1.
HMS Queen Elizabeth (1913)
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HMS Queen Elizabeth was the lead ship of her class of dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s, and was often used as a flagship. She served in World War I as part of the Grand Fleet and her service during the war generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. She and the other battleships were the first of their type to be powered by oil instead of coal. Queen Elizabeth later served in several theatres during World War II, the Queen Elizabeth-class ships were designed to form a fast squadron for the fleet that was intended to operate against the leading ships of the opposing battleline. This required maximum offensive power and a speed several knots faster than any battleship to allow them to defeat any type of ship. Queen Elizabeth had an overall of 643 feet 9 inches, a beam of 90 feet 7 inches. She had a displacement of 32,590 long tons. She was powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam from 24 Yarrow boilers, the turbines were rated at 75,000 shp and intended to reach a maximum speed of 24 knots. Queen Elizabeth had a range of 5,000 nautical miles at a speed of 12 knots. Her crew numbered 1,262 officers and ratings in 1920 while serving as a flagship, Queen Elizabeth was the only ship of her class that mounted all sixteen of the designed BL 6-inch Mk XII guns in casemates. Twelve of these were mounted along the broadside of the vessel amidships and these latter guns were quickly found to be too close to the water and were frequently flooded at high speed or heavy seas. Two were removed and the pair were shifted to positions on the forecastle deck near the aft funnel, protected by gun shields. The ships anti-aircraft armament consisted of two quick-firing 3-inch 20 cwt Mk I guns and they were fitted with four submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes, two on each broadside. Queen Elizabeth was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with 15-foot rangefinders, One was mounted above the conning tower, protected by an armoured hood, and the other was in the spotting top above the tripod foremast. Each turret was fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. The main armament could be controlled by B turret as well, the waterline belt of the Queen Elizabeth class consisted of Krupp cemented armour that was 13 inches thick over the ships vitals. The gun turrets were protected by 11 to 13 inches of KC armour and were supported by barbettes 7–10 inches thick, the ships had multiple armoured decks that ranged from 1 to 3 inches in thickness. The main conning tower was protected by 13 inches of armour, after the Battle of Jutland,1 inch of high-tensile steel was added to the main deck over the magazines and additional anti-flash equipment was added in the magazines
2.
Lemnos
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Lemnos is an island of Greece in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a municipality within the Lemnos regional unit. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Myrina, at 477.583 square kilometres, it is the 8th-largest island of Greece. Lemnos is mostly flat, but the west, and especially the northwest part, is rough, the highest point is Mount Skopia at the altitude of 430 m. The chief towns are Myrina, on the western coast, Myrina possesses a good harbour, which is in the process of being upgraded through construction of a west-facing sea wall. It is the seat of all carried on with the mainland. Fruit and vegetables that grow on the island include almonds, figs, melons, watermelons, tomatoes, pumpkins, the main crops are wheat, barley, sesame, in fact Lemnos was Constantinoples granary during Byzantine times. Lemnos also produces honey, but, as is the case with most products of a nature in Greece. Muscat grapes are widely, and are used to produce an unusual table wine that is dry yet has a strong Muscat flavor. Since 1985 the variety and quality of Lemnos wines have increased greatly, the climate in Lemnos is mainly Mediterranean. Winters are generally mild, but there will be a snowfall occasionally, strong winds are a feature of the island, especially in August and in winter time, hence its nickname the wind-ridden one. The temperature is typically 2 to 5 degrees Celsius less than in Athens, for ancient Greeks, the island was sacred to Hephaestus, god of metallurgy, who—as he tells himself in Iliad I. 590ff—fell on Lemnos when Zeus hurled him headlong out of Olympus. There, he was cared for by the Sinties, according to Iliad or by Thetis, sacred initiatory rites dedicated to them were performed in the island. Hephaestus forge, which was located on Lemnos, as well as the name Aethaleia, sometimes applied to it and it is said that fire occasionally blazed forth from Mosychlos, one of its mountains. The ancient geographer Pausanias relates that an island called Chryse. All volcanic action is now extinct, the earliest inhabitants are said to have been a Thracian tribe, whom the Greeks called Sintians, robbers. The name Lemnos is said by Hecataeus to have applied in the form of a title to Cybele among the Thracians. The worship of Cybele was characteristic of Thrace, where it had spread from Asia Minor at an early period
3.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
4.
Iron Duke-class battleship
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The Iron Duke class was a group of four dreadnought battleships built for the British Royal Navy before the First World War. The class comprised four ships, Iron Duke, Marlborough, Benbow, launched from October 1912 to November 1913, this was the third class of Royal Navy super-dreadnoughts. The ships were repeats of the King George V-class battleships. However, the Iron Dukes had improved armour and a powerful secondary armament of 6-inch weapons instead of the 4-inch mounted on the earlier ships. The four ships were the most advanced battleships in the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the First World War and they all saw extensive service during the war with the Grand Fleet, where Iron Duke acted as the flagship for the fleet commander, Admiral John Jellicoe. Three of the ships, Iron Duke, Benbow, and Marlborough, were present at the Battle of Jutland, the Emperor of India missed the battle by being in dock for periodic refit. The four Iron Duke-class battleships saw limited active duty following the end of the war, Iron Duke was reduced to a training and depot ship and lasted in that role until 1946 when she was scrapped. Benbow was scrapped in 1931 and Marlborough followed in 1932, Emperor of India was sunk as a gunnery target in 1931 though was later re-floated to be scrapped in 1932. The Iron Duke-class ships were 622 feet 9 inches long overall, and had a beam of 90 ft and this was an increase of 25 ft in length and 1 ft in width over the preceding King George V-class ships. The Iron Dukes displaced 25,000 long tons and this was some 2,000 tons heavier than the preceding King George Vs, and was primarily due to the increase in calibre of the secondary battery. The ships were powered by four-shaft Parsons turbines, steam was provided to the turbines by 18 Babcock & Wilcox or Yarrow boilers. The engines were rated at 29,000 shaft horsepower and delivered a top speed of 21.5 knots, Iron Duke and her sisters had a fuel storage capacity of 3,200 long tons of coal and 1,030 long tons of oil. This enabled a range of 7,780 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 10 kn. The Iron Duke-class ships mounted a battery of ten 13.5 inch Mk V guns in five twin gun turrets. Two turrets were placed in a superfiring pair forward, one turret amidships—the Q turret—directly after the two funnels, and two in a superfiring pair aft of the rear superstructure. The gun houses used were Mk II turrets that weighed 600 tons and allowed for depression to −5°, the forward and aft gun turrets could train 150° in either direction from the centreline, while the Q had a much more limited range. It could engage targets on an arc from between 30° to 150° from the centerline on either beam of the ship, the guns had a rate of fire of between 1. 5–2 rounds per minute. The Mk V Heavy gun fired a variety of shells, including high explosive and armour-piercing rounds, the guns were loaded with MD45 propellant charges that weighed 297 lb, these were stored in silk bags
5.
Revenge-class battleship
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The Revenge-class battleships were five battleships of the Royal Navy, ordered as World War I loomed, and launched in 1914–16. The ships of the class were slower and smaller than the preceding Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, the ships have also been referred to on occasion as the R class. They were designed to be able to use coal and oil as fuel sources and this was partially due to fears over the total reliance of the Queen Elizabeth class on oil as their fuel source, which was a first for a British class of dreadnought battleships. The unusual design of the Revenge class was a response to these concerns and they were also designed to be cheaper than the Queen Elizabeths. This was achieved by reducing their size and using lower power engines—their slim single funnel design makes them easy to distinguish from the Queen Elizabeths, which had twin funnels. The armour was very different from that of the Queen Elizabeths, the deck was raised much higher in the ship. Additionally, this change in the layout was a cost-saving measure. The Queen Elizabeths had plates that tapered at the top and bottom of the armour belt, similar to the Queen Elizabeth, the Revenges mounted 815 Mk 1* guns. The barrel was 42 calibers long and was referred to as 15 inch/42 and this wire-wound gun fired a 1938 lb Mk XVIIB shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,458 ft/s. Maximum range in shipboard mountings was 33,550 yards, coastal artillery mountings with higher elevations could reach 44,150 yards. The firing life of a 15-inch gun was approximately 335 full-charge firings using standard charges, in accordance with contemporary practice, the Revenges were fitted with 6-inch secondary batteries. The heavier guns were intended to combat the larger classes of destroyers entering service, additionally, their low positioning made them largely unworkable in heavy seas—a flaw shared with the similarly equipped Iron Duke and Queen Elizabeth-class battleships. The major flaw in the class was the reduced stability to give the ships a slow rolling motion to make gunnery easier. This made it almost impossible to update them, in addition, it was not economically possible to fit more powerful machinery later in their lives. Due to their size, at 624 feet conditions were decidedly more cramped for the crew of a Revenge-class battleship compared to the Queen Elizabeths. Only two ships of the class, Revenge and Royal Oak, were ready in time for the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, during the engagement neither ship suffered damage or casualties. Unlike Queen Elizabeths, the Revenges were not given major reconstructions between the two World Wars, in fact, apart from some minor upgrades, they remained very much unchanged until the Second World War began. Moreover, the Revenges were scheduled to be replaced by the new Lion-class capital ships as they came into service, the Revenge class were in general reduced to subsidiary roles during World War II
6.
Battleship
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A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the battleship was the most powerful type of warship, the word battleship was coined around 1794 and is a contraction of the phrase line-of-battle ship, the dominant wooden warship during the Age of Sail. The term came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship. In 1906, the commissioning of HMS Dreadnought heralded a revolution in battleship design, subsequent battleship designs, influenced by HMS Dreadnought, were referred to as dreadnoughts. Battleships were a symbol of naval dominance and national might, the launch of Dreadnought in 1906 commenced a new naval arms race. Jutland was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the war, the Naval Treaties of the 1920s and 1930s limited the number of battleships, though technical innovation in battleship design continued. The value of the battleship has been questioned, even during their heyday, there were few of the decisive fleet battles that battleship proponents expected, and used to justify the vast resources spent on building battlefleets. Battleships were retained by the United States Navy into the Cold War for fire support purposes before being stricken from the U. S. Naval Vessel Register in the 2000s. A ship of the line was a large, unarmored wooden sailing ship which mounted a battery of up to 120 smoothbore guns, from 1794, the alternative term line of battle ship was contracted to battle ship or battleship. The sheer number of guns fired broadside meant a sail battleship could wreck any wooden enemy, holing her hull, knocking down masts, wrecking her rigging, and killing her crew. However, the range of the guns was as little as a few hundred yards. The first major change to the ship of the concept was the introduction of steam power as an auxiliary propulsion system. Steam power was introduced to the navy in the first half of the 19th century, initially for small craft. The French Navy introduced steam to the line of battle with the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850—the first true steam battleship, Napoléon was armed as a conventional ship-of-the-line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots, regardless of the wind condition. This was a decisive advantage in a naval engagement. The introduction of steam accelerated the growth in size of battleships, the adoption of steam power was only one of a number of technological advances which revolutionized warship design in the 19th century. The ship of the line was overtaken by the ironclad, powered by steam, protected by metal armor, and armed with guns firing high-explosive shells. In the Crimean War, six ships and two frigates of the Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed seven Turkish frigates and three corvettes with explosive shells at the Battle of Sinop in 1853
7.
