Lion-class battlecruiser
Princess Royal at anchor, before 1916
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Class overview | |
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Builders | |
Operators | Royal Navy |
Preceded by | Indefatigable class |
Succeeded by | Queen Mary |
Built | 1909–1912 |
In commission | 1912–1920 |
Completed | 2 |
Scrapped | 2 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Type | Battlecruiser |
Displacement | 26,270 long tons (26,690 t) (normal) |
Length | 700 ft (213.4 m) |
Beam | 88 ft 6.75 in (27 m) |
Draught | 32 ft 5 in (9.9 m) ( deep load ) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion | 4 × shafts; 2 × steam turbine sets |
Speed | 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph) |
Range | 5,610 nmi (10,390 km; 6,460 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 1,092 |
Armament |
|
Armour |
The Lion class were a pair of battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy before World War I. Nicknamed the "Splendid Cats",[1] the ships were a significant improvement over their predecessors of the Indefatigable class in speed, armament and armour. These improvements were in response to the German battlecruisers of the Moltke class, which were in turn larger and more powerful than the first British battlecruisers of the Invincible class.
Lion served as the flagship of the Grand Fleet's battlecruisers throughout World War I.[2] She sank the German light cruiser Cöln during the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914 and participated in the battles of Dogger Bank in 1915 and Jutland the following year. She was so badly damaged at the Battle of Dogger Bank that she had to be towed back to port. During the Battle of Jutland, Lion suffered a serious cordite fire that could have destroyed the ship.
Her
The sisters spent the rest of the war on uneventful patrols in the North Sea; they provided distant cover during the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917. In 1920, they were put into reserve and were then sold for scrap a few years later in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.
Design and description
The acceleration of the German naval building programme in 1907–1908 forced
The Lion-class battlecruisers were designed to be as superior to the new German battlecruisers of the Moltke class as the German ships were to the Invincible class. The increase in speed, armour and gun size forced a 40% increase in size over the Indefatigable class and made them the largest warships in the world.
General characteristics
The Lions were significantly larger than their predecessors of the
Propulsion
The Lion-class ships were equipped with two sets of
Armament
The Lion-class ships mounted eight
The
Fire control
The main guns were controlled from the
Fire-control technology advanced quickly during the years immediately preceding World War I and the development of the director firing system was a major advance. This consisted of a fire-control director mounted high in the ship which electrically provided gun data to the turrets via a pointer on a dial, which the turret crewmen only had to follow. The director layer fired the guns simultaneously, which aided in spotting the shell splashes and minimised the effects of the roll on the dispersion of the shells.[16] Lion received her system in early 1915 while undergoing repairs after the Battle of Dogger Bank[17] and Princess Royal got hers in early 1916. A second director was added to each ship in 1918.[14]
Armour
The armour protection given to the Lions was heavier than that of the Indefatigables; their waterline
The gun turrets had 9-inch fronts and sides and their roofs were 2.5 to 3.25 inches (64 to 83 mm) thick. The barbettes were protected by 9 inches of armour above the deck, thinning to 8 inches (203 mm) above the upper armour deck and 3 inches (76 mm) below it. The sides of the conning tower were 10 inches (254 mm) thick and it had a three-inch roof and communication tube. Nickel-steel torpedo bulkheads 2.5 inches (64 mm) thick were fitted abreast the magazines and shell rooms. Their funnel uptakes were protected by nickel-steel splinter armour 1.5 inches (38 mm) thick on the sides and 1 inch on the ends between the upper and forecastle decks. After the Battle of Jutland revealed their vulnerability to plunging shellfire, 1 inch of additional armour, weighing approximately 130 long tons (132 t),[19] was added to the magazine crowns and turret roofs.[20]
Construction
Only Lion was completed to the original design, which had the fore funnel placed between the forward
Name | Builder | Laid down[5]
|
Launched[5] | Completed[1] | Cost (including armament)[23] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lion | HM Dockyard, Devonport | 29 November 1909 | 6 August 1910 | May 1912 | £2,086,458 |
Princess Royal | Vickers, Barrow | 2 May 1910 | 29 April 1911 | November 1912 | £2,089,178 |
Modifications
The Lion-class ships were built without
The pole foremast was modified to a tripod after 1916. This was due to the increased weight of masthead fire-control equipment associated with director firing. In 1917 Lion and Princess Royal received searchlight towers on the aft funnel and mainmast while losing one four-inch gun each from the aft battery. In early 1918, both ships received flying-off platforms on 'Q' and 'X' turrets for Sopwith Pup and Sopwith 1½ Strutter aircraft, and Lion was fitted with a torpedo control station at the aft end of her aft superstructure.[27]
Service
Pre-war career
Upon commissioning, both Lion and Princess Royal were assigned to the
World War I
Battle of Heligoland Bight
The first action for Lion and Princess Royal was during the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914. Beatty's ships had originally been intended as distant support of the British cruisers and destroyers closer to the German coast in case the large ships of the
