HMS Vanguard (23)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other ships with the same name, see HMS Vanguard.

Profile view of Vanguard underway
Class overview
Operators Royal Navy
Preceded by
Succeeded byNone
Built1941–1946
In commission1946–1960
Completed1
Scrapped1
History
United Kingdom
NameVanguard
Ordered14 March 1941
Builder
John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland
Cost£11,530,503
Yard number567
Laid down2 October 1941
Launched30 November 1944
Commissioned12 May 1946
Decommissioned7 June 1960
IdentificationPennant number: 23[1]
MottoWe Lead[2]
FateScrapped, 1960
BadgeOn a field blue, issuing from barry of four white and green a demi-lion gold supporting a spear issuing white[2]
General characteristics (as completed)
TypeFast battleship
Displacement
  • 44,500
    standard
    )
  • 51,420 long tons (52,250 t) (
    deep load
    )
Length814 ft 4 in (248.2 m) (
o/a
)
Beam108 ft (32.9 m)
Draught36 ft (11 m) (deep load)
Installed power
  • 8
    Admiralty 3-drum boilers
  • 130,000 
    kW
    )
Propulsion4 shafts; 4 steam turbine sets
Speed30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Range8,250 nautical miles (15,280 km; 9,490 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement1,975
Sensors and
processing systems
  • 1 × Type 960 early-warning radar
  • 1 × Type 293
    search radar
  • 1 × Type 277
    height-finding radar
  • 2 × Type 274 15-inch fire-control radar
  • 4 × Type 275 5.25-inch fire-control radar
  • 11 × Type 262 40 mm fire-control radar
Armament
Armour

HMS Vanguard was a British fast battleship built during the Second World War and commissioned after the war ended. She was the largest and fastest of the Royal Navy's battleships,[3] the only ship of her class, and the last battleship to be built.[4]

The Royal Navy anticipated being outnumbered by the combined German and Japanese battleships in the early 1940s, and had therefore started building the

laid down
. Work on Vanguard was started and stopped several times during the war, and her design was revised several times during her construction to reflect war experience. These stoppages and changes prevented her from being completed before the end of the war.

Vanguard's first task after completing her

Admiralty announced that the ship was going to be put into reserve upon completion of the work. Vanguard was sold for scrap
and was broken up beginning in 1960.

Design and description

By early 1939 it was clear that the first two Lion-class battleships could not be delivered before 1943 at the earliest and that further battleship construction would be necessary to match the German and Japanese battleships already under construction. The main constraint on the construction of any new battleships was the limited available capacity and the time required to build large-calibre guns and their gun turrets. Using four existing twin 15-inch mountings offered the possibility of bypassing this bottleneck and allowed the construction of a single fast battleship more quickly than building more Lion-class ships. The turrets were originally built for the battlecruisers Courageous and Glorious during the First World War, and were removed during the conversions of these ships to aircraft carriers in the 1920s. To save time, the Lion design was modified to accommodate the four turrets, and preliminary design work began in July 1939. The square or transom stern was retained as it was estimated to improve speed at full power by 0.33 knots (0.61 km/h; 0.38 mph). This made Vanguard the only British battleship built with a transom stern, as the Lions were never finished.[6][7]

Design work was suspended on 11 September 1939, after the start of the

2-pounder anti-aircraft mounts already planned.[8]

More pressing commitments forced the preliminary design work to be suspended again in June; when it resumed in October the design was modified again in light of recent war experience. Greater fuel capacity was added and the armour protection improved, but these changes deepened the design's

docks at Rosyth and Plymouth, which severely limited the number of docks that could handle the ship, but the changes were approved by the Board of Admiralty on 17 April 1941. The ship had already been ordered on 14 March[9] under the 1940 Emergency War Programme,[10] although the drawings were not turned over to John Brown & Company until ten days later.[9]

Overhead view of Vanguard

Vanguard's design was revised again, while the ship was under construction in 1942, to reflect lessons learned from the

head seas. The ship's fuel supply was increased from 4,400 long tons (4,500 t) to 4,850 long tons (4,930 t) to prevent the fuel shortage problems suffered by King George V and Rodney during their pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck. The Unrotated Projectile mounts were deleted from the design and the light anti-aircraft armament was increased to a total of 76 two-pounders in one quadruple, and nine octuple mounts and 24 Oerlikon 20 mm cannon were also added in 12 twin mounts. Space for these was made available by removing the two floatplanes, the catapult and their associated facilities.[11][12]