BL 15 inch Mk I naval gun
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The BL15 inch Mark I succeeded the 13. 5-inch gun. It was the first British 15 inch gun design and the most widely used and longest lasting of any British designs and it was deployed on capital ships from 1915 until 1959, and was a key Royal Navy gun in both World Wars. This gun was a version of the successful BL13. The normal slow and cautious prototype and testing stages of a new development were bypassed. Despite its hurried development process, the gun met all expectations and was a competitive battleship main armament throughout both World Wars, the barrel was 42 calibres long and was referred to as 15 inch/42. This wire-wound gun fired a 1938 lb Mk XVIIB shell at a velocity of 2,458 ft/s. The battlecruiser HMS Hood had its Mk I guns in a unique mounting, incorporating experience from the Battle of Jutland, the Mk II mounting had a maximum elevation of 30°, thus increasing the maximum range. In the 1930s a modification of the Mk I mounting, designated the Mk I, was introduced for use in capital ships that were completely reconstructed. The Mk I mounting also increased the elevation from 20° to 30°. Maximum range in shipboard mountings was 33,550 yards, coastal artillery mountings with higher elevations could reach 44,150 yards. The firing life of a 15 inch gun was approximately 335 full charge firings using standard charges, after which it had to be re-lined. The BL15 inch Mark I gun proved its effectiveness at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, scoring hits out to 19,500 yards, in World War II the gun was responsible for the longest range shell-hit ever scored by one battleship on another in combat. At the Battle of Calabria on 9 July 1940, HMS Warspite gained a hit on the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare with her first salvo at 26,400 yards. These guns were used on several classes of battleships from 1915 until HMS Vanguard, five guns were mounted in Singapore at Johore battery and Buona Vista Battery in the 1930s. 186 guns were manufactured between 1912 and 1918 and they were removed from ships, refurbished, and rotated back into other ships over their lifetime. Elswick Ordnance Company, Elswick, Newcastle,34 Armstrong Whitworth, Openshaw, the Museum of Naval Firepower, Gosport, UK on YouTube Terry Gander, Twentieth century British coast defence guns
8.
BL 6 inch Mk XII naval gun
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This was a high-velocity naval gun consisting of inner A tube, A tube, wound with successive layers of steel wire, with a jacket over the wire. Ordinary Seaman John Henry Carless was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for heroism in serving his gun on HMS Caledon during the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight on 17 November 1917. This gun generated a higher pressure in the chamber on firing compared to preceding 6-inch guns such as Mk VII and this necessitated use of special shells capable of withstanding a pressure of 20 tons per square inch on firing, which had Q suffixed to the name. World War I shells were marked A. Q. denoting special 4 C. R. H. List of naval guns 15 cm SK L/45 German equivalent On monitor HMS M33 at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, UK A gun from HMAS Adelaide at HMAS Cerberus naval base, Victoria, Australia Campbell, British Naval Guns, 1880–1945, No.12. Handbook For The 6-inch Breech Loading Mark XII, tony DiGiulian, British 6/45 BL Mark XII and Mark XX
9.
QF 3-inch 20 cwt
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The QF3 inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun became the standard anti-aircraft gun used in the home defence of the United Kingdom against German airships and bombers and on the Western Front in World War I. It was also common on British warships in World War I,20 cwt referred to the weight of the barrel and breech, to differentiate it from other 3 inch guns. The gun was based on a prewar Vickers naval 3-inch QF gun with modifications specified by the War Office in 1914 and these included the introduction of a vertical sliding breech-block to allow semi-automatic operation. When the gun recoiled and ran forward after firing, the motion also opened the breech, ejected the empty cartridge case and held the breech open ready to reload, when the gunner loaded the next round, the block closed and the gun fired. The early 12. 5-pound shrapnel shell at 2,500 ft/s caused excessive wear and was unstable in flight. The 1916 16-pound shell at 2,000 ft/s proved ballistically superior and was suited to a high explosive filling. The Mark I* had different rifling, the Mark II lost the semi-automatic action. Routledge quotes a rate of fire of 16-18 rounds per minute and this would appear to be the effective rate of fire found to be sustainable in action. 8 more Mks followed between the World Wars, by 1934 the rocking-bar deflection sights had been replaced by Magslip receiver dials which received input from the Predictor, with the layers matching pointers instead of tracking the target. Predictor No.1 was supplemented from 1937 by Predictor No,2, based on a US Sperry AAA Computer M3A3. This was faster and could track targets at 400 mph at heights of 25,000 ft, the 3 inch 20 cwt gun was superseded by the QF3.7 inch AA gun from 1938 onwards, but numbers of various Marks remained in service throughout World War II. In Naval use it was being replaced in the 1920s by the QF4 inch Mk V on HA mounting, Britain entered World War I with no anti-aircraft artillery. When war broke out and Germany occupied Belgium and North-east France, as a result, a search for suitable anti-aircraft guns began. It was from then onwards operated by Royal Garrison Artillery crews, with drivers, however, the Mobile Anti-Aircraft Brigade based at Kenwood Barracks in London, continued to be manned by the RNVR, although under the operational control of the Army. The 3 inch 20 cwt with its powerful and stable in flight 16 lb shell and fairly high altitude was well suited to defending the United Kingdom against high-altitude Zeppelins and bombers. The 16 pound shell took 9.2 seconds to reach 5,000 ft at 25° from horizontal,13.7 seconds to reach 10,000 ft at 40°,18.8 seconds to reach 15,000 at 55°. This means that the gun team had to calculate where the target would be 9 –18 seconds ahead, determine the deflection and set the fuze length, load, aim. British time fuzes, required for airburst shooting, were powder burning, however, the powder burning rate changed as air pressure reduced, making them erratic for the new vertical shooting
10.
British 21 inch torpedo
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There have been several British 21-inch diameter torpedoes used by the Royal Navy since their first development just before the First World War. The 21-inch was the largest size of torpedo in use in the RN. They were used by ships and submarines rather than aircraft which used smaller 18 inch torpedoes. The first British 21 inch torpedo came in two lengths Short at 17 ft 10.5 in, and Long at 23 ft 1.25 in, the explosive charge was 200 lb of gun cotton increased later to 225 lb. The Mark II, chiefly used by destroyers, entered service in 1914, apart from some older British ships, it was used with the old US Town-class destroyers provided to the UK during the early part of the Second World War. The running speed was reduced from 45 knots for better reliability, the Mark II*, an improved Mark II was used by battleships and battlecruisers. A wet heater design, it could run for 4.1 km at 45 knots From 1912, used by destroyers, in the Second World War they were carried on HMS Hood. The Mark V was used by the A and B-class destroyers and, with modification, the Mark VII was issued for use on the British heavy cruisers, i. e. cruisers with 8-inch guns. Designed in the mid-1920s the County-class cruisers were built at the time in the post Washington Naval Treaty period. The power came from the use of enriched air, though torpedo stocks were converted to run on normal air at the start of the Second World War. It was used from 1927 on submarines of the O class onwards, the principal World War II version was the improved Mark VIII**,3,732 being fired by September 1944. The torpedo was still in service with the Royal Navy as late as 1983, the Mark VIII** was used in two particularly notable incidents, - On 9 February 1945 the Royal Navy submarine HMS Venturer sank the German submarine U-864 with four Mark VIII** torpedoes. This is the only intentional sinking of one submarine by another while both were submerged. On 2 May 1982 the Royal Navy submarine HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano with three Mark VIII** torpedoes during the Falklands War and this is the only sinking of a surface ship by a nuclear-powered submarine in wartime. First appeared in 1930 and was improved by 1939. Used on Leander and later cruisers, A and later destroyer classes, also replaced the old Mark VII in some 8 cruisers during the war. From 1939, used by submarines, motor boats and destroyers. Electric battery powered torpedo with a 322 kg TNT warhead, entering service during the Second World War it was used by destroyers
11.
Battle of Jutland
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The battle unfolded in extensive maneuvering and three main engagements, from 31 May to 1 June 1916, off the North Sea coast of Denmarks Jutland Peninsula. It was the largest naval battle in that war and the only full-scale clash of battleships, Jutland was the third fleet action between steel battleships, following the smaller but more decisive battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War. Jutland was the last major battle fought primarily by battleships in world history, germanys High Seas Fleet intended to lure out, trap, and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, as the German naval force was insufficient to openly engage the entire British fleet. This formed part of a strategy to break the British blockade of Germany. Meanwhile, Great Britains Royal Navy pursued a strategy of engaging and destroying the High Seas Fleet, thereby keeping German naval forces contained and away from Britain and they stationed submarines in advance across the likely routes of the British ships. The German plan had been delayed, causing problems for their submarines. On the afternoon of 31 May, Beatty encountered Hippers battlecruiser force long before the Germans had expected, in a running battle, Hipper successfully drew the British vanguard into the path of the High Seas Fleet. Fourteen British and eleven German ships sank, with loss of life. The British lost more ships and twice as many sailors but succeeded in containing the German fleet, however, the British press criticised the Grand Fleets failure to force a decisive outcome, while Scheers plan of destroying a substantial portion of the British fleet also failed. Finally, the British strategy of denying Germany access to both the United Kingdom and the Atlantic did succeed, which was the British long-term goal, subsequent reviews commissioned by the Royal Navy generated strong disagreement between supporters of Jellicoe and Beatty concerning the two admirals performance in the battle. Debate over their performance and the significance of the battle continues to this day, with 16 dreadnought-type battleships, compared with the Royal Navys 28, the German High Seas Fleet stood little chance of winning a head-to-head clash. The Germans therefore adopted a divide-and-conquer strategy, in January 1916, Admiral von Pohl, commander of the German fleet, fell ill. He was replaced by Scheer, who believed that the fleet had used too defensively, had better ships and men than the British. On 25 April 1916, a decision was made by the German admiralty to halt indiscriminate attacks by submarine on merchant shipping and this followed protests from neutral countries, notably the United States, that their nationals had been the victims of attacks. Instead, he set about deploying the submarine fleet against military vessels and it was hoped that, following a successful German submarine attack, fast British escorts, such as destroyers, would be tied down by anti-submarine operations. If the Germans could catch the British in the expected locations, the hope was that Scheer would thus be able to ambush a section of the British fleet and destroy it. A plan was devised to station submarines offshore from British naval bases, the battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz had been damaged in a previous engagement, but was due to be repaired by mid May, so an operation was scheduled for 17 May 1916. At the start of May, difficulties with condensers were discovered on ships of the battleship squadron
12.
Dreadnought
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The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. Dreadnoughts design had two features, an all-big-gun armament scheme, with more heavy-calibre guns than previous ships. As dreadnoughts became a symbol of power, the arrival of these new warships was a crucial catalyst in the intensifying naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany. With the launch of a ship, Dreadnought, the scales of naval power were reset overnight. As a result, dreadnought races sprang up around the world, including in South America, successive designs increased rapidly in size and made use of improvements in armament, armour, and propulsion throughout the dreadnought era. Within five years, new battleships had outclassed Dreadnought and these more powerful vessels were known as super-dreadnoughts. The only surviving dreadnought is USS Texas, located near the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, dreadnought-building consumed vast resources in the early 20th century, but there was only one battle between large dreadnought fleets. In the 1916 Battle of Jutland, the British and German navies clashed with no decisive result, some designs had an intermediate battery of 8-inch guns. Serious proposals for an all-big-gun armament were circulated in several countries by 1903, all-big-gun designs commenced almost simultaneously in three navies. In 1904, the Imperial Japanese Navy authorized construction of Satsuma, work began on her construction in May 1905. The Royal Navy began the design of HMS Dreadnought in January 1905, finally, the US Navy gained authorization for USS Michigan, carrying eight 12-inch guns, in March 1905, with construction commencing in December 1906. The newest 12-inch guns had longer range and fired heavier shells than a gun of 10-inch or 9. 2-inch calibre, there is still debate as to whether this feature was important. At these ranges, lighter guns had good accuracy, and their rate of fire delivered high volumes of ordnance on the target. Naval gunnery was too inaccurate to hit targets at a longer range, by the early 20th century, British and American admirals expected future battleships would engage at longer distances. Newer models of torpedo had longer ranges, for instance, in 1903, the US Navy ordered a design of torpedo effective to 4,000 yards. Both British and American admirals concluded that they needed to engage the enemy at longer ranges, in 1900, Admiral Sir John Jackie Fisher, commanding the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet, ordered gunnery practice with 6-inch guns at 6,000 yards. By 1904 the US Naval War College was considering the effects on battleship tactics of torpedoes with a range of 7,000 yards to 8,000 yards, the range of light and medium-calibre guns was limited, and accuracy declined badly at longer range. At longer ranges the advantage of a rate of fire decreased, accurate shooting depended on spotting the shell-splashes of the previous salvo
13.
