King George V class battleship - HMS King George V

From SN Guides

The name King George V

There have been two ships in the royal Navy bearing the name, the first is the name ship of the first class four King George V battleships built just prior to the first world war and is the subject of this article. The second also a battleship was the name ship of the second of five ships of the King George V class, the building program commenced in 1937 and was completed during the second world war, Britain built only one other battleship ( Vanguard) after this class.

this 1913 image of King george V, this image shows her with A, X & Y turrets trained out to port - image courtesy of MaritimeQuest

Class information

The four ships of the King George V class of the 1910 building program were to have been repeat Orion class, but the battle-cruiser Lion had been completed in May 1912 with her foremast ahead of the fore funnel, this proved to be a far better arrangement than that in the Orion’s were it was behind the funnel so the Orion plan was modified and the mast placed ahead of the fore funnel producing a new and much improved class of battleship, this must be a rare case where a battle-cruiser influenced the design of a battleship. The first two ships of the class, KGV and the Centurion were initially fitted with pole type foremasts but the advent of director firing needed a more substantial mast and they were refitted with heavier tripod masts although this refit in KGV herself did not occur until 1918, the Audacious and Ajax were fitted with tripod masts from the outset. Although the Orion and KGV classes were very similar the position of the mast easily distinguishes the two types. It was widely known that the 4” secondary guns of these ships, (and all preceding Dreadnought types) were far too light to deal with the newer and larger torpedo boats and destroyers that were appearing on the scene but the change to 6” guns would have added 2,000 tons to weight and increased the cost substantially so the Liberal Government of the day vetoed this improvement on the grounds of trying to keep the naval budget down. An overall view of these ships would be a fine well balanced battleship of handsome appearance but still lacking in deck and anti-torpedo protection.

Building data

Ordered under the 1910 naval programme KGV was laid down by the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard on the 16th January 1911 and launched on the 09th October 1911. She was commissioned into the Second Battle Squadron ( 2nd BS) as Flagship of the Home Fleet on the 16th November 1912.

Basic Details

Length 597'09" Beam 89'01" Draft 28'08" displacement 23, 000 tons standard and 25,700 tons full load Her crew originally amounted to 870 men but by Jutland this had risen to 1,110 men causing some over-crowding.

Although this image is officially dated as 1920 I feel this is wrong : quite clear in the Photograph are the anti-torpedo nets and booms , these were removed during WW1, circa 1916 due to the risk of their being damaged and fouling the propellors or steering, so this picture must predate 1916, it shows X & y turrets trained out on the port beam and gives a vivid idea of the size and length of these weapons 13.5" bore and C45 = 607.5" / 50'08" or 15.4 mts long. The thickening of the hull under the turrets is the side armour belt. Picture courtesy of MaritimeQuest

Machinery

The machinery arrangement for the King George V class was very similar to that of the earlier Orion class with quadruple propellers being driven by Parsons direct drive steam turbines. The machinery spaces were split into three with the inboard shafts leading to the centre engine room and the outer shafts the port and starboard wing engine rooms. The two inboard shafts were driven by the high pressure ahead and astern turbines with the ahead turbines having an extra stage for cruising, this was separated from the main turbine by a bypass valve. The outer shafts were driven by the ahead and astern low pressure turbines, for cruising the out board turbines would be shut down , the ship relying on the inboard shafts alone. The eighteen Babcock and Wilcox boilers of greater power remained in three groups of six , although coal fired oil spraying equipment was fitted for quickly raising steam. The normal power for KGV was 31,000 SHP giving 21 knots on her trials in late 1912 she attained just over 33,000 SHP which gave 22.4 knots .

Bunker capacity was up to 3,180 tons of coal and 800 tons of oil, this gave a range of 6,370 miles at 10 knots.

Finding details of the machinery layout of these old ships is quite daunting, I obtained details of the layout from studying a minute plan with a magnifying glass, the details are as accurate as I can get them for the moment SW 21 oct 2007

Armament

Main battery

Ten 13.5" C45 Mk5 guns were carried in five twin turrets all on the centre line with B and X superfiring over A and Y turrets , Q turret sited amidships was the only one with restricted firing arcs although B and X were still restricted from firing directly over A & Y due to the very real possibility of muzzle blast entering the lower turrets sighting hoods which were still placed in the forward ends of the turret roofs, because of this B & Y guns were restricted from firing over from right ahead / astern to 30 degrees either side.

The main battery of the KGV class was very similar to that of the preceeding Orion class battleships. Britain had learnt from the rather poor performance of the high velocity 12" C50 gun fitted to the St Vincent, Neptune and Colossus classes that higher velocity was not the answer to greater range and hitting power, the answer lay in a heavier shell. The 13.5" gun which had reappeared in the Royal navy after a gap of many years, and was first fitted in the Orion class, was an excellent weapon with very good range, accuracy and hitting power, it also had a good safety margin allowing it to fire a heavier shell, the increase from the 1260lb early shells fired by the Orions to the 1410 lbs heavy shell did not increase the range even though the propellant charge was now four quarter charges of almost 106 lbs of MD450 (rod based) cordite, the gun still had a maximum range of just under 24,000 yards. The barrel construction was of a liner in an inner tube (A) which was wire wound with many miles of flat wire, over this was shrunk a steel jacket, there were problems with wire winding, the barrel could droop and it is often quoted that the german solid guns were better made. Solid guns took a lot longer and much more machining to make whereas the wire wound gun was much quicker in manufacture. With a navy with such a large number of weapons speed of manufacture was of the essence and the Royal Navy never had supply problems for replacement barrells that the German navy had. There were five main magaines and an associated shell room, each serving it's own gun, there were 112 rounds for each gun so each magaine would hold 896 106lb quarter charges of cordite a total of 474,880 lbs of explosive and a total of 1,120 shells weighed 1,568,000 lbs or 700 tons. The excellent barrel life of 400 rounds for the lighter shell was reduced to 220 rounds, which was still good.

