Nelson

Design History

With the culmination of the First World War, the great powers of the time quickly realized that another naval arms race was commencing, and understanding the effect the first one had at dragging the world into a global war, politicians were not too keen on repeating that mistake. Ratified in 1922, the Washington Naval Treaty imposed limitations on sizes of navies, and restrictions upon the specifications of new battleships under design; two most important being tonnage no greater than 35,000 tonnes and calibre no greater than 16-inches. The Royal Navy needed new ships for it’s post-war era, so along with the recently commissioned HMS Hood, the Navy decided to build a pair of new battleships under treaty regulations: the Nelson-class battleships.

The story beings with a man named Sir Eustace Tennyson D’Eyncourt, the Director of Naval Construction for the Royal Navy. A veteran of the trade, Tennyson was originally given the task of planning for the G3-class and N3-class, but with their subsequent rejection, and his posting to the treaty battleship project, he sought to incorporate as much as he could from the aforementioned designs to save time. Tennyson envisioned the G3-class battlecruisers to be tougher then the rest; using the “all-or-nothing” armour scheme championed by the Americans to shield vital components like magazines and propulsion machinery. And many boilers there were – 20 in all – to propel this machine to 32 knots. Tennyson also considered an armament of nine 16-inch guns in 3 triple turrets: two forward and one amidships. Accordingly, the N3-class of battleships were similar to the G3-class but in which they trade speed for firepower, Tennyson imagine these vessels to mount 18-inch guns in three triple turrets.

With the restrictions of the treaty in mind, Tennyson chose to use the armament of the G3-class, but altering the layout so that all main battery would be forward of the superstructure; secondary battery would be to the rear to balance out. Finalization of the design would not happen till 1922 as designers opted to reduce armouring, remove boilers, and decrease length in the name of saving tonnage.

Armour was an important factor for the Nelson-class, as Tennyson learned the lessons of Jutland but conversely had a weight limitation too keep in mind. He opted to use the “all-or-nothing” scheme; 14-inches of belt would run from A turret in the front to secondary magazines in the rear. Top deck was properly armoured as well, to mitigate plunging fire. Furthermore, torpedo bulges were an integral part of the design, and not just added on as an afterthought. Like Hood’s, they were multilayered to spread and absorb the shock of impact.

Aforementioned, designers chose to reduce the number of boilers on board to save weight. In the end, the Nelson-class had only 8 boilers powering their two turbines. Interestingly, the firerooms – which housed the boilers – were placed behind the engine rooms. The propulsion machinery could only manage a meagre 46,000 shaft horsepower, which could move the vessel no more than 23 knots.

The most significant aspect about the Nelson-class was its firepower. This class was the first to mount 16-inch guns in triple turrets. The other two major naval powers at the time – United States and Japan – were less keen on placing 16-inch guns in triple turrets as the would be too heavy and cumbersome. There was truth to this: the 16-inch guns used by the Nelson-class were far less reliable than the 15-inch guns used on other British dreadnoughts. Although, by 1939, many of the complications that arose from mounting large guns in triple were resolved. Furthermore, such an arrangement allowed one to maximize firepower in the smallest amount of space; ideal for the treaty era. In fact, despite being a 14-year old battleship by the start of the Second World War, there was no question to the potency of Nelson’s firepower; her broadside was fearsome.

HMS Nelson (Pennant number: 28) was laid down on 28 December 1922 by the Armstrong-Whitworth Company at Hebburn, near the River Tyne and Launched 3 September 1925.

Service History

Completed and commissioned on the 15th of August 1927, HMS Nelson joined the British Home Fleet as the most powerful battleship in the world; being the first ship completed to be armed with 9 16” guns in three triple turrets in a unique all-forward layout that made Nelson and her sister-ship HMS Rodney instantly recognizable. Serving as the flagship of the Home Fleet, Nelson saw little action during the pre-war period, with her crew participating in the Invergordon Mutiny following harsh cuts to her sailor’s pay in 1931. Modified little throughout the 1930’s, she was to be extensively modernized in the early 1940’s, but this never came to be following the breakout of the War in Europe in 1939.

Retaining her position as the flagship of the Home Fleet, Nelson’s first major action was sailing north-west to Icelandic waters following news that a German raiding force may be waiting in the area to attack trade routes once War truly broke out on the 1st of September 1939. The order to commence hostilities didn’t come to the Royal Navy until the 3rd, and Nelson’s limited top speed became apparent in her failures to find the supposed German raiding force in the North Sea. Nevertheless, she led the Home Fleet operating from Scapa Flow and Loch Ewe for the rest of 1939. On the 30th of October, Nelson in the company of Rodney and HMS Hood and their escorting destroyers were attacked by a line of 4 U-boats. U-56 fired three torpedoes at Nelson, all three hit, but miraculously two broke apart on hitting and the third failed to explode. Nelson was constantly deployed to intercept German raiders, but was never quite able to find them herself. The Royal Navy was under pressure, with German panzerschiffe Admiral Graf Spee wreaking havoc in the South Atlantic and panzerschiffe Deutschland operating in Icelandic waters. She continued searching for the German raiders until mid-January 1940, when she detached from the Home Fleet for repairs and refits.

