship of the Home Fleet Training Squadron under Rear Admiral R. M. Dick at the Isle of Portland. Four months later the admiral transferred his flag to the carrier Indefatigable as Vanguard began another refit in preparation for becoming the flagship of Home Fleet again.^[41]

Buckingham Palace announced in November that King George VI was planning to take a short cruise for his health aboard Vanguard, which meant that her Admiral's suite again had to be modified to accommodate him and his staff. Captain John Litchfield assumed command on 21 December while the ship was still refitting, but the King died on 6 February 1952 before he could make his cruise. A detachment from the ship participated in his funeral procession before she departed for her post-refit shakedown cruise on 22 February. After exercising with Implacable, Indomitable and the fast minelayer Apollo, Vanguard returned home on 29 March. She became flagship of Home Fleet again on 13 May when Admiral Sir George Creasy hoisted his flag. She participated in exercises with the Dutch and American navies, before returning to Portsmouth for the holidays. Captain Litchfield was relieved by Captain R. A. Ewing on 19 January 1953 before departing the next day for a brief refit at Gibraltar. After its completion on 2 March, the ship trained with several of the Royal Navy's carriers before arriving back at Portsmouth on 25 March. Vanguard participated in Queen Elizabeth's Coronation Review at Spithead on 14 or 15 June. The following September, she participated in the NATO Exercise Mariner in the Denmark Strait.^[42]

Admiral Sir Michael Denny replaced Creasy as Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet on 5 January 1954 and Vanguard participated in Exercise Medflex A with Dutch and French ships in March. During the rest of the year she participated in anti-submarine and anti-aircraft exercises as well as making port visits to Oslo and Kristiansand, Norway and Helsingborg, Sweden. She was inspected on 11 July by King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden before returning home later that month. Admiral Denny struck his flag on 15 September and Vanguard sailed to Devonport for a £220,000 refit 10 days later. She was placed in reserve when it was completed in 1955 and she became flagship of the Royal Navy Reserve Fleet when Vice Admiral Richard Onslow hoisted his flag on 28 November. While moored in Fareham Creek, during her time in the reserve fleet, scenes for the film Sink the Bismarck! were filmed aboard,^[43] with Vanguard playing Bismarck.^[38]

The Admiralty announced on 9 October 1959 that Vanguard would be scrapped in 1960,^[38] considered obsolete and too expensive to maintain, and she was sold for £560,000 to the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain that year. On 4 August 1960, when she was to be towed from Portsmouth to the breakers yard at Faslane, Scotland, the whole of the Southsea sea front was packed with people to see her off. As she was being towed towards the harbour entrance, she slewed across the harbour and went aground near the Still & West pub. She was pulled off by five tugboats an hour later, and made her exit from Portsmouth. Five days later she arrived at Faslane and by mid-1962 Vanguard ceased to exist, the last British battleship to be scrapped.^[44]

Sections of 150-millimetre (5.9 in) thick steel plate were recovered from the scrapping of Vanguard and used for the shielding of the whole body monitor at the Radiobiological Research Laboratory (now DSTL) at Alverstoke, Gosport, Hampshire, England.^[45]

Notes and references

Bibliography

• Brown, David K.; George Moore (2003). Rebuilding the Royal Navy: Warship Design Since 1945. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-705-0. 
• Campbell, John (1985). Naval Weapons of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-459-4. 
• Garzke, William H., Jr.; Dulin, Robert O., Jr. (1980). British, Soviet, French, and Dutch Battleships of World War II. London: Jane's. ISBN 1-7106-0078-X. 
• McCart, Neil (2001). HMS Vanguard 1944–1960: Britain's Last Battleship. Liskeard, Cornwall: Maritime Books. ISBN 0-907771-83-1. 
• Pigott, Peter (2005). Royal Transport: An Inside Look at the History of Royal Travel. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 978-1-55002572-9. 
• Raven, Alan; Roberts, John (1976). British Battleships of World War Two: The Development and Technical History of the Royal Navy's Battleship and Battlecruisers from 1911 to 1946. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-817-4. 

External links

• HMS Vanguard website
• Maritimequest HMS Vanguard Photo Gallery
• Fry, Roger (2007 October). "HMS Vanguard: A short history of Britain’s last battleship". Vanguard: The Official Journal of the Royal Navy Association No. 10: 33. http://www.rna-10-area.net/files/VanguardOct07.pdf.