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HMS Iron Duke (1912)

HMS Iron Duke was a dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, the lead ship of her class, named in honour of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. She was built by Portsmouth Dockyard, and her keel laid in January 1912. Launched ten months later, she was commissioned into the Home Fleet in March 1914 as the fleet flagship. She was armed with a main battery of ten 13.5 in guns and was capable of a top speed of 21.25 kn.

Iron Duke served as the flagship of the Grand Fleet during the First World War, including at the Battle of Jutland. There, she inflicted significant damage on the German battleship SMS König early in the main fleet action. In January 1917, she was relieved as fleet flagship. After the war, Iron Duke operated in the Mediterranean as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet. She participated in both the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea and the Greco-Turkish War. She also assisted in the evacuation of refugees from Smyrna. In 1926, she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, where she served as a training ship.

Iron Duke remained on active duty for only a few more years; in 1930, the London Naval Treaty specified that the four Iron Duke-class battleships be scrapped or otherwise demilitarised. Iron Duke was therefore converted into a gunnery training ship; her armour and much of her armament was removed to render her unfit for combat. She served in this capacity until the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, when she was moored in Scapa Flow as a harbour defence ship. In October, she was badly damaged by German bombers and was run aground to avoid sinking. She continued to serve as an anti-aircraft platform for the duration of the war, and was eventually refloated and broken up for scrap in the late 1940s.

Design

The four Iron Duke-class battleships were ordered in the 1911 building programme, and were an incremental improvement over the preceding King George V-class battleship. The primary change between the two designs was the substitution of a heavier secondary battery in the newer vessels. Iron Duke was 622 ft long overall and had a beam of 90 ft and an average draught of 29 ft. She displaced 25000 LT as designed and up to 29560 LT at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of four Parsons steam turbines, with steam provided by eighteen Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The engines were rated at 29000 shp and produced a top speed of 21.25 kn. Her cruising radius was 7800 nmi at a more economical 10 kn. Iron Duke had a crew of 995 officers and ratings, though during wartime this grew to up to 1,022.

Iron Duke was armed with a main battery of ten BL 13.5 in Mk V naval guns mounted in five twin gun turrets. They were arranged in two superfiring pairs, one forward and one aft; the fifth turret was located amidships, between the funnels and the rear superstructure. Close-range defence against torpedo boats was provided by a secondary battery of twelve BL 6-inch Mk VII guns. The ship was also fitted with a pair of QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns and four 47 mm 3-pounder guns. As was typical for capital ships of the period, she was equipped with four 21 in torpedo tubes submerged on the broadside.

Iron Duke was protected by a main armoured belt that was 12 in thick over the ship's ammunition magazines and engine and boiler rooms, and reduced to 4 in toward the bow and stern. Her deck was 2.5 in thick in the central portion of the ship, and reduced to 1 in elsewhere. The main battery turret faces were 11 in thick, and the turrets were supported by 10 in thick barbettes.

Service history
Iron Duke was laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard on 12 January 1912 and launched on 12 October of that year. After completing fitting-out work, she began sea trials on 25 November 1913. The ship was completed in March 1914, and she joined the Home Fleet after completing her trials. In the Home Fleet, she served as the flagship of Admiral Sir George Callaghan. On 29 July 1914, as war loomed on the Continent, Iron Duke and the rest of the Home Fleet was ordered to proceed to Scapa Flow from Portland to safeguard the fleet from a possible German surprise attack.

World War I

In August 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, the Home Fleet was reorganised as the Grand Fleet; Iron Duke remained the flagship of the fleet, now under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. On the evening of 22 November 1914, the Grand Fleet conducted a fruitless sweep in the southern half of the North Sea; Iron Duke stood with the main body in support of Vice Admiral David Beatty's 1st Battlecruiser Squadron. The fleet was back in port in Scapa Flow by 27 November. Iron Duke and most of the fleet initially remained in port during the German raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914, though the 3rd Battle Squadron was sent to reinforce the British forces in the area. After receiving further information about the possibility of the rest of the German fleet being at sea, Jellicoe gave the order for the fleet to sortie to try to intercept the Germans, though by that time they had already retreated. Iron Duke went to sea with the 2nd and 4th Battle Squadrons for gunnery practice north of the Hebrides on 23 and 24 December. The following day, the rest of the fleet joined Iron Duke for a sweep in the North Sea, which concluded on 27 December.

Iron Duke and the rest of the fleet conducted gunnery drills on 10–13 January 1915 west of Orkney and Shetland. On the evening of 23 January, the bulk of the Grand Fleet sailed in support of Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, but Iron Duke and the rest of the fleet did not become engaged in the ensuing Battle of Dogger Bank the following day. Upon returning from the operation, Iron Duke went to Invergordon for refit; while she was away, HMS Centurion (1911) acted as the temporary fleet flagship. The work was completed by 23 February, after which she returned to Scapa Flow. On 7–10 March, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it conducted training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place on 16–19 March. On 11 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a patrol in the central North Sea and returned to port on 14 April; another patrol in the area took place on 17–19 April, followed by gunnery drills off Shetland on 20–21 April.

The Grand Fleet conducted a sweep into the central North Sea on 17–19 May without encountering any German vessels. On 25 May, Iron Duke carried Jellicoe to Rosyth to meet with Admiral Henry Jackson, the new First Sea Lord. Iron Duke returned to Scapa Flow on 28 May, in time to participate in another sweep into the North Sea on 29–31 May. After returning to Scapa Flow, Iron Duke immediately departed for Cromarty. The fleet conducted gunnery training in mid-June. Iron Duke, the 2nd Battle Squadron, and the 1st Cruiser Squadron conducted gunnery training at Cromarty on 2 August; after completing the drills, the ships returned to Scapa Flow. On 7 August, the ship again took Jellicoe to Cromarty for another meeting, this time with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith. Iron Duke was back in Scapa Flow by 16 August.

On 2–5 September, the fleet went on another cruise in the northern end of the North Sea and conducted gunnery drills. Throughout the rest of the month, the Grand Fleet conducted numerous training exercises. Iron Duke went to Invergordon on 1 October for another period of refitting—the work lasted until 11 October. Two days later, the majority of the fleet conducted another sweep into the North Sea, returning to port on 15 October. On 2–5 November, Iron Duke participated in another fleet training operation west of Orkney. Another such cruise took place on 1–4 December. Later in the month, Iron Duke took part in gunnery drills, and during them, conducted an experiment of sorts to determine the accuracy of the ship's gunners. Jellicoe concluded that the "result was very satisfactory."

Iron Duke collided with the tanker SS Prudentia (1889) on 12 January 1916 while in Scapa Flow, and the latter sank. The tanker had come loose during a severe gale, which had winds of up to 80 mph. Iron Duke was undamaged in the accident. The typical routine of gunnery drills and squadron exercises occurred in January. The fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February; Jellicoe had intended to use the Harwich Force to sweep the Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. On the night of 25 March, Iron Duke and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow to support the Battlecruiser Fleet and other light forces that raided the German zeppelin base at Tondern. By the time the Grand Fleet approached the area on 26 March, the British and German forces had already disengaged and a severe gale threatened the light craft. Iron Duke guided the destroyers back to Scapa while the rest of the fleet retired independently.

