Britain’s last, largest and fastest battleship, HMS Vanguard, was commissioned in May 1946.[1] She was technically the best battleship the British ever built, but was completed too late for the Second World War, never tested in combat, and entered service at a time of severe budgetary constraints and rapid technological change, curtailing her operational life. What that obscures is the fact that she was part of a continuum of thinking that shaped British designs from the King George V class, through the suspended (and then cancelled) Lions, and which took in war experience along the way.
As described in another article, Vanguard was ordered from John Brown & Co in mid-March 1941,[2] and plans were delivered ten days later.[3] She was laid down in October,[4] and prioritised after the loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse in December.[5] This priority was reflected in Churchill’s plans for 1942, where he ruled out work on the two suspended Lion class battleships laid down in 1939, cancelled two further Lions outright, cancelled four heavy cruisers from the 1940 programme, and ordered that shipyard labour should focus on repairing merchants and completing new fleet carriers.[6] The exception was Vanguard, which he wanted ‘pressed forward’ within the ‘limits of the armour-plate provision’ of some 16,500 tons nationally in 1941 – divided between army and navy – and 25,000 tons in 1942.[7] Vanguard had already been assigned constructional steel originally delivered for Lion.[8]
However, this did not pan out as Churchill hoped. One constraint was labour availability. The result was that Vanguard was not launched until the end of November 1944.[9] The design was further amended after she was laid down, although the scope for change dwindled as construction progressed. A 1942 proposal to convert Vanguard to an aircraft carrier was declined,[10] but amendments continued on the basis of war experience. This included the loss of Prince of Wales and lessons from the Belfast,[11] among other events such as the battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941. This last resulted, among other things, in additional armour on Vanguard’s magazine sides for improved splinter protection.[12]
Vanguard also gained significant bow flare,[13] defeating the Admiralty requirement for zero-elevation ahead-fire, but which promised to rectify the sea-keeping problems the King George V class had in even moderate swells.[14] The rake had to be restricted so the ship could fit into the Devonport graving dock,[15] and it was also, as R. J. Daniel observed, clearly a ‘late change’.[16] Many other adjustments, including deletion of aircraft facilities in favour of an improved anti-aircraft battery, were included in revised plans approved in November 1942.[17]
As we saw in an earlier article, Vanguard emerged from a 1937 idea to use four twin Mk I 15-inch gun mountings in storage since being removed from what were officially dubbed the ‘large light cruisers’ Courageous and Glorious, ordered in 1915.[18] One of the criticisms was that Vanguard‘s main armament consequently fell below the latest standards when, for example, Germany was deploying the 38 cm SK C/34,[19] Italy the long-ranged 381 mm/50 calibre weapon (1934 and 1939 models),[20] and likely allies such as the United States were developing a new generation of 16-inch guns,[21] including the outstanding Mk VII.[22]
All this meant that Vanguard gained the epithet – repeated in popular histories since – of being armed with ‘her great aunt’s teeth’.[23] However, the Vickers Mk I 15-inch/42 calibre gun was an outstanding weapon when first deployed in 1915,[24] offering excellent hitting power and range by First World War standards, coupled with superb accuracy and low bore wear.[25] And while by the 1930s this gun had been surpassed in size and many performance details,[26] it remained in front-line service with the Royal Navy.[27]
More to the point, while the Mk I 15-inch/42 lacked the range or armour penetration of more recent and larger weapons,[28] performance details such as muzzle velocity remained comparable with new-generation naval guns.[29] Furthermore, while below the general capabilities of the new-generation Mk II, III and, eventually, Mk IV 16-inch guns the British intended to deploy on the Lions,[30] the theoretical armour penetration of the MK I 15-inch/42 at specific ranges was marginally better than the new-generation Mk VII 14-inch/45 calibre guns fitted to the King George V class.[31] Deficiencies in range, by 1930s standards, were partially and variously corrected by modifying some of the Mk I mountings to 30 degree elevation, introducing more streamlined (6-crh) shells, and permitting heavier charges (‘supercharges’) on unmodified mountings.[32] Vanguard, it is worth noting, had modified mountings and not supercharges.[33]
There is also the point that the Mk I 15-inch/42 did all the British asked of it in the Second World War. Outcomes included destroying Bretagne with four hits during the bombardment of Mers-el-Kebir in July 1940.[34] This gun in its modified mounting also scored one of the longest-range hits known in naval warfare, during the battle of Calabria the same month, when Warspite hit Guilio Cesare at a range of about 26,000 yards.[35] Nor were these guns much lacking by comparison with other heavy naval weapons when it came to shore bombardment.[36] This last role was how the Mk I 15-inch/42 began its career in 1915,[37] and Warspite – notably – again demonstrated that capability in the Second World War.[38]
