launched in November 1913, and was completed in October 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. The four Iron Dukes were very similar to the preceding King George V class, with an improved secondary battery. She was armed with a main battery of ten 13.5-inch (343 mm) guns and twelve 6 in (152 mm) secondary guns. The ship was capable of a top speed of 21.25 knots (39.36 km/h; 24.45 mph), and had a 12-inch (305 mm) thick armoured belt
.
Benbow served in the
decommissioned in 1929, placed on the sale list in September 1930, and sold for scrap
The four Iron Duke-class battleships were ordered in the 1911 building programme, and were an incremental improvement over the preceding
Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Benbow had a fuel storage capacity of 3,200 long tons (3,300 t) of coal and 1,030 long tons (1,050 t) of oil. The engines were rated at 29,000 shp (21,625 kW) and produced a top speed of 21.25 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). Her cruising radius was 7,800 nmi (14,446 km; 8,976 mi) at a more economical 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Benbow had a crew of 995 officers and ratings, though during wartime this grew to up to 1,022.[2]
Benbow was armed with a
anti-aircraft guns and four 47 mm (2 in) 3-pounder guns.[Note 1] As was typical for capital ships of the period, she was equipped with four 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes submerged on the broadside.[2]
Benbow was protected by a main
armoured belt that was 12 in (305 mm) thick over the ship's ammunition magazines and engine and boiler rooms, and reduced to 4 in (102 mm) toward the bow and stern. Her deck was 2.5 in (64 mm) thick in the central portion of the ship, and reduced to 1 in (25 mm) elsewhere. The main battery turret faces were 11 in (279 mm) thick, and the turrets were supported by 10 in (254 mm) thick barbettes.[2]
Service history
First World War
The 4th Battle Squadron in 1915; the closest vessel is either Benbow or Emperor of India
The
4th Battle Squadron to begin working up, before being pronounced fit for service with the fleet on 10 December.[3] During this period, the rearmost 6-inch guns were removed from the four Iron Duke-class ships and their casemates were sealed off, as they were too low in the hull and permitted water to continually enter the ship.[4] On the 10th, she replaced Dreadnought as the flagship of the 4th Squadron.[5] On 23–24 December, the 4th and 2nd Squadrons conducted gunnery practice north of the Hebrides.[6] The following day, the entire fleet sortied for a sweep in the North Sea, which concluded on 27 December; this was Benbow's first fleet operation.[7]
Another round of gunnery drills followed on 10–13 January 1915 west of
Vice Admiral David Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, but the main fleet did not become engaged in the Battle of Dogger Bank that took place the following day.[9] On 7–10 March, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it conducted training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place from 16–19 March.[10] On 11 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a patrol in the central North Sea and returned to port on 14 April; another patrol in the area took place from 17–19 April, followed by gunnery drills off Shetland on 20–21 April.[11] The Grand Fleet conducted a sweep into the central North Sea from 17–19 May without encountering any German vessels.[12] In mid-June, the fleet conducted another round of gunnery training.[13] On 2–5 September, the fleet went on another cruise in the northern end of the North Sea and conducted gunnery drills.[14] Throughout the rest of the month, the Grand Fleet conducted numerous training exercises.[15] On 13 October, the majority of the fleet conducted another sweep into the North Sea, returning to port on the 15th.[16] From 2–5 November, Benbow participated in another fleet training operation west of Orkney.[17] Another such cruise took place from 1–4 December.[18]
Benbow was occupied with the typical routine of gunnery drills and squadron exercises in January.
