Queen Elizabeth-class battleship

Right plan and elevation drawing from Brassey's Naval Annual 1923; the shaded areas represent the ships' armour plating

The early design history of the Queen Elizabeth class is not well known because not many records have survived in the files of the Admiralty. When Winston Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty in October 1911, the ships of the 1911–1912 Naval Programme, the four Iron Duke-class battleships and the battlecruiser HMS Tiger were being ordered and preliminary design work had begun on the new class of battleships scheduled for the 1912–1913 Naval Programme. Each class received its own alphabetical designation with the Iron Dukes being MIV, the fourth major iteration of Design M. Presumably the improved 1912–1913 ships were Design N, but no details of it have been found in Admiralty records. The letter O was not used during this time. Naval historian Norman Friedman believes that Design P was a slow ship armed with ten 15-inch (381 mm) guns based on a passing reference in the official history of naval construction during the First World War that such a ship was a precursor to the Queen Elizabeths.[2]

Churchill and the retired First Sea Lord, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher corresponded at length during this time with Fisher advocating for a fast (probably 28-knot (52 km/h; 32 mph)) ship armed with eight guns and nearly as well armoured as a battleship, something that he sometimes called a "super-Lion", referring to the battlecruiser HMS Lion. Friedman believes that the Director of Naval Construction (DNC), Sir Philip Watts, designated Fisher's concept as Design Q with a slower version being the Queen Elizabeth class as Design R. "The destruction of papers may thus have concealed the reality that instead of being a spectacular advance on previous battleships, the Queen Elizabeths were a slow version of a ship which Fisher and probably Churchill badly wanted. Much of the fragmentary evidence for the fast ship is to be found in Fisher's letters to Churchill."[3]

The tactical mission of these ships is portrayed as being fast enough to manoeuvre to catch the head of the enemy's battleline and concentrate fire against it,[4] but they were actually intended to prevent the German battlecruisers, which were more heavily armoured than their British equivalents, from doing the same to the British fleet. A memo from Churchill to Rear-Admiral Gordon Moore, Third Sea Lord, on 27 October 1912, stated "the speed and power of the Queen Elizabeths...is sufficient to protect the battle fleet against any turning movement by German battlecruisers.[5]

Influenced by Fisher, Churchill ordered development of the 42-calibre BL 15-inch Mk I gun using the codename "14inch Experimental" in January 1912. This was a risky decision as development of new heavy guns and their turrets was normally a multi-year project, and a failure would seriously delay the completion of the ships. The first gun turret was successfully tested on 6 May 1914, likely much to the relief of the Admiralty.[6]

The Admiralty decided on the design of the Queen Elizabeths on 15 June 1912, with the decision on whether they would solely use fuel oil deferred to a subsequent meeting. That meeting must have happened very shortly afterwards because the design that received the Board's stamp the following day was oil-fueled. The design had not been optimised to burn oil instead of coal and the fuel tanks had different requirements than the coal bunkers previously planned. Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, the DNC who followed Watts, estimated that the change so late in the design process cost some 300 long tons (300 t) that could have been put to better use. To guarantee a supply of oil in wartime, Churchill negotiated the Anglo-Persian Oil Convention.[7]

Fisher also believed that the 1912–1913 ships should all be battlecruisers instead of the usual mix of three battleships and a battlecruiser. Churchill initially agreed with him, but was persuaded to go back to the original plan, much to Fisher's fury.[6] Given the speed of the new ships, envisaged as 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph), it was decided that the battlecruiser would not be needed and a fourth battleship would be built instead. When the Federation of Malay States offered to fund a further capital ship, the Admiralty decided to add a fifth unit to the class, HMS Malaya.[8]

In some respects, the ships did not quite fulfil their extremely demanding requirement. They were seriously overweight, as a result of which the draught was excessive and they were unable to reach the planned top speed of 25 knots. In the event, the combination of oil fuel and more boilers provided for a service speed of about 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph), still a useful improvement on the traditional battle line speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) and just fast enough to be thought of as the first fast battleships.[9] After Jutland Admiral John Jellicoe was persuaded that the slowest ship of this class was good only for about 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph), he concluded that, since this should be considered as the speed of the squadron, it would not be safe to risk them in operations away from the main battlefleet.

