HMS Revenge (06)
![]() Revenge at sea, July–August 1940
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History | |
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Name | Revenge |
Builder | Vickers Limited, Barrow-in-Furness |
Cost | £2,406,368 |
Laid down | 22 December 1913 |
Launched | 29 May 1915 |
Commissioned | 1 February 1916 |
Identification | Pennant number: 06[citation needed] |
Motto | Intaminatis fulget honoribus ("Shines with untarnished honours") |
Fate | Scrapped, 1948 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | Revenge-class battleship |
Displacement |
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Length | 620 ft 7 in (189.2 m) |
Beam | 88 ft 6 in (27.0 m) |
Draught | 33 ft 7 in (10.2 m) (Deep load) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion | 4 shafts; 2 sets steam turbines |
Speed | 21.9 knots (40.6 km/h; 25.2 mph) |
Range | 7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Crew | 940 (1917) |
Armament |
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Armour |
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HMS Revenge was the
During the 1920s and 1930s, Revenge alternated between the
In October 1940, she conducted
Design and description
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/HMS_Revenge_%281916%29_profile_drawing.png/220px-HMS_Revenge_%281916%29_profile_drawing.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/H_M_S_Revenge_as_launched.jpg/220px-H_M_S_Revenge_as_launched.jpg)
The Revenge-class ships were designed as slightly smaller, slower, and more heavily protected versions of the preceding
Revenge had a
The Revenge class was equipped with eight
Revenge was completed with two
The ship's
The ship was fitted with flying-off platforms mounted on the roofs of 'B' and 'X' turrets in 1918, from which fighters and reconnaissance aircraft could launch.[10] During the 1928 refit the platform was removed from 'X' turret. The platform on 'B' turret was removed in 1933.[11]
Major alterations
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/HMS_Revenge_rangefinder_IWM_A_1513.jpg/220px-HMS_Revenge_rangefinder_IWM_A_1513.jpg)
Revenge was fitted with anti-torpedo bulges between October 1917 and February 1918. They were designed to reduce the effect of torpedo detonations and improve stability. They increased her beam by over 13 feet (4 m) to 101 feet 6 inches (30.9 m), her displacement to 32,460 long tons (32,980 t) and reduced her draught to 31 feet 11 inches (9.7 m), all at deep load. They increased her metacentric height to 5.1 feet (1.6 m). Later in 1918, 30-foot (9.1 m) rangefinders were fitted in 'B' and 'X' turrets. In 1919 her complement was 1,240 officers and ratings.[12][11]
The gun shields for the shelter-deck six-inch guns were replaced by armoured casemates in 1922. Two years later, her anti-aircraft defences were upgraded by replacing the original three-inch AA guns with a pair of
Wartime modifications for the Revenge-class ships were fairly minimal. Revenge was fitted with a Type 279 early-warning radar in 1941. The following year saw the addition of a Type 273 surface-search radar, a pair of Type 285 anti-aircraft gunnery sets and two Type 282 radars for the "pom-poms". Two four-barrel "pom-poms" were added in late 1941 atop 'B' and 'X' turrets as well as ten 20 mm Oerlikon guns that replaced the quadruple .50-caliber mounts. To save weight and make more room available for the additional crew required to man the new equipment like the radars and Oerlikons, four 6-inch guns were removed in 1943.[17]
Construction and service
First World War
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Hercules_and_Revenge_at_Jutland_NH_110369.tif/lossy-page1-220px-Hercules_and_Revenge_at_Jutland_NH_110369.tif.jpg)
Revenge was
Battle of Jutland
In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the German
![The British fleet sailed from northern Britain to the east while the Germans sailed from Germany in the south; the opposing fleets met off the Danish coast](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Map_of_the_Battle_of_Jutland%2C_1916.svg/350px-Map_of_the_Battle_of_Jutland%2C_1916.svg.png)
The initial action was fought primarily by the British and German battlecruiser formations in the afternoon,[23] but by 18:00,[c] the Grand Fleet approached the scene.[24] Fifteen minutes later, Jellicoe gave the order to turn and deploy the fleet for action. The transition from their cruising formation caused congestion with the rear divisions, forcing Revenge and many of the other ships to reduce speed to 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) to avoid colliding with each other.[25] The German fleet quickly came into range and many British ships began to engage them starting at 18:17. The British ships initially had poor visibility and Revenge waited several minutes before opening fire at 18:22; her target during this period is unclear, and she may have engaged the crippled cruiser SMS Wiesbaden, the German battle line, or both. She fired intermittently for seventeen minutes and made no hits in the haze.[26]