Horns Reef to distract the Germans while the Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the Baltic Sea.[22] The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a raid on Lowestoft. The Grand Fleet did not arrive in the area until after the German High Seas Fleet had withdrawn, however.[23][24] From 2–4 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea.[25]
Battle of Jutland
Maps showing the manoeuvres of the British (blue) and German (red) fleets on 31 May – 1 June 1916
In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the High Seas Fleet with sixteen dreadnoughts, six
Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's five battlecruisers and supporting cruisers and torpedo boats.[26] The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. The Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, at that time consisting of twenty-eight dreadnoughts and nine battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet.[27] At the time of the battle, the ship's commander was Captain Henry Wise Parker,[28] and she was the flagship of Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee. She was stationed toward the center of the British line.[29] The initial action was fought primarily by the British and German battlecruiser formations in the afternoon,[30] but by 18:00, the Grand Fleet approached the scene.[31]
At about 18:15, Jellicoe gave the order to turn and deploy the fleet for action.[32] At 18:30, Benbow opened fire, but her gunners were frequently hampered by poor visibility; her two forward turrets fired only six two-gun salvos over the course of the next ten minutes without any success.[33] Shortly thereafter, German torpedo boats attempted to rescue the crew from the light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden, which had been disabled between the opposing fleets, though they appeared to the British to be launching an attack against the Grand Fleet. Benbow and several other battleships opened fire with their secondary batteries, starting at 19:09. Despite the fusillade from eight battleships, none of the torpedo boats were hit, though they were forced to abandon Wiesbaden.[34] The ship fired six salvos from her main battery between 19:17 and 19:25, the first from two of her forward guns to confirm the range, and then four 5-gun and one 4-gun salvo in rapid succession. The gunners incorrectly claimed to have hit the battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger.[35] At around that time, Benbow and three other battleships opened fire with their secondary guns on a group of torpedo boats that were launching an attack on the British line. The vessels made four hits, but in the confusion, credit for the hits could not be given.[36]
Following the German torpedo boat attack, the High Seas Fleet disengaged, and Benbow and the rest of the Grand Fleet saw no further significant action in the battle. This was, in part, due to poor communication between Jellicoe and his subordinates over the exact location and course of the German fleet; without this information, Jellicoe could not bring his fleet to action.
armour-piercing, capped shells and sixty 6-inch rounds.[41]
Later operations
Benbow experimenting with a kite balloon in 1916Benbow in Scapa Flow in May 1917
Upon returning to port, Benbow was relieved as the squadron flagship, thereafter serving as a
Sunderland; Scheer again hoped to draw out Beatty's battlecruisers and destroy them. British signals intelligence decrypted German wireless transmissions, allowing Jellicoe enough time to deploy the Grand Fleet in an attempt to engage in a decisive battle. Both sides withdrew, however, after their opponents' submarines inflicted losses in the action of 19 August 1916: the British cruisers Nottingham and Falmouth were both torpedoed and sunk by German U-boats, and the German battleship SMS Westfalen was damaged by the British submarine E23. After returning to port, Jellicoe issued an order that prohibited risking the fleet in the southern half of the North Sea due to the overwhelming risk from mines and U-boats.[43]
In late 1917, the Germans began using destroyers and light cruisers to raid the British convoys to Norway; this forced the British to deploy capital ships to protect the convoys. In April 1918, the German fleet sortied in an attempt to catch one of the isolated British squadrons, though the convoy had already passed safely. The Grand Fleet sortied too late to catch the retreating Germans, though the battlecruiser
rangefinder baffles that were intended to make it more difficult to estimate the range for enemy gunners. The baffles were later removed in 1918, and flying-off ramps were erected on "B" and "Q" turrets.[45]
Postwar
After the war, the Grand Fleet was dissolved, and Benbow was assigned to the 4th Squadron of the
Mediterranean Fleet, where she served until March 1926. In 1919, Captain Charles Douglas Carpendale took command of the ship, a position he held until 1921.[46] During this period, from April 1919 to June 1920, the ship took part in anti-communist operations in the Black Sea. Benbow and other elements of the Mediterranean Fleet supported the White Russians in the Russian Civil War.[5] In late January 1920, Benbow was sent from Constantinople to Novorossiysk.[47] There, the ship relieved Iron Duke, and shortly thereafter rescued a group of 150 Russian soldiers and their British adviser, who had been attacked by bandits.[48] On 1 February, Rear Admiral Michael Culme-Seymour hoisted his flag aboard Benbow.[49] Shortly thereafter, men from the ship were sent to inspect White positions in the Kerch Peninsula.[50]Benbow was ordered to return to Constantinople in June, where the Mediterranean Fleet was concentrating to begin supporting Greek forces during the Greco-Turkish War; she arrived there on 19 June.[51] On 5 July, Benbow and several other vessels left Constantinople to land a force at Gemlik to secure the harbor in order to hand it over to Greek forces that would arrive later. Benbow's men returned to the ship on 16 July after a Greek battalion reached the town.[52]
In February 1921, Benbow, the battleship
paid off.[56] In September 1930, Benbow was placed on the sale list.[5] Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, Benbow and her sisters were slated to be replaced by new construction the following year.[54] The ship was sold for scrap in January 1931 and broken up in March 1931 by Metal Industries, of Rosyth,[57] arriving there on 5 April.[58]
Footnotes
Notes
^"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 20 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
United Kingdom