Elizabeth I of England
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Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed two and a half years after Elizabeths birth. Annes marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, edwards will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Marys reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels, in 1558, Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel. She depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers, led by William Cecil, one of her first actions as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement was to evolve into the Church of England and it was expected that Elizabeth would marry and produce an heir to continue the Tudor line. She never did, despite numerous courtships, as she grew older, Elizabeth became famous for her virginity. A cult grew around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, in government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and half-siblings had been. One of her mottoes was video et taceo, in religion, she was relatively tolerant and avoided systematic persecution. Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs, manoeuvring between the powers of France and Spain. She only half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands, France, by the mid-1580s, England could no longer avoid war with Spain. Englands defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 associated Elizabeth with one of the greatest military victories in English history, Elizabeths reign is known as the Elizabethan era. Some historians depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler, towards the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity. Such was the case with Elizabeths rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, after the short reigns of Elizabeths half-siblings, her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity. Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace and was named after both her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard and she was the second child of Henry VIII of England born in wedlock to survive infancy. Her mother was Henrys second wife, Anne Boleyn, at birth, Elizabeth was the heir presumptive to the throne of England. She was baptised on 10 September, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the Marquess of Exeter, the Duchess of Norfolk, Elizabeth was two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded on 19 May 1536, four months after Catherine of Aragons death from natural causes. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and deprived of her place in the royal succession, eleven days after Anne Boleyns execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after the birth of their son, Prince Edward, in 1537
14.
Bayern-class battleship
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The Bayern class was a class of four super-dreadnought battleships built by the German Kaiserliche Marine. The class comprised Bayern, Baden, Sachsen, and Württemberg, construction started on the ships shortly before World War I, Baden was laid down in 1913, Bayern and Sachsen followed in 1914, and Württemberg, the final ship, was laid down in 1915. Only Baden and Bayern were completed, due to shipbuilding priorities changing as the war dragged on and it was determined that U-boats were more valuable to the war effort, and so work on new battleships was slowed and ultimately stopped altogether. As a result, Bayern and Baden were the last German battleships completed by the Kaiserliche Marine, Bayern and Baden were commissioned into the fleet in July 1916 and March 1917, respectively. This was too late for either ship to take part in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916, Baden replaced Friedrich der Grosse as the flagship of the High Seas Fleet, but saw no combat. Both Bayern and Baden were interned in Scapa Flow following the Armistice in November 1918, the ship was eventually expended as a gunnery target in 1921. Sachsen and Württemberg, both at various stages of completion when the war ended, were broken up for scrap metal, Bayern was raised in 1934 and broken up the following year. The Bayern-class ships were a result of the fourth Naval Law, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz used public outcry over the British involvement in the Agadir Crisis of 1911 to pressure the Reichstag into appropriating additional funds for the Navy. The Fourth Naval Law secured funding for three new dreadnoughts, two cruisers, and an increase of an additional 15,000 officers and men in the ranks of the Navy for 1912. The capital ships laid down in 1912 were the Derfflinger-class battlecruisers, funding for Bayern, funding for Sachsen was allocated in the 1914 budget, while Württemberg was funded in the War Estimates. The last remaining Brandenburg-class pre-dreadnought, Wörth, was to be replaced, the design for the ships was drawn up between 1910 and 1912. Consideration was given to equipping the new ships with triple turrets mounting the 30, among these deficiencies were increased weight, reduced ammunition supply and rate of fire, and loss of fighting capability if one of the turrets was disabled. It was therefore decided to arm the new vessels with eight 38 cm guns instead of twelve 30.5 cm guns, Bayern and Baden were 179.4 meters long at the waterline, and an even 180 m long overall. Sachsen and Württemberg were slightly longer,181.8 m m at the waterline and 182.4 m overall, All four ships had a beam of 30 m, and had a draft of between 9.3 and 9.4 m. Bayern and Baden were designed to displace 28,530 t at a displacement, at full combat load. Württemberg and Sachsen were slightly heavier, at 28,800 t normal and 32,500 t fully laden, the ships were constructed with transverse and longitudinal steel frames, over which the outer hull plates were riveted. The hull was divided into 17 watertight compartments, and included a bottom that ran for 88 percent of the length of the hull. Bayern and Baden were regarded as exceptional sea boats by the German navy, Bayern and her sisters were stable and very maneuverable
15.
Fast battleship
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A fast battleship was a battleship which emphasised speed without – in concept – undue compromise of either armor or armament. Most of the early World War I-era dreadnought battleships were built with low design speeds. The extra speed of a fast battleship was normally required to allow the vessel to carry out additional roles besides taking part in the line of battle, such as escorting aircraft carriers. A fast battleship was distinguished from a battlecruiser in that it would have expected to be able to engage hostile battleships in sustained combat on at least equal terms. The requirement to deliver increased speed without compromising fighting ability or protection was the challenge of fast battleship design. Technological advancements such as improvements and light, high-strength armor plating were required in order to make fast battleships feasible. Unlike battlecruiser, which became official Royal Navy usage in 1911, the warships of the Queen Elizabeth class were collectively termed the Fast Division when operating with the Grand Fleet. Otherwise, fast battleships were not distinguished from conventional battleships in official documentation, there is no separate code for fast battleships in the US Navys hull classification system, all battleships, fast or slow, being rated as BB. The Warrior herself, at over 14 knots under steam, was the fastest warship of her day as well as the most powerful, due to the increasing weight of guns and armour, this speed was not exceeded until Monarch achieved 15 knots under steam. In these late pre-dreadnought designs, the speed may have been intended to compensate for their lesser staying power. From about 1900, interest in the possibility of an increase in the speed of Royal Navy battleships was provoked by Sir John Fisher. War games conducted by the General Board of the US Navy in 1903 and 1904 came to similar conclusions. Fisher appears to have been unimpressed by these demonstrations, and continued to press for radical increases in the speed of battleships. His ideas ultimately came to at least partial fruition in the Dreadnought of 1906, like Warrior before her, Dreadnought was the first major warship powered by turbines. She also included a number of features indicating an increased emphasis on speed, An improved hull form was developed. The thickness of the belt was reduced to 11 inches. The belt terminated at the deck, the usual upper belt being deleted The forecastle was raised. In the decade following the construction of the Dreadnought, the Royal Navys lead in capital ship speed was eroded, as a result, a number of potentially significant fast battleship designs failed to achieve fruition
16.
Jane's Fighting Ships
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Its annual editions cover the warships used by the different national naval and paramilitary forces, and provide data on their characteristics. It was originally published by John F. T, jane in London in 1898 as Janes All the Worlds Fighting Ships, in order to assist the public in playing naval wargames. Its success launched a number of military publications carrying the name Janes and it is a unit of Janes Information Group, which is now owned by IHS. Brasseys Naval Annual, competing publication Combat Fleets of the World, competing publication Defence & Security Intelligence & Analysis
17.
HMS Barham (04)
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HMS Barham was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. Often used as a flagship, she participated in the Battle of Jutland during the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet. Other than that battle, and the inconclusive Action of 19 August 1916, her service during the war consisted of routine patrols. During the 1920s and 1930s, the ship was assigned to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Barham played a minor role in quelling the 1929 Palestine riots and the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. The ship was in the Mediterranean when the Second World War began in September 1939 and accidentally collided with and she participated in the Battle of Dakar in mid-1940 where she damaged a Vichy French battleship and was slightly damaged in return. Barham was then transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet where she covered multiple Malta Convoys and she helped to sink an Italian heavy cruiser and a destroyer during the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941 and was damaged by German aircraft two months later during the evacuation of Crete. Barham was sunk off the Egyptian coast the following November by the German submarine U-331 with the loss of 862 crewmen, the Queen Elizabeth-class ships were designed to form a fast squadron for the fleet that was intended to operate against the leading ships of the opposing battleline. This required maximum offensive power and a speed several knots faster than any battleship to allow them to defeat any type of ship. Barham had an overall of 643 feet 9 inches, a beam of 90 feet 7 inches. She had a displacement of 32,590 long tons. She was powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam from 24 Yarrow boilers, the turbines were rated at 75,000 shp and intended to reach a maximum speed of 25 knots. During her abbreviated sea trials on 6 July 1916, the ship reached a mean top speed of 23.91 knots. Barham had a range of 5,000 nautical miles at a speed of 12 knots. Her crew numbered 1,016 officers and ratings in 1916 and their anti-aircraft armament consisted of two quick-firing 3-inch 20 cwt Mk I guns. The ships were fitted with four submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes, two on each broadside, Barham was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with 15-foot rangefinders. One was mounted above the tower, protected by an armoured hood. Each turret was fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. The main armament could be controlled by B turret as well, the secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in July 1917
18.
U-boat
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U-boat is the anglicised version of the German word U-Boot, a shortening of Unterseeboot, literally undersea boat. While the German term refers to any submarine, the English one refers specifically to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role. Austro-Hungarian navy submarines were known as U-boats. The first submarine built in Germany, the three-man Brandtaucher, sank to the bottom of Kiel harbor on 1 February 1851 during a test dive, the inventor and engineer Wilhelm Bauer had designed this vessel in 1850, and Schweffel & Howaldt constructed it in Kiel. Dredging operations in 1887 rediscovered Brandtaucher, it was raised and put on display in Germany, there followed in 1890 the boats WW1 and WW2, built to a Nordenfelt design. The SM U-1 was a completely redesigned Karp-class submarine and only one was built, the Imperial German Navy commissioned it on 14 December 1906. It had a hull, a Körting kerosene engine. The 50%-larger SM U-2 had two torpedo tubes, the U-19 class of 1912–13 saw the first diesel engine installed in a German navy boat. At the start of World War I in 1914, Germany had 48 submarines of 13 classes in service or under construction, during that war the Imperial German Navy used SM U-1 for training. Retired in 1919, it remains on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, on 5 September 1914, HMS Pathfinder was sunk by SM U-21, the first ship to have been sunk by a submarine using a self-propelled torpedo. On 22 September, U-9 sank the obsolete British warships HMS Aboukir, HMS Cressy, for the first few months of the war, U-boat anticommerce actions observed the prize rules of the time, which governed the treatment of enemy civilian ships and their occupants. On 20 October 1914, SM U-17 sank the first merchant ship, surface commerce raiders were proving to be ineffective, and on 4 February 1915, the Kaiser assented to the declaration of a war zone in the waters around the British Isles. This was cited as a retaliation for British minefields and shipping blockades, under the instructions given to U-boat captains, they could sink merchant ships, even potentially neutral ones, without warning. In February 1915, a submarine U-6 was rammed and both periscopes were destroyed off Beachy Head by the collier SS Thordis commanded by Captain John Bell RNR after firing a torpedo, on 7 May 1915, SM U-20 sank the liner RMS Lusitania. The sinking claimed 1,198 lives,128 of them American civilians, munitions that it carried were thousands of crates full of ammunition for rifles, 3-inch artillery shells, and also various other standard ammunition used by infantry. The sinking of the Lusitania was widely used as propaganda against the German Empire, a widespread reaction in the U. S was not seen until the sinking of the ferry SS Sussex. The sinking occurred in 1915 and the United States entered the war in 1917, the initial U. S. response was to threaten to sever diplomatic ties, which persuaded the Germans to issue the Sussex pledge that reimposed restrictions on U-boat activity
19.