At 19:09, Revenge was forced to turn away to avoid a torpedo that was probably launched by the torpedo boat V48; the torpedo passed harmlessly in her wake. Shortly thereafter, she engaged the battlecruiser Derfflinger; her first salvo estimated the range to be 11,000 yards (10,000 m), but overshot the target. Revenge's gunlayers quickly brought the range down to 10,200 yards (9,300 m) and straddled Derfflinger with their second salvo. With the range found, Revenge quickly scored five hits before shifting fire to the battlecruiser Von der Tann, since other battleships were concentrating their fire on Derfflinger. Two of her hits on Derfflinger disabled her aft turrets; the other three caused less significant damage, with one of them passing through a funnel without exploding. Revenge hit Von der Tann once near her aft conning tower at 19:19, doing minor damage; she also fired a torpedo at the ship during this period that failed to hit.[27]
Revenge had to turn away again at 19:35 to avoid a pair of torpedoes; she and the other members of the division turned again at 19:42 after reports of a submarine, which proved to be imaginary. Revenge saw no further contact with German forces, in large part due to torpedo damage incurred by the squadron flagship, Marlborough, that forced the ship to slow significantly. At 01:56 on 1 June,
In the course of the battle, Revenge had fired 102 rounds from her main battery, all of which were of the
Later operations
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/HMS_Revenge_in_Dry_Dock%2C_Portsmouth%2C_1918_Art.IWMART765.jpg/170px-HMS_Revenge_in_Dry_Dock%2C_Portsmouth%2C_1918_Art.IWMART765.jpg)
After the action of 19 August 1916, in which the Grand Fleet had lost two light cruisers to German U-boat attacks, Admiral John Jellicoe, the fleet commander, decided that the fleet should not be risked in such sorties unless the High Seas Fleet ventured north or the strategic situation warranted the risk. For its part, the German fleet remained in port or trained in the Baltic Sea through 1917, as both sides had largely abandoned the idea of a decisive surface battle in the North Sea. Both sides turned to positional warfare, laying fields of naval mines, and Germany resumed the unrestricted submarine warfare campaign early in the year. As a result, Revenge and the rest of the Grand Fleet saw no action during the last two years of the war.[30]
In 1917, Britain began running regular convoys to Norway, escorted by light forces; the Germans raided these convoys twice late in the year, prompting Admiral David Beatty, who had replaced Jellicoe the previous year, to send battle squadrons of the Grand Fleet to escort the convoys. The High Seas Fleet went to sea on 23 April to attack one of the escorted convoys, but after the battlecruiser SMS Moltke suffered a serious mechanical accident the next day, the Germans were forced to break off the operation. Revenge and the rest of the Grand Fleet sortied on 24 April once they intercepted wireless signals from the damaged Moltke, but the Germans were too far ahead of the British, and no shots were fired.[31][32]
On 21 November 1918, following the
Inter-war years
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Revenge typically operated with her sister ships, apart from periods where they were detached for refit or modernisation. In April 1919, the ships were transferred to the
In August 1920, the ships returned to the Atlantic Fleet. The 1st and 2nd Battle Squadrons merged in May 1921, with Revenge and her four sisters forming the 1st Division and the five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships forming the 2nd Division. Revenge and three of her sisters were again sent to the Mediterranean Fleet in September 1922 during a crisis in
On 1 November 1924, the Atlantic Fleet underwent a reorganisation that saw the Queen Elizabeth-class ships sent to the Mediterranean Fleet and the ships of the 1st Division reconstituted as the 1st Battle Squadron. Revenge and her sisters were transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in August 1927. From January 1928 to January 1929, Revenge underwent a refit that included extensive modifications to her secondary and anti-aircraft batteries, fire control equipment, and rebuilding her bridge and aft superstructure, among other changes. She had another refit from May to December 1931 that saw further alterations to her anti-aircraft battery and fire control equipment.[37]
In early 1935, the Revenge and Queen Elizabeth classes again swapped places, though by this time, the Atlantic Fleet had been renamed the
Second World War
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/The_Royal_Navy_during_the_Second_World_War_A1504.jpg/220px-The_Royal_Navy_during_the_Second_World_War_A1504.jpg)
In the Atlantic
On 3 September 1939 at the start of hostilities, Revenge formed part of the Channel Fleet based at Portland.
