Duke of York

History

Duke of York in Sydney Harbour, Australia, late 1945.

Design

The story of the King George V-class battleships is intrinsically linked to the effects of inter-war treaties to curb naval construction. With the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 imposing a moratorium on new battleship construction through the end of 1931, the Royal Navy's aging battle fleet began to lag behind nations with more modern construction, such as Japan. As the various other naval powers began to ramp up ship construction in the early 1930's, the British Admiralty decided that it could not lag behind any further.

The designs of what would become the King George V class of ships started in 1933. Initially, the government was adamant on pressing ship designs that strictly adhered to treaty limitations, mounting guns with a caliber of 12 inches and limiting to a tonnage of no more than 28,000 tons. The United States and Japan were vehemently against this. By the time of the Second London Naval Treaty in 1936, future battleship limitations were standardized. Gun calibers were to be no bigger than 16 inches with the British delegation pressuring to decrease it to 14 inches. Furthermore, overall tonnage should not exceed 35,000.

With the new limitations in mind, the design of the armaments and protection centered from the idea of ideal combat engagement ranges to be between 11,000-15,000 meters. Through several design reviews, it was decided that the implementation of the revolutionary quad-barreled turret would be the most optimal; the Mk. III turret would be the first of its kind in the Royal Navy. On paper, the advantages were many: it decreased the potential armor profile, it decreased the number of barbettes from four to three, and it maintained high volume of fire. These turrets would house the Mk. VII BL 14-inch guns, which were based on the designs of the experimental Mk. XVI 12-inch guns. By the end, the initial plan of twelve 14-inch guns was decreased to 10; B turret was decreased from quad to dual.

Originally the ship’s secondary armaments were set to be exact to the ones being retrofitted onto the upgraded Queen Elizabeth-class battleships: 4.5-inch dual-purpose guns. But during the development the new 5.25-inch DP guns of the Dido-class were developed and designers reconsidered and incorporated eight of these dual-gun turrets into the final design.

The original armor profile called for a main belt of 13 inches with deck protection of 4 inches. This was deemed insufficient and by the final iteration, the main armor belt was increased to a size of 14-15 inches, while the horizontal armor was moved to the middle deck and increased to 4-5 inches. The belt spanned from the barbettes of "A" turret all the way back to "C" turret, covering magazines and machinery. Lateral coverage spanned from the main deck all the way to 2.5 meters below waterline, where the belt thinned to about 5 inches. The “armored citadel” was complete with bulkheads with thickness of 10-12 inches. Furthermore, a torpedo protection system was incorporated. It was increased from a two-layer to a three-layer system, when the design requirements required damage mitigation up to a blast of 1,000 pounds of TNT. Air-filled spaces sandwiched a central layer that was filled with water – and later – fuel oil.

From the onset, the propulsion was rated for 100,000 shaft horsepower. This required the use of eight Admiralty boilers and four Parsons turbines. Interestingly, each unit of machinery was given its own compartment. A considerable amount of time went into the arrangement of the propulsion; ultimately, each shaft was driven by an independent arrangement of two boilers the fed into one turbine. The arrangement was alternating to decrease the chance of total failure when damaged; the inner-shaft arrangement was the opposite of the outer-shaft arrangement. As well, the final designs called for a two-funnel system. Although there was considerable push for a single funnel system to increase deck-space efficiency, a dual-funnel layout allowed for better gas ventilation, and prevented fumes from re-entering into the machinery spaces. Whilst the original hope was for speeds close to 30 knots, the addition of armor and secondary armaments required the speeds to drop to 27 knots.

By point in development, there were clear signs that there was no adherence to the treaty limit of 35,000 tons of displacement by other naval powers; consequently, King George V’s designers equally didn’t invest much effort into meeting their treaty obligations either. There was an initial effort put in to mitigate excessive tonnage, and as a result "B" turret was decreased to a dual-gun design while the freeboard – along with the bow-angle – was decreased (which proved to decrease seaworthiness and make conditions poorer for crew).

HMS Duke of York (pennant number 17) was the third ship of the King George V class, named after the Duke of York peerage. She was ordered on 16 November 1936, and laid down on 5 May 1937 at the Clydebank shipyards by the John Brown and Company, and launched 28 February 1940.

She was originally fitted with six 8-barrelled 2pdr “pom-poms”, and six single 20mm AA guns. She also carried Type 281, 282, 284, and 285 radar sets. As she was a wartime vessel, she only received wartime-upgrades; as there was no time for remodeling. In 1941, she received a Type 273 radar set to complement the ones above. By 1944, 36 additional 20mm AA guns were installed. By 1945, eight 40mm Bofors guns were added. Furthermore, many of the single 20mm were replaced by dual-mount 20mm. And additional Type 274 radar set was incorporated. Most significantly, the original aircraft facilities – one double-ended catapult and 2-4 Supermarine Walrus' – were removed and repurposed as a boat launching area.

Service

HMS Duke of York was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 4 November 1941, subsequently seeing combat service during the Second World War.

In mid-December 1941, Duke of York transported Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the United States to meet President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Between March and September 1942 Duke of York was involved with convoy escort duties, but in October she was dispatched to Gibraltar where she became the flagship of Force H.

In October 1942, Duke of York was involved in the Allied invasion of North Africa, but saw little action as her role only required her to protect the accompanying aircraft carriers. HMS Duke of York stopped the Portuguese vessel Gil Eannes on 1 November 1942 and a commando arrested Gastão de Freitas Ferraz. The British had picked up radio traffic indicating naval espionage, possibly compromising the secrecy of the upcoming Operation Torch.

After Operation Torch, Duke of York was involved in Operations Camera and Governor, which were diversionary operations designed to draw the Germans' attention away from Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. On 4 October, Duke of York operated with her sister ship Anson in covering a force of Allied cruisers and destroyers and the American carrier Ranger, during Operation Leader, which raided German shipping off Norway. The attack sank four merchant ships and badly damaged a further seven.

On 26 December 1943 Duke of York was part of a task force which encountered the German battleship Scharnhorst off the North Cape of Norway. During the engagement that followed, Scharnhorst hit Duke of York twice with little effect, but was herself hit by several of Duke of York's 14-inch shells, silencing one of her turrets and hitting a boiler room. After temporarily escaping from Duke of York's heavy fire, Scharnhorst was struck several times by torpedoes, allowing Duke of York to again open fire, contributing to the eventual sinking of Scharnhorst after a running action lasting ten-and-a-half hours.

In 1945 Duke of York was assigned to the British Pacific Fleet as its flagship, but suffered mechanical problems in Malta which prevented her arriving in time to see any action before Japan surrendered.

• 

  HMS Duke of York undergoing sea trials.

• 

  Duke of York in March 1942, while escorting Convoy PQ 12.

• 

  Duke of York in the Mediterranean, 1942.

• 

  Duke of York. Note the deck and turret top camouflage which is readily apparent in this photo.

• 

  Whisky, the ship's cat, off duty.

• 

  Duke of York leads Nelson, Renown, Formidable, and Argonaut during the occupation of French North Africa.

• 

  Duke of York prior to the Battle of the North Cape.

• 

  Members of Duke of York's gun crews at Scapa Flow after the Battle of the North Cape.

• 

  Duke of York, photo taken between 1946 and 1948.

• 

  Duke of York ship's bell.