BL 13.5-inch Mk V naval gun
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The BL13.5 inch Mk V gun was a British heavy naval gun, introduced in 1912 as the main armament for the new super-dreadnought battleships of the Orion class. The calibre was 13.5 inches and the barrels were 45 calibres long i. e.607.5 inches. The guns were superior and unrelated to the earlier 13. 5-inch Mk I to Mk IV guns used on the Admiral, Trafalgar. The gun was developed in response to the failure of the British high-velocity 12-inch Mk XI. Due to the excellent characteristics of the gun, it was decided to increase the weight of shell to 1,400 lb, the gun firing the lighter shell was designated Mark V by the Royal Navy, and the 1,400 lb version Mark V. Three BL13.5 inch /45 Mark V guns, named Gladiator, Piece Maker, Scene Shifter re-used a railway truck which had carried a BL14 inch Railway Gun in the First World War. In 1940 these guns were issued to the Royal Marine Siege Regiment at Dover in Kent to bombard German batteries and they could be stored in railway tunnels when not in use to protect them from attack. A13. 5/8 inch hypervelocity gun for stratospheric experiments was developed and deployed near St Margarets in Kent, the weapon was a 13.5 inch gun Mark V lined down to 8 inches, the liner projected several feet beyond the 13.5 inch barrel. The concept was suggested by F. A. Lindemann, Winston Churchills scientific advisor, due to its deployment near the heavy cross-Channel guns and manning by the Royal Marine Siege Regiment, it is often erroneously assumed to have been intended as a cross-Channel gun. It was initially named Wilfred, but this was changed to Bruce. The projectiles were custom-made with external rifling to match the guns rifling, with tighter tolerances than normal, the rate of fire was very low as a result, but this was not a major concern in an experimental piece. Both High Explosive and High Velocity shells were made for the gun, observations of the smoke were used to study conditions in the stratosphere. The gun was first test-fired in June 1942 at the Isle of Grain, the gun was deployed near St. Margarets on 21 January 1943 and experimental firing commenced on 30 March 1943. Successful experiments with smoke shells were conducted in February 1944, the intended burst zone for the smoke shells was 30 miles horizontally from the gun and 95,000 feet altitude. These trials resulted in the need for a new barrel or liner, the data from these experiments was important in the development of the Grand Slam bomb. After further experimental firings, the weapon was taken out of service in February 1945, the History of Coast Artillery in the British Army. Uckfield, East Sussex, The Naval & Military Press Ltd, vickers Photographic Archives British 13. 5/45 Mark V13. 5/45 Mark V at navweaps. com
20.
Caliber (artillery)
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In artillery, caliber or calibre is the internal diameter of a gun barrel, or by extension a relative measure of the length. Rifled barrels introduce ambiguity to measurement of caliber, a rifled bore consists of alternating grooves and lands. The distance across the bore from groove to groove is greater than the distance from land to land, the depth of rifling grooves increases in larger calibers. United States Navy guns typically used rifling depth between one-half and one percent of caliber, projectile bourrelet diameter specification was 0.015 inches less than land to land diameter with a minus manufacturing tolerance so average clearance was about 0.012 inches. Driving band diameter was groove to groove diameter plus 0.02 inches, the length of the barrel is often quoted in calibers. For example, US Naval Rifles 3 in or larger, the effective length of the barrel is divided by the barrel diameter to give a dimensionless quantity.81 As an example, the main guns of the Iowa-class battleships can be referred to as 16/50 caliber. They are 16 inches in diameter and the barrel is 800 inches long, the bore to barrel length ratio is called caliber in naval gunnery,81 but is called length in army artillery. Before World War II, the US Navy used 5/51 caliber as surface-to-surface guns, by the end of World War II, the dual purpose 5/38 caliber was standard naval armament against surface and air targets. All three had a diameter of 5 inches. At sea, a weapon had to perform, without fail, there was no ready replacement, nor one that could be readily supplied. Over time, the terms of pound and bore became confused and blurred, eventually, when the technology existed, the bore came to be the standard measure. For naval rifles, the change was to actual bore. They then began to measure the length of the weapon in calibers. These were a measure of the bore of the barrel versus the rifled bore of the barrel. In other words, a 12/45 is 12×45= the length of the bore of that gun in inches. This explains the differences in both penetration and long range performance of naval rifles over the years. In addition to the improvements in overall performance, the increase in barrel length also allowed, in some circumstances. For example, the American 14/45, as introduced in the New York-class battleships, later improvements to the design, lengthening the rifle itself and also altering the breech, allowed a 1400 lb. projectile and, overall, a greater barrel life
21.
Winston Churchill
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Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG OM CH TD PC DL FRS RA was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his overall, in 1963, he was the first of only eight people to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. Churchill was born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough and his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, his mother, Jennie Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young officer, he saw action in British India, the Anglo–Sudan War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns, at the forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, during the war, he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign caused his departure from government. He then briefly resumed active service on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He returned to government under Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister and he led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured. After the Conservative Party suffered a defeat in the 1945 general election. He publicly warned of an Iron Curtain of Soviet influence in Europe, after winning the 1951 election, Churchill again became Prime Minister. His second term was preoccupied by foreign affairs, including the Malayan Emergency, Mau Mau Uprising, Korean War, domestically his government laid great emphasis on house-building. Churchill suffered a stroke in 1953 and retired as Prime Minister in 1955. Upon his death aged ninety in 1965, Elizabeth II granted him the honour of a state funeral and his highly complex legacy continues to stimulate intense debate amongst writers and historians. Born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the noble Spencer family, Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, like his father. His ancestor George Spencer had changed his surname to Spencer-Churchill in 1817 when he became Duke of Marlborough, to highlight his descent from John Churchill, Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, two months prematurely, in a bedroom in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. From age two to six, he lived in Dublin, where his grandfather had been appointed Viceroy, Churchills brother, John Strange Spencer-Churchill, was born during this time in Ireland
22.
Admiralty
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The new Admiralty Board meets only twice a year, and the day-to-day running of the Royal Navy is controlled by a Navy Board. It is common for the authorities now in charge of the Royal Navy to be referred to as simply The Admiralty. The title of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom was vested in the monarch from 1964 to 2011, the title was awarded to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh by Queen Elizabeth II on his 90th birthday. There also continues to be a Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom, the office of Admiral of England was created around 1400 although there had already been Admirals of the Northern and Western Seas. In 1546, King Henry VIII established the Council of the Marine, later to become the Navy Board, operational control of the Royal Navy remained the responsibility of the Lord High Admiral, who was one of the nine Great Officers of State. In 1628, Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission, the office of Lord High Admiral passed a number of times in and out of commission until 1709 after which the office was almost permanently in commission. In 1831, the first Navy Board was abolished as a separate entity, in 1964, the Admiralty along with the War Office and the Air Ministry as separate departments of state were abolished, and re-emerged under one single new Ministry of Defence. Within the expanded Ministry of Defence are the new Admiralty Board which has a separate Navy Board responsible for the running of the Royal Navy. The Army Board and the Air Force Board, each headed by the Secretary of State for Defence, the Board of Admiralty consisted of a number of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. The Lords Commissioners were always a mixture of admirals, known as Naval Lords or Sea Lords and Civil Lords, the quorum of the Board was two commissioners and a secretary. The president of the Board was known as the First Lord of the Admiralty, after 1806, the First Lord of the Admiralty was always a civilian while the professional head of the navy came to be known as the First Sea Lord. The first real concerted effort to organise the Admiralty was started by Henry VIII. Between 1860 and 1908 there was no study of strategy and of staff work conducted within the naval service. All the navys talent flowed to the great technical universitys and it was perceived by officials within the Admiralty at this time that the running of war was quite a simple matter for any flag officer who required no formal training. The new War Staff had hardly found its feet and it struggled with the opposition to its existence by senior officers they were categorically opposed to a staff. The deficiencies of the system within this department of state could be seen in the conduct of the Dardanelles campaign, there was no mechanisms in place to answer the big strategic questions in 1914 a Trade Division was created. In 1916, Sir John Jellicoe came to the Admiralty, he organized the staff as following, Chief of War Staff, Operations, Intelligence, Signal Section, Mobilization, Trade. This for the first time gave the naval staff direct representation on the Board, the would direct all operations and movements of the fleet, while the would be responsible for mercantile movements and anti-submarine operations
23.
EOC 12 inch/45 naval gun
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Elswick supplied its 12-inch 45-calibre guns for the Minas Geraes-class battleships completed by itself and Vickers in 1910 for Brazil. When World War I began, Elswick were completing the battleship Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel for the Ottoman Empire and it was armed with 14 of a slightly later version of Elswicks 12-inch 45-calibre guns. The battleship was completed as HMS Agincourt and served in the Royal Navy in World War I, the guns performance was similar to the standard Royal Navy equivalent gun, the BL12 inch Mk X designed by Vickers. Elswick supplied its 12-inch 45-calibre guns to the Imperial Japanese Navy, in Japanese service from 1908 they became 12/45 41st Year Type and later after the navy metricised in 1917,30 cm/45 41st Year Type
24.
HMS Tiger (1913)
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HMS Tiger was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy and the eleventh ship to bear that name. She was built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland, Tiger was the most heavily armoured battlecruiser of the Royal Navy at the start of the First World War, but was not yet ready for service. Tiger next participated in the Battle of Jutland in 1916, where she was lightly damaged despite suffering many hits by German shells. Apart from providing distant cover during the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917, Tiger was the oldest battlecruiser retained by the Royal Navy after the tonnage limits of the Washington Naval Treaty came into effect in 1922. She became a training ship in 1924 and then joined the Battlecruiser Squadron in 1929 when its flagship, HMS Hood. Upon Hoods return to service in 1931, Tiger was decommissioned, Tiger was the sole battlecruiser authorised in the 1911–12 Naval Programme. Tiger had a length of 704 feet, a beam of 90 feet 6 inches. She normally displaced 28,430 long tons and 33,260 long tons at deep load. Although Tiger was only 4 feet longer and 1 foot 5.5 inches wider than the previous battlecruiser, HMS Queen Mary and she had a metacentric height of 6.1 feet at deep load. In September 1914, her complement consisted of 1,112 officers and enlisted men, in April 1918, Tiger had two paired sets of Brown-Curtis direct-drive steam turbines housed in separate engine-rooms. Each set consisted of high-pressure ahead and astern turbines driving a shaft and low-pressure ahead and astern turbines. Her three-bladed propellers were 13 feet 6 inches in diameter, the turbines were powered by 39 Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers in five boiler rooms at a working pressure of 235 psi. The ships fuel capacity was 3,800 long tons of fuel oil and 3,340 long tons of coal. The sole figure for Tigers daily fuel consumption of 1,245 long tons a day at 24 knots would have given a maximum endurance of 3,300 nautical miles, the equivalent figure for Queen Mary was roughly 2,400 nautical miles. Four direct current electric dynamos with a capacity of 750 kilowatts supplied the common ring main at 220 volts. Tiger mounted eight 45-calibre BL13. 5-inch Mk V guns in four hydraulically powered turrets. They fired 1, 250-pound projectiles at a velocity of 2,500 ft/s, at 20° elevation. The rate of fire of guns was approximately 2 rounds per minute
25.