Princess Royal was detached in November to reinforce the North Atlantic and Caribbean Squadrons in the search for Admiral Graf Spee's East Asia Squadron after it destroyed the West Indies Squadron of Rear-Admiral Christopher Cradock during the Battle of Coronel. She returned home the next month after the German ships had been sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.[29]
Raid on Scarborough
The German Navy had decided on a strategy of bombarding British towns on the North Sea coast aiming to draw out the
Hipper set sail on 15 December for another raid and successfully bombarded several English towns, but British destroyers escorting the 1st BCS had already encountered German destroyers of the High Seas Fleet in the early morning and fought an inconclusive action with them. Communications failures meant that Beatty was not notified of this encounter for several hours afterwards, but he turned in pursuit of the German ships once he learned of their presence. The lead British ships were closing in on the Germans when Beatty learned that Scarborough was being shelled later that morning and he turned west to intercept the other German force.[31]
The British forces split going around the shallow Southwest Patch of the Dogger Bank; Beatty's ships passed to the north while the 2nd Battle Squadron passed to the south as they headed west to block the main route through the minefields defending the English coast. This left a 15-nautical-mile (28 km) gap between them through which the German light forces began to move. At 12:25, the light cruisers of the II Scouting Group began to pass the British forces searching for Hipper. They spotted a German cruiser a few minutes later and Beatty turned his battlecruisers towards the German ships, thinking they were the advance screen for Hipper's ships. Those were 50 km (31 mi) behind. Another British communications failure allowed the German light cruisers to escape and they alerted Hipper to the location of the British battlecruisers. The German battlecruisers wheeled to the northeast of the British forces and escaped.[32]
Battle of Dogger Bank
On 23 January 1915, a force of German battlecruisers under the command of Hipper sortied to clear the Dogger Bank of any British fishing boats or small craft that might be there to collect intelligence on German movements. The British were reading their coded messages and sailed to intercept them with a larger force of British battlecruisers. Contact was initiated the following morning when Arethusa spotted the German light cruiser SMS Kolberg and the Germans spotted Beatty's force a few minutes later. Hipper ordered a turn to the south at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), believing that this would suffice if the ships that he saw to his northwest were British battleships and that he could always increase speed to Blücher's maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) if they were British battlecruisers.[33]
Beatty ordered his battlecruisers to make all practicable speed to catch the Germans before they could escape. The leading ships, Lion, Princess Royal and Tiger, were doing 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) in pursuit and Lion opened fire at very long range. The German battlecruisers opened fire themselves about 20 minutes later and concentrated their fire on Lion. Moltke and Derfflinger combined their fire to cripple Lion over the next hour even though Princess Royal engaged Derfflinger during this period.[34] Another signalling failure caused the British ships to focus on sinking Blücher when Beatty intended most of his ships to continue the pursuit of the battlecruisers.[35] During this time Princess Royal hit Blücher at least twice, including the hit that crippled her and allowed the other British ships to engage.[36] Beatty tried to correct the mistake, but he was so far behind the leading battlecruisers that his signals could not be read amidst the smoke and haze. He then transferred to a destroyer and set off in pursuit of his battlecruisers. He caught up to them shortly before Blücher sank and boarded Princess Royal. Beatty ordered the pursuit of the German battlecruisers resumed, but rescinded the order when it became clear that too much time had been wasted sinking Blücher and that Hipper's ships would be able to reach German waters before the British could catch them. Lion was headed home at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) when the rest of the battlecruisers caught up with her.[37] Later that afternoon, the battlecruiser Indomitable was ordered to take Lion under tow. It took almost two days to reach port.[38] The ship was under repair for the next three months and did not rejoin the fleet until 7 April.[29] Princess Royal was not damaged during the battle.[39]
Battle of Jutland
On 31 May 1916, Princess Royal was the flagship of the 1st BCS, under the command of
Lion scored her first hit on Lützow two minutes later, but one of Lützow's 305 mm (12 in) shells hit 'Q' turret at 16:00.[41] It blew the front roof and the centre face plates off the turret, killed or wounded everyone inside, and started a fire that continued to smoulder despite efforts to put it out. Accounts of subsequent events differ, but the magazine doors had been closed and the magazine flooded when the smouldering fire ignited the propellant charges in the turret working room at 04:28. They burnt violently, with the flames reaching as high as the masthead, and killed most of the magazine and shell room crews still in the lower part of the mounting. The gas pressure severely buckled the magazine doors, and it is probable that the magazine would have exploded, sinking the ship, if it had not already been flooded.[42] At 16:30 the light cruiser Southampton, scouting in front of Beatty's ships, spotted the lead elements of the High Seas Fleet charging north at top speed. After confirming the sighting himself, Beatty ordered his ships to turn around and fall back upon the oncoming Grand Fleet.[43] During the Run to the South. Princess Royal was hit a total of six times by Derfflinger, but none of them were serious.[44]
Lion was hit twice more, during what came to be called the "Run to the North", after the German battlecruisers made their own turn north.
