User:Harlsbottom/HMS General Wolfe
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 HMS General Wolfe in 1918. |
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS General Wolfe |
| Ordered: | 6 January 1915 |
| Builder: | Palmers, Newcastle |
| Laid down: | January 1915 |
| Launched: | 9 September 1915 |
| Commissioned: | 27 October 1915 |
| Out of service: | 1919 |
| Nickname: | "Elephant and Castle" |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1923 |
| Notes: | Made the longest-range shoot in the history of the Royal Navy |
| General characteristics 9 November, 1915 | |
| Class and type: | Lord Clive class |
| Displacement: | 5,900-long-ton (5,995 t) legend |
| Length: | 335 feet 6 inches (102.3 m) |
| Beam: | 87 feet 2 inches (26.6 m) |
| Draught: | 9 feet 7 inches (2.9 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2×shafts, triple-expansion steam engines, 2×boilers, 2,500 ihp |
| Speed: | 8 knots (14.8 km/h) |
| Complement: | 194 |
| Armament: | 2×12-inch (305 mm) guns in a single turret, 2×12 pdr (76 mm) guns on single mounts, 1×3 pdr (47 mm) High Angle (HA) gun on a single mount, 1×2 pdr (4 cm) HA gun on a single mount, 4×.303-inch (8 mm). |
| General characteristics 11 November, 1918 | |
| Displacement: | 6,850-long-ton (6,960 t) |
| Draught: | 8 feet 9 inches (2.7 m) forward 13 feet 2 inches (4.0 m) aft |
| Armament: | 1×18-inch (457 mm) gun in a single mount, 2×12-inch (305 mm) guns in a single turret, 2×6-inch (152 mm) guns, 2×3-inch (76 mm) guns on single mounts, 2×2 pdr (4 cm) HA gun on single mounts. |
HMS General Wolfe, also known as Wolfe, was a Lord Clive class monitor which was built in 1915 for shore-bombardment duties in the First World War. Her class of eight ships was armed by four obselete Majestic class pre-dreadnoughts which had their 12"/35 calibre guns and mounts removed, modified and installed in the newly-built monitors. Wolfe spend her entire war service with the Dover Patrol, bombarding the German-occupied Belgian coastline, which had been heavily fortified. In the Spring of 1918 she was fitted with an 18-inch (457 mm) gun, with which she made the longest-range firing in the history of the Royal Navy - 36,000-yard (20 mi) - on a target at Snaaskerke.[1] She was the only monitor so equipped to see active service. After the war, she las laid up before being stripped andput up for sale in 1920. She was finally scrapped in 1923.
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[edit] Background and construction
The outbreak of the First World War and the rapid fall of Belgium into German hands meant that for the first time in decades the North Sea between the United Kingdom and Europe would not be wholly surrounded by friendly or neutral powers. In order to harass the Germans occupying the Belgian coast, and to prevent the use of ports by Imperial German Navy warships, vessels were needed which could traverse the shallow coastal waters and bombard the enemy. At this time aircraft were still relatively primitive and therefore orders were placed for shallow-draught vessels with long-range guns, the Abercrombie class monitor.
The speed with which the Abercrombie class of monitor had commenced construction, coupled with the prospect of large-scale shore bombardment presented by the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the First World War led to Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty and political head of the Royal Navy writing to First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher 11 December 1914;
I propose as a basis of discussion, that in addition to the 4 Schwab monitors, we prepare 8 more at a cost of not more than £700,000 apiece. These vessels should be armed with 13.5-inch (343 mm) or 15-inch (381 mm) guns, two or four in each as convenient.[2]
There were however no spare useable guns. Three 13.5-inch guns and mountings were free after the sinking of HMS Audacious, but there were no turrets available. Although 15-inch guns and turrets would later be re-allocated to monitors, at this time it was not thought to be a feasible option while the Queen Elizabeth class and Revenge class battleships were being completed. It was then suggested that the 12-inch (305 mm) guns and barbettes of the obsolete pre-dreadnought Majestic class battleship be removed and placed in the monitors while the older ships were utilised as transports and hulks. Admiral Percy Scott, the foremost gunnery expert in the navy was consulted, who recommended that if the elevation of the guns was increased from their then limit of 13½.5° to 30° then a comfortable range of 21,000-yard (19 km) could be reached.
Five of the monitors were allocated to the firm of Harland and Wolff, to be constructed at their Belfast and Govan yards. Another, which became HMS Prince Rupert was built at William Hamilton & Company of Port Glasgow and another at Scotts' shipyard at Greenock. This left the monitor provisionally named M.9. Initially the order for her went to Fairfield's on 23 December 1914. Due to a mass re-allocation of resources caused by the halting of capital ship construction, the construction of the former battleship, now the battle cruiser HMS Renown building at Fairfield was speeded up, while capacity at Palmer's in the North of England had been increased by the transfer of HMS Repulse to Clydebank. The order for M.9 was therefore given to Palmer's Hebburn-on-Tyne yard on 6 January 1916 who also received the order for its two 4-cylinder triple-expansion engines.