On 21 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a demonstration off Horns Reef to distract the Germans while the Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the Baltic Sea. The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a raid on Lowestoft. The Grand Fleet did not arrive in the area until after the Germans had withdrawn, however. On 2–4 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea.

Battle of Jutland

In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet, composed of 16 dreadnoughts, six pre-dreadnoughts, six light cruisers, and 31 torpedo boats, departed the Jade early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's five battlecruisers and supporting cruisers and torpedo boats. The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. The Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, totalling some 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. On the day of the battle, Iron Duke steamed with the 4th Battle Squadron, and was the 9th ship in the British line.

The initial action was fought primarily by the British and German battlecruiser formations in the afternoon, but by 18:00, the Grand Fleet approached the scene. At around 18:14, two large-calibre shells fell near Iron Duke but caused no damage. Fifteen minutes later, Iron Duke had closed to effective gunnery range—some 26000 yd—of the German fleet, and took the dreadnought SMS König under fire. Iron Duke's first salvo fell short, but the next three were on target; the ship's gunner claimed at least six hits on the German battleship. In fact, they had scored seven hits on König and inflicted significant damage.

Shortly after 19:00, fighting around the disabled German cruiser SMS Wiesbaden—which had been badly damaged earlier in the engagement—resumed. Iron Duke opened fire on the crippled cruiser and nearby destroyers with her secondary battery at 19:11 at a range of 9000 to 10000 yd. Iron Duke's gunners claimed to have sunk one of the destroyers and hit a second, but they had in fact missed their targets entirely. Shortly thereafter, the German destroyers attempted to launch a torpedo attack on the British line; Iron Duke began firing at 19:24. The sinking of the destroyer SMS S35 (1914) is credited to a salvo from Iron Duke, but determining which ship fired which shells in the melee is difficult, according to naval historian John Campbell.

Following the German destroyer attack, the High Seas Fleet disengaged, and Iron Duke and the rest of the Grand Fleet saw no further action in the battle. This was, in part, due to confusion aboard Iron Duke over the exact location and course of the German fleet; without this information, Jellicoe could not bring his fleet to action. At 21:30, the Grand Fleet began to reorganise into its nighttime cruising formation. Early on the morning of 1 June, the Grand Fleet combed the area, looking for damaged German ships, but after spending several hours searching, they found none. Iron Duke returned to Scapa Flow, arriving at 11:30. Over the course of the battle, Iron Duke had fired ninety rounds from her main battery, along with fifty rounds from her secondary guns.

Subsequent actions in the North Sea
On 18 August, the Germans again sortied, this time to bombard Sunderland; Scheer hoped to draw out Beatty's battlecruisers and destroy them. British signals intelligence decrypted German wireless transmissions, allowing Jellicoe enough time to deploy the Grand Fleet in an attempt to engage in a decisive battle. Both sides withdrew, however, after their opponents' submarines inflicted losses in the action of 19 August 1916: the British cruisers HMS Nottingham (1913) and HMS Falmouth (1910) were both torpedoed and sunk by German U-boats, and the German battleship SMS Westfalen was damaged by the British submarine HMS E23. After returning to port, Jellicoe issued an order that prohibited risking the fleet in the southern half of the North Sea due to the overwhelming risk from mines and U-boats unless the odds of defeating the High Seas Fleet in a decisive engagement were high.

In the aftermath of Jutland, the Royal Navy determined that horizontal protection, particularly over ammunition magazines, was insufficient. As a result, many ships in the Grand Fleet had additional armour installed; Iron Duke went into dock for this work in October. The work, which saw over 100 LT of armour added to the ship, was completed by December. On 28 November 1916, while she was still in dry dock, Admiral Beatty replaced Jellicoe as the commander of the Grand Fleet; Iron Duke served as his flagship until January 1917, when he transferred to HMS Queen Elizabeth (1913). In 1918, flying-off platforms for aircraft were installed on Iron Duke's "B" and "Q" turrets.

Post-war career

In March 1919, Iron Duke was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she again served as flagship. The ship went into the Black Sea in April to participate in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. While en route, the ship stopped in Constantinople on 7 April. There, Iron Duke was involved in the destruction of warships and other materiel that might be used by the Bolsheviks. On 12 May, Iron Duke travelled from Constantinople to Smyrna, where she provided a landing party to occupy some of the city's outer forts. She returned to the Black Sea, where she remained until June, when she returned to the Mediterranean.

Iron Duke returned to the Black Sea in late 1919. She arrived in Novorossiysk on 12 October, where she met the White Russian protected cruiser General Kornilov. On 14 October, the ship stopped in Sevastopol. Iron Duke returned to Novorossiysk on 19 January 1920. On 25 January, she stopped in the ports of Yalta and Sevastopol to inspect the situation of the White Russians there. On 17 June, shore parties from Iron Duke and the destroyer HMS Shark (1918) destroyed Turkish guns in the forts protecting the Bosporus on the Black Sea.

On 2 September 1922, Iron Duke was steaming to the Dalmatian coast for a training cruise, when she received news of the Greek defeat in Turkey. Admiral Osmond Brock, the Mediterranean Fleet commander, ordered Iron Duke to proceed to Smyrna, where he expected disturbances. There, she served as the flagship of the British naval forces participating in the evacuation of Greek refugees from the city. She was present during the Great Fire that devastated the city. During the chaos, a number of refugees managed to come alongside Iron Duke in small boats, and were brought aboard the battleship. The following month, the Allies held a conference aboard Iron Duke at Mudania to mediate the Greco-Turkish dispute. The ship thereafter proceeded to Constantinople.

In November 1924, Queen Elizabeth relieved Iron Duke as the Mediterranean Fleet flagship; Iron Duke was then transferred to the 3rd Battle Squadron, Mediterranean Fleet, where she became the squadron flagship. The 3rd Squadron was moved to the Atlantic Fleet in March 1926, where it was used as a training squadron. Iron Duke remained the squadron flagship during this period, until 30 May 1928, when she was relieved by her sister Benbow. In 1927, the Navy considered adding anti-torpedo bulges to Iron Duke and her sister ships, but the plan was discarded because the ships were due to be replaced in 1931–1932 under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the plan was not economical. That year, the aircraft launching-platform mounted on Iron Duke's "B" turret was removed. The ship went into dry dock in May 1928 for a periodic refit; the work lasted until May 1929. Two 4 in anti-aircraft guns were installed on the forward superstructure. The aircraft platform on "Q" turret was also removed during this period.

Iron Duke returned to service on 30 May 1929, when she was recommissioned as a gunnery training ship. She served in this capacity for only a year and a half, however. In November 1931, under the terms of the London Naval Treaty, Iron Duke was disarmed and converted into a gunnery training vessel. The work lasted until 21 September 1932, when she was commissioned for new sea trials. The ship's "B" and "Y" turrets were also removed, and several small guns of various types were installed atop "B" barbette. Two 4.7 in anti-aircraft guns were installed as well, but these were later removed in 1935. A high-angle director for the anti-aircraft guns was also added in place of the aft rangefinder. Over 2500 LT of steel from her belt armour was removed during the demilitarisation; in all, 4258 LT of material was removed from the ship and 202 LT added. The ship was recommissioned on 4 October 1932 at Devonport, again as a gunnery training ship. She was featured in the film Brown on Resolution, which was released in May 1935. On 16 July 1935, she was present at the Silver Jubilee fleet review at Spithead for King George V. She attended another Fleet Review, the coronation review for George VI, on 20 May 1937. In 1939, a twin QF 5.25-inch dual-purpose gun mount was installed aft of "Y" barbette.