Federated Malay States
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Two years later, the Union became the Federation of Malaya and finally Malaysia in 1963 with the inclusion of North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore. The United Kingdom was responsible for foreign affairs and defence of the federation, even so, the British Resident General would give advice on domestic issues, and the states were bound by treaty to follow that advice. The federation had Kuala Lumpur, which was part of Selangor. The first FMS Resident General was Sir Frank Swettenham, the federation, along with the other Malay states and British possessions of the peninsula, was overrun and occupied by the Japanese during World War II. Although the Resident General was the administrator of the federation. This formed the basis for the Conference of Rulers that was created later on under Article 38 of the Malaysian Constitution on 27 August 1957, the Federated Malay States had a flag of its own until its dissolution in 1946. The flag consisted of four different-coloured stripes, from top to bottom, white, red, yellow, the same design concept is used in Malaysian national emblem. In the middle is a circle with a Malayan tiger in it. The National History Museum located near the Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, the coat of arms of the Federated Malay States featured a shield guarded by two tigers. On the top of the shield is the crown, symbolising the federation of monarchies under the protection of the United Kingdom, a banner with the phrase Dipelihara Allah written in Jawi is located underneath the shield. The combinations of the four colours of the shield represents the colours of the flags of the states of the FMS in the way the stripes of the FMS flag do. The phrase Dipelihara Allah was also adopted as the current state motto for the state of Selangor, in addition to a state flag, the Federated Malay States also had a naval jack or ensign for use on government ships. This was the largest and the only full-scale clash of battleships during World War I, with the Treaty of Federation the Malay Rulers effectively gave up their political power in their states, having to act after consulting and only with the due consent of their respective Residents. However, the United Kingdom pledged not to interfere in matters relating to native Malay traditions, a well-ordered system of public administration was established, public services were extended, and large-scale rubber and tin production was developed. This control was interrupted by the Japanese invasion and occupation from 1941 to 1945 during World War II, the British established the Federal Council in 1898 to administer the FMS. It was headed by the High Commissioner, assisted by the Resident-General, the Sultans and this structure remained until the Japanese invaded Malaya on 8 December 1941. From 1896 to 1936, real power lay in the hands of the Resident-General, the State Council was made up of the Resident, native chiefs, and representative of the Chinese community nominated by the Sultan. The council discussed matters of interest for each state such as legislative and administrative issues as well as revision of all sentence of capital punishment
26.
HMS Malaya
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HMS Malaya was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. Shortly after commissioning in 1916, she participated in the Battle of Jutland as part of the Grand Fleet, other than that battle, and the inconclusive Action of 19 August, her service during the First World War generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. The Queen Elizabeth-class ships were designed to form a fast squadron for the fleet that was intended to operate against the ships of the opposing battleline. This required maximum offensive power and a speed several knots faster than any battleship to allow them to defeat any type of ship. Malaya had an overall of 643 feet 9 inches, a beam of 90 feet 7 inches. She had a displacement of 32,590 long tons. She was powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam from 24 Yarrow boilers, the turbines were rated at 75,000 shp and intended to reach a maximum speed of 24 knots. Malaya had a range of 5,000 nautical miles at a speed of 12 knots. Her crew numbered 1,217 officers and ratings in 1919 and their anti-aircraft armament consisted of two quick-firing 3-inch 20 cwt Mk I guns. The ships were fitted with four submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes, two on each broadside, Malaya was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with 15-foot rangefinders. One was mounted above the tower, protected by an armoured hood. Each turret was fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. The main armament could be controlled by B turret as well, the secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in April 1917. The waterline belt of the Queen Elizabeth class consisted of Krupp cemented armour that was 13 inches thick over the ships vitals, the gun turrets were protected by 11 to 13 inches of KC armour and were supported by barbettes 7–10 inches thick. The ships had multiple armoured decks ranged from 1 to 3 inches in thickness. The main conning tower was protected by 13 inches of armour, after the Battle of Jutland,1 inch of high-tensile steel was added to the main deck over the magazines and additional anti-flash equipment was added in the magazines. Malaya was built by Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth and Company at High Walker and she was named in honour of the Federated Malay States in British Malaya, whose government paid for her construction. She served in Rear-Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomass 5th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet and she took part in the Battle of Jutland, on 31 May 1916, where she was hit eight times and took major damage and heavy crew casualties
27.
First Lord of the Admiralty
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The Admiralty Commission was dissolved in 1701, but was reconstituted in 1709 on the death of Prince George of Denmark, who had been appointed Lord High Admiral. The office has held in commission from that time onwards, however. The Board of the Admiralty comprised a number of “Lords Commissioners” headed by a First Lord, from the early 1800s the post was always held by a civilian. In 1832 First Lord Sir James Graham instituted reforms and amalgamated the Board of Admiralty, by the provisions of the Admiralty Act of 1832, two Lords in committee could legalize any action of the Board. In 1868 Prime Minister, William Gladstone appointed Hugh Childers First Lord, however these changes restricted communication between the board members who were affected by these new regulations and the sittings of the Board were discontinued altogether. This situation described was further exacerbated by the disaster of HMS Captain in 1870 a poorly designed new vessel for the navy. However by describing the Lords of the Admiralty as the assistants of the First Lord, in 1931 for the First time since 1709 the First Lord was not a member of the cabinet. M. S. Pinafore, is Sir Joseph Henry Porter, KCB, the counterparts shared a known lack of naval background. It has been suggested the character was drawn on Smiths actual Radical predecessor of 1868–71, the Making of the Modern Admiralty, British Naval Policy-Making, 1805-1927
28.
Anglo-Persian Oil Company
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The Anglo-Persian Oil Company was a British company founded in 1908 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Iran. It was the first company to extract petroleum from Iran, in 1935 APOC was renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and in 1954 it became the British Petroleum Company, one of the antecedents of the modern BP public limited company. In 1901 William Knox DArcy, a millionaire London socialite, negotiated an oil concession with Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar of Persia and he financed this with capital he had made from his shares in the highly profitable Mount Morgan mine in Queensland, Australia. DArcy assumed exclusive rights to prospect for oil for 60 years in a vast tract of territory including most of Iran, in exchange the Shah received £20,000, an equal amount in shares of DArcys company, and a promise of 16% of future profits. DArcy hired geologist George Bernard Reynolds to do the prospecting in the Iranian desert, conditions were extremely harsh, small pox raged, bandits and warlords ruled, water was all but unavailable, and temperatures often soared past 50°C. After several years of prospecting, DArcys fortune dwindled away and he was forced to sell most of his rights to a Glasgow-based syndicate, the Burmah Oil Company. By 1908, having more than £500,000 into their Persian venture and found no oil, DArcy. Reynolds delayed following these orders and in a stroke of luck, struck oil shortly after on May 26,1908, on 14 April 1909, Burmah Oil created the Anglo-Persian Oil Company as a subsidiary and also sold shares to the public. Volume production of Persian oil products eventually started in 1913 from a refinery built at Abadan, in 1913, shortly before World War I, APOC managers negotiated with a new customer, Winston Churchill, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty. Churchill, as a part of an expansion program, sought to modernize Britains Royal Navy by abandoning the use of coal-fired steamships. Although Britain had large reserves of coal, oil had advantages in energy density. Furthermore, Churchill wanted to free Britain from its reliance on the Standard Oil, in exchange for secure oil supplies for its ships, the British government injected new capital into the company and, in doing so, acquired a controlling interest in APOC. The contract that was set up between the British Government and APOC was to hold for 20 years, the British government also became a de facto hidden power behind the oil company. APOC took a 50% share in a new Turkish Petroleum Company organized in 1912 by Calouste Gulbenkian to explore, after a hiatus caused by World War I it reformed and struck an immense gusher at Kirkuk, Iraq in 1927, renaming itself the Iraq Petroleum Company. In 1920, the APOC also acquired an oil concession that had been formally granted in 1916 to a former Russian subject. During this period, Iranian popular opposition to the DArcy oil concession, such a pervasive atmosphere of dissatisfaction seemed to suggest that a radical revision of the concession terms would be possible. In 1923, Burmah employed Winston Churchill as a consultant to lobby the British government to allow APOC to have exclusive rights to Persian oil resources. In 1925, TPC received concession in the Mesopotamian oil resources from the Iraqi government under British mandate, TPC finally struck oil in Iraq on 14 October 1927
29.
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher
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Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot Jacky Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, GCB, OM, GCVO was a British admiral known for his efforts at naval reform. The argumentative, energetic, reform-minded Fisher is often considered the second most important figure in British naval history, after Lord Nelson. Fisher is primarily celebrated as an innovator, strategist and developer of the rather than a seagoing admiral involved in major battles. As Controller, he introduced torpedo boat destroyers as a class of ship intended for defence against attack from boats or submarines. He was involved with the introduction of engines to replace reciprocating engines. He introduced daily baked bread on board ships, whereas when he entered the service it was customary to eat hard biscuits and he first officially retired from the Admiralty in 1911 on his 70th birthday, but became First Sea Lord again in November 1914. He resigned seven months later in frustration over Churchills Gallipoli campaign, Fisher was five feet seven inches tall and stocky with a round face. In later years, some insinuated that Fisher, born in Ceylon of British parents, had Asian ancestry due to his features and his colour resulted from dysentery and malaria in middle life, which nearly caused his death. He had a fixed and compelling gaze when addressing someone, which gave little clue to his feelings, Fisher was energetic, ambitious, enthusiastic and clever. A shipmate described him as easily the most interesting midshipman I ever met, when addressing someone he could become carried away with the point he was seeking to make, and on one occasion, the King asked him to stop shaking his fist in his face. Throughout his life he was a man and attended church regularly when ashore. He had a passion for sermons and might attend two or three services in a day to them, which he would discuss afterwards with great animation. However, he was discreet in expressing his religious views because he feared public attention might hinder his professional career and he was not keen on sport, but he was a highly proficient dancer. Fisher employed his dancing skill later in life to charm a number of important ladies and he became interested in dancing in 1877 and insisted that the officers of his ship learn to dance. Fisher cancelled the leave of midshipmen who would not take part and he introduced the practice of junior officers dancing on deck when the band was playing for senior officers wardroom dinners. This practice spread through the fleet and he broke with the then ball tradition of dancing with a different partner for each dance, instead adopting the scandalous habit of choosing one good dancer as his partner for the evening. His ability to charm all comers of all social classes made up for his sometimes blunt or tactless comments and he suffered from seasickness throughout his life. Fishers aim was efficiency of the fleet and its instant readiness for war and he believed in advancing the most able, rather than the longest serving
30.