A proposal was made in 1942 to convert Vanguard to an aircraft carrier. The Director of Naval Construction stated that doing so along the lines of the Audacious class would present no major difficulties but would require six months to redesign the ship. The proposal was formally rejected on 17 July.[12]

General characteristics

Operation Mainbrace
, 1952

Vanguard had an

double bottom 5 feet (1.5 m) deep and she was divided into 27 main compartments by watertight bulkheads.[13]

The King George V-class ships had been built with almost no

seaworthiness was well regarded, and the ship was able to keep an even keel in rough seas. At full load Vanguard had a metacentric height of 8.2 feet (2.5 m).[14]

As a fleet

Action Information Centre was fitted below the main armour deck with facilities to track aircraft and ships around Vanguard.[15]

Propulsion

To save design time, the four-shaft unit machinery from the Lion-class battleship was duplicated with alternating boiler and engine rooms.

Admiralty 3-drum boilers in four boiler rooms at a working pressure of 350 psi (2,413 kPa; 25 kgf/cm2) and temperature of 700 °F (371 °C).[16] The engines were designed to produce a total of 130,000 shaft horsepower (97,000 kW) and a speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph), but achieved more than 136,000 shp (101,000 kW) during the ship's sea trials in July 1946, when she reached a speed of 31.57 knots (58.47 km/h; 36.33 mph).[17] After trials, the three-bladed propellers on the inboard shafts were replaced by five-bladed propellers to reduce vibrations of the inboard propeller shafts, but this was a failure.[18]

Vanguard was designed to carry 4,850 long tons of

ring main at 220 volts. Their total output of 3,720 kilowatts (4,990 hp) was the largest of any British battleship.[19]

Armament

The ship's main armament consisted of eight 42-

BL 15-inch Mk I guns in four twin hydraulically powered gun turrets, 'A', 'B', 'X' and 'Y' from bow to stern. The guns were loaded at +5°; when the turrets were modernised to the Mk I(N) RP12 design, their maximum elevation was increased from 20° to +30°.[12] They fired 1,938-pound (879 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,458 ft/s (749 m/s), for a maximum normal range of 33,550 yards (30,680 m).[20] The guns could use supercharges, which gave a maximum range of 37,870 yards (34,630 m) with the same shells. Their rate of fire was two rounds per minute.[20] Vanguard carried 100 shells per gun.[21]

Animation representing the loading cycle of the Mark I turret for the BL 15 inch Mark I.

The old 15-inch turrets had been designed when the customary practice was to place the magazine above the shell room, and it was not cost-effective to modify the ammunition hoists to accommodate the opposite arrangement, which had been adopted after the Battle of Jutland demonstrated the dangers of exposing the magazines to long-range gunfire. The ship was provided with a powder-handling room above the shell room to mimic the arrangement that the turrets' hoists were designed to handle, and another set of hoists moved the propellant charges from the magazines to the powder-handling room. The charges were stowed in cases to reduce their exposure to fire.[22]

The secondary armament consisted of sixteen 50-calibre

high-explosive shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,672 ft/s (814 m/s). The improved RP10 spec 5.25 turrets on Vanguard were claimed to be fully automatic, with a power-rammed breech and automatic tracking and elevation under radar control enabling a rate of fire of about 18 rounds per minute.[23] At maximum elevation, the guns had a maximum range of 24,070 yards (22,010 m).[24] 391 rounds were provided for each gun.[21]

Short-range air defence was provided by 73

Bofors 40 mm AA guns in a variety of mountings. Vanguard had ten sextuple-barrel power-operated mounts concentrated in the superstructure and stern, a twin-barrel mount on 'B' turret and 11 power-operated single mounts on the upper deck and rear superstructure.[21] All mounts could depress to −10° and elevate to +90°. The 40-millimetre (1.6 in) gun fired a 1.97-pound (0.89 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,890 ft/s (880 m/s) to a distance of 10,750 yards (9,830 m). The guns' rate of fire was approximately 120 rounds per minute.[25] Space was not available to stow the standard allowance of 1,564 rounds per gun, and Vanguard carried only 1,269 rounds per gun.[26] Two of the single guns on the quarterdeck were removed in 1949, and five others during a major refit in 1954. All of her multiple Bofors mounts were removed at this same time.[27]