Second World War

During the Second World War, she was used as a base ship and a floating anti-aircraft platform at Scapa Flow. Her secondary guns were removed and used for coastal defence around the base. On 17 October 1939, four Junkers Ju 88 medium bombers attacked Scapa Flow, and damaged Iron Duke with several near misses. To prevent her from sinking, her crew had to run the ship aground. On 16 March 1940 the ship, which was still beached, was attacked again by Luftwaffe aircraft. This time, eighteen Ju 88s attacked the harbour and surrounding installations. Iron Duke was again badly damaged, as was the heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk (78).

The ship's presence in Scapa Flow may have affected the Germans' plans during Operation Rheinübung, the Atlantic sortie of the battleship GERMAN BATTLESHIP Bismarck in May 1941. German aerial reconnaissance spotted Iron Duke and two decoy battleships, merchant ships that had been camouflaged with wood and canvas to look like Revenge-class battleships, in the harbour, and erroneously identified them as active units of the Home Fleet. Under the mistaken impression that the heavy units of the Home Fleet were still in port, the German fleet commander, Günther Lütjens, decided to break into the Atlantic via the Denmark Strait, which resulted in the Battle of the Denmark Strait.

The ship was later repaired and returned to service as a harbour ship for the duration of the war, though she remained beached. Iron Duke remained in the Royal Navy inventory until March 1946, when she was sold for scrapping to Metal Industries, still beached in Scapa Flow. The ship was refloated on 19 April 1946 and transferred to Faslane on 19 August. In September 1948, she was re-sold and moved to Glasgow, arriving on 30 November 1948, and subsequently broken up for scrap. Iron Duke's bell is on display at Winchester Cathedral. Some of the ship's timbers were used to create commemorative souvenirs, often bearing a plaque describing their origin.

title: HMS Iron Duke (1912)


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HMS Marlborough (1912)

HMS Marlborough was an Iron Duke-class battleship of the Royal Navy, named in honour of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. She was built at Devonport Royal Dockyard between January 1912 and June 1914, entering service just before the outbreak of the First World War. She was armed with a main battery of ten 13.5 in guns and was capable of a top speed of 21.25 kn.

Marlborough served with the Grand Fleet for the duration of the war, primarily patrolling the northern end of the North Sea to enforce the blockade of Germany. She saw action at the Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916), where she administered the coup de grâce to the badly damaged German cruiser SMS Wiesbaden. During the engagement, Wiesbaden hit Marlborough with a torpedo that eventually forced her to withdraw. The damage to Marlborough was repaired by early August, though the last two years of the war were uneventful, as the British and German fleets adopted more cautious strategies due to the threat of underwater weapons.

After the war, Marlborough was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she took part in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea in 1919–1920, and she rescued members of the Imperial Family from Yalta in 1919. She was also involved in the Greco-Turkish War. In 1930, the London Naval Treaty mandated that the four Iron Duke-class battleships be discarded; Marlborough was used for a variety of weapons tests in 1931–1932, the results of which were incorporated into the reconstruction programme for the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships.

Design

The four Iron Duke-class battleships were ordered in the 1911 building programme, and were an incremental improvement over the preceding King George V-class battleship. The primary change between the two designs was the substitution of a heavier secondary battery in the newer vessels. Marlborough was 622 ft long overall and had a beam of 90 ft and an average draught of 29 ft. She displaced 25000 LT as designed and up to 29560 LT at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of four Parsons steam turbines, with steam provided by eighteen Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The engines were rated at 29000 shp and produced a top speed of 21.25 kn. Marlborough's cruising radius was 7800 nmi at a more economical 10 kn. She had a crew of 995 officers and ratings; during wartime this increased to up to 1,022.

The ship was armed with a main battery of ten BL 13.5 in Mk V naval guns mounted in five twin gun turrets. They were arranged in two superfiring pairs, one forward and one aft; the fifth turret was located amidships, between the funnels and the rear superstructure. Close-range defence against torpedo boats was provided by a secondary armament of twelve BL 6 in Mk VII guns. Marlborough was also fitted with a pair of QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns and four 47 mm 3-pounder guns. As was typical for capital ships of the period, she was equipped with four 21 in torpedo tubes submerged on the broadside.

Marlborough was protected by a main armoured belt that was 12 in thick over the ship's ammunition magazines and engine and boiler rooms, and reduced to 4 in toward the bow and stern. Her deck was 2.5 in thick in the central portion of the ship, and reduced to 1 in elsewhere. The main battery turret faces were 11 in thick, and the turrets were supported by 10 in thick barbettes.

Service history
Marlborough was laid down at Devonport Royal Dockyard on 25 January 1912. She was launched nearly ten months later, on 24 October, and was commissioned on 2 June 1914. The ship was completed on 16 June 1914, a month before the First World War broke out on the Continent. Marlborough initially joined the Home Fleets, where she served as the flagship for Sir Lewis Bayly. Following the British entry into the war in August, the Home Fleets was reorganised as the Grand Fleet, commanded by Admiral John Jellicoe. Marlborough was assigned as the flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron, where she served for the duration of the conflict.

First World War

On the evening of 22 November 1914, the Grand Fleet conducted a fruitless sweep in the southern half of the North Sea to support Vice Admiral David Beatty's 1st Battlecruiser Squadron. The fleet was back in port at Scapa Flow by 27 November. Marlborough and most of the fleet initially remained in port during the German raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914, though the 3rd Battle Squadron was sent to reinforce the British forces in the area. After receiving further information about the possibility of the rest of the German fleet being at sea, Jellicoe gave the order for the fleet to sortie to try to intercept the Germans, though by that time they had already retreated. Vice Admiral Cecil Burney replaced Bayley aboard Marlborough in December; at that time, Marlborough became the second-in-command flagship for the Grand Fleet. On 25 December, the fleet sortied for a sweep in the North Sea, which concluded on 27 December without event. Marlborough and the rest of the fleet conducted gunnery drills during 10–13 January 1915 west of Orkney and Shetland. On the evening of 23 January, the bulk of the Grand Fleet sailed in support of Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet but the rest of the fleet did not become engaged in the ensuing Battle of Dogger Bank the following day.

On 7–10 March 1915, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it undertook training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place during 16–19 March. On 11 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a patrol in the central North Sea and returned to port on 14 April; another patrol in the area took place during 17–19 April, followed by gunnery drills off Shetland on 20–21 April. The Grand Fleet conducted a sweep into the central North Sea during 17–19 May without encountering German vessels. Another patrol followed during 29–31 May; it too was uneventful. The fleet conducted gunnery training in mid-June. During 2–5 September, the fleet went on another cruise in the northern end of the North Sea and conducted gunnery drills. Throughout the rest of the month, the Grand Fleet conducted numerous training exercises.

On 13 October, the majority of the fleet conducted a sweep into the North Sea, returning to port on 15 October. During 2–5 November, Marlborough participated in a fleet training operation west of Orkney. Another such cruise took place during 1–4 December. The typical routine of gunnery drills and squadron exercises occurred in January 1916. The fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February; Jellicoe had intended to use the Harwich Force to sweep the Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. On the night of 25 March, Iron Duke and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow, to support the Battlecruiser Fleet and other light forces that raided the German zeppelin base at Tondern.