On 12 May 1940, she accidentally rammed and sank the Canadian
On 15 September, Revenge arrived in Plymouth where she came under the control of
With the Eastern Fleet
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/The_Royal_Navy_during_the_Second_World_War_A19087.jpg/220px-The_Royal_Navy_during_the_Second_World_War_A19087.jpg)
In October 1941, the Admiralty decided the ship was to be transferred to the
In late March, the code-breakers at the Far East Combined Bureau, a branch of Bletchley Park, informed Somerville that the Japanese were planning a raid into the Indian Ocean to attack Colombo and Trincomalee and destroy his fleet. He therefore divided his fleet into two groups: Force A, which consisted of the two fleet carriers, Warspite and four cruisers, and Force B, centred on Revenge and her sisters and Hermes. He intended to ambush Nagumo's fleet in a night action, the only method by which he thought he could achieve a victory. After three days of searching for the Japanese fleet without success, Somerville returned to Addu Atoll to refuel. While refuelling his ships, Somerville received a report that the Japanese fleet was approaching Colombo, which they attacked the following day, on 5 April, followed by attacks on Trincomalee on 9 April. Following the first raid on 5 April, Somerville withdrew Revenge and her three sisters to Mombasa, where they could secure the shipping routes in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. The four Revenges departed from Addu Atoll early on the morning of 9 April, bound for Mombasa; they remained based there into 1943.[47] Thereafter, the Revenge-class ships escorted convoys while based in Kilindini Harbour. The ship underwent a further refit in Durban from October to November 1942.[41] In February 1943, Revenge and Resolution escorted the Operation Pamphlet convoy that carried the 9th Australian Division from Egypt back to Australia.[48]
Fate
In mid-1943, the poor condition of the ship—which had become apparent as early as 1936, but could not be remedied due to the outbreak of the war—prompted the Admiralty to recall her to Britain to be withdrawn from service. She arrived in the Clyde on 31 September, where she was reduced to reserve status for the rest of the conflict. The ship's electrical system was in very poor condition and needed a thorough overhaul, and her hull was badly stressed from years of heavy use. Although in reserve, the ship was used to carry Prime Minister
In March 1948, she was placed on the disposal list, being sold for
See also
- Claude Choules, the last living British World War I veteran, served aboard Revenge during the Great War.[51]
Notes
- ^ The dimensions given by Messers Vickers-Armstrongs who built her differ slightly: 580 feet (176.8 m) B.R. × 88 feet 3.25 inches (26.90 m) × 44 feet 1 inch (13.44 m), 42,660 horsepower (31,810 kW).[4]
- ^ "Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 20 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
- ^ The times used in this section are in UT.
Footnotes
- ^ Burt 2012b, pp. 300–302, 309.
- ^ a b Burt 2012b, pp. 305, 309.
- ^ Burt 2012a, p. 156.
- ^ Vickers-Armstrongs_Limited 1930, p. 6.
- ^ Burt 2012b, pp. 304–305.
