Iron Duke

HMS Iron Duke at anchor, circa 1914.

History

HMS Iron Duke was a dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, the lead ship of her class, named in honour of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. She was built by Portsmouth Dockyard, and her keel laid in January 1912. Launched ten months later, she was commissioned into the Home Fleet in March 1914 as the fleet flagship. She was armed with a main battery of ten 13.5-inch (340 mm) guns and was capable of a top speed of 21.25 knots (39.36 km/h; 24.45 mph).

Iron Duke served as the flagship of the Grand Fleet during the First World War, including at the Battle of Jutland. There, she inflicted significant damage on the German battleship SMS König early in the main fleet action. In January 1917, she was relieved as fleet flagship. After the war, Iron Duke operated in the Mediterranean as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet. She participated in both the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea and the Greco-Turkish War. She also assisted in the evacuation of refugees from Smyrna. In 1926, she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, where she served as a training ship.

Iron Duke remained on active duty for only a few more years; in 1930, the London Naval Treaty specified that the four Iron Duke-class battleships be scrapped or otherwise demilitarized. Iron Duke was therefore converted into a gunnery training ship; her armour and much of her armament was removed to render her unfit for combat. She served in this capacity until the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, when she was moored in Scapa Flow as a harbour defense ship. In October, she was badly damaged by German bombers and was run aground to avoid sinking. She continued to serve as an anti-aircraft platform for the duration of the war, and was eventually refloated and broken up for scrap in the late 1940s.

Historical Inaccuracies

• Both hull modules are fictitious "what if?" rebuilds of the ship. As a result Iron Duke has no historical configuration, including her original World War I configuration. As a result, all AA guns and 102mm dual purpose guns on the ship are ahistorical.
• The more modern rangefinder on the spotting top is also ahistorical and tied to the fictional rebuild.
• The larger 15-inch turrets of the Revenge class only had a quadruple 40mm pompom mounted; therefore, it is unrealistic that an octuple 40mm pompom mount would have been added on top of the 13.5-inch turret for Iron Duke had she ever been rebuilt.
• The single trunked funnel replacing the 2 original funnels indicates that Iron Duke's engines have been replaced, however the 23.5 knot speed that would be associated with such a rebuild is not present.
• Iron Duke’s stat card shows her configuration as in 1939; her twin QF 5.25-inch (133 mm) dual-purpose gun that was mounted aft of "Y" barbette that same year is missing (see Historical Gallery).
• In 1939, Iron Duke was actually serving as an anti-aircraft platform; by then her armor and most of her armament had been removed.
• Two 3-inch (7.62 cm) anti-aircraft guns fitted to the aft superstructure in 1914 are missing.

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  HMS Iron Duke in 1914.

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  Plan of Iron Duke.

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  Iron Duke in November 1913.

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  Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener boarding Iron Duke on 5 June 1916.

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  HMS Iron Duke as seen from HMS King George V during the Great Fire of Smyrna.

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  Iron Duke in Port Said in 1921.

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  Iron Duke (foreground) at Scapa Flow in 1939 when she was in use as a depot / AA ship: her 'B' and 'Y' turrets have been removed.

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  The ship's bell of HMS Iron Duke, which was presented to Winchester Cathedral by Admiral Sir Frederic Charles Dreyer (1878–1956), her captain during the Battle of Jutland. The bell stands above a slab commemorating Dreyer and his wife.