On 21 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a demonstration off Horns Reef to distract the Germans, while the Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the Baltic Sea. The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled, before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a raid on Lowestoft. The Grand Fleet did not arrive in the area until after the Germans had withdrawn. During 2–4 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea.

Battle of Jutland

In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet with 16 dreadnoughts, six pre-dreadnoughts, six light cruisers and 31 torpedo boats commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, departed the Jade early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's five battlecruisers and supporting cruisers and torpedo boats. The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. The Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet of 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. On the day of the battle, Marlborough was stationed toward the rear of the British line in the 6th Division of the 1st Battle Squadron.

The initial action was fought primarily by the British and German battlecruiser formations in the afternoon, but by 18:00, the Grand Fleet approached the scene. Fifteen minutes later, Jellicoe gave the order to turn and deploy the fleet for action. The transition from their cruising formation caused congestion with the rear divisions, forcing Marlborough and many of the other ships to reduce speed to 8 kn to avoid colliding with each other. The British ships initially had poor visibility and Marlborough could only faintly make out a group of German Kaiser-class battleships at 18:17. In the span of four minutes, she fired seven salvos, first at 10000 yd and then at 13000 yd. Marlborough's gunners claimed to have made hits with the fifth and seventh salvos, but these claims are unlikely. Her guns were then masked by a burning cruiser, probably the armoured cruiser HMS Warrior (1905).

Marlborough joined the group of battleships battering the German light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden at 18:25. She fired five salvos, before a premature detonation in the right barrel of "A" turret disabled the gun. She also engaged the ship with her secondary battery. At 18:39, Marlborough again engaged what appeared to be a Kaiser-class ship, firing a salvo before the German vessel disappeared into the haze. During the engagement with Wiesbaden, the German cruiser launched one or two torpedoes at around 18:45, one of which struck Marlborough around the starboard diesel generator room. The detonation tore a 28 ft hole in the hull and causing significant flooding, that forced the forward boilers on that side of the ship to be extinguished and reduced the ship's speed to 16 kn. Burney initially reported to Jellicoe that his ship had struck a mine or had been hit by a torpedo at 18:57. Several more torpedoes, this time from the torpedo boat SMS V48, forced Marlborough and the rest of the ships in her division to take evasive action.

At 19:03, Marlborough engaged Wiesbaden again, firing four salvos at ranges of 9500 to 9800 yd. She hit the German cruiser with probably three shells from the last two salvos and these finally neutralised the ship, although it took several more hours before Wiesbaden sank. Marlborough then shifted fire to the König-class battleships leading the German line at 19:12. She fired thirteen salvos in the span of six minutes at SMS Grosser Kurfürst (1913) at ranges of 10200 to 10750 yd, scoring three hits, though she incorrectly claimed a fourth hit. During this phase of the battle, Marlborough fired two torpedoes, both of which missed their targets: the first at Wiesbaden at 19:10 and the second at SMS Kaiser (1911) at 19:25.

By about 19:30, Marlborough's pumps had contained the flooding in the boiler rooms but she took on a list of around 7–8 degrees. Instead of using counter-flooding to minimise the list, her crew attempted to correct the list by using coal and oil from the starboard bunkers first. The list caused the generators supplying power to the main battery turrets to flood, hampering the gun crews, particularly as shells were transferred from the magazines to the turrets. The blast from the torpedo was so powerful that forty watertight compartments were damaged, though the torpedo bulkhead localised most of the damage and the more badly damaged compartments were sufficiently shored up. Three more torpedoes approached Marlborough at 19:33. She evaded the first two and the third harmlessly passed under the ship.

After the opposing fleets disengaged late in the day, the Grand Fleet steamed south in an attempt to cut off the retreating Germans and destroy them the following morning. The 6th Division was slowed down by Marlborough, which could make no more than 15.75 kn by this point. By around 02:00 on 1 June, the 6th Division was about 12 nmi behind the rest of the fleet. At that time, the bulkheads in the starboard forward boiler room started to give way under the strain, forcing Marlborough to reduce speed to 12 kn. The damage control teams believed that if the main battery were to fire, the shoring supporting the damaged bulkheads would give way, greatly increasing the risk to the ship. Jellicoe detached the ship to proceed independently to Rosyth or the Tyne; Burney had ordered the scout cruiser HMS Fearless (1912) to come alongside to transfer him to the battleship HMS Revenge (06). Marlborough thereafter proceeded northward at a speed of 11 kn.

Fearless rejoined Marlborough around 04:00 and both ships briefly fired at the German zeppelin L11. Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt's Harwich Force had been ordered to reinforce the Grand Fleet, particularly to relieve ships low on fuel; they departed at 03:50 but this was too late for them to reach the fleet by morning, so Jellicoe ordered Tyrwhitt to detach destroyers to escort Marlborough back to port. On the way, Marlborough and Fearless encountered the British submarines HMS G3 and HMS G5; the two submarines prepared to attack the ships but fortunately recognised them before they launched torpedoes. By 15:00, eight destroyers from the Harwich Force had joined Marlborough and another pump had been lowered into the flooded boiler room. At around 23:30, the pump was being moved to clean it when the roll of the ship threw the pump into the damaged bulkhead, knocking the shores loose. Water flooded into the ship and Marlborough's captain ordered Fearless and the destroyers to prepare to come alongside, to rescue the crew if the flooding worsened at 00:47 on 2 June. A diver was sent into the boiler room at that time, and he was able to keep the pump clean, which slowly reduced the water level in the ship.

Jellicoe ordered Marlborough to proceed to the Humber for temporary repairs. While there, her forward main battery and 6-inch magazines were emptied to lighten the ship, more pumps were brought aboard and the shoring supporting the damaged bulkhead was reinforced. On the morning of 6 June, the ship left the Humber for the Tyne, where she would receive permanent repairs, escorted by four destroyers from the Harwich Force. In the course of the battle, Marlborough had fired 162 shells from her main battery, 60 rounds from her secondary guns and five torpedoes. The torpedo hit had killed two men and wounded another two. She was repaired by the Armstrong Whitworth shipyard at Jarrow, with the work lasting until 2 August, after which she departed for Cromarty, arriving on 5 August. During the repair work, an extra 100 MT of armour plating was added to the ship, primarily over the magazines. These alterations were the result of the British experience at Jutland, where three battlecruisers had been destroyed by magazine explosions.

Later operations
On 18 August, the Germans again sortied, this time to bombard Sunderland; Scheer hoped to draw out Beatty's battlecruisers and destroy them. British signals intelligence decrypted German wireless transmissions, allowing Jellicoe enough time to deploy the Grand Fleet in an attempt to engage in a decisive battle. Both sides withdrew the following day, after their opponents' submarines inflicted losses in the action of 19 August: the British cruisers HMS Nottingham (1913) and HMS Falmouth (1910) were both torpedoed and sunk by German U-boats and the German battleship SMS Westfalen was damaged by the British submarine HMS E23. After returning to port, Jellicoe issued an order that prohibited risking the fleet in the southern half of the North Sea due to the overwhelming risk from mines and U-boats.