- ^ Raven & Roberts, p. 33.
- ^ Burt 2012b, p. 304.
- ^ Burt 2012b, pp. 303–308.
- ^ Raven & Roberts, pp. 36, 44.
- ^ Raven & Roberts, p. 44.
- ^ a b Burt 2012a, p. 165.
- ^ Raven & Roberts, pp. 44, 139.
- ^ Burt 2012b, p. 312.
- ^ Raven & Roberts, p. 140, 170.
- ^ Burt 2012a, p. 170.
- ^ Raven & Roberts, p. 172.
- ^ Raven & Roberts, pp. 166, 187, 189.
- ^ Preston, p. 35.
- ^ Burt 2012b, pp. 304–305, 309, 320.
- ^ Jellicoe, p. 318.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 62–64.
- ^ Campbell, p. 16.
- ^ Campbell, p. 37.
- ^ Campbell, p. 116.
- ^ Campbell, p. 146.
- ^ Campbell, p. 155.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 205, 207–209, 220–226, 235.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 214–216, 296, 319, 321.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 346–347, 354, 358, 362.
- ^ Friedman, pp. 174–176.
- ^ Massie, pp. 747–748.
- ^ Friedman, pp. 176–177.
- ^ Smith 2009, p. 10.
- ^ van der Vat, pp. 162, 179–180.
- ^ a b c Burt 2012b, p. 320.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 269–272.
- ^ Burt 2012b, pp. 314, 320.
- ^ Burt 2012b, pp. 315–316, 320.
- ^ Gardiner & Brown, p. 203.
- ^ Smith 2008, p. 426.
- ^ a b c d Uboat.
- ^ Switky, p. 139.
- ^ Draper, p. 359.
- ^ Smith 2008, p. 150.
- ^ Smith 2008, p. 287.
- ^ Jackson, p. 293.
- ^ Jackson, pp. 293, 295–296, 298.
- ^ Smith 2008, p. 297.
- ^ a b Burt 2012b, p. 196.
- ^ Lovell, p. 72.
- ^ "Obituary: Claude Choules". BBC News. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
References
- Burt, R. A. (2012a). British Battleships, 1919–1939 (2nd ed.). Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-052-8.
- Burt, R. A. (2012b). British Battleships of World War One (2nd ed.). Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-863-7.
- Campbell, John (1998). Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-1-55821-759-1.
- Draper, Alfred (1979). Operation Fish: The Race to Save Europe's Wealth 1939–1945. London: Cassell. ISBN 0-304-30068-3.
- ISBN 978-1-84832-189-2.
- ISBN 978-0-85177-953-9.
- ISBN 978-1-4094-2756-8.
- "HMS Revenge (06)". www.uboat.net. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
- Jackson, Ashley (2006). The British Empire and the Second World War. London: Hambledon Continuum. ISBN 978-1-85285-417-1.
- OCLC 162593478.
- ISBN 0-275-92679-6.
- ISBN 978-0-679-45671-1.
- ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
- Raven, Alan & Roberts, John (1976). British Battleships of World War Two: The Development and Technical History of the Royal Navy's Battleship and Battlecruisers from 1911 to 1946. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-817-0.
- ISBN 978-1-84415-982-6.
- Smith, Peter C. (2008). The Great Ships: British Battleships in World War II. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3514-8.
- Switky, Robert (2013). Wealth of an Empire: The Treasure Shipments that Saved Britain and the World. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-61234-496-6.
- Tarrant, V. E. (1995). Jutland: The German Perspective. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-304-35848-9.
- ISBN 978-1-84341-038-6.
- Vickers-Armstrongs Limited (1930). The Activities of Vickers-Armstrongs Limited, naval construction works, Barrow-in-Furness. London: Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd.
Further reading
- Campbell, N.J.M. (1980). "Great Britain". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. New York: Mayflower Books. pp. 2–85. ISBN 0-8317-0303-2.
- ISBN 978-1-84603-388-9.
- ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
External links
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