The mountings were modified for Vanguard by Harland and Wolff in the former Coventry Ordnance Works.[39] Alterations included new trunnion blocks for higher elevation,[40] with added insulation and dehumidifiers to improve conditions for gun crews.[41] The fact that none of the mountings had been built for superfiring positions meant that other adjustments had to be made to the pair intended for ‘B’ and ‘X’ locations.[42] However, the main change stemmed from the fact that Vanguard’s magazines were below the shell rooms, reversing First World War practice.[43] This meant adapting the below-decks structures and adding a powder-handling room.[44]
One point, not often stated in summary accounts,[45] is that Vanguard used only the mountings from Glorious and Courageous – although these were the more mechanically complex part of the armament, including the gun-houses and below-decks equipment.[46] The guns fitted to the mountings were drawn from a pool comprising most of the 184 service examples that were manufactured.[47] These were rotated ashore as each barrel needed relining, then variously reissued. The guns used on Vanguard had previously been deployed on Queen Elizabeth (2), Ramillies (2), Royal Sovereign (1), Resolution (1), the monitor Erebus (1) and Warspite (1).[48] The cost of this work was £3,186,868,[49] and the task was completed in 1944.[50] The modified mountings were dubbed Mark I/N RP 12.[51]
Vanguard was launched on 30 November 1944,[52] and fitting out began with the aim of completing her by late 1945. Had the Pacific war continued into 1946 – as the Allies expected and planned for[53] – Vanguard would likely have joined the British Pacific Fleet.[54] As matters stood, war’s end in August 1945 reduced the pressure, and she was not commissioned until April 1946.[55] By the time Vanguard was complete, the war was over and new technologies had rendered battleships largely obsolete as the primary means of asserting sea superiority. They still had roles, but an impoverished post-war Britain could not afford to run such ships for long.[56]
As a result, while Vanguard did serve with the Royal Navy,[57] she was as much symbolic as anything else – underscored by the fact that she was used as a royal yacht, notably for the royal tour of South Africa in 1947.[58] War plans in 1951 tasked Vanguard with destroying Soviet Sverdlov-class cruisers,[59] but aside from the fact that aircraft were also available for the job, whether the ship could have met the intended 90-day war readiness criteria was moot. By this time, thanks to budgetary constraints, X-turret was non-operational and Vanguard did not carry enough crew to operate all the magazines.[60] Nor was ammunition for the main armament usually carried.[61] The original design called for 100 rounds per gun,[62] a significant total weight,[63] and on first commission she carried an additional 9 practise shells per gun.[64] In the event, the closest Vanguard came to any of the Soviet cruisers was in 1953 when the name-ship of the Soviet class attended the Coronation Review – and Sverdlov’s commander boarded the battleship, to a formal welcome by Admiral Sir George Creasey.[65]
After a refit in 1955 Vanguard was taken out of service, becoming flagship of the Reserve Fleet in October 1956.[66] In this role, among other things, she provided sets for the film Sink The Bismarck.[67] By this time she was also Britain’s last battleship; the King George V class were disposed of by 1957.[68] In October 1959 Vanguard too was put on the disposal list.[69] She was sold to the breakers for £560,000,[70] and in August 1960 was towed out of Portsmouth for scrapping at Faslane.[71] She did not go quietly, running aground on the way out, near the Still and West pub.[72] The tide was ebbing,[73] and she was thought to be at some risk of being swung by the tide across to Fort Blockhouse and breaking her back – creating an expensive salvage job.[74] Even if she did not, she might have had to wait for the next high tide.[75] However, she was pulled free after about 45 minutes and left the harbour – ending an era in British naval history
For more on Britain’s last generation of battleships and the financial and industrial issues surrounding them, check out my book Britain’s Last Battleships. Click to buy.
Copyright © Matthew Wright 2018
Notes
[1] Friedman, The British Battleship 1906-46, p. 441, but see Fry p. 18 who states 25 April.
[2] Fry, p. 16.
[3] Alan Raven and John Roberts, British Battleships of World War Two: The Development and Technical History of the Royal Navy’s Battleships and Battlecruisers from 1911 to 1946, Arms & Armour Press, London 1976, p. 322.
[4] Alan Raven and John Roberts, British Battleships of World War Two: The Development and Technical History of the Royal Navy’s Battleships and Battlecruisers from 1911 to 1946, Arms & Armour Press, London 1976, p. 322.
[5] Matthew Wright, Pacific War, Reed, Auckland 2003, pp. 22-26.
[6] Winston Churchill, The Second World War, III, The Grand Alliance, p. 780.
[7] Ibid. Tonnages given in this article are British ‘long tons’.
[8] Friedman, The British Battleship 1906-46, p. 339.
[9] Ibid, p. 441.
[10] Ibid, p. 341.
[11] Ibid, p. 407 n. 30.
[12] Ibid, p. 293.
[13] Raven and Roberts, p. 325.
[14] The issue included the interaction, during design, between displacement and freeboard, see Garzke and Dulin, British, Soviet, French and Dutch battleships of World War II, p. 175.
[15] Friedman, The British Battleship 1906-46, p. 340.
[16] R. J. Daniel, The End of an Era, Periscope Publishing, Penzance, 2003, p. 72.
[17] Friedman, The British Battleship 1906-46, p. 340..