In February 1917, Revenge replaced Marlborough as the 1st Battle Squadron flagship; she thereafter served as the second command flagship. She was briefly replaced in this role by HMS Emperor of India in May and she temporarily became a private ship. Toward the end of the year, the Germans began using destroyers and light cruisers to raid the British convoys to Norway; this forced the British to deploy capital ships to protect the convoys. On 23 April 1918, the German fleet sortied in an attempt to catch one of the isolated British squadrons, though the convoy had already passed safely. The Grand Fleet sortied too late the following day to catch the retreating Germans, though the battlecruiser SMS Moltke was torpedoed and badly damaged by the submarine HMS E42. In 1918, Marlborough and her sisters received flying-off platforms on their "B" and "Q" turrets to handle reconnaissance aircraft.

Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, the Allies interned most of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow. The fleet rendezvoused with the British light cruiser HMS Cardiff (D58), which led the ships to the Allied fleet that was to escort the Germans to Scapa Flow. The massive fleet consisted of some 370 British, American, and French warships. The fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations that ultimately produced the Treaty of Versailles. Reuter believed that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June 1919, which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty. That morning, the Grand Fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training manoeuvres and while they were away Reuter issued the order to scuttle the High Seas Fleet.

Postwar career
On 12 March 1919, Marlborough was recommissioned at Devonport and assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, as part of the 4th Battle Squadron, along with her three sisters and two King George V-class battleships, Centurion and Ajax. During this period, she served in the Black Sea during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War to support the Whites against the Red Bolsheviks. On 5 April 1919, Marlborough arrived in Sevastopol before proceeding to Yalta the following day. The ship took Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and other members of the deposed Russian Imperial Family including Grand Duchess Xenia, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, Prince Andrei Alexandrovich, Princess Andrei Romanovskya, Princess Irina Alexandrovna, Prince Felix Yusupov, and Princess Irina Yusupova aboard in Yalta on the evening of the 7th. The Empress refused to leave unless the British also evacuated wounded and sick soldiers, along with any civilians that also wanted to escape the advancing Bolsheviks. The Russian entourage aboard Marlborough numbered some 80 people, including 44 members of the Royal Family and nobility, with a number of governesses, nurses, maids and manservants, plus several hundred cases of luggage. Officer's cabins were vacated and more bunks installed in some. The Empress took over the Captain's cabin. On the morning of 12 April the ship anchored off Halki Island, about 12 mi from Constantinople, due to doubt over the family's destination. On 16 April members of the family and their servants left the ship for HMS Lord Nelson destined for Genoa. They were replaced by other members of the nobility who were taken to Malta. The ship departed on 18 April, bound for Malta to deposit the Russians, before returning to Constantinople.

In May 1919, Marlborough conducted tests with new high-explosive 6-inch shells off the Kerch Peninsula, though these proved to be unreliable. During this period, she operated a kite balloon to aid in spotting the fall of shot. Later that month, a shell broke up in the left barrel of "A" turret and caused minor damage. While stationed off the Kerch Peninsula, the ship provided artillery support to White troops, including bombardments of Bolshevik positions in the villages of Koi-Asan and Dal Kamici. By 1920, British attention had turned to the Greco-Turkish War. On 20 June 1920, Marlborough arrived in Constantinople, where the Mediterranean Fleet was being concentrated to support the occupation of the city. On 6 July, British forces landed at Gemlik, while Marlborough provided artillery support.

In October 1920, the battleship HMS King George V (1911) arrived to replace Marlborough in the Mediterranean Fleet. Marlborough then returned to Devonport, where she was paid off for a major refit that took place between February 1921 and January 1922. During the refit, range dials were installed, along with another range-finder on the rear superstructure. The aircraft platform was removed from "B" turret. Long-base range-finders were installed on "X" turret. After completing the refit in January 1922, Marlborough was recommissioned and assigned to the Mediterranean, where she replaced Emperor of India. She served as the second command flagship until October. Following the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the Allied countries withdrew their occupation forces from Turkey; Marlborough was involved in escorting the troop convoys out of Constantinople.

Marlborough briefly served as the flagship for the deputy commander of the 4th Battle Squadron after King George V was damaged from striking a rock off Mytilene. In November 1924, the 4th Battle Squadron was renamed the 3rd Battle Squadron. In March 1926, the 3rd Battle Squadron, including Marlborough, was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet. There, the battleships served as training ships. In 1929, the ship's 3-inch anti-aircraft guns were replaced with more powerful 4-inch guns. In January 1931, Marlborough served as the squadron flagship, relieving Emperor of India. She remained in the position for only five months, being decommissioned on 5 June. According to the terms of the London Naval Treaty of 1930, the four ships of the Iron Duke class were to be scrapped or demilitarised; Marlborough was scheduled to be removed from service in 1931 and broken up for scrap.

The ship was used as a target to test the effect of various weapons on capital ships, along with Emperor of India. The tests included firing destroyer armament at the upper works at close range to test their effectiveness in a simulated night engagement, direct hits from 13.5-inch shells, bomb tests, and experiments with flash tightness in the magazines. The first two tests were conducted in July 1931, and were simulations of magazine explosions. The venting system worked as designed, and while the explosions caused serious internal damage, Marlborough was not destroyed, as the three battlecruisers had been at Jutland. In 1932, further tests were conducted with dummy 250 lb and 500 lb bombs to test deck strength; 450 lb armour-piercing (AP) bombs and 1080 lb high explosive (HE) bombs were then detonated inside the ship to test their effectiveness. The Royal Navy determined that the HE bombs were useless, but that thick deck armour would be required to defeat AP bombs. This led to the decision to reinforce the deck armour of existing battleships throughout the 1930s.

Marlborough was placed on the disposal list in May 1932 and was quickly sold to the Alloa Shipbreaking Co. On 25 June, she arrived in Rosyth, where she was broken up for scrap.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: HMS Marlborough (1912)


text:
HMS Benbow (1913)

HMS Benbow was the third of four Iron Duke-class battleships of the Royal Navy, the third ship to be named in honour of Admiral John Benbow. Ordered in the 1911 building programme, the ship was laid down at the William Beardmore and Company shipyard in May 1912, was launched in November 1913, and was completed in October 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. The four Iron Dukes were very similar to the preceding King George V-class battleship, with an improved secondary battery. She was armed with a main battery of ten 13.5 in guns and twelve 6 in secondary guns. The ship was capable of a top speed of 21.25 kn, and had a 12 in thick armoured belt.

Benbow served in the Grand Fleet as the flagship of the 4th Battle Squadron during the war. She was present during the largest naval action of the war, the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, though she was not heavily engaged. She sortied twice more, in August 1916 and April 1918 in attempts to catch the German High Seas Fleet in another major battle, but neither produced any significant action. After the end of the war in 1918, Benbow and the rest of the 4th Squadron were reassigned to the Mediterranean Fleet. There, she took part in operations in the Black Sea in support of White Russians in the Russian Civil War until mid-1920, when the Mediterranean Fleet began supporting Greek forces during the Greco-Turkish War. In 1926, Benbow was reassigned to the Atlantic Fleet. She was decommissioned in 1929, placed on the sale list in September 1930, and sold for scrap the following year.