Gun laying
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Gun laying is the process of aiming an artillery piece, such as a gun, howitzer or mortar on land, or at sea, against surface or air targets. It may be laying for direct fire, where the gun is aimed similarly to a rifle, or indirect fire, the term includes automated aiming using, for example, radar-derived target data and computer-controlled guns. Gun laying means moving the axis of the bore of the barrel in two planes, horizontal and vertical. A gun is traversed – rotated in a horizontal plane – to align it with the target, Gun laying is a set of actions to align the axis of a gun barrel so that it points in the required direction. This alignment is in the horizontal and vertical planes, Gun laying may be for direct fire, where the layer sees the target, or indirect fire, where the target may not be visible from the gun. Gun laying has sometimes called training the gun. Laying in the vertical plane uses data derived from trials or empirical experience, for any given gun and projectile types, it reflects the distance to the target and the size of the propellant charge. It also incorporates any differences in height between gun and target, with indirect fire, it may allow for other variables as well. With indirect fire the horizontal angle is relative to something, typically the guns aiming point, depending on the gun mount, there is usually a choice of two trajectories. The dividing angle between the trajectories is about 45 degrees, it varies due to gun dependent factors. Below 45 degrees the trajectory is called low angle, above is high angle, the differences are that low angle fire has a shorter time of flight, a lower vertex and flatter angle of descent. All guns have carriages or mountings that support the barrel assembly, early guns could only be traversed by moving their entire carriage or mounting, and this lasted with heavy artillery into World War II. Mountings could be fitted into traversing turrets on ships, coast defences or tanks, from circa 1900 field artillery carriages provided traverse without moving the wheels and trail. The carriage, or mounting, also enabled the barrel to be set at the elevation angle. With some gun mounts it is possible to depress the gun, some guns require a near-horizontal elevation for loading. An essential capability for any elevation mechanism is to prevent the weight of the barrel forcing its heavier end downward and this is greatly helped by having trunnions at the centre of gravity, although a counterbalance mechanism can be used. It also means the elevation gear has to be enough to resist considerable downward pressure. However, mortars, where the forces were transferred directly into the ground
31.
HMS Agincourt (1913)
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HMS Agincourt was a dreadnought battleship built in the United Kingdom in the early 1910s. Brazil ordered the ship in 1911 as Rio de Janeiro from the British company Armstrong Whitworth, however, the collapse of Brazils rubber boom and a warming in relations with Argentina, the countrys chief rival, led to the ships sale while under construction to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans renamed her Sultan Osman I, after the founder. British fears of a coming Ottoman–German alliance led to her seizure for use by the Royal Navy and this act was a significant contributor to the decision of the Ottoman government to join the Central Powers, as the payments for both ships were complete. Renamed HMS Agincourt by the Royal Navy, she joined the Grand Fleet in the North Sea, during the war, the ship spent the bulk of her time on patrols and exercises, although she did participate in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Agincourt was put into reserve in 1919 and sold for scrap in 1922 to meet the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, rising international demand for coffee and rubber in the early 20th century brought Brazil an influx of revenue. Simultaneously, the Baron of Rio Branco spearheaded a drive by prominent Brazilians to force the world nations to recognize Brazil as an international power. The National Congress of Brazil inaugurated a large naval acquisition program in late 1904 and they ordered three small battleships in 1906, but the launch of HMS Dreadnought caused the Brazilian Navy to reconsider their purchase. In March 1907, they signed a contract for three Minas Geraes-class battleships, two ships would be constructed immediately by the British companies Armstrong Whitworth and Vickers, with the third to follow. Alarmed at the Brazilian move, Argentina and Chile quickly nullified their 1902 pact, argentinas orders, after a drawn-out bidding process, went to an American company, Fore River Shipbuilding Company, while Chiles orders, delayed by the 1906 Valparaíso earthquake, went to Armstrong. They borrowed the money, and Armstrong laid down Rio de Janeiros keel in March 1910. The Brazilian Navy had divided into two factions, based on the size of the main battery. While the exact influences upon the Brazilian government are unclear, Leão was advocating strongly for his position in meetings with the President, considerations of every kind pointed to the inconvenience of acquiring such a vessel and to the revision of the contract in the sense of reducing the tonnage. This was done, and we possess a powerful unit which will not be built on exaggerated lines such as have not as yet stood the time of experience. A contract to build the ship that would become Agincourt was signed on 3 June 1911, Agincourt had an overall length of 671 ft 6 in, a beam of 89 feet, and a draught of 29 feet 10 inches at deep load. She displaced 27,850 long tons at load and 30,860 long tons at deep load, the ship had a metacentric height of 4.9 feet at deep load. She had a turning circle, but manoeuvred well despite her great length. She was considered to be a gun platform
32.
John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe
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Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, GCB, OM, GCVO, SGM, DL was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 during the First World War. Jellicoe later served as First Sea Lord, overseeing the expansion of the Naval Staff at the Admiralty and the introduction of convoys and he also served as the Governor-General of New Zealand in the early 1920s. He was made a midshipman in the steam frigate HMS Newcastle in September 1874 before transferring to the ironclad HMS Agincourt in the Mediterranean Fleet in July 1877. Promoted to sub-lieutenant on 5 December 1878, he joined HMS Alexandra, flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, as signal sub-lieutenant in 1880. Promoted to lieutenant on 23 September 1880, he returned to HMS Agincourt in February 1881, Jellicoe qualified as a gunnery officer in 1883 and was appointed to the staff of the gunnery school HMS Excellent in May 1884. He joined the turret ship HMS Monarch as gunnery officer in September 1885 and was awarded the Board of Trade Silver Medal for rescuing the crew of a steamer near Gibraltar in May 1886. Promoted to commander on 30 June 1891, Jellicoe joined the battleship HMS Sans Pareil in the Mediterranean Fleet in March 1892. He transferred to the battleship HMS Victoria in 1893 and was aboard when it collided with HMS Camperdown and was wrecked off Tripoli in Lebanon on 22 June 1893 and he was then appointed to the new flagship, HMS Ramillies, in October 1893. Promoted to captain on 1 January 1897, Jellicoe became a member of the Admiraltys Ordnance Committee and he was badly wounded during the Battle of Beicang and told he would die but confounded the attending doctor and chaplain by living. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath and given the German Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class, centurion returned to the United Kingdom in August 1901, and was paid off the following month, when Captain Jellicoe and the crew went on leave. Promoted to rear admiral on 8 February 1907, he pushed hard for funds to modernise the navy, supporting the construction of new Dreadnought-type battleships and Invincible-class battlecruisers. Dreyers improvements in gunnery fire-control systems, and favoured the adoption of Dreyers Fire Control Table, Jellicoe arranged for the output of naval ordnance to be transferred from the War Office to the Admiralty. Jellicoe was appointed second-in-command of the Atlantic Fleet in August 1907 and he was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on the occasion of the Kings Review of the Home Fleet in the Solent on 3 August 1907. He advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on the Coronation of King George V on 19 June 1911 and he became Second Sea Lord in December 1912. At the start of the First World War, the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, removed Admiral George Callaghan, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet. Jellicoe was promoted to admiral on 4 August 1914 and assigned command of the renamed Grand Fleet in Admiral Callaghans place. He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 8 February 1915, Jellicoe commanded the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, the largest clash of dreadnoughts, albeit an indecisive one
33.
Admiral-class battlecruiser
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The Admiral-class battlecruisers were to have been a class of four British Royal Navy battlecruisers designed near the end of World War I. No more battlecruisers would be due to the arms limitations agreements of the interbellum. Hood, however, was advanced in construction that she was completed in 1920. She served as the flagship of the Special Service Squadron during its cruise in 1923-24. Hood spent most of the part of the war patrolling against German commerce raiders. Flagship of Force H, based at Gibraltar, she bombarded French ships during the attack on Mers-el-Kébir. In May 1941 Hood and the battleship Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept the German battleship Bismarck, in the subsequent Battle of the Denmark Strait, the aft magazines of Hood exploded, sinking her within five minutes of opening fire. In 1915 the Admiralty was considering the next generation of warship to follow the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, the Director of Naval Construction, Sir Eustace Tennyson-dEyncourt, was given instructions to prepare designs for a new battleship. The design was submitted to the Admiralty on 30 November for consideration, large anti-torpedo bulges were fitted, and the secondary armament of twelve 5-inch guns of a new design was mounted on the forecastle deck. The resulting high freeboard gave the design a greater ratio of reserve buoyancy to displacement than in any previous British dreadnought. The designs stretched hull form also gave her a speed of 26.5 knots. The Admiralty asked for the design to be reworked with a beam of 90 feet. A pair of revised designs was requested with the reduced to 22 knots to allow the hull to be shortened to better fit in existing floating docks. The first of the two was to have full protection and the second to have the best bulge protection possible without exceeding Queen Elizabeths length. C1 was shortened by 100 feet in comparison with B and C2 was only 610 feet in length, in both proposals it had been necessary to reduce the number of guns in the secondary armament and reduce the thickness of the armour. The Admiralty was not pleased with either design and asked for a version of A of the same draught, beam, armour and armament. In addition the new gun was rejected in favour of the existing 5. 5-inch gun. Germany was known to be building three new Mackensen-class battlecruisers with a speed approaching 30 knots and a reported armament of 15. 2-inch guns
34.
HMS Hood
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HMS Hood was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1920, she was named after the 18th-century Admiral Samuel Hood, one of four Admiral-class battlecruisers ordered in mid-1916, Hood had design limitations, though her design was revised after the Battle of Jutland and improved while she was under construction. For this reason she was the ship of her class to be completed. As one of the largest and most powerful warships in the world and she was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet following the outbreak of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Hood was officially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet until she had to return to Britain in 1939 for an overhaul, by this time, advances in naval gunnery had reduced Hoods usefulness. She was scheduled to undergo a major rebuild in 1941 to correct these issues, after a brief overhaul of her propulsion system, she sailed as the flagship of Force H, and participated in the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. Relieved as flagship of Force H, Hood was dispatched to Scapa Flow, on 24 May 1941, early in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was struck by several German shells, exploded and sank. Due to her perceived invincibility, the loss affected British morale, the Royal Navy conducted two inquiries into the reasons for the ships quick demise. The first, held soon after the loss, concluded that Hoods aft magazine had exploded after one of Bismarcks shells penetrated the ships armour. A second inquiry was held after complaints that the first board had failed to consider alternative explanations and it was more thorough than the first board and concurred with the first boards conclusion. Other historians have concentrated on the cause of the magazine explosion, the design was revised after the Battle of Jutland to incorporate heavier armour and all four ships were laid down. Hood was significantly larger than her predecessors of the Renown class, as completed, she had an overall length of 860 feet 7 inches, a maximum beam of 104 feet 2 inches, and a draught of 32 feet at deep load. This was 110 feet longer and 14 feet wider than the older ships and she displaced 42,670 long tons at load and 46,680 long tons at deep load, over 13,000 long tons more than the older ships. The ship had a double bottom. Hood had a height of 4.2 feet at deep load. The additional armour added during construction increased her draught by about 4 feet at deep load, at full speed, or in heavy seas, water would flow over the ships quarterdeck and often entered the messdecks and living quarters through ventilation shafts. This characteristic earned her the nickname of the largest submarine in the Navy, the persistent dampness, coupled with the ships poor ventilation, was blamed for the high incidence of tuberculosis aboard. The ships complement varied widely over her career, in 1919, she was authorised 1433 men as a flagship, in 1934
35.
