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HMS King George V (41)
Encyclopedia
HMS King George V (pennant number
41) was the lead ship of the five British King George V-class
battleship
s of the Royal Navy
. Laid down in 1937 and commissioned in 1940, King George V operated during the Second World War
as part of the British Home and Pacific
Fleets. Along with , King George V severely damaged the German battleship Bismarck which led to the German vessel sinking in May 1941. On 1 May 1942 HMS Punjabi
sank after a collision with King George V. King George V took part in Operation Husky (the allied landings in Sicily) and bombarded the island of Levanzo
and the port of Trapani
. She also escorted part of the surrendered Italian Fleet
, which included the battleships Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio
, to Malta
. In 1945 King George V took part in operations against the Japanese in the Pacific
.
Following the war, King George V spent three years as the flagship of the British Home Fleet, before she was placed in reserve in 1949. The battleship was scrapped eight years later.
; she was laid down on 1 January 1937, launched on 21 February 1939 and commissioned on 11 December 1940. The ship had an overall length of 745 ft (227.08 m), a beam
of 112 ft (34.24 m) and a draught of 34 ft (10.41 m). She displaced
38,031 tons at normal load and 42,237 tons at full load. After her refit in 1944, she displaced 44,460 tons at full load. She could also carry 3,918 tons worth of fuel oil, 192 tons of diesel oil, 256 tons of reserve feed water and 444 tons of freshwater.
specifications. This configuration was a little more conventional than the Nelson class
, with boiler rooms placed side by side and with each pair associated with a turbine room astern of them. The total heating surface of the boiler plants in King George V was 78,144 sq. ft. The 416 ton boiler installation produced more than 100,000 shaft horsepower, giving a top speed of 28 knots. The eight boilers were more economic in space and fuel than the twenty-four boilers in the battlecruiser
HMS Hood
. Fewer, but larger, boilers lowered the weight per unit of heat delivered, as did increased boiler efficiency and consumption of fuel per unit area of heating surface. This made King George V the fastest battleship in the British fleet but slower than the German or Italian capital ships, or the battlecruisers HMS Repulse and HMS Renown.
King George V had four sets of Parsons geared turbines. Two main turbines were arranged in series and drove a shaft through double helical gears. An astern turbine was incorporated in the exhaust casing of the low-pressure turbine, and a cruising turbine was coupled directly to the high-pressure turbine. A speed of 28.5 knots was expected at standard displacement and 27.5 knots at full-load displacement on normal output; corresponding speeds at overload condition were 29.25 and 28.25 knots respectively. The turbine unit was a low-speed type (2,257 rpm) coupled to a single reduction gear which produced 236 rpm at the propeller shaft.
. They were mounted in one Mark II twin turret forward and two Mark III quadruple turrets, one forward and one aft
. They could be elevated 40 degrees and depressed 3 degrees. Training arcs were: "A" turret, 286 degrees; "B" turret, 270 degrees and "Y" turret, 270 degrees. Training and elevating was achieved through a hydraulic drive, with rates of two and eight degrees per second, respectively. A full gun broadside weighed 15,950 pounds, a salvo
could be fired every 40 seconds. The quadruple turrets weighed 1,582 tons, the twin turret 915 tons. The turrets were designed by the Vickers Armstrong's Elswick Works, but sets of each type of equipment were manufactured by Vickers Armstrongs in Barrow
. A considerable amount of design effort was expended to make the turrets as flashtight as possible. This complicated the mechanical design of the turrets, particularly the quadruple mountings. Due to insufficient clearances and slightly distorted link mechanisms, failures in the intricate safety interlocks in the loading sequence for antiflash precautions caused jams during drills and practice firing. King George V used an Admiralty Fire Control Table
Mark IX to control her main armament.
deck; between deck mountings travelled on roller paths on the armoured deck. This permitted a flat-trajectory or high-angle fire. Loading was semi-automatic, normal rate of fire was ten to twelve rounds per minute. The maximum range of the Mk I guns was 24070 yards (22,009.6 m) at a 45-degree elevation, the anti-aircraft ceiling was 49000 feet (14,935.2 m). The guns could be elevated to 70 degrees and depressed to 5 degrees. However, the guns could only practically fire seven to eight rounds per minute, due to the heavy weight of the shell and the fact that the 5.25-inch round was semi-fixed, requiring much crew handling until it was rammed into the breech. King George V introduced the High Angle Control System Mark IVGB anti-aircraft fire control system to the Royal Navy, which, along with the Mk IV Pom-Pom Director, pioneered the use of the Gyro Rate Unit
.