[18] Sturton (ed) pp. 85-86.
[19] For details see http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNGER_15-52_skc34.php, accessed 23 August 2018.
[20] http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNIT_15-50_m1934.php, accessed 23 August 2018.
[21] http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-45_mk6.php, accessed 23 August 2018.
[22] http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-50_mk7.php, accessed 23 August 2018.
[23] See, e.g. E. H. H. Archibald, The Metal Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy, Blandford Press, London 1971, p. 83.
[24] B. Webster Smith HMS Queen Elizabeth, Blackie & Son, London 1940, pp. 148-177.
[25] Norman Friedman, Naval Weapons of World War I, Seaforth, Barnsley 2011, pp. 43-46.
[26] See, e.g. http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_15-42_mk1.php
[27] All 15 of Britain’s battleships and battlecruisers permitted after 1932 under the inter-war treaty system carried them.
[28] Compare, e.g. tables in http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_15-42_mk1.php with tables for the US Mk VII 16-inch/50 http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-50_mk7.php
[29] This was because materially higher velocities destabilised shells. See http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_15-42_mk1.php.
[30] http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_16-45_mk2.php, accessed 23 August 2018.
[31] http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_14-45_mk7.php
[32] See http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_15-42_mk1.php.
[33] Ibid.
[34] Bretagne was of similar vintage to the British guns. Robert Dumas and John Jordan, French battleships 1922-1956, Seaforth, Barnsley 2009, p. 76.
[35] Andrew Browne Cunningham, ‘Report of an action with the Italian fleet off Calabria, 9th July 1940’, London Gazette (Supplement), 27 April 1948. Cunningham considered this hit ‘lucky’. A hit at similar range was scored by Scharnhorst on Glorious in 1940.
[36] Noting that naval guns, because of trajectory, were not optimised for some land targets.
[37] See, e.g., Matthew Wright, The New Zealand Experience at Gallipoli and the Western Front, Oratia 2017, pp 78-79.
[38] She had only six operational guns at this time. For the general story of this ship see Iain Ballantyne, Warspite, Pen and Sword Books, 2010.
[39] http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/15inch.html
[40] http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/cathro.html
[41] Raven and Roberts, p. 325.
[42] http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_15-42_mk1.php#mountnote3
[43] http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_15-42_mk1.php.
[44] Ibid.
[45] For example Antony Preston and John Bachelor, Battleships 1919-77, Phoebus, London, p. 58.
[46] https://www.militaryfactory.com/ships/detail.asp?ship_id=HMS-Vanguard-23
[47] http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_15-42_mk1.php, see also http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/15inch.html
[48] http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/15inch.html
[49] Raven and Roberts, p. 339.
[50] http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/15inch.html
[51] http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_15-42_mk1.php#mountnote3, but note that they were also labelled Mark I*/N RP 12
[52] http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/Specifications.html
[53] In 1945 the Allies expected to invade Japan; and Operation Coronet, the landing on Honshu, was planned for March 1946. The campaign was expected to last some months, see https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/MacArthur%20Reports/MacArthur%20V1/ch13.htm
[54] For summary of BPF operations see, e.g. Matthew Wright, Blue Water Kiwis, Reed, Auckland 2000, pp. 139-144.
[55] See n.2 above.
[56] Friedman The British Battleship 1906-46, p. 367.
[57] See, e.g. http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/1953.html, accessed 23 August 2018.
[58] http://battleshiphmsvanguard2.homestead.com/index.html, accessed 23 August 2018.
[59] The world’s last gun-armed cruisers, for brief summary see Bernard Ireland, The Illustrated Guide to Cruisers, Hermes House, London 2008, pp 238-239.
[60] Peacetime complement was circa 1500 versus circa 2000 in wartime, see http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/Specifications.html
[61] Fry, p. 18.
[62] Raven and Roberts, p. 339.
[63] The various British 15-inch shells deployed during the Second World War (APC Mk XIIa, HE Mk VIIIb, etc) weighed 1935 lb each, see http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_15-42_mk1.php
[64] http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_15-42_mk1.php
[65] http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/53Review1.html, accessed 23 August 2018.
[66] Eric Grove, The Royal Navy Since 1815: A New Short History, Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke 2005, p.
[67] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054310/
[68] Garzke and Dulin, British, Soviet, French and Dutch battleships of World War II, p. 223.
[69] https://www.facebook.com/pg/GreyFunnelLine/photos/?tab=album&album_id=634494469903023
[70] Ibid.
[71] http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/DeathofaBattleship.html
[72] https://defenceoftherealm.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/hms-vanguards-dramatic-final-departure-1960/, accessed 23 August 2018.
[73] http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/deathofabattleship.html, accessed 23 August 2018.
[74] https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/lifestyle/heritage/what-really-happened-on-vanguard-that-fateful-day-in-portsmouth-harbour-1-6091906, accessed 23 august 2018.
[75] http://battleshiphmsvanguard.homestead.com/deathofabattleship.html, accessed 23 August 2018.
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