Scheer finally disengaged around 19:15 and the British lost sight of the Germans until 20:05 when the light cruiser Castor spotted smoke bearing west-northwest. Ten minutes later she closed the range enough to identify German torpedo boats and engaged them. Beatty turned west upon hearing the sounds of gunfire and spotted the German battlecruisers only 8,500 yards (7,800 m) away. Inflexible opened fire at 20:20, followed almost immediately by the rest of Beatty's battlecruisers.[47] Shortly after 20:30 the pre-dreadnought battleships of Rear Admiral Mauve's II Battle Squadron were spotted and fire switched to them. The Germans were able to fire only a few rounds in reply because of the poor visibility and turned away to the west. The British battlecruisers hit the German ships several times before they blended into the haze around 20:40.[48] After this Beatty changed course to south-southeast and maintained that course, ahead of both the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet, until 02:55 the next morning when the order was given to reverse course.[49]
Lion, Princess Royal and the rest of the battlecruisers reached Rosyth on the morning of 2 June
Post-Jutland career
Lion rejoined the Battlecruiser Fleet, again as Beatty's flagship, on 19 July. On the evening of 18 August the Grand Fleet put to sea in response to a message deciphered by
Lion became the flagship of Vice-Admiral
Lion was placed in reserve in March 1920,
Notes
- ^ Cwt is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 20 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
- ^ The times used in this article are in UTC, which is one hour behind CET, which is often used in German works.
- ^ While no sources explicitly state that Lion and Princess Royal were part of the fleet at this time, of the seven Royal Navy battlecruisers then in commission, Indomitable was under refit through August and the only one unavailable for action.[52]
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e Preston, p. 29
- ^ a b Campbell, p. 29
- ^ Roberts, pp. 31–32
- ^ a b c Burt, p. 180
- ^ a b c d e Burt, p. 176
- ^ Roberts, p. 33
- ^ Roberts, pp. 43–44
- ^ Burt, p. 178
- ^ Roberts, pp. 70–76, 80
- ^ The Sight Manual ADM 186/216. Admiralty, Gunnery Branch. 1916. pp. 4, 29–31, 106, 109.
- ^ Friedman, pp. 49–52
- ^ a b c d Roberts, p. 83
- ^ a b Campbell, p. 27
- ^ Roberts, pp. 91–92
- ^ Roberts, pp. 92–93
- ^ Burt, p. 179
- ^ Roberts, pp. 102–103
- ^ a b Campbell, p. 28
- ^ Roberts, pp. 109, 112–113
- ^ Roberts, p. 34
- ^ Roberts, p. 35
- ^ Parkes, pp. 531–536
- ^ Friedman, pp. 116–117
- ^ Friedman, pp. 108–109
- ^ Friedman, p. 119
- ^ Burt, p. 161
- ^ Massie, pp. 109–113
- ^ a b c d Roberts, p. 123
- ^ Massie, pp. 333–334
- ^ Massie, pp. 342–343
- ^ Tarrant, p. 34
- ^ Massie, pp. 376–384
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 35–36
- ^ Massie, pp. 398–402
- ^ a b Campbell, p. 32
- ^ Tarrant, p. 38
- ^ Massie, pp. 409–412
- ^ a b Burt, p. 162
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 69, 71, 75, 80–83
- ^ Massie, p. 592
- ^ Roberts, p. 116
- ^ Massie, pp. 598–600
- ^ Tarrant, p. 97
- ^ Massie, p. 601
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 130–138, 145
- ^ Tarrant, p. 175
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 177–178
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 178, 224
- ^ Massie, p. 657
- ^ Campbell, pp. 30, 32
- ^ Roberts, p. 122
- ^ Marder, III, pp. 287–296
- ^ Massie, p. 748
- ^ Marder, V, p. 273
Bibliography
- Burt, R. A. (2012). British Battleships of World War One (2nd ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-053-5.
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1978). Battle Cruisers. Warship Special. Vol. 1. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-130-4.
- ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- ISBN 978-0-19-215841-3.
- Marder, Arthur J. (1970). From Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era, 1904–1919. Vol. V: Victory and Aftermath (January 1918 – June 1919). London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-215187-2.
- ISBN 0-679-45671-6.
- ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
- ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
- Roberts, John (1997). Battlecruisers. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-068-7.
- Tarrant, V. E. (1999) [1995]. Jutland: The German Perspective: A New View of the Great Battle, 31 May 1916. London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 978-1-86019-917-2.
External links
- Dreadnought Project Technical material on the weaponry and fire control for the ships