requirement for a multiple mounting which was effective against close-range bombers or torpedo planes. The first model, tested in 1927, was superior to anything developed in other countries at the time and in 1938 the Mark VI* had a muzzle velocity of 2,400 feet per second, a 1.594-inch bore and a barrel length of 40 calibres. They fired a 1.8-pound shell at a rate of 96–98 rounds per minute for controlled fire and 115 rounds per minute for automatic fire. The range of the Mark VI* was 6,800 yards, at a muzzle velocity of 2,300 feet per second. The Mark VI octuple mount weighed 16 tons. The Mark VII quadruple mount weighed 10.8 tons if power operated; it could be elevated to 80 degrees and depressed to 10 degrees at a rate of 25 degrees per second which was also the rate of train. The normal ammunition supply on board for the Mark VI was 1,800 rounds per barrel. King George V introduced the Mk IV Pom-pom director
to the Royal Navy in 1940, becoming the first ship in the world to feature gyroscopic target tracking in tachymetric
anti-aircraft directors.
in Scotland on 16 October 1940; there she took on board her ammunition and began her sea trials. By the end of the year she had joined the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow
. She crossed the Atlantic early in 1941 to take Lord Halifax
, the Ambassador to the United States, to Annapolis and covered an east-bound convoy on her return, arriving back at Scapa Flow on 6 February. Her next task was to provide distant cover for Operation Claymore
, the Royal Marines
raid on the Lofoten islands off the north-west coast of Norway. She escorted further Atlantic convoys, HX 114 and HX 115 during March.
. King George V was the flagship
of Admiral Sir John Tovey
, who commanded the force. King George V was still 300 to 400 miles away on the morning of 24 May, when and Hood engaged Bismarck. Hood was sunk and Prince of Wales was damaged and forced to retire. The German ship, although damaged, continued south.
The British re-located Bismarck at 10:30 on 26 May, when a Catalina
flying boat
of RAF Coastal Command
sighted her, heading for the French port of Brest
. Rodney and King George V were still about 125 miles away. The aircraft carrier was ordered to launch an air attack, and at 22:25 her torpedo bomber
s damaged Bismarck, slowing her down and jamming her rudder, forcing her to turn back out into the Atlantic, away from the safety of port. At 15:00 Rodney joined King George V and they maintained 22 knots – which was nearly maximum speed for Rodney. King George V had only 32 percent of her fuel left, Rodney only had enough to continue the chase at high speed until 8:00 the following day.
Admiral Tovey signalled his battle plan to Rodney just before sunrise on 27 May; she was free to manœuvre independently as long as she conformed generally to the movements of King George V. Both ships were to close the range to 15,000 yards as quickly as possible, then turn for broadside fire.
At 08:15 spotted Bismarck and turned away out of range. She soon sighted the other British ships off her starboard quarter, and informed them that Bismarck was roughly 50,000 yards to the southwest. By 08:43 King George V had Bismarck in sight, at 20,500 yards. Four minutes later Rodney opened fire. King George V followed suit in less than a minute. Bismarck answered almost immediately, straddling Rodney on her second salvo. By 08:59 King George V had closed to 16,000 yards and all her 14-inch guns were firing; Rodney was firing full 16-inch salvoes. Bismarck concentrated all her remaining guns on King George V, but only an occasional shell came close. At 09:14 King George V, at 12,000 yards, had opened fire with her 5.25-inch guns, and Rodney had moved to 8,500–9,000 yards.
At 09:27 a shell hit Bismarck, penetrating the hydraulic machinery in turret 'Anton' and disabled it, causing the guns to run down to maximum depression. Her topsides were wrecked, and a large fire burned amidships. By that time King George V was having trouble with her main battery, and every gun missed at least one salvo; due to failures in the safety interlocks for antiflash protection. Both Rodney and King George V had little fuel left and returned to port at very low speed, escorted by eleven destroyers to guard against German air or submarine attack. The next day, after the escort was reduced to three destroyers, four German aircraft did attack but scored no hits. Both King George V and Rodney returned to port safely, but the destroyer , sent ahead to refuel, was bombed and sunk.
as an escort to Convoy PQ 15, and collided with the destroyer , which had manoeuvred to avoid a mine
and crossed her bow in dense fog. Punjabi was cut in two and King George V had 40 feet of her bow badly damaged. King George V entered the Gladstone Dock
in Liverpool
on 9 May for repairs by Cammell Laird
, and returned to Scapa Flow on 1 July 1942 to resume convoy escort duty.
in preparation for Operation Husky. King George V and her sister ship
were allocated to the reserve covering group when the operation got under way on 1 July. The two ships bombarded Trapani
in Sicily on 12 July and also helped defend against an air raid whilst in Algiers
prior to departing for Operation Avalanche, (the Allied invasion of Italy). The two ships also bombarded the islands of Levanzo
and Favignana
, after which they were in the reserve group for the Salerno landings (Operation Avalanche) which began on 9 September. King George V escorted part of the Italian Fleet
, including the battleships Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio
, to Malta after the armistice and with Howe provided cover for the 1st Airborne Division who were transported to Taranto
in support of Operation Slapstick
from 9 to 11 September by the cruiser USS Boise
and the fast minelayer
HMS Abdiel
. The battleship then escorted a naval force which occupied the Italian naval base at Taranto
. She later escorted surrendered Italian ships from Malta to Alexandria
. After bombarding German positions during the Salerno landings, King George V returned to the United Kingdom.