5th Battle Squadron
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The British 5th Battle Squadron was a squadron consisting of battleships. The 5th Battle Squadron was initially part of the Royal Navys Home Fleet, during the First World War, the Home Fleet was renamed the Grand Fleet. In August 1914, the 5th Battle Squadron was based at Portland, with the commissioning of the five fast battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class, the remaining pre-dreadnoughts were sent to the Mediterranean. HMS Queen Elizabeth herself was delayed in joining the squadron, instead taking part in the Dardanelles Campaign until May 1915, in 1916, the 5th Battle Squadron—under the command of Rear Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomas— was temporarily transferred to David Beattys Battlecruiser Fleet. On 31 May, four ships of the Squadron served with distinction in the battle of Jutland, after the battle, HMS Queen Elizabeth—which had missed the battle due to being in dock—rejoined the squadron
36.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
37.
Battle of Calabria
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The Battle of Calabria, was a naval battle during the Battle of the Mediterranean in World War II. It was fought between the Italian Royal Navy and the British Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy, the battle occurred 30 miles to the east of Punta Stilo, Calabria, on 9 July 1940. It was one of the few pitched battles of the Mediterranean campaign during World War II involving large numbers of ships on both sides, both sides claimed victory, but in fact the battle was a draw and everyone returned to their bases as soon as possible. On 6 July a convoy of four merchant ships left Naples on their way to Benghazi, the transports carried 2,190 troops,72 M11 tanks,232 vehicles,10,445 tons of supplies and 5,720 tons of fuel. Finally, the battle group consisted of two battleships, eight light cruisers and another 16 destroyers. A substantial number of the Italian destroyers didnt take part in the due to mechanical problems. Meanwhile, the Allies were involved in a similar convoy action, the fleet sailed from Alexandria bound towards Malta where the destroyers would deliver supplies and a limited number of specialist reinforcements. Two convoys were arranged to take off fleet stores and civilians from Malta to Alexandria, two groups of merchantmen sailed, a fast convoy at 13 knots and slow one at 9 knots. One of them, Imperial, had to return to Alexandria with a burst steam pipe on the hours of 8 July. All were under the direction of Admiral Andrew Cunningham. At 14,40 on 8 July two Italian Cant Z.506 from Tobruk spotted the British fleet and shadowed it for four hours. Admiral Campioni ordered his fleet to defend the convoy by turning eastward, the Italian Supreme Command, however, was reluctant to risk its warships in a night-time encounter, and they ordered the fleet to avoid contact. In order to make up for losses, another destroyer group was summoned from Taranto. At this point, the Italian fleet had 16 destroyers, meanwhile, the Allies were having problems as well. From 10,00 to 18.40,72 land-based bombers of the Italian Royal Air Force from the mainland attacked their fleet. Unlike the dive-bombers favored by the Germans, Italian bombers operated in formations at high altitudes during the stages of the war. While scores of bombs were dropped by the Italians, a hit on HMS Gloucester represented the outcome of two major attacks. This was a hit on the bridge, killing the captain, six officers. In addition, three officers and six ratings were wounded, the forward fire control and the steering equipment was destroyed, and for the rest of the battle, she would be commanded from the emergency station
38.
Forecastle
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Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors living quarters. Related to the meaning is the phrase before the mast which denotes anything related to ordinary sailors. The syncope of the word, focsle or focsle, is common among nautical terms, the positioning of the apostrophes represents silent letters, thus focsle. In medieval shipbuilding, a ship of war was usually equipped with a tall and it served as a platform for archers to shoot down on enemy ships, or as a defensive stronghold if the ship were boarded. A similar but usually much larger structure, called the aftcastle, was at the aft end of the ship, having such tall upper works on the ship was detrimental to sailing performance. Sailors stationed on the forecastle, or forecastle men, were responsible for handling the headsails, in the Royal Navy of the 17th and 18th centuries, these roles were reserved for older seamen who lacked the agility to go aloft or take other more strenuous duties aboard. By the end of the 19th century, raised forecastle had become a feature on warships again, in an attempt to keep forward gun positions from getting unacceptably wet on heavy seas. In addition the forecastle may provide additional crews quarters as in the past, a disadvantage of such a design is the structural weakness at the forecastle break relative to a flush deck structure. Media related to Forecastles at Wikimedia Commons
39.
HMS Warspite (03)
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HMS Warspite was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. Her thirty-year career covered both world wars and took her across the Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Pacific Oceans and she participated in the Battle of Jutland during the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet. Other than that battle, and the inconclusive Action of 19 August, her service during the war consisted of routine patrols. For this and other reasons Warspite gained the nickname the Grand Old Lady after a comment made by Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham in 1943 while she was his flagship, however, the new fast battleships proved to be an outstanding success during the First World War. Decommissioned in 1945, she ran aground under tow in 1947 on rocks near Prussia Cove, Cornwall, the Queen Elizabeth-class ships were designed to form a fast squadron for the fleet that was intended to operate against the leading ships of the opposing battleline. This required maximum offensive power and a speed several knots faster than any battleship to allow them to defeat any type of ship. Warspite had an overall of 643 feet 9 inches, a beam of 90 feet 7 inches. She had a displacement of 32,590 long tons. She was powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam from 24 Yarrow boilers, the turbines were rated at 75,000 shp and intended to reach a maximum speed of 24 knots. Warspite had a range of 5,000 nautical miles at a speed of 12 knots. Her crew numbered 1,025 officers and ratings in 1915 and 1,220 in 1920 while serving as a flagship and their anti-aircraft armament consisted of two quick-firing 3-inch 20 cwt Mk I guns. The ships were fitted with four submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes, two on each broadside, Warspite was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with 15-foot rangefinders. One was mounted above the tower, protected by an armoured hood. Each turret was fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. The main armament could be controlled by B turret as well, the secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in July 1917. The waterline belt of the Queen Elizabeth class consisted of Krupp cemented armour that was 13 inches thick over the ships vitals, the gun turrets were protected by 11 to 13 inches of KC armour and were supported by barbettes 7–10 inches thick. The ships had multiple armoured decks ranged from 1 to 3 inches in thickness. The main conning tower was protected by 13 inches of armour, after the Battle of Jutland,1 inch of high-tensile steel was added to the main deck over the magazines and additional anti-flash equipment was added in the magazines
40.
Casemate
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A casemate, sometimes erroneously rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. Originally, the referred to a vaulted chamber in a fortress. In armoured fighting vehicles that do not have a turret for the main gun, the word comes from the Italian casamatta, the etymology of which is uncertain. Others think that it comes from the Arabic word kasaba, transliterated to kasbah, menagio speculated that it came from the Greek word for pit, khasma, the plural of which is khasmata. Hensleigh Wedgwood thought that it came from the Spanish casa and matar, others take matto in its archaic Italian meaning of dark, equivalent to the English matt, as in opaque, making a casamatta a dark house. Casematte were also used as prisons, making use of their lack of light to add to the punishment. This explanation seems to be the most agreed upon, a casemate was originally a vaulted chamber usually constructed underneath the rampart. It was intended to be impenetrable and could be used for sheltering troops or stores, with the addition of an embrasure through the scarp face of the rampart, it could be used as a protected gun position. In the early 19th century, French military engineer Baron Haxo designed a free-standing casemate that could be built on the top of the rampart, casemates built in concrete were used in the Second World War to protect coastal artillery from air attack. In warship design the term casemate has been used in a number of ways, the most famous naval battle of the war was the duel at Hampton Roads between the Union turretted ironclad USS Monitor and the Confederate casemate ironclad CSS Virginia. Casemate ship was a term for central battery ship or center battery ship. The casemate was a box that extended the full width of the ship protecting many guns. The armoured sides of the box were the sides of hull of the ship, there was an armoured bulkhead at the front and rear of the casemate, and a thick deck protecting the top. The lower edge of the casemate sat on top of ships belt armour, some ships, such as the Alexandra, had a two-storey casemate. A casemate was a room in the side of a warship. A typical casemate held a 6-in gun, and had a 6 front plate, with armour plates on the sides and rear, with a protected top and floor. Casemates were similar in size to turrets, ships carrying them had them in pairs, the first battleships to carry them were the British Royal Sovereign class laid down in 1889. They were adopted as a result of live-firing trials against HMS Resistance in 1888, the use of casemates enabled the 6-in guns to be dispersed, so that a single hit would not knock out all of them
41.
Deck (ship)
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A deck is a permanent covering over a compartment or a hull of a ship. On a boat or ship, the primary or upper deck is the structure that forms the roof of the hull, strengthening it. Decks for some purposes have specific names, the main purpose of the upper or primary deck is structural, and only secondarily to provide weather-tightness and support people and equipment. The deck serves as the lid to the box girder which is the hull. It resists tension, compression, and racking forces, the decks scantling is usually the same as the topsides, or might be heavier if the deck is expected to carry heavier loads. The deck will be reinforced around deck fittings such as the capstan, cleats, on ships with more than one level, deck refers to the level itself. The actual floor surface is called the sole, the term refers to a structural member tying the ships frames or ribs together over the keel. In modern ships, the decks are usually numbered from the primary deck. So the first deck below the deck will be #2. Some merchant ships may alternatively designate decks below the deck, usually machinery spaces, by numbers. Ships may also call decks by common names, or may invent fanciful and romantic names for a deck or area of that specific ship. Equipment mounted on deck, such as the wheel, binnacle, fife rails. Eastern designs developed earlier, with efficient middle decks and minimalist fore, in vessels having more than one deck there are various naming conventions, numerically, alphabetically, etc. However, there are various common historical names and types of decks,01 level is the term used in naval services to refer to the deck above the main deck. The next higher decks are referred to as the 02 level, the 03 level, afterdeck an open deck area toward the stern-aft. Berth deck, A deck next below the gun deck, where the hammocks of the crew are slung, Boat deck, Especially on ships with sponsons, the deck area where lifeboats or the ships gig are stored. Boiler deck, The passenger deck above the vessels boilers, may also refer to the deck of a bridge. Flight deck, A deck from which aircraft take off or land, flush deck, Any continuous unbroken deck from stem to stern
42.