Design

The four Iron Duke-class battleships were ordered in the 1911 building programme, and were an incremental improvement over the preceding King George V-class battleship. The primary change between the two designs was the substitution of a heavier secondary battery in the newer vessels. Benbow was 622 ft long overall, and she had a beam of 90 ft and an average draught of 29 ft. She displaced 25000 LT as designed and up to 29560 LT at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of four Parsons steam turbines, with steam provided by eighteen Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Benbow had a fuel storage capacity of 3200 LT of coal and 1030 LT of oil. The engines were rated at 29000 shp and produced a top speed of 21.25 kn. Her cruising radius was 7800 nmi at a more economical 10 kn. Benbow had a crew of 995 officers and ratings, though during wartime this grew to up to 1,022.

Benbow was armed with a main battery of ten BL 13.5 in Mk V naval guns mounted in five twin gun turrets all on the centerline. They were arranged in two superfiring pairs, one forward with "A" and "B" turrets and one aft of the superstructure with "X" and "Y" turrets; the fifth turret, "P", was located amidships, between the funnels and the rear superstructure. Close-range defence against torpedo boats was provided by a secondary battery of twelve BL 6-inch Mk VII guns, which were mounted in casemates in the hull clustered around the forward superstructure. The ship was also fitted with a pair of QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns and four 47 mm 3-pounder guns. As was typical for capital ships of the period, she was equipped with four 21 in torpedo tubes submerged on the broadside.

Benbow was protected by a main armoured belt that was 12 in thick over the ship's ammunition magazines and engine and boiler rooms, and reduced to 4 in toward the bow and stern. Her deck was 2.5 in thick in the central portion of the ship, and reduced to 1 in elsewhere. The main battery turret faces were 11 in thick, and the turrets were supported by 10 in thick barbettes.

First World War
The keel for Benbow was laid down at the William Beardmore and Company shipyard on 30 May 1912. Her completed hull was launched on 12 November 1913, and fitting out work was completed by October 1914, just two months after the outbreak of the First World War. On 1 December, Benbow and her sister ship HMS Emperor of India arrived at the 4th Battle Squadron to begin working up, before being pronounced fit for service with the fleet on 10 December. During this period, the rearmost 6-inch guns were removed from the four Iron Duke-class ships and their casemates were sealed off, as they were too low in the hull and permitted water to continually enter the ship. On the 10th, she replaced HMS Dreadnought (1906) as the flagship of the 4th Squadron. On 23–24 December, the 4th and 2nd Squadrons conducted gunnery practice north of the Hebrides. The following day, the entire fleet sortied for a sweep in the North Sea, which concluded on 27 December; this was Benbow's first fleet operation.

Another round of gunnery drills followed on 10–13 January 1915 west of Orkney and Shetland, this time with the entire fleet. On the evening of 23 January, the bulk of the Grand Fleet sailed in support of Vice Admiral David Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, but the main fleet did not become engaged in the Battle of Dogger Bank that took place the following day. On 7–10 March, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it conducted training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place from 16–19 March. On 11 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a patrol in the central North Sea and returned to port on 14 April; another patrol in the area took place from 17–19 April, followed by gunnery drills off Shetland on 20–21 April. The Grand Fleet conducted a sweep into the central North Sea from 17–19 May without encountering any German vessels. In mid-June, the fleet conducted another round of gunnery training. On 2–5 September, the fleet went on another cruise in the northern end of the North Sea and conducted gunnery drills. Throughout the rest of the month, the Grand Fleet conducted numerous training exercises. On 13 October, the majority of the fleet conducted another sweep into the North Sea, returning to port on the 15th. From 2–5 November, Benbow participated in another fleet training operation west of Orkney. Another such cruise took place from 1–4 December.

Benbow was occupied with the typical routine of gunnery drills and squadron exercises in January. The fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February; Admiral John Jellicoe, the commander of the Grand Fleet, had intended to use the Harwich Force to sweep the Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. On the night of 25 March, Benbow and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow to support the Battlecruiser Fleet and other light forces that raided the German zeppelin base at Tondern. By the time the Grand Fleet approached the area on 26 March, the British and German forces had already disengaged and a severe gale threatened the light craft. Iron Duke, the fleet flagship, guided the destroyers back to Scapa while Benbow and the rest of the fleet retired independently. On 21 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a demonstration off Horns Reef to distract the Germans while the Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the Baltic Sea. The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a raid on Lowestoft. The Grand Fleet did not arrive in the area until after the German High Seas Fleet had withdrawn, however. From 2–4 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea.

Battle of Jutland

In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the High Seas Fleet with sixteen dreadnoughts, six pre-dreadnoughts, six light cruisers and thirty-one torpedo boats commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, departed the Jade early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's five battlecruisers and supporting cruisers and torpedo boats. The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. The Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, at that time consisting of twenty-eight dreadnoughts and nine battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. At the time of the battle, the ship's commander was Captain Henry Wise Parker, and she was the flagship of Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee. She was stationed toward the center of the British line. The initial action was fought primarily by the British and German battlecruiser formations in the afternoon, but by 18:00, the Grand Fleet approached the scene.

At about 18:15, Jellicoe gave the order to turn and deploy the fleet for action. At 18:30, Benbow opened fire, but her gunners were frequently hampered by poor visibility; her two forward turrets fired only six two-gun salvos over the course of the next ten minutes without any success. Shortly thereafter, German torpedo boats attempted to rescue the crew from the light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden, which had been disabled between the opposing fleets, though they appeared to the British to be launching an attack against the Grand Fleet. Benbow and several other battleships opened fire with their secondary batteries, starting at 19:09. Despite the fusillade from eight battleships, none of the torpedo boats were hit, though they were forced to abandon Wiesbaden. The ship fired six salvos from her main battery between 19:17 and 19:25, the first from two of her forward guns to confirm the range, and then four 5-gun and one 4-gun salvo in rapid succession. The gunners incorrectly claimed to have hit the battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger. At around that time, Benbow and three other battleships opened fire with their secondary guns on a group of torpedo boats that were launching an attack on the British line. The vessels made four hits, but in the confusion, credit for the hits could not be given.

Following the German torpedo boat attack, the High Seas Fleet disengaged, and Benbow and the rest of the Grand Fleet saw no further significant action in the battle. This was, in part, due to poor communication between Jellicoe and his subordinates over the exact location and course of the German fleet; without this information, Jellicoe could not bring his fleet to action. Benbow fired briefly at a group of torpedo boats at about 21:10, with a salvo of 6-inch shells and a single 13.5-inch round. At 21:30, the Grand Fleet began to reorganise into its nighttime cruising formation. Early on the morning of 1 June, the Grand Fleet combed the area, looking for damaged German ships, but after spending several hours searching, they found none. In the course of the battle, Benbow had fired forty 13.5-inch armour-piercing, capped shells and sixty 6-inch rounds.

Later operations
Upon returning to port, Benbow was relieved as the squadron flagship, thereafter serving as a private ship. In July, the ship received additional deck armour, primarily over the ammunition magazines. The work was completed by August. On 18 August, the Germans again sortied, this time to bombard Sunderland; Scheer again hoped to draw out Beatty's battlecruisers and destroy them. British signals intelligence decrypted German wireless transmissions, allowing Jellicoe enough time to deploy the Grand Fleet in an attempt to engage in a decisive battle. Both sides withdrew, however, after their opponents' submarines inflicted losses in the action of 19 August 1916: the British cruisers HMS Nottingham (1913) and HMS Falmouth (1910) were both torpedoed and sunk by German U-boats, and the German battleship SMS Westfalen was damaged by the British submarine HMS E23. After returning to port, Jellicoe issued an order that prohibited risking the fleet in the southern half of the North Sea due to the overwhelming risk from mines and U-boats.

