King George V

HMS King George V enters Apra Harbour, Guam with sailors on deck, summer 1945.

History

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, in the interest of holding down cost, 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 to reduce cost. 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).

Service

HMS King George V (pennant number 41) was the lead ship of the five British King George V-class battleships of the Royal Navy. Laid down in 1937 and commissioned in 1940, King George V operated during the Second World War as part of the British Home and Pacific Fleets. In May 1941, along with HMS Rodney, King George V was involved in the hunt for and pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck , eventually inflicting severe damage which led to the German vessel sinking. On 1 May 1942 the destroyer HMS Punjabi sank after a collision with King George V in foggy conditions. King George V took part in Operation Husky (the allied landings in Sicily) and bombarded the island of Levanzo and the port of Trapani. She also escorted part of the surrendered Italian Fleet, which included the battleships Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio, to Malta. In 1945 King George V took part in operations against the Japanese in the Pacific.

Following the war, King George V spent three years as the flagship of the British Home Fleet, was placed in reserve in 1949, and scrapped eight years later.

Historical Inaccuracies

• Hull (A) for King George V should only have 1 quadruple 40mm pompom mount, not 3 for 1942 condition.
• The Hull (B) AA outfit is speculative. None of the ships of the class carried this selection of armament ever during their service lives.
• King George V’s actual late war AA armament is not represented in game.
• The turret traverse in game is twice that of the real life value.
• The citadel volume encompassing the magazines, handling rooms, and machinery spaces should all have distinct heights, compared to the uniform citadel roof height as modeled in-game.
• The armor value for the weather deck was 32 mm historically, but was reduced in-game to 25 mm for balance reasons.
• British armor thicknesses are actually 0.98 times their nominal thickness, due to using 40 lb/sq ft as the approximate weight of steel (actual weight is 40.8 lb/sq ft). Consequently, the nominal 15 inch (381mm) belt is in reality 14.7 inch (374 mm) thick.
• Historical "Standard Admiralty scheme" is missing. In 1944, King George V was painted in overall B55 with a panel of B30. In 1945, the ship was painted in overall 507c with a panel of B20.

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  The crest of HMS King George V.

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  A cutaway drawing of a King George V-class battleship.

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  The launching of HMS Prince of Wales, 3 May 1939.

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  King George V in dry dock at Rosyth, circa 1939.

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  Prince of Wales in Singapore Harbor, December 1941.

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  King George V, photographed here with a huge hole in her bows, after she collided with HMS Punjabi in dense fog on 1 May 1942, at Seydisfjord, Iceland.

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  Commander-in-Chief of Home Fleet Admiral Tovey welcomes His Majesty King George VI aboard HMS Duke of York at Scapa Flow, June 1942.

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  Duke of York fires a salvo at Scharnhorst during the Battle of North Cape, December 1943.

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  HMS Anson at Devonport, March 1945.

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  King George V enters Apra Harbour, Guam with sailors on deck, summer 1945.

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  King George V in Tokyo Bay, September 1945. USS Missouri is visible in the background.

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  HMS Duke of York in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender, September 1945.

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  King George V dry docked in Sydney Harbor, October 1945.