Fire control

Vanguard was unique among British battleships in having

director control towers (DCT) for the 15-inch guns, each carrying a "double cheese" Type 274 fire-control radar for range finding and spotting the fall of shot. Each DCT could control all four turrets, 'B' turret could control 'A' and 'X' turrets, and 'X' turret could control 'Y' turret. There were four American Mark 37 DCTs for the 5.25-inch guns, each carrying the twin domes of Type 275 gunnery radar. Each Mark VI sextuple 40 mm Bofors mounting was provided with a separate CRBF ("close range blind fire") director fitted with a Type 262 radar, although the ship never mounted her complete outfit of those directors. The STAAG Mk II 40 mm Bofors mounting carried its own Type 262 on the mounting itself. Other radar sets carried were Type 960 air and surface search, Type 293 target indication and Type 277 radar height finding.[28]

When the 15-inch gun turrets were modernised, their 15-foot (4.6 m)

rangefinders were replaced by 30-foot (9.1 m) ones in all turrets except 'A', and they were fitted for RPC in azimuth only. The turrets were also provided with de-humidifying equipment and insulation to improve their habitability.[12]

Protection

Rear quarter view of Vanguard showing her transom stern

The ship's armour scheme was based on that of the King George V class with a thinner

Krupp cemented armour (KCA) 13 inches (330 mm) thick but increased to 14 inches (356 mm) abreast the magazines. It was 24 feet (7.3 m) high and tapered to a thickness of 4.5 inches (114 mm) at the bottom edge of the belt. Fore and aft of the 12-inch (305 mm) transverse bulkheads that closed off the central citadel, the belt continued almost to the ends of the ship. Forward it tapered to a thickness of 2 inches (51 mm) and a height of 8 feet (2.4 m), and aft to the same thickness but a height of 11 feet (3.4 m). At the aft end of the steering gear compartment was a 4-inch (102 mm) transverse bulkhead. After the Battle of the Denmark Strait in 1941, 1.5-inch (38 mm) non-cemented armour bulkheads were added on the sides of the magazines, to protect them from splinters from any hits from plunging shells that might have penetrated the ship's side beneath her belt.[21][31]

When the gun turrets from the First World War-era battlecruisers were modernised, their KCA faceplates were replaced by new ones 13 inches thick, and their roofs were replaced by 6-inch (152 mm) non-cemented armour plates. Their sides remained 7–9 inches (180–230 mm) in thickness. The barbettes for the 15-inch guns were 13 inches thick on the sides but tapered to 11–12 inches (279–305 mm) closer to the centreline of the ship. The side and roof armour of the 5.25-inch turrets was 2.5 inches (64 mm) thick. Their ammunition hoists were protected by armour 2–6 inches (51–152 mm) thick.[32][33]

Intended to resist the impact of a 1,000-pound (450 kg) armour-piercing bomb dropped from a height of 14,000 feet (4,300 m), Vanguard's deck protection was identical to that of the King George V class, six-inch non-cemented armour over the magazines that reduced to 5 inches (127 mm) over the machinery spaces. The armour continued forward and aft of the citadel at the lower-deck level. Forward it tapered in steps from five inches down to 2.5 inches near the bow. Aft, it protected the steering gear and propeller shafts with 4.5 inches of armour before tapering to a thickness of 2.5 inches near the stern. Unlike the Germans, French and Americans, the British no longer believed that heavy armour for the conning tower served any real purpose given that the chance of hitting it was very small; Vanguard's conning tower was therefore protected with 3 inches (76 mm) of armour on the face and 2.5 inches on the sides and rear. The secondary conning tower aft had 2 inches (51 mm) of armour on its sides.[21][31]

Vanguard's underwater protection was enhanced when she was redesigned in 1942 to reflect the lessons learned when Prince of Wales was sunk by Japanese

TNT.[34][35]