In late 1917, the Germans began using destroyers and light cruisers to raid the British convoys to Norway; this forced the British to deploy capital ships to protect the convoys. In April 1918, the German fleet sortied in an attempt to catch one of the isolated British squadrons, though the convoy had already passed safely. The Grand Fleet sortied too late to catch the retreating Germans, though the battlecruiser SMS Moltke was torpedoed and badly damaged by the submarine HMS E42. A series of minor modifications were made to Benbow throughout 1917 and 1918; these included the installation of larger and additional searchlights to improve night combat capabilities and rangefinder baffles that were intended to make it more difficult to estimate the range for enemy gunners. The baffles were later removed in 1918, and flying-off ramps were erected on "B" and "Q" turrets.

Postwar
After the war, the Grand Fleet was dissolved, and Benbow was assigned to the 4th Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet, where she served until March 1926. In 1919, Captain Charles Douglas Carpendale took command of the ship, a position he held until 1921. During this period, from April 1919 to June 1920, the ship took part in anti-communist operations in the Black Sea. Benbow and other elements of the Mediterranean Fleet supported the White Russians in the Russian Civil War. In late January 1920, Benbow was sent from Constantinople to Novorossiysk. There, the ship relieved Iron Duke, and shortly thereafter rescued a group of 150 Russian soldiers and their British adviser, who had been attacked by bandits. On 1 February, Rear Admiral Michael Culme-Seymour hoisted his flag aboard Benbow. Shortly thereafter, men from the ship were sent to inspect White positions in the Kerch Peninsula. Benbow was ordered to return to Constantinople in June, where the Mediterranean Fleet was concentrating to begin supporting Greek forces during the Greco-Turkish War; she arrived there on 19 June. On 5 July, Benbow and several other vessels left Constantinople to land a force at Gemlik to secure the harbor in order to hand it over to Greek forces that would arrive later. Benbow's men returned to the ship on 16 July after a Greek battalion reached the town.

In February 1921, Benbow, the battleship HMS King George V (1911), and several destroyers conducted training exercises in the Sea of Marmara. In 1922, the ship underwent a refit at Malta. In September and October that year, she took part in further operations against Turkish forces. On 1 November 1924, the 4th Squadron was renumbered as the 3rd Squadron. The 3rd Squadron was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet in March 1926 and remained there until September 1930. She became the squadron flagship on 12 May 1928, relieving Iron Duke for a major refit. Benbow took part in major fleet training exercises held in March 1929 in conjunction with the Mediterranean Fleet. Later that year, the ship was paid off. In September 1930, Benbow was placed on the sale list. Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, Benbow and her sisters were slated to be replaced by new construction the following year. The ship was sold for scrap in January 1931 and broken up in March 1931 by Metal Industries, of Rosyth, arriving there on 5 April.

title: HMS Benbow (1913)


text:
HMS Emperor of India

HMS Emperor of India was an Iron Duke-class battleship of the British Royal Navy. She was originally to have been named Delhi but was renamed before she was completed, to honour King George V, who was also Emperor of India at the time. The ship was laid down on 31 May 1912 at the Vickers shipyard, and was launched on 27 November 1913. The finished ship was commissioned a year later in November 1914, shortly after the start of the First World War. She was armed with a main battery of ten 13.5 in guns and was capable of a top speed of 21.25 kn.

Upon commissioning, Emperor of India joined the 4th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow. She took part in numerous sorties into the northern North Sea to enforce the blockade of Germany, along with frequent training exercises and gunnery drills. Emperor of India was in dock for a refit in late May 1916, so she was unavailable for the Battle of Jutland. The increased danger from submarines led both the Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet to pursue more cautious strategies after Jutland, which led to a less eventful war.

After the war, Emperor of India was sent to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she became involved in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea from 1919–1921. She remained in the Mediterranean until 1926, when she was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet. The London Naval Treaty of 1930 mandated that Emperor of India and her three sister ships be dismantled. In 1931, she and HMS Marlborough (1912) underwent a series of weapons tests that proved to be highly beneficial for future British battleship designs. Emperor of India was ultimately sold for scrap in February 1932, and was broken up shortly thereafter.

Design

The four Iron Duke-class battleships were ordered in the 1911 building programme, and were an incremental improvement over the preceding King George V-class battleship. The primary change between the two designs was the substitution of a heavier secondary battery in the newer vessels. Emperor of India was 622 ft long overall and had a beam of 90 ft and an average draught of 29 ft. She displaced 25000 LT as designed and up to 29560 LT at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of four Parsons steam turbines, with steam provided by eighteen Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The engines were rated at 29000 shp and produced a top speed of 21.25 kn. Her cruising radius was 7800 nmi at a more economical 10 kn. Emperor of India had a crew of 995 officers and ratings, though during wartime this grew to up to 1,022.

Emperor of India was armed with a main battery of ten BL 13.5 in Mk V naval guns mounted in five twin gun turrets. They were arranged in two superfiring pairs, one forward and one aft; the fifth turret was located amidships, between the funnels and the rear superstructure. Close-range defence against torpedo boats was provided by a secondary battery of twelve BL 6-inch Mk VII guns. The ship was also fitted with a pair of QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns and four 47 mm 3-pounder guns. As was typical for capital ships of the period, she was equipped with four 21 in torpedo tubes submerged on the broadside.

Emperor of India was protected by a main armoured belt that was 12 in thick over the ship's ammunition magazines and engine and boiler rooms, and reduced to 4 in toward the bow and stern. Her deck was 2.5 in thick in the central portion of the ship, and reduced to 1 in elsewhere. The main battery turret faces were 11 in thick, and the turrets were supported by 10 in thick barbettes.

Service history
Emperor of India was laid down at the Vickers shipyard on 31 May 1912, originally to have been named Delhi. She was launched on 27 November 1913 and christened Emperor of India. The ship was commissioned into the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet under Admiral John Jellicoe in November 1914 for sea trials, three months after the outbreak of the First World War. The following month she was assigned to the 4th Battle Squadron as the second division flagship, where she served for the first two years of the war. On 1 December, Emperor of India and her sister ship HMS Benbow (1913) arrived at the 4th Squadron to begin working up, before being pronounced fit for service with the fleet on 10 December. During this period, the rearmost 6-inch guns were removed from the four Iron Duke-class ships and their casemates were sealed off, as they were too low in the hull and permitted water to continually enter the ship.

First World War
On 23–24 December, the 4th and 2nd Squadrons conducted gunnery practice north of the Hebrides. The following day, the entire fleet sortied for a sweep in the North Sea, which concluded on 27 December; this was Emperor of India's first fleet operation. Another round of gunnery drills followed from 10–13 January 1915 west of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, this time with the entire fleet. On the evening of 23 January, the bulk of the Grand Fleet sailed in support of Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, but the main fleet did not become engaged in the Battle of Dogger Bank that took place the following day. From 7–10 March, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it conducted training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place from 16–19 March. On 11 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a patrol in the central North Sea and returned to port on 14 April; another patrol in the area took place from 17–19 April, followed by gunnery drills off Shetland on 20–21 April.