The ships of the Queen Elizabeth class were 600 feet 6 inches (183.0 m) long between perpendiculars, 634 ft 6 in (193.4 m) long at the waterline, and had a length overall of 643 ft 9 in (196.2 m), excluding the sternwalk fitted on several ships. They had a beam of 90 feet 6 inches (28 m) and a draught of 33 feet 7 inches (10.2 m) at deep load. They had a normal displacement of approximately 32,590 long tons (33,113 t) and 33,260 long tons (33,790 t) at deep load. The ships had a metacentric height of 6.5 feet (2.0 m) at deep load. Their crew numbered between 923 and 951 officers and ratings as completed; by 1920, the number of crew had grown to 1,016 then to 1,025. Service as a flagship increased these numbers from 1,249 to 1,262 that same year.[10][11]

They were powered by two sets of direct-drive steam turbines, Parsons units were fitted in Queen Elizabeth, Warspite and Malaya while Barham and Valiant had Brown-Curtis turbines. The latter pair were not equipped with the cruising turbines to improve fuel economy at slow speeds used in the first three ships. Each turbine set drove two shafts with 12-foot (3.7 m), three-bladed propellers, using steam provided by 24 Babcock & Wilcox boilers at a working pressure of 235 psi (1,620 kPa; 17 kgf/cm²) in all but Warspite and Barham, which received boilers manufactured by Yarrow. The boilers were ducted into a pair of funnels. The turbines were divided into three watertight compartments arranged side by side; the low-pressure turbines driving the inner pair of shafts were in the centre engine room together, while the high-pressure outboard turbines were in the rooms on either side.[12]

The turbines were rated at 75,000 shaft horsepower (56,000 kW) at overload and were intended to give the ships a maximum speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph),[13] although they fell short of that. Due to the war only Barham ran her sea trials on a measured course; in August 1916 she reached a top speed of 23.9 knots (44.3 km/h; 27.5 mph) from 70,788 shp (52,787 kW) at deep load.[14] Fuel storage amounted to 3,400 long tons (3,500 t) of fuel oil which enabled the ships to steam for 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at a cruising speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), which fell to 1,600 nautical miles (3,000 km; 1,800 mi) at full speed.[13]

Armament and fire control

The Queen Elizabeth class was equipped with eight breech-loading (BL) 15-inch Mk I guns in four twin-gun turrets, in two superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. The guns were initially supplied with 80 shells per gun, but the magazines were later modified to allow for up to one hundred shells per gun.[13] The ships carried the guns in Mk I mounts that allowed for elevation to 20 degrees and depression to -5 degrees. The mounts had a weight of 782 t and a train of- 150 to + 150 degrees. The guns themselves had a weight of 101 t.[15] They could be loaded at any angle, but the crews typically returned to +5 degrees, since the guns could be cleared faster that way. They fired 1,929-pound (875 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,450 ft/s (750 m/s) to a range of 24,423 yards (22,332 m). Their designed rate of fire was one shot every 36 seconds.[16]

The gun even remained competitive in the Second World War after receiving further shell upgrades and mountings with greater elevation, and HMS Warspite would eventually record a hit during the Battle of Calabria which to this day is one of the longest-range naval gunnery hits in history - 24,000 metres (26,000 yd).

The guns could elevate to 20° and depress to −5°, but the turret sights could only elevate 15°, effectively limiting the range that could be achieved unless firing under director control. The sights were equipped to permit the guns to fire at full charge or with 3⁄4 charge.[17]

Queen Elizabeth c. 1918 showing the two aft port secondary casemates plated over

Forecastle deck gun as added to all ships in 1915–1916, here seen on Warspite after Jutland

The ships' secondary battery consisted of sixteen 45-calibre BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk XII guns.[13] The guns had a muzzle velocity of 2,825 ft/s (861 m/s) from their 100-pound (45 kg) projectiles. At their maximum elevation of 15 degrees, they had a range of 13,600 yd (12,400 m).[18] As designed twelve of these were mounted in casemates on the upper deck, six of each on the broadside of the vessel amidships; the remaining four guns were on the main deck aft abreast 'Y' turret. In an effort to ameliorate the flooding problems that the casemated guns in the Iron Duke-class ships had in heavy seas, the guns in the Queen Elizabeths were moved back from abreast 'A' turret to 'B' turret, but this made little difference in service. The aft guns were more prone to flood and were virtually useless even in moderate seas. Only Queen Elizabeth was completed with them; one pair was removed and the other was repositioned on the forecastle and protected by gun shields in May 1915. The casemates were plated over to improve their seaworthiness. The other ships were similarly modified while fitting-out.[19]

Each gun was provided with 130 rounds. Stowage was provided for 30 rounds at each gun as the only ammunition hoists for them were located at the forward end of the battery. Captain Morgan Singer, commander of the RN's gunnery school HMS Excellent, criticized this arrangement, saying that it had been proven inefficient in the pre-dreadnought battleships and he recommended using dredger hoists as they were much faster. His comments were rejected as the Admiralty believed that the guns would only intermittently be in use as destroyers attempted to close to torpedo range and they desired to maintain a break in the cordite supply between the magazines and the battery. In service this led to the gun crews keeping additional rounds immediately available at the guns in case they were needed.[20] This resulted in an ammunition fire aboard Malaya during the Battle of Jutland that nearly resulted in the loss of the ship.[21]