Construction and career

Vanguard was laid down on 2 October 1941 by

William Gladstone Agnew assumed command on 15 October 1945. The end of hostilities following Japan's surrender reduced the need for new warships, and consequently the ship was not commissioned until 12 May 1946.[41] By this time, a total of £11,530,503, including £3,186,868 for the modernisation of the main armament, had been spent on producing Vanguard.[21]

foc'sle

After commissioning, the ship spent several months conducting sea trials and training until August, when she began the necessary modifications to serve as a

Atlantic and made a port visit to Gibraltar on the return voyage. Initially escorted by the destroyers Orwell, Obedient, Offa, Opportune, and Rotherham, the ship rendezvoused with the Home Fleet on 1 February 1947 to receive a 21-gun salute led by the battleships Nelson and Duke of York, and the aircraft carrier Implacable. Later that morning, a Hoverfly helicopter landed aboard to pick up mail and photographic film.[42]

Vanguard arrived in Cape Town on 17 February, escorted by the South African frigates Good Hope, Transvaal and Natal on the last leg of her voyage. While the Royal Family toured the country on the first visit by a reigning monarch to South Africa, the ship exercised with ships of the South African and Royal Navies stationed there and made port visits to a number of South African cities. She sailed for home on 22 April and made brief visits to Saint Helena and Ascension Island en route. Vanguard arrived in Portsmouth on 11 May, and Captain F. R. Parham relieved the newly promoted Agnew on 29 May. In July, the ship began an overhaul in Devonport, which lasted until August 1948. While she was refitting, Vanguard was tasked to carry the Royal Family on a tour of Australia and New Zealand,[44] planned for January 1949. On 31 August, she began a shakedown cruise to the Mediterranean and returned to Devonport on 12 November.[44][45] Around this time, Vanguard was considered, along with a number of other large warships, for conversion to carry anti-aircraft missiles, but nothing further was done along these lines.[46]

George VI was now too ill for travel, and the Royal Tour was indefinitely postponed later that month. Vanguard became the flagship of Admiral Sir Arthur Power, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, on 1 March 1949, and the ship made port visits to Algeria, France, Italy, Cyprus, Libya, Lebanon, Greece and Egypt before she arrived back at Devonport on 21 July. The newly promoted Rear Admiral Parham was relieved by Captain G. V. Gladstone a week later. The ship then became the flagship of the Home Fleet Training Squadron under Rear Admiral Edward Evans-Lombe on 12 November. While returning from a brief training sortie to Gibraltar, Vanguard went to the aid of a small French merchantman whose cargo had shifted in a severe storm on 13 February 1950. The merchantman, SS Boffa, was taken under tow and the cargo was redistributed. Once the storm had abated, Boffa was able to resume her voyage under her own power. Vanguard reached Weymouth Bay the following day. Later, in March, she fired the salute to Vincent Auriol, the President of France, during his state visit to Great Britain.[47]

Vanguard at anchor

On 13 September 1950 Admiral Sir Philip Vian hoisted his flag as Commander in Chief, Home Fleet, on Vanguard and the ship joined the rest of Home Fleet on exercises with the Royal Canadian Navy and the Mediterranean Fleet. On 19 December, Vian transferred his flag to Indomitable. Nearly two months later, on 10 February 1951, the aircraft carrier collided with Vanguard as the carrier docked at Gibraltar. The hole in the battleship's stern was not serious, and Vian re-hoisted his flag in Vanguard shortly afterwards. After manoeuvres with Indomitable, during which her aircraft "sank" the battleship, the ship made port visits in Genoa and Villefranche-sur-Mer before returning for a brief refit in Devonport on 14 March. After completing her refit in May, she became flagship of the Home Fleet Training Squadron under Rear Admiral R. M. Dick at the Isle of Portland. Four months later the admiral transferred his flag to the carrier Indefatigable as Vanguard began another refit in preparation to again become the flagship of Home Fleet.[48]

Vanguard and USS Midway in the Firth of Clyde during Exercise Mainbrace, September 1952

Fleet Review at Spithead on 15 June 1953.[50] The following September, she participated in NATO's Exercise Mariner in the Denmark Strait.[51]