for an overhaul from March to June, 1944; it included the installation of additional radar gear, more anti-aircraft guns, improved accommodation and ventilation. On 28 October 1944 King George V sailed from Scapa Flow under the command of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser
to join other Royal Navy units assembling at Trincomalee
in Ceylon
. A stop at Alexandria en route enabled her to divert to Milos
in the Aegean Sea
to bombard German positions there. On 1 December she resumed her eastward journey, arriving in Trincomalee on 15 December. King George V got under way again on 16 January 1945. The flotilla, known as Task Force 63, comprised King George V, the aircraft carriers , , and , four cruisers and ten destroyers. The first stage of the voyage was covering the 11,000 nautical miles to Sydney; en route the force attacked oil refineries on Sumatra
in Operation Meridian
. They also practised replenishment-at-sea
and beat off a Japanese air attack, with King George V's anti-aircraft crews shooting down one Mitsubishi Ki-21
.
Joined by Howe and re-designated Task Force 57, the British Pacific Fleet
was again involved in operations in late March 1945, when it launched attacks on the Sakishimo-Gunto airfields, a task it repeated in early May. On 4 May 1945 King George V led battleships and cruisers in a forty-five minute bombardment of Japanese air facilities in the Ryukyu Islands
. As the Allies approached the Japanese homeland, King George V was dispatched in mid-July to join the US battleships in a bombardment of industrial installations at Hitachi
. King George V fired 267 rounds from her 14-inch guns during this operation. The task force then moved on to Hamamatsu in southern Honshu
, where it carried out a further bombardment of aviation factories. During the Okinawa campaign, the battleship supported four fast carriers of the British Pacific Fleet. Her last offensive action was a night bombardment of Hamamatsu on 29 and 30 July 1945.
With the dropping of the atomic bombs
on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
and the surrender that followed, King George V moved with other units of the British Pacific Fleet into Tokyo Bay
to be present at the surrender ceremonies
.
on an official visit to Australia, returning to Portsmouth
in March. She was flagship of the Home Fleet until December 1946, when she became a training vessel.
King George Vs active naval career was terminated by the Royal Navy in June 1950, when she and her sister-ships went into reserve
and were mothballed. King George V was the first large warship to be preserved in this fashion. This involved sealing the armament, machinery and boilers against damp and installing dehumidifiers through-out. In December 1955, she was downgraded to extended reserve and in 1957 the decision was taken to scrap the four ships. The following year King George V was moved from her berth in Gareloch to the ship breaking firm of Arnott Young and Co. in Dalmuir
to undergo dismantling.
Pennant number
In the modern Royal Navy, and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth, ships are identified by pennant numbers...
41) was the lead ship of the five British King George V-class
King George V class battleship (1939)
The King George V-class battleships were the most modern British battleships used during World War II. Five ships of this class were built and commissioned: King George V , Prince of Wales , Duke of York , Howe , and Anson .The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 limiting all of the number,...
battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
s of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. Laid down in 1937 and commissioned in 1940, King George V operated during the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as part of the British Home and Pacific
British Pacific Fleet
The British Pacific Fleet was a British Commonwealth naval force which saw action against Japan during World War II. The fleet was composed of British Commonwealth naval vessels. The BPF formally came into being on 22 November 1944...
Fleets. Along with , King George V severely damaged the German battleship Bismarck which led to the German vessel sinking in May 1941. On 1 May 1942 HMS Punjabi
HMS Punjabi (F21)
HMS Punjabi was a Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that saw service in the Second World War, being sunk in a collision with the battleship . She has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name "Punjabi" which — in common with the other ships of the Tribal-class — was named after...
sank after a collision with King George V. King George V took part in Operation Husky (the allied landings in Sicily) and bombarded the island of Levanzo
Levanzo
Levanzo is the smallest of the three main Aegadian Islands in the Mediterranean Sea west of Sicily, Italy. It forms a part of the municipality of Favignana in the Province of Trapani....
and the port of Trapani
Trapani
Trapani is a city and comune on the west coast of Sicily in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands.-History:...
. She also escorted part of the surrendered Italian Fleet
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
, which included the battleships Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio
Italian battleship Caio Duilio
Caio Duilio was an Italian that served in the Regia Marina during World War I and World War II. She was named after the Roman fleet commander Gaius Duilius. Caio Duilio was laid down on 24 February 1912 and after a year and two months of construction, she was launched on 24 April 1913...
, to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
. In 1945 King George V took part in operations against the Japanese in the Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
.
Following the war, King George V spent three years as the flagship of the British Home Fleet, before she was placed in reserve in 1949. The battleship was scrapped eight years later.