Secondary battery

Sixteen 4" C50 Mk7 guns were carried, mainly in casemate mounts, and mainly in the forward end of the vessel, most of the guns were mounted in the deck houses, but four of these guns were mounted in hull casemates forwards below the focsle deck and found to be useless in any kind of sea so were removed in 1915 reducing the battery to 12 guns, although these guns were a bit ineffectual in size the deck-house mounted weapons could at least be used in most weathers. Although the destroyers of the day were increasing in size and the range at which torpedoes could be fired was increasing the Liberal government of the day was trying to save weight and thus money the 6" secondary battery that was predicted and needed for the KGV class was never fitted. The class were also fitted with four 3 pounder signalling guns and in 1915 she was fitted with an extra pair of 4" HA AA guns on the quarter-deck.

Undated midships shot of KGV - courtesy of Maritimequest Although this picture is undated examination of the shell plating below A & B turrest shows that the two 4" casemate mounted guns situated just below the focsle deck are missing - these were removed in 1915 so the picture is post that time. Further examination shows that the torpedo nets are also missing - these were removed circa 1916 so we can this pic is some time in late 1915 to 1916

Torpedo armament

Three 21" submerged torpedo tubes were fitted with one on either beam and the third fitted in the stern, the torpedoes carried were the 21" Mk2 with a 515lb explosive charge of TNT. At 45 knots they had a range of just 4,500 yards rising to nearly 11,000 yards at 30 knots, in 1916 the stern tube was removed.

Armour Protection

The armour scheme of the KGV's was basically that of the orions but with slight improvements but by no means good, failings were still there. The relatively narrow beam of British capitals ships to maintain high speeds restricted the under water protection which was certainly deficient in comparison to 'say' comparable German ships, the torpedo (screen) bulkheads were still discontinuous over their length and rather to close to the outer hull but did cover a greater length than those on the Orion class. The side armour belt was, as in the Orion class, carried up to the upperdeck thus protecting the ship a little better from long range plunging shell fire, the Lower belt was of 12" thickness and the upper 8" of Krupp Cemented Armour ( KCA) The transverse armoured bulkheads were of 10" KNC whilst the torpedo bulkheads were a maximum of 3" KNC plate over the magazine and engine room areas but down to 1" in other areas, this defficient underwater protection was destined to let down one of the class leading to her loss.

The barbettes protecting the the turret traing gear and shell/ charge handling spaces was of 10" KNC whilst outside of other armour and tapering to 3" KNC when inside of other armour plating. The Gun houses ( turrets) had 11" faces but the side armour is not recorded, the decks ammounted to a maximum of 4" of non cemented armour over the magazines, machinery and other vulnerable spaces but tapering to just 1" in other areas.

Service History

On commissioning in November 1912 KGV joined the Home Fleet assuming the role of flagship of the 2nd BS with her and her three sisters ( Ajax, Audacious and Centurion) forming the 1st. Division. There were no incidents of any note in her earlier career and her time would have been spent on training and fleet exercises until the outbreak of war in 1914. Her one major action was Jutland on the 31st May and 01st June 1916 as part of the grand fleet under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe were she still lead the 1st. BS based on Cromarty under Vice admiral Sir Martyn Jerram, with Captain F. L. Field in command. The other ships in the 2nd. BS were, in order  : HMS Ajax - Capt. GH Baird, HMS Centurion - Capt. M Culme-Seymour and due to loss of Audacious in October 1914 due to a mine HMS Erin - Capt. VA Stanley.

KGV first came to action at Jutland at 1917, this lateness was due to the 2nd BS being on the eastern end of Jellicoes battle line and thus being furthest out from the action. She opened fire on the Derfflinger with one salvo of CPC ( Common Percussion cap) shell at 12,800 yards this was the only sighting she made of an enemy ship and although part of the fleet chasing Scheer’s ships as they fled southwards she was to have no further action and fired just 9 rounds of 13.5” all CPC, she did not use her 4” at all, she received no damage or injuries during the battle. Post Jutland her life was one of routine sweeps and patrols of the North Sea in 1919 she was decommissioned and became flagship of the reserve fleet at Devonport, in 1923 she re-commissioned as a gunnery training ship, this was a short lived commission and in 1926 she was decommissioned once more this time it was her final commission, Nelson and Rodney the two 16” gunned battleships of the Nelson class were to commission in late 1927, under the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty the four KGV class ships were to be sold for scrap, the one exception to this was the Centurion she was converted to a radio controlled target ship to replace the old 1906 pre-Dreadnought battleship Agamemnon which had been acting in this role since 1919. King George V was sold on the 09th November 1926 and scrapped during 1927.

This image of a post card of KGV is courtesy of Martimequest and shows her still with anti-torpedo nets plus the two casemate mounted 4" guns, the covering flaps can just be seen below B turret making this a pre 1915 image.

Bibliography

Bibliography:

1. IWM,
2. Jutland – John Campbell,
3. Jutland - Geoffrey Bennett,
4. Conway’s 1906-21
5. photographs courtesy of Maritimequest see website :- :http://www.maritimequest.com/index.htm

Article completed 12th November 2007 - by Steve Woodward