The Royal Navy's King George V class battleships

[Reed_123]

The King George V class battleships were the most advanced battleships the British Royal Navy fielded during World War II.  5 battleships were completed as part of the class and they go as follows:

 

1. HMS King George V  - 1st ship of the class.  Completed December 11th, 1940 (also commissioned into the British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow the same day).  Along with HMS Rodney, she participated in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck on May 27th 1941.  Escorted convoys to Russia during 1942.  Took part in Operation Husky during May 1943 along with Howe and Anson.  Moved to the British Pacific Fleet in 1945 as part of Task Force 57.  Survived World War II and was eventually scrapped in 1957.

2. HMS Prince of Wales - Completed March 31st, 1941.  Upon completion, she was ordered along with HMS Hood and 6 destroyers to hunt for the German battleship Bismarck...who at the time was on her maiden voyage.  Survived against the Bismarck, only to be sunk later on December 10th, 1941 by Japanese air attack off Malaya.  Only ship of this class that was sunk.

 

3. HMS Duke of York - Completed November 4th, 1941.  Ferried Winston Churchill to the United States to confer with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Was part of a force that on December 26th, 1943, engaged with the German battleship Scharnhorst which ended with the Scharnhorst sunk.  HMS Duke of York eventually survived the war and was scrapped in 1957.

 

 

4. HMS Anson  - Completed June 22nd, 1942.  After comissioning, she was sent to protect convoys en route to Russia...as was most of the British Home Fleet.  Took part in Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943.  Also took part in Operation Tungsten in April 1944, an air attack which damaged the German battleship Tirpitz.  Survived World War II and was eventually scrapped in 1957.

 

5. HMS Howe - Completed August 29th, 1942.  Like HMS Anson, Howe spent most of her career escorting convoys to Russia.  Also took part in Operation Husky and later Operation Tungsten, same as Anson. Relocated to the Pacific as part of Task Force 113 and took part in Operation Iceberg April 1st, 1945.  Returned to the UK in 1946 and was eventually scrapped in 1958.

 

General characteristics of the King George V class battleships

 

Type: Fast Battleship

 

Displacement: 38,031 tons (1940) Standard

42,237 (1940) to 44,460 tons (1944) at Full Load

 

Length: 745 ft (227.1 m)

 

Beam: 103 ft (31.4 m)

 

Draught: 32.6 ft (9.9 m)

 

Speed:  28.0 knots at 111,700 shp (1941 trials)

 

Range: 5,400+ nm at 18 knots (11.9 tons/hour fuel burn)

 

Complement: 1,314 to 1,631

 

Armament:

 

2 × 4, 1 × 2 – BL 14-inch Mk VII guns

8 × 2 – QF 5.25-inch Mk 1 guns

4 × 8 – QF 2-pounder "pom-pom" guns

 

Armour:

 

Belt: 5.4–14.7 inches (137–373 mm)

Deck: 5.88 inches (149 mm)

Turrets: 12.75 inches (324 mm)

Barbettes: 12.75 inches (324 mm)

 

Installed power:  128,000–134,000 shp achieved in service

 

Propulsion:

 

- 4 shafts

- 4 Parsons geared turbines   

- 8 Admiralty three-drum water-tube boilers

 

Aircraft carried: 4 Supermarine Walrus seaplanes

 

Aviation facilities:  1 double-ended catapult

[Crag_r]

Good job +1 i would just remove the Wiki Hyperlinks first

[anonym_auUiRfWCi1jI]

+1  NIce addition.

[Reed_123]

t42592, on 11 January 2013 - 04:14 AM, said:

+1  NIce addition.

Yeah...not much talk on here about the British.

[madmanthan21]

One of my fav brit BBs good post +1

[Tank_Killer1]

One of my favourites as well.

[_Jeremiah_Gottwald]

Not much to talk about? I posted a topic a few months ago on the King George V and it was long.

[Ariecho]

andypandy1996, on 11 January 2013 - 12:09 PM, said:

Not much to talk about? I posted a topic a few months ago on the King George V and it was long.

No, Andy, yours was about the King Geroge V ... Different ship, as everybody knows ...   :Smile_trollface:

http://forum.worldof...roge#entry43911

[Capcon]

The KGV has some flaws that we likely won't see affecting the game.

 

Wet ship - that bow is low and has no flare, they shipped a lot of water at speed in any kind of sea

Short legs - the relative inefficiency of the machinery plant meant their range was considerably less than US ships on the same amount of fuel

AA guns too big - this might affect the game but I can't tell yet, the tracking speed of the 5.25" turrets was too slow to keep up with fast moving aircraft

 

I'm hoping that we see a preset that allows the 12 x 14" layout (maybe at reduced floatation since IRL they traded the quad for the twin in exchange for more armor) and/or 4.5" guns rather than 5.25".

 

But since the Brits come 3rd it will be a while, quite a while.

[triptyx]

The British Navy always did have a certain flair for building amazing looking ships.  The #1 turret looks off the hook!  Did I miss anything on the background information behind the decision to give #1 4 guns and #2 only 2?

[sasmanT7]

King George the V and Anson were both built at Walker Navel yards on Tyneside. I used to work at Parsons as an engineer where her turbines were made, just about 2 miles from the yards they were built. The strange thing about her twin and quad turrets is her original design was for 16 inch guns (3 x triple turrets) but 14 inch rifles were already available from Vickers Armstrong in Newcastle, which resulted in the design change.

[triptyx]

Cool, thanks for the info Sasman!  

+1

[Reed_123]

andypandy1996, on 11 January 2013 - 12:09 PM, said:

Not much to talk about? I posted a topic a few months ago on the King George V and it was long.

I meant that most of the people are talking about American, Japanese, and German vessels on the forums here.  Didn't see you had made a topic about the same ship.  Haven't really checked out all the topics on here.

[sgtpepper500]

Nice info (+1)

[_Jeremiah_Gottwald]

Ariecho, on 11 January 2013 - 01:35 PM, said:

No, Andy, yours was about the King Geroge V ... Different ship, as everybody knows ...   :Smile_trollface:

http://forum.worldof...roge#entry43911

WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME?!?!?! Oh well, I fixed it.