General characteristics
King George V was built by Vickers-Armstrong at Walker Naval Yard, Newcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
; she was laid down on 1 January 1937, launched on 21 February 1939 and commissioned on 11 December 1940. The ship had an overall length of 745 ft (227.08 m), a beam
Beam (nautical)
The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...
of 112 ft (34.24 m) and a draught of 34 ft (10.41 m). She displaced
Displacement (ship)
A ship's displacement is its weight at any given time, generally expressed in metric tons or long tons. The term is often used to mean the ship's weight when it is loaded to its maximum capacity. A number of synonymous terms exist for this maximum weight, such as loaded displacement, full load...
38,031 tons at normal load and 42,237 tons at full load. After her refit in 1944, she displaced 44,460 tons at full load. She could also carry 3,918 tons worth of fuel oil, 192 tons of diesel oil, 256 tons of reserve feed water and 444 tons of freshwater.
Propulsion
King George V was equipped with eight three-drum type small-tube boilers built to AdmiraltyAdmiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
specifications. This configuration was a little more conventional than the Nelson class
Nelson class battleship
The Nelson class was a class of two battleships of the British Royal Navy, built shortly after, and under the terms of, the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922...
, with boiler rooms placed side by side and with each pair associated with a turbine room astern of them. The total heating surface of the boiler plants in King George V was 78,144 sq. ft. The 416 ton boiler installation produced more than 100,000 shaft horsepower, giving a top speed of 28 knots. The eight boilers were more economic in space and fuel than the twenty-four boilers in the battlecruiser
Battlecruiser
Battlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...
HMS Hood
HMS Hood (51)
HMS Hood was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. One of four s ordered in mid-1916, her design—although drastically revised after the Battle of Jutland and improved while she was under construction—still had serious limitations. For this reason she was the only ship of her class to be...
. Fewer, but larger, boilers lowered the weight per unit of heat delivered, as did increased boiler efficiency and consumption of fuel per unit area of heating surface. This made King George V the fastest battleship in the British fleet but slower than the German or Italian capital ships, or the battlecruisers HMS Repulse and HMS Renown.
King George V had four sets of Parsons geared turbines. Two main turbines were arranged in series and drove a shaft through double helical gears. An astern turbine was incorporated in the exhaust casing of the low-pressure turbine, and a cruising turbine was coupled directly to the high-pressure turbine. A speed of 28.5 knots was expected at standard displacement and 27.5 knots at full-load displacement on normal output; corresponding speeds at overload condition were 29.25 and 28.25 knots respectively. The turbine unit was a low-speed type (2,257 rpm) coupled to a single reduction gear which produced 236 rpm at the propeller shaft.
Main battery
King George V mounted ten 14 inches (355.6 mm) gunsBL 14 inch Mk VII naval gun
The BL 14 inch Mk VII naval gun was designed for the ships of the Royal Navy in the late 1930s. This gun armed the King George V class battleships.-Background:...
. They were mounted in one Mark II twin turret forward and two Mark III quadruple turrets, one forward and one aft
Aft
Aft, in naval terminology, is an adjective or adverb meaning, towards the stern of the ship, when the frame of reference is within the ship. Example: "Able Seaman Smith; lay aft!". Or; "What's happening aft?"...
. They could be elevated 40 degrees and depressed 3 degrees. Training arcs were: "A" turret, 286 degrees; "B" turret, 270 degrees and "Y" turret, 270 degrees. Training and elevating was achieved through a hydraulic drive, with rates of two and eight degrees per second, respectively. A full gun broadside weighed 15,950 pounds, a salvo
Salvo
A salvo is the simultaneous discharge of artillery or firearms including the firing of guns either to hit a target or to perform a salute.Troops armed with muzzleloaders required time in which to refill their arms with gun powder and shot...
could be fired every 40 seconds. The quadruple turrets weighed 1,582 tons, the twin turret 915 tons. The turrets were designed by the Vickers Armstrong's Elswick Works, but sets of each type of equipment were manufactured by Vickers Armstrongs in Barrow
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...
. A considerable amount of design effort was expended to make the turrets as flashtight as possible. This complicated the mechanical design of the turrets, particularly the quadruple mountings. Due to insufficient clearances and slightly distorted link mechanisms, failures in the intricate safety interlocks in the loading sequence for antiflash precautions caused jams during drills and practice firing. King George V used an Admiralty Fire Control Table
Admiralty Fire Control Table
thumb|Admiralty Fire Control Table in the transmitting station of [[HMS Belfast |HMS Belfast]].The Admiralty Fire Control Table was an electromechanical analogue computer fire-control system that calculated the correct elevation and deflection of a Royal Navy cruiser or battleships' main armament,...
Mark IX to control her main armament.