Vanguard and Howe in reserve at Devonport, 1956

Admiral Sir

Carry on Admiral. Just before decommissioning, scenes for the 1960 film Sink the Bismarck! were filmed aboard,[53] with Vanguard being used to depict interiors of the bridges, Admiral's Quarters and gun turrets for Hood, Bismarck and King George V.[45]

Decommissioning and fate

On 9 October 1959 the

harbour entrance, she slewed across the harbour and ran aground near the Still & West pub. She was pulled off by five tugboats an hour later, and after nearly running aground again near the Moving & East pub on the opposite shore, made her final exit from Portsmouth. Five days later she arrived at Faslane, and by mid-1962 the demolition process was complete. She was the last British battleship to be scrapped.[54]

As a part of the scrapping process, sections of 150-millimetre-thick (5.9 in)

DSTL) at Alverstoke, Gosport, in Hampshire, England.[55]

The process of decommissioning was filmed by the

Rank Organisation for their Look at Life
film series in an episode entitled The Last Battleship.

Notes and references

  1. ^ Lenton 1998, p. 713.
  2. ^ a b McCart 2001, p. 108.
  3. ^ McCart 2001, pp. 1, 10.
  4. ^ The French battleship Jean Bart was laid down in 1936 and launched in 1940, but could not be finished during the Second World War and therefore entered service after Vanguard
  5. ^ McCart 2001, p. 42.
  6. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, pp. 274, 281–283, 298–299.
  7. ^ Raven & Roberts 1976, p. 321.
  8. ^ Raven & Roberts 1976, pp. 321–322.
  9. ^ a b c Raven & Roberts 1976, pp. 322.
  10. ^ Parkes 1990, p. 687.
  11. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, pp. 285, 291–292.
  12. ^ a b c d Raven & Roberts 1976, p. 325.
  13. ^ Raven & Roberts 1976, pp. 284, 297, 335, 338–339.
  14. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, pp. 296, 299.
  15. ^ Raven & Roberts 1976, pp. 328, 339.
  16. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, pp. 297, 305.
  17. ^ a b Raven & Roberts 1976, pp. 334.
  18. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, p. 299.
  19. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, p. 298.
  20. ^ a b Campbell 1985, pp. 25, 27.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g Raven & Roberts 1976, p. 339.
  22. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, p. 290.
  23. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, p. 291.
  24. ^ Campbell 1985, pp. 44, 46.
  25. ^ Campbell 1985, pp. 67, 71.
  26. ^ Raven & Roberts 1976, p. 327.
  27. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, p. 292.
  28. ^ Raven & Roberts 1976, pp. 325, 327–328, 336–337.
  29. ^ Raven & Roberts 1976, p. 328.
  30. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, pp. 283–284.
  31. ^ a b Garzke & Dulin 1980, p. 293.
  32. ^ Raven & Roberts 1976, pp. 322, 339.
  33. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, p. 294.
  34. ^ Raven & Roberts 1976, pp. 328–329.
  35. ^ Garzke & Dulin 1980, pp. 294–295.
  36. ^ McCart 2001, pp. 1–2.
  37. ^ Raven & Roberts 1976, pp. 322, 325.
  38. ^ Chakelian 2012.
  39. ^ Order of Splendor 2013.
  40. ^ Associated Press 1945, p. 2.
  41. ^ McCart 2001, pp. 9, 13.
  42. ^ a b McCart 2001, pp. 13–14, 16, 20–21, 26, 29, 32, 34.
  43. ^ Pigott 2005, p. 74.
  44. ^ a b McCart 2001, pp. 42, 45–46, 48–49, 53–54, 56.
  45. ^ a b c Pigott 2005, p. 78.
  46. ^ Brown & Moore 2003, p. 32.
  47. ^ McCart 2001, pp. 54, 56, 60, 62–63, 65.
  48. ^ McCart 2001, pp. 67–68.
  49. ^ Grove 2005, p. 222.
  50. ^ Royal Museum Greenwich.
  51. ^ McCart 2001, pp. 70, 72, 74–75, 79, 82.
  52. ^ Grove 2005, pp. 225–226.
  53. ^ McCart 2001, pp. 87, 90.
  54. ^ McCart 2001, pp. 90, 92–93.
  55. ^ Cowling.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Vanguard.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HMS_Vanguard_(23)&oldid=1215628779"