The ships also mounted four 3-pounder (47-millimetre (1.9 in)) saluting guns. Their anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of two quick-firing (QF) 3-inch (76 mm) 20 cwt Mk I[lower-roman 1] guns. They were fitted with four submerged 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside. Each ship was supplied with a total of 20 Mk II or Mk IV torpedoes.[13]

The Queen Elizabeth-class ships were completed with two fire-control directors. The one that was mounted above the conning tower was protected by an armoured hood and was fitted with a 15-foot (4.6 m) rangefinder. The other director was on top of the tripod mast and was equipped with a 9-foot (2.7 m). The main armament could be controlled by 'X' turret as well and each turret was fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. A torpedo-control director with a 9-foot rangefinder was mounted at the aft end of the superstructure.[22] The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they began to be fitted in March 1917. The rangefinders in 'B' and 'X' turrets were replaced by 30-foot (9.1 m) models between 1919 and 1922.[23]

Flying-off platforms were fitted on all the ships on the roofs of 'B' and 'X' turrets in 1918. Between them the ships carried three fighters and seven reconnaissance aircraft.[24]

A further ship was authorised in 1914 and would have been named Agincourt (a name later applied to a dreadnought expropriated from Ottoman Turkey). Although most sources and several official papers in the class's Ships Cover[lower-roman 2] describe her as a further repeat of the Queen Elizabeth design, one historian - Nicholas Lambert - has suggested that Agincourt would have been built on battlecruiser lines. This design would have kept the Queen Elizabeth armament, but substituted thinner armour down to 10 inches (254 mm) instead of 12 inches (305 mm), for example] in order to gain a 28-knot (52 km/h; 32 mph) top speed.[25]

Whatever the case, Agincourt was cancelled at the outbreak of war in 1914.[26] The cancellation, proposed by Churchill in memoranda of 1 and 14 June 1914, was intended to shave around £900,000 off that year's naval estimates, which had met with resistance from leading members of the ruling Liberal Party. It had been proposed to build a new type of semi-submersible torpedo cruiser, the HMS Polyphemus class, in place of Agincourt, and submarines in place of another planned battleship, HMS Resistance, and in place of all but two or three of that year's planned destroyers.[27]

• Admiralty Historical Section (2000). Naval Operations of the Campaign in Norway, April–June 1940. Whitehall Histories: Naval Staff Histories. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-5119-2.
• Breyer, Siegfried (1973). Battleships and Battle Cruisers 1905–1970. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-07247-3.
• Brown, David (2002). The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean: November 1940 - December 1941, Volume II. Frank Cass Publishers. ISBN 0-7146-5205-9.
• Brown, David K. (1999). The Grand Fleet: Warship Design and Development 1906–1922. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-315-X.
• Burt, R. A. (2012a). British Battleships, 1919–1945 (2nd ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-052-8.
• Burt, R. A. (2012b). British Battleships of World War One (2nd ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: 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.
• 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.
• Friedman, Norman (2015). The British Battleship 1906–1946. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-225-7.
• Friedman, Norman (2014). Fighting the Great War at Sea: Strategy, Tactics and Technology. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-188-4.
• Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One: Guns, Torpedoes, Mines and ASW Weapons of All Nations; An Illustrated Directory. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
• Greger, René (1997). Battleships of the World. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-069-X.
• Halpern, Paul, ed. (2011). The Mediterranean Fleet 1920–1929. Navy Records Society Publications. Vol. 158. Farnham, UK: Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-4094-2756-8.
• Jellicoe, John (1919). The Grand Fleet, 1914–1916: Its Creation, Development, and Work. New York: George H. Doran Company. OCLC 162593478.
• Lambert, Nicholas (2002) [1999]. Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution. Columbia, SC: University South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-492-3.
• Massie, Robert K. (2003). Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-45671-6.
• Parkes, Oscar (1990) [1966]. British Battleships, Warrior 1860 to Vanguard 1950: A History of Design, Construction, and Armament (New & rev. ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
• Preston, Antony (1985). "Great Britain and Empire Forces". In Gray, Randal (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 1–104. 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, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-817-4.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Queen Elizabeth class battleship.

• Troels Hansen, Queen Elizabeth class and Battle of Jutland
• Dreadnought Project Technical material on the weaponry and fire control for the ships