Secondary battery
The secondary armament consisted of 16x 5.25 inches (133.4 mm) guns in eight twin mounts, weighing 81 tons each. They were grouped at the four corners of the citadel, with a twin mount on the main deck and another superimposed above it nearer amidships. This disposition gave better arcs of fire, freedom from blast, more separation of the magazines and a better arrangement of the ammunition supply. The cupolas for these mounts revolved on either the upper or superstructureSuperstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...
deck; between deck mountings travelled on roller paths on the armoured deck. This permitted a flat-trajectory or high-angle fire. Loading was semi-automatic, normal rate of fire was ten to twelve rounds per minute. The maximum range of the Mk I guns was 24070 yards (22,009.6 m) at a 45-degree elevation, the anti-aircraft ceiling was 49000 feet (14,935.2 m). The guns could be elevated to 70 degrees and depressed to 5 degrees. However, the guns could only practically fire seven to eight rounds per minute, due to the heavy weight of the shell and the fact that the 5.25-inch round was semi-fixed, requiring much crew handling until it was rammed into the breech. King George V introduced the High Angle Control System Mark IVGB anti-aircraft fire control system to the Royal Navy, which, along with the Mk IV Pom-Pom Director, pioneered the use of the Gyro Rate Unit
Gyro Rate Unit
-History:The Royal Navy, after World War I, became increasingly concerned with the threat posed by aerial attack. In 1930 the RN began equipping ships with the High Angle Control System, a non-tachymetric anti-aircraft fire control system, that would compute the gun laying orders and the time fuze...
.
Anti-aircraft battery
King George V had four 0.5-inch quadruple machine gun mounts, but in 1939 these were replaced by two Mark VI pom-pom mounts. In 1940, to combat air attack, four unrotated projector mountings were fitted, on "B" turret, two on "Y" turret, one replaced a pom-pom mount added in 1939 at the stern. The pom-poms mounted in the King George V were designed and produced by Vickers Armstrongs as a result of a post-First World WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
requirement for a multiple mounting which was effective against close-range bombers or torpedo planes. The first model, tested in 1927, was superior to anything developed in other countries at the time and in 1938 the Mark VI* had a muzzle velocity of 2,400 feet per second, a 1.594-inch bore and a barrel length of 40 calibres. They fired a 1.8-pound shell at a rate of 96–98 rounds per minute for controlled fire and 115 rounds per minute for automatic fire. The range of the Mark VI* was 6,800 yards, at a muzzle velocity of 2,300 feet per second. The Mark VI octuple mount weighed 16 tons. The Mark VII quadruple mount weighed 10.8 tons if power operated; it could be elevated to 80 degrees and depressed to 10 degrees at a rate of 25 degrees per second which was also the rate of train. The normal ammunition supply on board for the Mark VI was 1,800 rounds per barrel. King George V introduced the Mk IV Pom-pom director
Pom-Pom Director
-History:The Vickers 40mm "Pom-Pom" Antiaircraft mounting was introduced to the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. The mounting was capable of a tremendous volume of fire but the crew had great difficulty in aiming the mounting due to the smoke and vibration created by the guns...
to the Royal Navy in 1940, becoming the first ship in the world to feature gyroscopic target tracking in tachymetric
Tachymetric
A tachymetric anti-aircraft fire control system refers to a method of generating target position, speed, direction, and rate of target range change, by computing these parameters directly from measured data....
anti-aircraft directors.
Operational history
The first of her class to be completed, King George V was commissioned at her shipyard and sailed for RosythRosyth
Rosyth is a town located on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the town has a population of 12,790....
in Scotland on 16 October 1940; there she took on board her ammunition and began her sea trials. By the end of the year she had joined the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow
Scapa Flow
right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...
. She crossed the Atlantic early in 1941 to take Lord Halifax
E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, , known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and as The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was one of the most senior British Conservative politicians of the 1930s, during which he held several senior ministerial posts, most notably as...
, the Ambassador to the United States, to Annapolis and covered an east-bound convoy on her return, arriving back at Scapa Flow on 6 February. Her next task was to provide distant cover for Operation Claymore
Operation Claymore
Operation Claymore was the codename for a British Commandos raid on the Lofoten Islands in Norway during the Second World War. The Lofoten Islands were an important center for the production of fish oil and glycerine, used in the German war industry. The landings were carried out on 4 March 1941,...
, the Royal Marines
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
raid on the Lofoten islands off the north-west coast of Norway. She escorted further Atlantic convoys, HX 114 and HX 115 during March.
Action with Bismarck
When Bismarck broke out into the Atlantic Ocean, King George V sailed on 22 May with and eleven cruisers and destroyers in support of the cruiser patrols off IcelandIceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
. King George V was the flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
of Admiral Sir John Tovey
John Tovey, 1st Baron Tovey
Admiral of the Fleet John Cronyn "Jack" Tovey, 1st Baron Tovey GCB, KBE, DSO, DCL was a Royal Navy admiral who served in both World Wars. He signed himself as "Jack", not "John". Tovey joined the Royal Navy before World War I, and commanded destroyers in that war. He rose, with several senior...