Nelson had to be moved further north while being refitted, however, due to the Luftwaffe bombing and laying magnetic mines near Portsmouth where she was anchored, so she sailed north to Clyde in early June 1940, returning to the Home Fleet by the 9th. On the 29th of June, she was ordered to sail to Gibraltar, before this order was cancelled two days later and she returned to the Home Fleet in Scapa Flow, where she remained until early September that year. On the 6th of September, she escorted carrier HMS Furious on Operation DF off the cost of Norway, returning to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow by 8pm on the 7th. She sailed from Scapa to Rosyth mid-September, where she remained until November. She returned to Scapa again on the 5th of November, the following day she sortied to the Icelandic Channel to hopefully intercept the German panzerschiffe Admiral Scheer on her way back to Germany, but Scheer managed to evade the sizeable British fleet sent to sink her. Nelson returned to Scapa by mid-November, returning to Rosyth by the 29th, before sailing to Scapa again where she remained until mid-January 1941.

Operating out of Scapa Flow, Nelson spent the 1st quarter of 1941 patrolling the waters between Iceland and Denmark, poised to intercept any attempted breakout by German ships. Come late March, she sailed south to join Convoy WS 7, headed for South Africa via Freetown in modern-day Sierra Leone. Nelson reached South Africa by mid-April, where she remained until the 13th of May where she set sail for St. Helena, with orders to search for the German commerce raider Atlantis. On the night of the 18th, Atlantis sited two darkened vessels approaching at speed, which were quickly identified as warships and Atlantis moved slowly out of their path. These ships were Nelson and accompanying carrier HMS Eagle, both vessels passed within 7,000 meters of her without either vessel spotting her. Nelson slowly made her way up the west African coast, reaching Gibraltar by the 26th. She was deployed here to prevent German battleship Bismarck, which had sunk Hood two days earlier, from breaking into the Mediterranean and joining up with the Italian navy. However, the next day Nelson was signaled that Bismarck had been sunk. Her orders changed several times for the next few hours, before she was finally ordered to escort a troop convoy that had set sail from Freetown bound for England. She detached from this convoy on the 4th of June, however, for an allied armed merchant vessel had spotted an unidentified vessel that attempted to outrun her. Nelson moved to intercept this ship, that turned out to be the German supply ship Gonzenheim. Gonzenheim attempted to outrun Nelson, until she halted when Nelson fired a 6” warning round across her bow. Gonzenheim began to slow and lower life boats, causing Nelson to fire two more warning rounds at Gonzenheim, and Gonzenheim was scuttled by her crew before Nelson’s accompanying cruiser HMS Neptune could reach her. Nelson returned to her convoy, reaching Londonderry by the 6th and then returning to Scapa to rejoin the Home Fleet.

Nelson set sail for the Mediterranean in July, escorting a convoy bound for besieged Malta, joining up with Force H stationed at Gibraltar by mid-July. Nelson exercised heavily in the western Mediterranean, covering convoys bound for Malta and North Africa, coming under attack from Italian torpedo boats and aircraft several times and evading several large sorties by the Italian Regia Marina. Nelson was hit by an aerial torpedo on the 27th of September, immediately dropping her speed to 18 knots, but she remained with the convoy. She later had to reduce speed to 15 knots to reduce flooding, and she dropped to the rear of her convoy. Nelson’s speed and steering continued to deteriorate, and by the 28th she broke off from the convoy with destroyer escorts for temporary repairs in Gibraltar, so she could survive the return trip to the UK for proper repairs. She remained at Gibraltar from early October to early November, returning to the UK on the 22nd and entering drydocks on the 24th. She remained in dry dock until mid-April 1942.

Following the completion of her repairs, she returned to the Home Fleet by the 22nd of April, joining in on fleet exercises out of Scapa Flow. By June she was back on convoy escort duty, ferrying troops to Freetown with her sister Rodney. She re-entered the Mediterranean, and was chosen to be the flagship of the fleet for Operation Pedestal; a major convoy resupply of the Island of Malta. Nelson continued operating in the Mediterranean until she was recalled to Scapa, arriving on the 28th of August and remaining there until the 20th of September. Come October, she returned to the Mediterranean as part of the re-organized Force H to carry out Operation Torch, to liberate North Africa then under the control of Vichy France. Following the immense success of Operation Torch, Nelson, alongside Force H, spent the rest of the year patrolling between Gibraltar and Mers-el-Kebir.