M29-class monitor
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The M29 class comprised five monitors of the Royal Navy, all built and launched during 1915. The ships of class were ordered in March,1915. The contract for construction was granted to Harland & Wolff, Belfast, HMS M29 - launched on May 22,1915 and later renamed Medusa and Talbot, she was sold in 1946. HMS M30 - launched on June 23,1915, and sunk on May 14,1916, HMS M31 - launched on June 24,1915, and broken up for scrap in 1948. HMS M32 - launched on May 22,1915, and sold in January 1920, HMS M33 - launched on May 22,1915, is one of a number of World War I-era warships in existence today and is located in dry-dock near HMS Victory at Portsmouth Naval Base. It has been restored and is open to public, media related to M29-class monitor at Wikimedia Commons The ship is now open to the public Colledge, J. J. Warlow, Ben. Ships of the Royal Navy, The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy, Janes Fighting Ships of World War One, Janes Publishing Company
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Monitor (warship)
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A monitor was a relatively small warship which was neither fast nor strongly armoured but carried disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s, during the First World War, during the Vietnam War they were used by the United States Navy. The Brazilian Navys Parnaíba is the last monitor in service, the original monitor was designed by John Ericsson in 1861 who named it USS Monitor. They were designed for waters and served as coastal ships. The term monitor also encompassed more flexible breastwork monitors, and was used as a generic term for any turreted ship. The term monitor also encompasses the strongest of riverine warcraft, known as river monitors, the Lord Clive vessels were scrapped in the 1920s. In Latin, a monitor is someone who admonishes—that is, reminds others of their duties—which is how USS Monitor was given its name. She was designed by John Ericsson for emergency service in the Federal navy during the American Civil War to blockade the Confederate States from supply at sea. Ericsson designed her to operate in water and to present as small a target as possible. Nathaniel Hawthorne described Monitor thus, At no great distance from the Minnesota lay the strangest-looking craft I ever saw, going on board, we were surprised at the extent and convenience of her interior accommodations. Forward, or aft, the crew are relatively quite as well provided for as the officers and it was like finding a palace, with all its conveniences, under the sea. A storm of cannon-shot damages them no more than a handful of dried peas, nothing, however, can exceed the confidence of the officers in this new craft. Yet even this will not long be the last and most terrible improvement in the science of war, the Battle of Hampton Roads, between Monitor and CSS Virginia, was the first engagement between ironclad vessels. Several such battles took place during the course of the American Civil War, however, fortification bombardment was another critical role that the early monitors played, though one that these early designs were much less capable in performing. She was followed by 14 more monitors, one of them, Kanonbåten Sölve, served until 1922 and is today preserved at the Maritiman marine museum in Gothenburg. Ericsson and others experimented greatly during the years of the American Civil War, vessels constructed included a triple-turreted monitor, a class of paddlewheel-propelled monitors, a class of semi-submersible monitors, and a class of monitors armed with spar torpedoes. In the 1860s and 1870s several nations built monitors that were used for coastal defense and those that were directly modelled on Monitor were low-freeboard, mastless, steam-powered vessels with one or two rotating, armoured turrets. The low freeboard meant that ships were unsuitable for ocean-going duties and were always at risk of swamping, flooding
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World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
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Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign
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The naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign took place against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Ships of the Royal Navy, the French Marine nationale, the Imperial Russian Navy and Royal Australian Navy, the straits are a narrow waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Black Sea, via the Aegean, Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus. The Allies also tried to pass submarines through the Dardanelles to attack Ottoman shipping in the Sea of Marmara, the mouth of the strait is 2.3 mi wide with a rapid current emptying from the Black Sea into the Aegean. The distance from Cape Helles to the Sea of Marmora is about 41 mi, overlooked by the heights on the Gallipoli peninsula and lower hills on the Asiatic shore. The narrowest part of the strait is 14 mi upstream, from Chanak to Kilid Bahr at 1,600 yd, from the point, the passage turns north-east for the final 23 mi to the Sea of Marmora. The Ottomans used the fortress to describe the sea defences of the Dardanelles on both sides of the waterway from the Aegean approaches to Chanak. In 1914 only the defences from the entrance of the straits and 4 mi from the end of Kephez Bay to Chanak had been fortified. The economic resources of the Ottoman Empire were depleted by the cost of the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, in December 1913, the Germans sent a military mission to Constantinople, headed by General Otto Liman von Sanders. The geographical position of the Ottoman Empire meant that Russia, France, during the Sarajevo Crisis in 1914, German diplomats offered Turkey an anti-Russian alliance and territorial gains in Caucasia, north-west Iran and Trans-Caspia. The pro-British faction in the Cabinet was isolated due to the British ambassador taking leave until 18 August, the Ottoman policy was to obtain a guarantee of territorial integrity and potential advantages, unaware that the British might enter a European war. The unilateral action strained Ottoman-British diplomatic relations and to gain more influence, the Allies tried to intercept the ships, which escaped when the Ottoman government opened the Dardanelles to them, despite international law requiring a neutral party to block military shipping. In September, the British naval mission to the Ottomans was recalled, the German naval presence and the success of German armies in Europe, gave the pro-German faction in the Ottoman government enough influence to declare war on Russia. Hostilities began on 28 October, when the Ottoman fleet, including Goeben and Breslau, odessa and Sevastopol were bombarded, a minelayer and gunboat were sunk but the attempt to neutralise the Black Sea Fleet failed. The Ottomans refused an Allied demand that they expel the German missions and on 31 October 1914, Russia declared war on Turkey on 2 November and the British ambassador left Constantinople the next day. A British naval squadron bombarded the Dardanelles outer defensive forts at Kum Kale and Seddulbahir, Britain and France declared war on Turkey on 5 November and the Ottomans declared a jihad later that month. The Mesopotamian campaign began with a British landing to occupy the oil facilities in the Persian Gulf, the Ottomans prepared to attack Egypt in early 1915, aiming to occupy the Suez Canal and cut the Mediterranean route to British India and the Far East. Field Marshal Lord Herbert Kitchener planned a landing near Alexandretta in Syria in 1914, to sever the capital from Syria, Palestine. The White Sea in the Arctic and the Sea of Okhotsk in the Far East were icebound in winter, with the Ottoman Empire neutral, supplies could still be sent to Russia through the Dardanelles
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Hugh Evan-Thomas
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Admiral Sir Hugh Evan-Thomas, GCB, KCMG, MVO was a British Royal Navy officer. During World War I he commanded the 5th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet, flying his flag in HMS Barham, Evan-Thomas family came from Wales, where they had owned the Llwynmadoc estate near Beulah, Powys for two hundred years. The family also owned the Gnoll at Neath in Glamorgan and Pencerrig at Builth Wells, Evan-Thomas had to rely upon his own salary rather than family money to support himself through his life. Hugh Evan-Thomas was born the son of Charles Evan-Thomas, who was High Sheriff of Brecknockshire for 1885, a memorial service was held at Eglwys Oen Duw church in Llwynmadoc, Wales. A brass plaque in the church records his death, a year later, the council of Neath, Glamorgan purchased the Gnoll estate where Evan-Thomas was born to serve as a public park, where a war memorial would be erected. In 1877 at the age of 15 Hugh Thomas was a cadet on the training ship HMS Britannia. In September, the royal princes George Frederick and his brother, Prince Albert Victor. The princes tutor, John Neale Dalton who accompanied them, approved of Thomas, Thomas left Britannia in December 1877, but not before a friendship was established. George sent him a Christmas card, both letters and Dalton wrote to Thomas requesting that he write back and remain in contact. In February 1878 Thomas was posted to the battery ship HMS Swiftsure which was part of the Mediterranean fleet commanded by Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby. Thomas father, Charles Evan Thomas, changed the name from Thomas to Evan-Thomas. Thomas report from the captain, Nowell Salmon, reported that Midshipman Evan-Thomas had conducted himself with sobriety zeal & attention & to my satisfaction. Swiftsure was stationed in the Gulf of Saros off Gallipoli in July 1878 when Evan-Thomas, the matter was shortly resolved and the men released, but was a reflection of continuing tension in the area just after signing of the treaty of Berlin. In August 1878 Evan-Thomas transferred to the turret ship, HMS Monarch, captained by Algernon Lyons. In 1879 Evan-Thomas was chosen to join HMS Bacchante, as part of a crew hand-picked to be a good influences on the two princes who now continued their careers on the ship. Bacchante made three cruises, the first to the Mediterranean and West Indies, the second to Spain and Ireland, the third cruise departed South Railway Jetty September 1880 in the company of three other corvettes and the frigate HMS Inconstant. The planned itinerary was interrupted by the first Boer War, causing consternation for Queen Victoria that her grandsons were now in a war zone, however, the ship was not involved in action and royal activities were limited to visits to Zulu chief Cetshwayo and other social functions. Evan-Thomas was one of the few allowed to socialise with the princes
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Franz von Hipper
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Franz Ritter von Hipper was an admiral in the German Imperial Navy. Franz von Hipper joined the German Navy in 1881 as an officer cadet and he commanded several torpedo boat units and served as watch officer aboard several warships, as well as Kaiser Wilhelm IIs yacht SMY Hohenzollern. Hipper commanded several cruisers in the forces before being appointed commander of the I Scouting Group in October 1913. He held this position until 1918, when he succeeded Admiral Reinhard Scheer as commander of the High Seas Fleet. He is most famous for commanding the German battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group during World War I, during the war, Hipper led the German battlecruisers on several raids of the English coast, for which he was vilified in the English press as a baby killer. His squadron clashed with the British battlecruiser squadron at the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, at the Battle of Jutland, Hippers flagship Lützow was sunk, though his ships succeeded in sinking three British battlecruisers. After the end of the war in 1918, Franz von Hipper retired from the Imperial Navy with a full pension and he initially lived under an alias and moved frequently to avoid radical revolutionaries during the German Revolution of 1918–1919. After the revolution settled, he moved to Altona outside Hamburg, unlike his superior, Reinhard Scheer, he never published a memoir of his service during the war. Hipper died on 25 May 1932, the Kriegsmarine commemorated Hipper with the launching of the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper in 1938. Franz Hipper was born to Anton and Anna Hipper in Weilheim in Oberbayern, some 40 miles south of Munich and his father, a shop-keeper, died when Franz was three. When Franz turned five, he began his education at a Catholic grammar school in Munich, at the age of ten, Franz attended the Gymnasium in Munich. Hipper graduated from the Gymnasium in 1879 with an Obersekunda—the equivalent of a school diploma. After completing his education, Hipper signed up as a reserve officer. After basic officer training in 1879, Hipper decided to join the navy and he went to Kiel, where he took the Pressen, courses designed to prepare officers for the naval entrance examination, which he successfully passed. On 12 April 1881, at the age of 18, Franz Hipper became an officer of the Imperial German Navy, among the fellow cadets of the 1881 class was Wilhelm Souchon, who went on to command the Mediterranean Division at the outbreak of World War I. After Hipper joined the German Navy in 1881 as a sea cadet. He was then transferred to the Naval Cadet School in Kiel, upon graduation, he attended the 6-week Basic Gunnery School on the training ship Mars, from April to May 1882. Following gunnery training, Hipper was assigned to the training ship Friedrich Carl for sea training and he was then transferred to the steam corvette Leipzig for a world cruise, this was begun on October 1882 and completed two years later in October 1884
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Reinhard Scheer
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Reinhard Scheer was an Admiral in the Imperial German Navy. Scheer joined the navy in 1879 as a cadet, he progressed through the ranks, commanding cruisers and battleships. At the outbreak of World War I, Scheer was the commander of the II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet and he then took command of the III Battle Squadron, which consisted of the newest and most powerful battleships in the navy. In January 1916, he was promoted to Admiral and given control of the High Seas Fleet, Scheer led the German fleet at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May–1 June 1916, one of the largest naval battles in history. Following the battle, Scheer joined those calling for unrestricted submarine warfare against the Allies, in August 1918, Scheer was promoted to the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Franz von Hipper replaced him as commander of the fleet. Together they planned a final battle against the British Grand Fleet, but war-weary sailors mutinied at the news, Scheer retired after the end of the war. A strict disciplinarian, Scheer was popularly known in the Navy as the man with the mask due to his severe appearance. In 1919, Scheer wrote his memoirs, a later they were translated and published in English. He wrote his autobiography in 1925 and he is buried in the municipal cemetery at Weimar. The admiral was commemorated in the renascent Kriegsmarine by the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer, Scheer was born in Obernkirchen, present-day Lower Saxony. He came from a background, which initially hampered his naval career. Reinhard Scheer entered the navy on 22 April 1879 aged 15 as a cadet and his first sea assignment was aboard the sail-frigate SMS Niobe. His first cruise aboard Niobe lasted from June to September 1879, during the cruise he was trained in navigation and engineering. Following his return to Germany in September, Scheer was assigned to the Naval School in Kiel to continue his officer training. He received only a rating on his cadet evaluation in 1879. Following his graduation from the Naval School, Scheer embarked on a special training program for gunnery, torpedo warfare. Afterward, he was assigned to the training ship SMS Renown. Scheer was for a short time assigned to the armored frigate SMS Friedrich Carl, for his last year in cadet training, he was assigned to the frigate SMS Hertha, which conducted a world tour
Royal Navy