Before M.9 was laid down at Hebburn, it was decided from which ship she would receive her main-armament. On 1 January 1915 it was decided that HMS Victorious would surrender one of her two 12-inch turrets, which was converted in situ by the Elswick Ordnance Company on Tyneside and then removed by crane - waiting dockside at Elswick until the monitor was launched and ready to have it fitted.[3] The hull form was similar to the Abercrombie class, except that due to the lighter main armament the hull could be made slighter narrower and shorter, which meant that even with 15-foot (5 m) bulges she would be able to berth in most docks - a severe handicap for most monitors.[4]
M.9, so named as it was the ninth monitor laid down for the Royal Navy, was originally intended to be named simply Wolfe after the legendary victor of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, James Wolfe.[5] On 15 February 1915 she was renamed Sir James Wolfe[5] before receiving the name she would be launched under, General Wolfe, on 8 March.[5] In common with all her sister-ships, which were named for famous British soldiers, the title was most often dropped leaving the name only, hence "Wolfe".[3]
[edit] Early career
Wolfe was launched at Hebburn on 9 September 1915, and commissioned for service on 9 November under Commander Neston William Diggle, who had been appointed to her on 27 October. She was the last of her class to complete, and arrived at Dover for service with The Dover Patrol on 12 November.[6] Her sister-ships had already performed a number of shore bombardments, and Wolfe had to wait until 25 January 1916, when Marshal Foch of the French Army requested a demonstration of the monitors. Wolfe went to sea under Captain John Alfred Moreton, and flew the flag of Vice-Admiral Reginald Bacon, the patrol's commander-in-chief who had served with Moreton in the submarine service. Anchored off the Belgian coast in the afternoon of the 26th, Wolfe and six other monitors bombarded the German artillery batteries at Westende, between Nieuport and Ostende, each of the larger monitors firing about eleven rounds with spotting provided by aircraft.[7]
On 24 April of 1916, Wolfe and her sister-ship Prince Eugene were detailed to cover the laying of a net barrage twelve miles off the Belgian coast, stretching twenty miles from Nieuport and Zeebrugge. Wolfe was spotted by the Tirpitz battery (four 11-inch (279 mm) guns) and straddled at a range of 32,000-yard (18 mi). She steamed out of range, only to be ineffectively attacked by German aircraft. She then provided cover for British destroyers when the Germans attempted to press home a torpedo-boat attack. Afterwards, up until September when the weather turned wintry, Wolfe and the other 12-inch monitors
[edit] 18-inch monitor
In 1917 it had become apparent that the fitting of
[edit] Post-war
General Wolfe was placed on the sale list by Admiralty order on 7 April 1920.[8] It had been announced on the 6th that she, in company with the other monitors lying at Immingham being tended by care and maintenance parties, would travel singly to the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard to have guns and other useful fittings removed, after which they would then return to the Humber.[9] She was sold to Messrs. T.W. Ward, Limited on 9 May 1921[10] and broken up at Hayle in 1923.[11]
[edit] In command
- Commander N.W. Diggle
- Captain J.A. Moreton
[edit] Citations
- ^ Buxton. Big Gun Monitors, p.58.
- ^ Gilbert. Winston S. Churchill, p.305.
- ^ a b Buxton. Big Gun Monitors, p.43.
- ^ Buxton. Big Gun Monitors, p.42.
- ^ a b c "Monitors" (1954). The Mariner's Mirror: p.242.
- ^ Buxton. Big Gun Monitors, p.50.
- ^ Buxton. Big Gun Monitors, p.51.
- ^ "Naval and Military Intelligence" (Official Appointments and Notices). The Times. Saturday, 10 April, 1920. Issue 42381, col F, pg. 4.
- ^ "Naval and Military Intelligence" (Official Appointments and Notices). The Times. Tuesday, 6 April, 1920. Issue 42377, col B, pg. 18.
- ^ Dittmar; Colledge. British Warships, p.103.
- ^ Buxton. Big Gun Monitors, p.67.
[edit] References
- Buxton, Ian Lyon (1978). Big Gun Monitors. Tynemouth: World Ship Society.
- Dittmar, F.J.; Colledge, J.J. (1972). British Warships: 1914–1919. Shepperton: Ian Allan Ltd. ISBN 0711003807.
- Gilbert, Martin (1972). Winston S. Churchill Companion, Parts 1 and 2 III. London: Heinemann.
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