HMS Queen Elizabeth (1913)
HMS Queen Elizabeth was the lead ship of her class of five dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s, and was often used as a flagship. She served in the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet, and participated in the inconclusive action of 19 August 1916. Her service during the war generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. She and the other super-dreadnought battleships were the first of their type to be powered by oil instead of coal. Queen Elizabeth later served in several theatres during the Second World War, and was scrapped in 1948.
Queen Elizabeth in the Firth of Forth during the Second World War
Image: Badge of HMS Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth in her original configuration at Lemnos, 1915
View of forward guns and bridge at Gallipoli, 1915
Queen Elizabeth-class battleship
The Queen Elizabeth-class battleships were a group of five super-dreadnoughts built for the Royal Navy during the 1910s. These battleships were superior in firepower, protection and speed to their Royal Navy predecessors of the Iron Duke class as well as preceding German classes such as the König class. The corresponding Bayern-class ships were generally considered competitive, although the Queen Elizabeth class were 2 knots (3.7 km/h) faster and outnumbered the German class 5:2. The Queen Elizabeths are generally considered the first fast battleships of their day.
Queen Elizabeth in her original configuration at Lemnos, 24 April 1915
Right plan and elevation drawing from Brassey's Naval Annual 1923; the shaded areas represent the ships' armour plating
Queen Elizabeth c. 1918 showing the two aft port secondary casemates plated over
Forecastle deck gun as added to all ships in 1915–1916, here seen on Warspite after Jutland