, who commanded the force. King George V was still 300 to 400 miles away on the morning of 24 May, when and Hood engaged Bismarck. Hood was sunk and Prince of Wales was damaged and forced to retire. The German ship, although damaged, continued south.
The British re-located Bismarck at 10:30 on 26 May, when a Catalina
PBY Catalina
The Consolidated PBY Catalina was an American flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. PBYs served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in the air forces and navies of many other...
flying boat
Flying boat
A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a float plane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, granting the aircraft buoyancy. Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage...
of RAF Coastal Command
RAF Coastal Command
RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force . Founded in 1936, it was the RAF's premier maritime arm, after the Royal Navy's secondment of the Fleet Air Arm in 1937. Naval aviation was neglected in the inter-war period, 1919–1939, and as a consequence the service did not receive...
sighted her, heading for the French port of Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
. Rodney and King George V were still about 125 miles away. The aircraft carrier was ordered to launch an air attack, and at 22:25 her torpedo bomber
Torpedo bomber
A torpedo bomber is a bomber aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes which could also carry out conventional bombings. Torpedo bombers existed almost exclusively prior to and during World War II when they were an important element in many famous battles, notably the...
s damaged Bismarck, slowing her down and jamming her rudder, forcing her to turn back out into the Atlantic, away from the safety of port. At 15:00 Rodney joined King George V and they maintained 22 knots – which was nearly maximum speed for Rodney. King George V had only 32 percent of her fuel left, Rodney only had enough to continue the chase at high speed until 8:00 the following day.
Admiral Tovey signalled his battle plan to Rodney just before sunrise on 27 May; she was free to manœuvre independently as long as she conformed generally to the movements of King George V. Both ships were to close the range to 15,000 yards as quickly as possible, then turn for broadside fire.
At 08:15 spotted Bismarck and turned away out of range. She soon sighted the other British ships off her starboard quarter, and informed them that Bismarck was roughly 50,000 yards to the southwest. By 08:43 King George V had Bismarck in sight, at 20,500 yards. Four minutes later Rodney opened fire. King George V followed suit in less than a minute. Bismarck answered almost immediately, straddling Rodney on her second salvo. By 08:59 King George V had closed to 16,000 yards and all her 14-inch guns were firing; Rodney was firing full 16-inch salvoes. Bismarck concentrated all her remaining guns on King George V, but only an occasional shell came close. At 09:14 King George V, at 12,000 yards, had opened fire with her 5.25-inch guns, and Rodney had moved to 8,500–9,000 yards.
At 09:27 a shell hit Bismarck, penetrating the hydraulic machinery in turret 'Anton' and disabled it, causing the guns to run down to maximum depression. Her topsides were wrecked, and a large fire burned amidships. By that time King George V was having trouble with her main battery, and every gun missed at least one salvo; due to failures in the safety interlocks for antiflash protection. Both Rodney and King George V had little fuel left and returned to port at very low speed, escorted by eleven destroyers to guard against German air or submarine attack. The next day, after the escort was reduced to three destroyers, four German aircraft did attack but scored no hits. Both King George V and Rodney returned to port safely, but the destroyer , sent ahead to refuel, was bombed and sunk.
Collision damage
After repairs and adjustments to her guns, King George V attacked German shipping in the Glom Fjord, Norway, in October 1941. She then covered convoys to Russia. On 1 May 1942 she was operating with USS WashingtonUSS Washington (BB-56)
USS Washington , the second of two battleships in the North Carolina class, was the third ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the 42nd state. Her keel was laid down on 14 June 1938 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Launched on 1 June 1940, Washington went through fitting-out before...
as an escort to Convoy PQ 15, and collided with the destroyer , which had manoeuvred to avoid a mine
Naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...
and crossed her bow in dense fog. Punjabi was cut in two and King George V had 40 feet of her bow badly damaged. King George V entered the Gladstone Dock
Gladstone Dock
Gladstone Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, England and part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Bootle. The dock is connected to the Royal Seaforth Dock to the north and what remains of Hornby Dock to the south...
in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
on 9 May for repairs by Cammell Laird
Cammell Laird
Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century.- Founding of the business :The Company...
, and returned to Scapa Flow on 1 July 1942 to resume convoy escort duty.
Mediterranean operations
In May 1943, King George V was moved to GibraltarGibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
in preparation for Operation Husky. King George V and her sister ship
Sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same class as, or of virtually identical design to, another ship. Such vessels share a near-identical hull and superstructure layout, similar displacement, and roughly comparable features and equipment...
were allocated to the reserve covering group when the operation got under way on 1 July. The two ships bombarded Trapani
Trapani
Trapani is a city and comune on the west coast of Sicily in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands.-History:...
in Sicily on 12 July and also helped defend against an air raid whilst in Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
prior to departing for Operation Avalanche, (the Allied invasion of Italy). The two ships also bombarded the islands of Levanzo
Levanzo
Levanzo is the smallest of the three main Aegadian Islands in the Mediterranean Sea west of Sicily, Italy. It forms a part of the municipality of Favignana in the Province of Trapani....
and Favignana
Favignana
Favignana is a comune including three islands of the Aegadian Islands, southern Italy...
