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| HMS Queen Elizabeth |
Laid down in October 1912, HMS Queen Elizabeth was built at the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard and launched only 12 months later. She was named in honour of Queen Elizabeth I of England and commenced operational duties with the Royal Navy in January 1915. Measuring over 643 feet in length, she had a beam of over 90 feet and displaced in excess of 32,500 long tons unloaded. Powered by two sets of steam turbines, she could cruise at 12 knots and had a range of 5,000 nautical miles. Larger, faster, and better armed and armored than the original HMS Dreadnought, Queen Elizabeth was classed as a "super-dreadnought."
Although she would be upgraded over the considerable length of her service, Queen Elizabeth still boasted a formidable armament during her early years. These included: eight 15-inch guns mounted in four twin turrets, 16 single-mounted 6-inch guns, two quick-firing 3-inch anti-aircraft guns, and four 21-inch torpedo tubes. Her armour was also up to 13 inches thick in critical areas.
Following her commissioning, Queen Elizabeth was sent to the Mediterranean to conduct sea trials. However, it would not be long before she was given instructions to sail for the Dardanelles to support the Allied operation against the Ottoman Empire. Interestingly, she would be the only modern dreadnought battleship to take part in the campaign, the other ships of the Allied fleets being either pre-dreadnought battleships or smaller vessels.
During the Dardanelles campaign, Queen Elizabeth served as flagship for Sir Ian Hamilton, who commanded the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. On 25 February, she took part in a bombardment of Turkish shore positions and sank an enemy transport vessel. Considerable further damaged was inflicted on the Turkish forts, putting them out of action, although only temporarily. In March, HMS Queen Elizabeth provided indirect fire from the Gulf of Saros to the north of the Gallipoli Peninsula, 12 miles away, the fall of shot on the Turkish forts in the Narrows being reported by Royal Navy seaplanes. On 5 March, Queen Elizabeth fired for four hours from a distance of 13 kilometers at the forts on the European side of the strait, but with almost no effect.
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| HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Dardanelles, 18 March 1915 |
The pattern of attack continued for two weeks with Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by Inflexible and Prince George, firing from the Gulf of Saros while other capital ships engaged the Turkish forts from inside the Dardanelles. Finally, on 18 March, 16 French and Royal Navy capital ships including Queen Elizabeth were assembled to force the straits. The attack failed disastrously as described in our article HERE. After suffering three sinkings and three severely damaged battleships, the Allied fleet was withdrawn from the straits. The battleships were missioned with supporting the landings of 25 April and the ensuing land campaign.
However, on 12 May 1915, HMS Goliath, a pre-dreadnought battleship, was torpedoed and sunk by the Ottoman destroyer Muâvenet-i Millîye. Worried for the safety of their new and expensive super-dreadnought, the Royal Navy made the decision to withdraw Queen Elizabeth.
After the Dardanelles
Her next posting would be to the 5th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow. Had it not been for the fact she was undergoing maintenance in dry dock in May and June 1916, she would have been present at the Battle of Jutland. In the event, Queen Elizabeth missed her chance to take part in the greatest naval battle of the war. Nevertheless, she had the distinction of becoming the flagship of the Grand Fleet in 1917 and would be present when surrender terms were presented to German Admiral Ludwig von Reuter following the armistice.
With the end of hostilities in late 1918, Queen Elizabeth served as the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet between 1919 and 1924, after which she acted as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet until her refit in 1926. She would return to the Mediterranean in 1927, then the Atlantic Fleet in 1929 before again returning to the Mediterranean later the same year, where she would remain until 1937.
Highlights of World War II service for the HMS Queen Elizabeth included:
- The evacuation of British forces from Crete in June 1941
- Mined and damaged by Italian divers at Alexandria Long
- Repair in a U.S shipyard at Norfolk, VA
- Raids on Japanese bases in the Dutch East Indies until the end of the war
After the war she was sold and scrapped in 1948.
Sources: RoyalNavy.mod.UK; BritishBattles.com; Wikipedia
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