Nelson and Force H remained in the western Mediterranean until May 1943, where Nelson detached from Force H and returned to England for a short refit. While at Scapa Flow, Nelson alongside Rodney, HMS Valiant and HMS Warspite carried out bombardment exercises in preparation for Operation Husky – the Allied invasion of Sicily. She returned to Gibraltar by the 23rd of June, later sailing to Mers-el-Kebir and then Algiers by early July. On the 6th of July, Force H sailed from Algiers to take part in Operation Husky. She spent the first half of July patrolling off eastern Sicily, giving naval fire support in support of Allied landing forces as they seized Sicily. On the 20th Nelson returned to Malta, where she remained until the 30th of August when she sailed for the coast of Calabria to carry out Operation Hammer. In September she supported Operation Avalanche, bombarding Axis positions around Salerno as Allied forces invaded the Italian Mainland. Nelson remained in Italian waters until the 26th of October. The Italian Navy had surrendered a month before, and Nelson’s guns were needed elsewhere. She returned to the UK by the 6th, entering dry dock for refits. She was undocked on the 1st of December, moving to Scapa Flow where she remained until 1944.

Come January 1944, Nelson was running out of enemies. The Italians had surrendered their capital ships when they signed the Armistice of Cassibile signed on Nelson’s own deck, Scharnhorst sank in December 1943, Gneisenau was permanently out of action, and Tirpitz was locked up in Norwegian fjords. Until June 1944, Nelson rotated between the ports of Scapa, Clyde and Rosyth as the Allies prepared for Operation Overlord – the Allied invasion of Normandy. Nelson moved to Milford Haven on the 4th of June, on standby for bombardment duties off the Normandy beachheads. Nelson sailed for northern France on the 11th, anchoring off Caen and beginning her bombardment. Nelson spent seven days off the beachhead, firing nearly 1,000 16” shells at German positions along the shores. By the 18th, she returned to Portsmouth for re-ammunition, having to dock shortly after hitting two acoustic mines for minor repairs. It was decided that Nelson would sail for the USA for some more extensive retrofitting; Nelson was nominated for service in the Indian Ocean and required extensive improvement of her crew facilities and ventilation systems. She departed Portsmouth on the 23rd of June, arriving at Delaware Bay on the 4th of July. The next day, she arrived at the Philadelphia Navy Yard where she would remain for the rest of 1944.

Come 1945, her repairs were nearly completed and she sailed for Portsmouth by the 18th of January 1945, arriving in Portsmouth for the final stages of her refit by the 28th. She remained in drydocks at Portsmouth until mid-April, sailing for Spithead to receive ammunition and supplies, before setting sail for Malta, via Gibraltar. She reached Malta by the 5th of May, beginning extensive exercises for future endeavors against the Japanese. She set sail from Malta on the 14th of June, sailing across the western Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal, arriving in Sri Lanka on the 10th of July and joining the East Indies Fleet. She began assisting in minesweeping duties of the area for Operation Livery, to clear the way for allied troops to land in Japanese-held Thailand and Malaya, the last offensive action of the Eastern Fleet before the Japanese surrendered. On the 15th of August, Nelson was anchored at Sri Lanka when she received news of the Japanese surrender, and that the war was over. Nelson’s duties weren’t quite over, however, as she continued minesweeping to clear the way for merchant vessels and supply ships. On the 27th, Nelson set sail for Penang, and the following day the Japanese forces occupying Penang climbed on board Nelson and signed the surrender of the local Japanese Commanders. Nelson remained at Penang for a few more days, as the Japanese willingly cooperated with the Allied officers and provided information relative to the extensive minefields in the South-East Asia region. Nelson later sailed for Singapore, arriving on the 12th of September, where the Japanese Forces in South-East Asia officially surrendered on Nelson’s decks.

Following the surrender at Singapore, Nelson slowly made her way back to England, visiting Sri Lanka, Suez, Malta and Gibraltar before finally reaching Portsmouth by the 17th of November 1945. Deployed as flagship of the Training Battleship Squadron in the Home Fleet 1946, she carried out training duties including the Home Fleet 1946 Spring Cruise, before being relieved by carrier HMS Victorious on the 22nd of September 1947. Having served the Royal Navy for two decades, Nelson was nevertheless an outdated vessel and lacked the speed to operate with a modern navy. Nelson was paid off and reduced to Reserve status, later being placed on the Disposal list. Following bombing target trials on her hulk, she was sold for scrap and disappeared from the world before the end of 1949, her name later carried on to the name of the barracks and support services site based in Portsmouth.

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  HMS Nelson firing her 16-inch (406 mm) guns during a practice shoot. The photo was taken just after firing and the effects of the compression wave are visible.

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  Profile drawing of HMS Nelson.

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  Sailors of the South African Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve sitting on one of the 16-inch gun barrels of HMS Nelson during World War II.

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  Model of Nelson, in the Discovery Museum in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

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  HMS Nelson in the Mediterranean Sea, 1943.

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  Aerial view of HMS Nelson off the port stern quarter. Her camouflage suggests the photo was taken in 1943 or 1944.

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  A late war photo of HMS Nelson.

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  A view of HMS Nelson off the starboard stern quarter, date unknown.