User:Harlsbottom/G3 class battlecruiser

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Template:Infobox Ship Class

The G3 class battle cruiser was a class of four warships planned for the Royal Navy after the First World War. Sometimes erroneously described as "Super-Hoods", in reference to the last all-big-gun ship constructed till the 1930s, the G3s were designed specifically with the lessons of the Battle of Jutland and foreign design in mind.

At the same time, both the United States Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy were continuing to build battleships and battle cruisers at a war-time rate, while the Royal Navy had laid down no new battleships since before the start of the war and had cancelled three out of the four Admiral class battle cruisers.

The only limitations upon the new ships were the dimensions requisite to fit in Britain's largest dockyards, and the ability to traverse the Panama and Suez canals. A committee established soon after the war concluded in 1920 that any battle cruiser design should be able to match the speed of the American Lexington class battle cruiser. Consequently a series of designs was prepared, running backwards from K to G, with displacements ranging from 53,100 to 44,500 tons.

The final G3 design, approved by the Board of Admiralty on 12 August 1921 would have been the most powerful British warship ever built, with a main armament of six 16-inch guns, a heavy armour system based on the "all or nothing principle". Orders for the four ships were placed at the end of October, 1921 but on 14 November the Washington Naval Conference began, and the orders were suspended on 18 November, being cancelled when the Washington Naval Treaty was signed by Britain in February, 1922.

Contents

[edit] Background

Before the First World War, Britain led the world in innovative warship design. The Royal Navy had been the first to introduce the all-big-gun dreadnought battleship; the first to build the battle cruiser, and in 1913 the first to introduce oil-fired battleships - the Queen Elizabeth class battleship widely being regarded as the precursor of the fast battleship if not the first class. In 1914 the Royal Navy had as many battleships and battle cruisers as the next two powers combined.[a]

With the outbreak of war however the British government forbade the construction of any more battleships beyond those ordered, with any new big-gunned warships (two battle cruisers and two large light cruisers) making use of the 15-inch gun ordered in 1912. With this necessary shift away from capital ships in favour of cruisers and destroyers and other small craft, Britain started to lose its qualitative and quantitative lead - not against its enemy Germany, but to the United States and Japan, the latter being an ally.

While Britain was pre-occupied with war, both the Japanese and American's constructed battleships with 14-inch guns, and, more importantly, developed 16-inch guns and thus stealing a march on the British. The only big-calibre development by Britain during the First World War was the 18-inch gun, but this was not considered seriously as an acceptable main armament until after the war.

In response to reports of German construction of the Mackensen class battle cruiser, the Admiral class battle cruisers were ordered in April, 1916. The Battle of Jutland took place and the loss of three British battle cruisers there provoked a redesign of the Admirals, with 5,000 tons of armour being added to the original design. HMS Hood was laid down while redesign work continued, but her three sister-ships never were. The need for more battle cruisers of the original sort - fast and lightly-armoured - was deemed to have passed, and it was recognised that the Hood, regardless of her increased armour protection was only a stop-gap measure.

With Britain building no capital ships at war's end other than completing the ultimately flawed Hood, the United States was building or planning to build thirteen battleships and six battle cruisers, with Japan building and planning to lay down five battleships and four battle cruisers.[1] The completion of these ships would not only see the Royal Navy outnumbered but outclassed by the superior firepower these ships could bring to bear.

[edit] Design

After the war, the Royal Navy started afresh. On 27 March 1920 the "Post-War Questions Committee" (formed in August 1919)[2] under Vice-Admiral R.F. Phillimore recommended a battle cruiser with "four twin turrets, 140 rounds per gun, and a speed of 33kts to match the Lexington class" on a displacement of 35,000 tons deep load.[3] While this was clearly an impractical concept, it illustrates where the Royal Navy felt it needed to devote its attention. The navy was extremely well-informed as to the particulars of the six-strong Lexington class battle cruiser; Stanley V. Goodall, later Director of Naval Construction of the Royal Navy was sent to the United States in 1917 on an exchange to study American methods in the Bureau of Construction and Repair. There, Goodall was actually employed as a Naval Constructor and was involved in the early planning and design of the Lexingtons. Because of his work on HMS Hood, Goodall was asked to prepare four battle cruiser/fast battleship plans. The second plan, lightened slightly to meet the navy's desire for maximum speed on a displacement of 43,500 tons was the one adopted and turned into a design.

[edit] Notes

a. ^  Up to the end of 1914, the Royal Navy had had constructed ten battle cruisers and twenty-two dreadnought battleships; the United States Navy ten battleships and the Imperial German Navy five battle cruisers and seventeen battleships.

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ Sprout. Toward a New Order of Sea Power, 22. 
  2. ^ Marder. "The Influence of History on Sea Power". The Pacific History Review 41 (4): 415. 
  3. ^ Campbell. "Washington's Cherrytrees". Warship 1 (2): 12. 

[edit] Reference List

  • Campbell, N.J.M. (1977). "Washington's Cherrytrees: The Evolution of the British 1921-1922 Capital Ships". Warship 1 (1-4): 2-12, 12-19, 38-45, 37-41 respectively. ISBN 0-85177-132-7. 
  • Ferreiro, Larrie D. (August 2006). "Goodall in America: The Exchange Engineer as Vector in International Technology Transfer". Comparative Technology Transfer and Society 4 (2): 172-193. 
  • Marder, Author (November 1972). "The Influence of History on Sea Power:The Royal Navy and the Lessons of 1914-1918". The Pacific History Review 41 (4): 415. 
  • Parkes, Oscar (1957). British Battleships:" Warrior" 1860 to" Vanguard" 1950: A History of Design, Construction and Armament. London: Seeley, Service. 
  • Sprout, Harold; Sprout, Margaret (1969). Toward a New Order of Sea Power: American Naval Policy and the World Scene, 1918-1922. New York: Greenwood Press.