King George V (1941)

[_Jeremiah_Gottwald]

This is the first one I've ever done so bear with me here.

 

The HMS King George V was laid down in 1937 and was commissioned in 1940 to the home fleet as the new flagship after the HMS Hood was sunk. Well known for being part of the fleet that managed to sink the Bismark in 1941.

http://www.naval-his...bbKGV1945MQ.jpg

Action with Bismarck

 

When Bismarck broke out into the Atlantic Ocean, King George V sailed on 22 May with HMS Victorious and eleven cruisers and destroyers in support of the cruiser patrols off Iceland. King George V was the flagship of Admiral Sir John Tovey who commanded the force. King George V was still 300 to 400 miles away on the morning of 24 May, when HMS Prince of Whales and Hood engaged Bismarck. Hood was sunk and Prince of Wales was damaged and forced to retire. The German ship, although damaged, continued south.

 

The British ships headed north because of wrong intelligence that stated the Bismark was headed to engage the northern convoy routes. When an RAF Catalina spotted the Bismark, the British ships were about 125km away from the damaged Bismark who would definitely make it to Breast and military air cover before the British could stop her.

 

A lucky attack from HMS Ark Royal torpedo planes damaged the Bismark's rudder and forced her to turn back into the Atlantic to be engaged by the King George V and HMS Rodney. During the engagement with Bismark after a lucky shot was scored into Bismark's hydraulic machinery in a turret forcing it down to maximum depression. By then King George V was having difficulty with her main guns and many salvos went astray. They then headed back to port in triumph after the Bismark was under the waves.

 

http://ww2total.com/...rge_V-px800.jpg

 

Collision damage

 

While escorting Russia bound convoy PQ-15 in May, King George V collided with HMS Punjabi in dense fog while the destroyer was avoiding a mine. Punjabi was cut in two and King George V had 40 feet of her bow badly damaged. King George V entered the Gladstone Dock in Liverpool on 9 May for repairs by Cammell Laird and returned to Scapa Flow on 1 July 1942 to resume convoy escort duty.

 

http://www.maritimeq...ng_george_v.jpg

 

Mediterranean operations

 

In May 1943, King George V was moved to Gibralter in preparation for Operation Husky. King George V and her sister ship HMS Howe were allocated to the reserve covering group when the operation got under way on 1 July. The two ships bombarded Trapani in Sicily on 12 July and also helped defend against an air raid whilst in Algiers prior to departing for Operation Avalanche, (the Allied invasion of Italy).

 

King George V escorted part of the Italian Fleet, including the battleships Andria Doria and Caio Duilio, to Malta after the armistice and with Howe provided cover for the 1st Airborne who were transported to Taranto in support of Operation Slapstick from 9 to 11 September by the cruiser USS Boise and the fast minelayer HMS Abdiel.

 

Pacific operations

 

King George V was in Liverpool for an overhaul from March to June, 1944; it included the installation of additional radar gear, more anti-aircraft guns, improved accommodation and ventilation.The flotilla, known as Task Force 63, comprised King George V, the aircraft carriers Illustrious, Indomitable, Indefatigable, and Victorious, four cruisers and ten destroyers. The first stage of the voyage was covering the 11,000 nautical miles to Sydney; en route the force attacked oil refineries on Sumatra in Operation Mediterranean. An attack was attempted by the Japanese to sink Task Force 63 but it was beaten off while King George V had shot down one Ki-21.

 

As the Allies approached the Japanese homeland, King George V was dispatched in mid-July to join the US battleships in a bombarding sectors of Hitachi. King George V fired 267 rounds from her 14-inch guns during this operation. The task force then moved on to Hamamatsu in southern Honshu, where it carried out a further bombardment of aviation factories.

 

King George V moved with other units of the British Pacific Fleet into Tokyo Bay to be present at the surrender.

 

Post war

 

In 1950 King George V went into reserve status and were mothballed. In 1957 the ship was scrapped and nothing else happened.

 

http://www.maritimeq...02_kg5_1940.jpg      

General Characteristics

 

Displacement: 42,200 tons (1941)

 

Length: 745 ft (227 m)

 

Beam: 103 ft (31 m)

 

Draught: 32.6 ft (9.9 m)

 

Propulsion: 8 Admiralty three-drum small-tube boilers with superheaters

4 Parsons single-reduction geared turbines

4 three-bladed propellers, 14 ft 6 in diameter (4.42 m)

125,000 shp

 

Speed: 28.0 knots (1941 trials)

 

Armament: ten 14 inch guns

sixteen 5.25 inch guns

sixty-four 40mm Pom Pom guns

[Windhover118]

Nicely done. Not half bad for your first. Way better than the first one I made. +1

[Capcon]

Most people tend to talk about what went wrong with these ships rather than what went right and they never enjoyed the reputation and admiration of their grandmothers of the Queen Elizabeth class.

 

An interesting design alternative that almost occurred was a thinner belt and 12 x 14" guns.

 

Thanks for taking the time.

[Tanz]

Awesome work Andy  :Smile_great:

Always like the look of the KGVs  :Smile_popcorn:

[Windhover118]

Tanz, on 18 October 2012 - 08:20 PM, said:

Awesome work Andy  :Smile_great:
Always like the look of the KGVs  :Smile_popcorn:

Ya, they are beautiful ships arent they?

