The King George V class battleships were a series of four Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 super-dreadnought battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

s built just prior to and serving in the First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.
The King George V class immediately followed the Orion class

Orion class battleship

The Orion class battleships were four super-dreadnoughts — the first ships of that type — of the Royal Navy. The lead ship, , was launched in 1910. They were the first Royal Navy dreadnoughts to have all their main guns in the centreline, although the U.S. South Carolina class had this advanced...

 upon which they were based.

Design

These ships were of slightly larger displacement than the Orions; the extra tonnage

Tonnage

Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo carrying capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns or casks of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume...

 allowed for some small enhancements that was incorporated into the design. The most obvious differences in appearance compared to the Orions were the repositioning of the main mast and fore-funnel and the conspicuously slab sided funnels themselves.

They used the same 13.5-inch Mark V gun, but firing a slightly heavier (1,400 lb as against 1,250 lb) shell

Shell (projectile)

A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot . Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used...

. Their secondary armament

Battleship secondary armament

The secondary armament of a capital ship are smaller, faster-firing weapons that are typically effective at a shorter range than the main weapons...

 was re-arranged to improve fire distribution ahead, which had been indicated by tactical modelling, to be the most dangerous area for torpedo boat attacks.

Armour was slightly redistributed and it was thought, improved. Underwater protection was also improved, although these changes did not save when she struck a single German mine late in 1914.

There were slight revisions to the superstructure and masts. Their powerplant was intended to give a design speed of 1 knots (2 km/h) more than the Orions. This gave them a slightly reduced overall speed, but in practice they steamed mostly in the company of slower ships anyway.

Overall, they were a successful design, although received without particular enthusiasm by the public and press. They had been substantially promoted as a great advance over the Orions. In particular, it was expected that they would carry 6 inch guns as their secondary armament. In fact it was the subsequent Iron Duke class

Iron Duke class battleship

The Iron Duke-class was a group of four dreadnought battleships built for the British Royal Navy before the First World War. The class comprised four ships: , , , and...

 battleships that first received 6 inch secondaries.

Service

The ships remaining after the end of the First World War were all decommissioned in the 1920s to allow for the two Nelson class battleships

Nelson class battleship

The Nelson class was a class of two battleships of the British Royal Navy, built shortly after, and under the terms of, the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922...

 under the Washington Naval Treaty

Washington Naval Treaty

The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was an attempt to cap and limit, and "prevent 'further' costly escalation" of the naval arms race that had begun after World War I between various International powers, each of which had significant naval fleets. The treaty was...

.

Ships in the class

Name	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Completed	Operations	Fate
	HM Dockyard, Portsmouth HMNB Portsmouth Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the British Royal Navy...	16 January 1911	9 October 1911	November 1912	Battle of Jutland Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...	Decommissioned in 1919 and scrapped in 1926
	HM Dockyard, Devonport HMNB Devonport Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...	16 January 1911	18 November 1911	May 1913	Battle of Jutland, Operation Neptune Operation Neptune The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 , beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time...	Converted to a target ship in 1927, converted to a decoy 1941/42 and sunk as a breakwater in June 1944
	Cammell Laird Cammell Laird Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century.- Founding of the business :The Company...	March 1911	14 September 1912	August 1913		Struck a mine off Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...  and sank on 27 October 1914
	Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde.- History :... , Greenock Greenock Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...	27 February 1911	21 March 1912	31 October 1913	Battle of Jutland	Decommissioned in 1924 and sold for scrap on 9 November 1926

Sources

Robert Gardiner: Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1922–1946, Conway Maritime Press London 1980

See also

• List of battleship classes
• Lists of ship launches in: 1911, 1912
• List of ship commissionings in 1913
• Lists of shipwrecks in: 1914, 1944

External Sources

• Dreadnought Project Technical material on the weaponry and fire control for the ships