World One War: Britain's 'Super'-Dreadnoughts
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The First World War saw the introduction of a goliath in terms of Naval Design, Armament and size.
In the space of five years of the Royal Navy commissioning HMS Dreadnought, a new generation of more powerful ‘capital ships’ was heralded in.
The arrival of the ‘Super-Dreadnought’ is believed to have started with the Royal Navy’s Orion Class Dreadnought.
The reason for being ‘super’ was the 2,000 ton increase in displacement, introduction of heavier 13.5 inch gun and the placing of all armaments on the centre line. In the four years between the introduction of HMS Dreadnought and HMS Orion, the flag of the Orion Class, size had increased by 25% and the weight of these giants had doubled.
The Orion Class of battleships was made up of four ‘super-dreadnoughts’ Orion, Conqueror, Monarch and Thunderer.
The lead ship, Orion, was launched in 1910 followed by Monarch, Thunderer and Conqueror in 1911.
Although previous dreadnoughts had been built with an eye focused on cost, by 1909, the white hot competition for naval dominance had thrown caution to the wind; The Orion Class ships were not only bigger than their predecessors but cost in total £7.6 million.
When looking at these titans armaments, the move to use 13.5inch guns was out of necessity. The use of 12inch guns had shown that it suffered from considerable bore erosion, which limited its use to firing less than 100 rounds.
A lower velocity gun was discovered in the 13.5inch. The shorter range of the low velocity gun was compensated by increasing the maximum elevation from 15 to 20 degrees. Despite the successful design, its effectiveness was compromised by poor shell design.
The adoption of an all-centreline armament was, again, out of necessity. The previous Colossus and Neptune Classes had already used this technique in order to save deck space. The design, displacement and cost of 13.5inch turrets which were contraindicated placed along the length of the ship, showed a limited arc of fire and therefore limited effectiveness. Finally, the staggered arrangements aboard both the Neptune and Colossus proved they were not successful. Unfortunately, the retention of out-dated sighting hoods meant that the Orion Class was not able to fire its turrets over another turret for fear that the blast would kill the crews in the lower turret. Furthermore, the high top weight of its Armaments, gave the Orion’s an unstable roll in heavy seas.
The armoured belt of the Orion’s was increased to 12inches in the view that an opponent’s guns would increase in calibre. It is worthy to note that during this period, armour thickness lagged behind armaments in British designs, whereas the opposite was seen in German designs. Sadly, as guns and calibres were constantly increasing, the adequacy of ships armour was still being judged by ‘belt’ thickness rather than deck thickness.
All four of the Orion Class were present at Jutland in 1916, gave damage but received none. The four ships had relatively short careers, all being de-commissioned by 1921, due to the Washington Naval Treaty. Both Orion and Conqueror were scrapped in 1922. Monarch served as a target ship, surviving a full day of gunnery before being sunk by gunfire from HMS Revenge. The Thunderer, served the longest, acting as a training ship from 1922 until she was sold for scrap in December 1926.
The main design weakness of these titans, compared to post-World War One designs, was armour. Their design implied that ships needed vertical protection in short-range battles. The ships could engage the enemy at 20,000 yards, but were weak to ‘plunging fire’.
The weaknesses of the ‘Super-Dreadnoughts’ was analysed and subsequent post-war designs incorporated the need for sufficient deck armour. The so called ‘zone of immunity’ was to become a major part in the design of future battleships. The lack of underwater protection was also a significant weakness of this period of battleships. The design, whereby, a ship was protected from underwater projectiles, was another design development of the post-war period.
Click on Dugout's links below to read more about the Naval Arms Race, German Naval Firepower and the development of Battleships...all of which contributed to World War One!
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