, after which they were in the reserve group for the Salerno landings (Operation Avalanche) which began on 9 September. King George V escorted part of the Italian Fleet
Regia Marina
The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...
, including the battleships Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio
Italian battleship Caio Duilio
Caio Duilio was an Italian that served in the Regia Marina during World War I and World War II. She was named after the Roman fleet commander Gaius Duilius. Caio Duilio was laid down on 24 February 1912 and after a year and two months of construction, she was launched on 24 April 1913...
, to Malta after the armistice and with Howe provided cover for the 1st Airborne Division who were transported to Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
in support of Operation Slapstick
Operation Slapstick
Operation Slapstick was the code name for a British landing from the sea at the Italian port of Taranto during the Second World War. The operation, one of three landings during the Allied invasion of Italy, was undertaken by the British 1st Airborne Division in September 1943.Planned at short...
from 9 to 11 September by the cruiser USS Boise
USS Boise (CL-47)
USS Boise was a United States Navy Brooklyn-class light cruiser. The cruiser was named for Boise, the capital city of the state of Idaho....
and the fast minelayer
Minelayer
Minelaying is the act of deploying explosive mines. Historically this has been carried out by ships, submarines and aircraft. Additionally, since World War I the term minelayer refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines...
HMS Abdiel
HMS Abdiel (M39)
HMS Abdiel was an that served with the Royal Navy during World War II. She served with the Mediterranean Fleet , Eastern Fleet , Home Fleet , and the Mediterranean Fleet . Abdiel was sunk by mines in Taranto harbour in 1943...
. The battleship then escorted a naval force which occupied the Italian naval base at Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
. She later escorted surrendered Italian ships from Malta to Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
. After bombarding German positions during the Salerno landings, King George V returned to the United Kingdom.
Pacific operations
King George V was in LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
for an overhaul from March to June, 1944; it included the installation of additional radar gear, more anti-aircraft guns, improved accommodation and ventilation. On 28 October 1944 King George V sailed from Scapa Flow under the command of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser
Bruce Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape
Admiral of the Fleet Bruce Austin Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape GCB, KBE was a senior British admiral during World War II.-Early naval career:Fraser joined the Royal Navy as a Cadet on 15 January 1904...
to join other Royal Navy units assembling at Trincomalee
Trincomalee
Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. It has a population of approximately 100,000 . The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay,...
in Ceylon
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. A stop at Alexandria en route enabled her to divert to Milos
Milos
Milos , is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete...
in the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
to bombard German positions there. On 1 December she resumed her eastward journey, arriving in Trincomalee on 15 December. King George V got under way again on 16 January 1945. The flotilla, known as Task Force 63, comprised King George V, the aircraft carriers , , and , four cruisers and ten destroyers. The first stage of the voyage was covering the 11,000 nautical miles to Sydney; en route the force attacked oil refineries on Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
in Operation Meridian
Operation Meridian
During World War II, Operation Meridian was a series of British air attacks conducted on 24 January and 29 January 1945 on Japanese-held oil refineries at Palembang, on Sumatra...
. They also practised replenishment-at-sea
Underway replenishment
Underway replenishment or replenishment at sea is a method of transferring fuel, munitions, and stores from one ship to another while under way.-History:...
and beat off a Japanese air attack, with King George V's anti-aircraft crews shooting down one Mitsubishi Ki-21
Mitsubishi Ki-21
The was a Japanese bomber during World War II. It began operations during the Second Sino-Japanese War participating in the Nomonhan Incident, and in the first stages of the Pacific War, including the Malayan, Burmese, Dutch East Indies and New Guinea Campaigns...
.
Joined by Howe and re-designated Task Force 57, the British Pacific Fleet
British Pacific Fleet
The British Pacific Fleet was a British Commonwealth naval force which saw action against Japan during World War II. The fleet was composed of British Commonwealth naval vessels. The BPF formally came into being on 22 November 1944...
was again involved in operations in late March 1945, when it launched attacks on the Sakishimo-Gunto airfields, a task it repeated in early May. On 4 May 1945 King George V led battleships and cruisers in a forty-five minute bombardment of Japanese air facilities in the Ryukyu Islands
Ryukyu Islands
The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...
. As the Allies approached the Japanese homeland, King George V was dispatched in mid-July to join the US battleships in a bombardment of industrial installations at Hitachi
Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II
During the last weeks of World War II, warships of the United States Navy, Britain's Royal Navy and the Royal New Zealand Navy bombarded several cities and industrial facilities in Japan. These bombardments caused heavy damage to several of the factories targeted, as well as nearby civilian areas...