The Grand Fleet conducted a sweep into the central North Sea on 17–19 May without encountering any German vessels. In mid-June, the fleet conducted another round of gunnery training. On 2–5 September, the fleet went on another cruise in the northern end of the North Sea and conducted gunnery drills. Throughout the rest of the month, the Grand Fleet conducted numerous training exercises. On 13 October the majority of the fleet conducted another sweep into the North Sea, returning to port on the 15th. From 2–5 November, Emperor of India participated in another fleet training operation west of Orkney Another such cruise took place from 1–4 December.

The typical routine of gunnery drills and squadron exercises occurred in January. The fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February; Jellicoe had intended to use the Harwich Force to sweep the Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. On the night of 25 March, Emperor of India and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow to support the Battlecruiser Fleet and other light forces that raided the German zeppelin base at Tondern. By the time the Grand Fleet approached the area on 26 March, the British and German forces had already disengaged and a severe gale threatened the light craft. Iron Duke, the fleet flagship, guided the destroyers back to Scapa while Emperor of India and the rest of the fleet retired independently.

On 21 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a demonstration off Horns Reef to distract the Germans while the Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the Baltic Sea. The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a raid on Lowestoft. The Grand Fleet did not arrive in the area until after the German High Seas Fleet had withdrawn, however. On 2–4 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea. Emperor of India was not available for the Battle of Jutland on 31 May–1 June, as she was in dock for a refit. Following Jutland, she was transferred to the 1st Battle Squadron, where she again served as the second division flagship. She remained in the 1st Squadron for the rest of the war.

On 18 August, the Germans again sortied, this time to bombard Sunderland; Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, the German fleet commander, hoped to draw out Beatty's battlecruisers and destroy them. British signals intelligence decrypted German wireless transmissions, allowing Jellicoe enough time to deploy the Grand Fleet in an attempt to engage in a decisive battle. Both sides withdrew, however, after their opponents' submarines inflicted losses in the action of 19 August 1916: the British cruisers HMS Nottingham (1913) and HMS Falmouth (1910) were both torpedoed and sunk by German U-boats, and the German battleship SMS Westfalen was damaged by the British submarine HMS E23. After returning to port, Jellicoe issued an order that prohibited risking the fleet in the southern half of the North Sea due to the overwhelming risk from mines and U-boats. Later that year, Emperor of India was equipped with equipment to handle a kite balloon. Following the investigation into the Battle of Jutland, the Royal Navy determined that deck protection was insufficient in all of its capital ships; as a result, Emperor of India had an additional 100 MT of armour over the magazines between October and December 1916.

A series of minor modifications followed throughout 1917 and 1918; these included the installation of larger and additional searchlights to improve night combat capabilities, funnel caps to reduce smoke interference with the spotting tops, and rangefinder baffles that were intended to make it more difficult to estimate the range for enemy gunners. The baffles were later removed in 1918. In late 1917, the Germans began using destroyers and light cruisers to raid the British convoys to Norway; this forced the British to deploy capital ships to protect the convoys. In April 1918, the German fleet sortied in an attempt to catch one of the isolated British squadrons, though the convoy had already passed safely. The Grand Fleet sortied too late to catch the retreating Germans, though the battlecruiser SMS Moltke was torpedoed and badly damaged by the submarine HMS E42.

Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, the Allies interned most of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow. The fleet rendezvoused with the British light cruiser HMS Cardiff (D58), which led the ships to the Allied fleet that was to escort the Germans to Scapa Flow. The massive fleet consisted of some 370 British, American, and French warships. The fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations that ultimately produced the Treaty of Versailles. Reuter believed that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June 1919, which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty. That morning, the Grand Fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers, and while they were away Reuter issued the order to scuttle the High Seas Fleet.

Post-war career
In 1919, Emperor of India was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, as part of the 4th Battle Squadron, along with her three sisters and two King George V class battleships. During this period, she served in the Black Sea during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War to support the Whites against the Red Bolsheviks. Admiral Edward Hobart Seymour, the commander of British forces in the Black Sea, hoisted his flag aboard the ship on 14 April. The ship bombarded Bolshevik troops on 5 May 1919 outside Theodosia, and later to disrupt the operations of a railway being used to supply the Bolshevik assault on the port. On 26 March 1920, Emperor of India provided gunfire support to the evacuating White Russian forces outside Novorossiysk, along with the French armoured cruiser FRENCH CRUISER Waldeck-Rousseau. Shortly thereafter, Emperor of India came under fire from an armoured train, prompting the ship to leave the harbour, bound for Theodosia. The ship was also involved in observing the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22; this included stops in the ports of Mitylene and Smyrna.

She returned to Britain for a refit in 1922, during which new long-base rangefinders were installed on "X" turret. This was followed by another stint in the Mediterranean Fleet that lasted until 1926. During this period, she took part in a demonstration in Smyrna against Turkish demands that foreign warships leave the port. She was thereafter transferred to the Atlantic Fleet, where she served until 1930. In May 1926, stability tests were conducted with the ship; these provided the basis for a 1927 proposal from the Director of Naval Construction to add anti-torpedo bulges to the four Iron Duke-class ships. The proposal was sent to the Board for review, but concerns over the further value of the ships, which were due to be replaced in 1931–32 under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, and the cost of the reconstruction led the Board to cancel it. From July–September 1927, she had a refit in Devonport. She served as the squadron flagship from June 1929–January 1931, when she was relieved by Marlborough.

According to the terms of the London Naval Treaty of 1930, the four ships of the Iron Duke class were to be scrapped or demilitarised; Emperor of India was scheduled to be removed from service in 1931 and broken up for scrap. The ship provided one final service to the Navy by serving as a gunnery target, along with Marlborough. The tests included firing destroyer armament at the upper works at close range to test their effectiveness in a simulated night engagement, direct hits from 13.5-inch shells, aerial attacks, and experiments with flash tightness in the magazines. The main tests for Emperor of India took place in June off Bognor Regis. She departed Portsmouth on 6 June and ran aground on the Owers Bank. Salvage efforts proved fruitless, and so the Navy decided to conduct the gunnery tests there. The tests were conducted on 10–11 June, with her sister Iron Duke, which hit Emperor of India with twelve 13.5-inch shells over the two days. The first round of shells were fired from 12000 yd, while on the second day the range was increased to 18000 yd. She was refloated later and sold for scrap to the Alloa Shipbreaking Co. on 6 February 1932. She arrived in Rosyth for demolition on 16 February.

The tests provided invaluable experience that was incorporated into the King George V-class battleship (1939) and Lion-class battleshipes and HMS Vanguard (23). Of particular importance was a shell that struck Emperor of India on the bottom edge of the main belt, which penetrated into one of the boiler rooms, where it caused tremendous damage. This showed that the depth of British belt armour was too shallow, which influenced the design of the King George V class. In addition, the tests with Emperor of India and Marlborough highlighted the weaknesses of the deck armour of British battleship designs, particularly over the ammunition magazines, and the other First World War-vintage battleships that continued in service had additional armour installed in subsequent modernisations in the 1930s.

title: HMS Emperor of India