[Wake_Island]

+1

[MM2ss]

King Geroge V?  Not familiar with the Geroge class myself...   :tongue:

 

But in all seriousness, the later KG5's were nice looking ships, but I still liked the 1911 version better, just the lines and all, they look right, that 4 barrel turret on the 1939 KGV just looks wrong to me.

[Tanz]

Windhover118, on 18 October 2012 - 08:23 PM, said:

Ya, they are beautiful ships arent they?

You know strangely enough..the British had beautiful looking Battleships, but I could never find myself playing one  :Smile_amazed:.
I know the KG V & Prince of Whales from the episode with the Bismarck. Then the Prince of Whales being sunk by Japanese planes...proving again that air power was now the way to go. Then the Duke of York with her actions against the Scharnhorst in the Battle of the North Cape. As for HMS Anson  :Smile_sceptic:

[Ariecho]

Nicely done

 

(+1)

[JeeWeeJ]

Great job Andy! +1  :Smile_great:

[katkilla]

nice stuff +1

[_Jeremiah_Gottwald]

So much positive reinforcement. Thanks guys, I think I'll do another one if I can think of one.

[Haguro]

Too bad the UK failed to save even one of the KGV class as a museum.  Either KGV or Duke of York would have been acceptable as they both engaged in a BB action and won.

[Coldt]

If they had gone with a 3x3 setup for the guns they probably wouldn't have had nearly as many problems as they did and it could have fitted larger calibers. I really don't like the KGV design.

[Windhover118]

Coldt, on 22 October 2012 - 01:35 AM, said:

If they had gone with a 3x3 setup for the guns they probably wouldn't have had nearly as many problems as they did and it could have fitted larger calibers. I really don't like the KGV design.

The quad gun design was interesting and it allowed them to carry more guns than a 3x3 set up. However, they seem to be more trouble than they were worth didnt they?

[JeeWeeJ]

Windhover118, on 22 October 2012 - 03:03 AM, said:

The quad gun design was interesting and it allowed them to carry more guns than a 3x3 set up. However, they seem to be more trouble than they were worth didnt they?

Well, primary reason behind it was that, due to the naval treaties, only guns up to 14" were allowed. The British admiralty wanted a cetain broadside "weight" so they added more guns to make up for the smaller size. Initially they wanted a 3x4 setup, but that gave problems with ship stability. When the escalator clause kicked in (allowing guns up to 16") it was already too late to change the guns, as they were already in production.

They follow-up class (Lion) would have had a 3x3 16" gun setup, just like the Iowa.

[Crag_r]

Windhover118, on 22 October 2012 - 03:03 AM, said:

The quad gun design was interesting and it allowed them to carry more guns than a 3x3 set up. However, they seem to be more trouble than they were worth didnt they?

Originally yes, hence why we saw Prince of Wales been relativity noneffective against the Bismark, however as the war progressed the turrets issues were worked out.

[Windhover118]

Crag_r, on 22 October 2012 - 06:13 AM, said:

Originally yes, hence why we saw Prince of Wales been relativity noneffective against the Bismark, however as the war progressed the turrets issues were worked out.

I wouldnt say noneffective. She still managed to cause enough damage that Bismark had to attempt to return to post. This along with the Swordfish Torpedo attacks ultimately set the stage for Bismarks demise. Had her guns been working she probably would have been able to cuase alot more damage than she did. I think its interesting that Prince of Wales had problems with her turrets while her sister ship King George V didnt seem to have the same problems when she engaged Bismark. Of course Prince of Wales was newer and hadnt really had sufficiant time to solve any teething issues.

[JeeWeeJ]

Windhover118, on 22 October 2012 - 10:48 AM, said:

I wouldnt say noneffective. She still managed to cause enough damage that Bismark had to attempt to return to post. This along with the Swordfish Torpedo attacks ultimately set the stage for Bismarks demise. Had her guns been working she probably would have been able to cuase alot more damage than she did. I think its interesting that Prince of Whales had problems with her turrets while her sister ship King George V didnt seem to have the same problems when she engaged Bismark. Of course Prince of Whales was newer and hadnt really had sufficiant time to solve any teething issues.

It's Wales, not Whales.  :Smile_veryhappy: One is a big animal, the other a part of the UK.

[Ariecho]

JeeWeeJ, on 22 October 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

It's Wales, not Whales.  :Smile_veryhappy: One is a big animal, the other a part of the UK.

Another example of JeeWeeJ propaganda... Prince of Whales is perfectly correct ...

[Coldt]

Ah yes, The Prince of Whales, one of the King Wooooooo V class whaling ship destroyers.

[Windhover118]

JeeWeeJ, on 22 October 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

It's Wales, not Whales.  :Smile_veryhappy: One is a big animal, the other a part of the UK.

In my own defense, it was 4 in the morning.

[sheep21]

lol at the whales wales thing, i come from Cardiff originally ;)

 

re: PoW's issues at the denmark straight she was literally fresh out of the yard with contractors still on board.

 

still sexy ships which just look warlike

[JeeWeeJ]

Windhover118, on 22 October 2012 - 11:18 PM, said:

In my own defense, it was 4 in the morning.

Lol, no worries, i know EXACTLY how that feels.. :Smile_hiding:

[Sampsonite]

Many of the british designs had a lot of straight angles on the superstructure which made them look very strong and imposing while it was more for fitting more stuff in a smaller hull