. King George V fired 267 rounds from her 14-inch guns during this operation. The task force then moved on to Hamamatsu in southern Honshu
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
, where it carried out a further bombardment of aviation factories. During the Okinawa campaign, the battleship supported four fast carriers of the British Pacific Fleet. Her last offensive action was a night bombardment of Hamamatsu on 29 and 30 July 1945.
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
on Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
and Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
and the surrender that followed, King George V moved with other units of the British Pacific Fleet into Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay
is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...
to be present at the surrender ceremonies
Japanese Instrument of Surrender
The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that enabled the Surrender of Japan, marking the end of World War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist...
.
Post war
In January 1946 she conveyed the Duke and Duchess of GloucesterPrince Henry, Duke of Gloucester
The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester was a soldier and member of the British Royal Family, the third son of George V of the United Kingdom and Queen Mary....
on an official visit to Australia, returning to Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
in March. She was flagship of the Home Fleet until December 1946, when she became a training vessel.
King George Vs active naval career was terminated by the Royal Navy in June 1950, when she and her sister-ships went into reserve
Reserve fleet
A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....
and were mothballed. King George V was the first large warship to be preserved in this fashion. This involved sealing the armament, machinery and boilers against damp and installing dehumidifiers through-out. In December 1955, she was downgraded to extended reserve and in 1957 the decision was taken to scrap the four ships. The following year King George V was moved from her berth in Gareloch to the ship breaking firm of Arnott Young and Co. in Dalmuir
Dalmuir
Dalmuir is an area on the western side of Clydebank, in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland.-Location:It is neighboured by the village of Old Kilpatrick, the Mountblow and Parkhall areas of Clydebank, as well as the town centre...
to undergo dismantling.
Refits
During her career, King George V was refitted on several occasions in order to update her equipment. The following are the dates and details of the refits undertaken:| Dates | Location | Description of Work |
|---|---|---|
| Early 1941 | A Type 271 Radar Radar Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio... was added. |
|
| December 1941 | Removal of UP mountings Unrotated Projectile The Unrotated Projectile, or UP, was a short range rocket-firing anti-aircraft weapon developed for the Royal Navy to supplement the 2 pounder Pom-Pom gun due to a critical lack of close-range anti-aircraft weapons. It was used extensively by British ships during the early days of World War II... ; the addition of one 4-barrelled 2 pdr "pom-pom" mounting QF 2 pounder naval gun The 2-pounder gun, officially designated the QF 2-pounder and universally known as the pom-pom, was a 1.575 inch British autocannon, used famously as an anti-aircraft gun by the Royal Navy. The name came from the sound that the original models make when firing... , one 8-barrelled 2 pdr pom-pom, and 18 x Oerlikon cannon Oerlikon 20 mm cannon The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original design by Reinhold Becker of Germany, very early in World War I, and widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others... ; the UP directors were replaced with pom-pom directors; the Type 271 radar was replaced by the Type 273; five Type 282 radars were also added. |
|
| May–June 1942 | Liverpool Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880... |
Damage from the collision with HMS Punjabi HMS Punjabi (F21) HMS Punjabi was a Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that saw service in the Second World War, being sunk in a collision with the battleship . She has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name "Punjabi" which — in common with the other ships of the Tribal-class — was named after... was repaired; the external degaussing Degaussing Degaussing is the process of decreasing or eliminating an unwanted magnetic field. It is named after Carl Friedrich Gauss, an early researcher in the field of magnetism... coil was replaced with an internal coil; four Type 285 radars added; FM2 MF D/F added. |
| Late 1943 | 20 x 20 mm Oerlikon cannon added. | |
| February–July 1944 | Liverpool | Removal of one 4-barrelled 2 pdr pom-pom, 12 x 20 mm Oerlikon cannon, Type 273 radar and HF/DF; the addition of three 8-barrelled 2 pdr pom-poms, six 2-barrelled 20 mm and two 4-barrelled 40 mm Bofors guns Bofors 40 mm gun The Bofors 40 mm gun is an anti-aircraft autocannon designed by the Swedish defence firm of Bofors Defence... ; the Type 279 radar was replaced by the Type 279B, the Type 284 with the Type 274; addition of the Types 277, 293, 2 × 282, and 285 radars, and the RH2 VHF/DF; removal of aircraft and catapult Aircraft catapult An aircraft catapult is a device used to launch aircraft from ships—in particular aircraft carriers—as a form of assisted take off. It consists of a track built into the flight deck, below which is a large piston or shuttle that is attached through the track to the nose gear of the aircraft, or in... equipment, replaced with new superstructure upon which the ship's boats were relocated. |
| 1945 | Removal of two 20 mm Oerlikon cannon, two 40 mm Bofors guns Bofors 40 mm gun The Bofors 40 mm gun is an anti-aircraft autocannon designed by the Swedish defence firm of Bofors Defence... added. |