HMS Ramillies (07)

HMS ''Ramillies'' (pennant number: 07) was one of five super-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. They were developments of the s, with reductions in size and speed to offset increases in the armour protection whilst retaining the same main battery of eight guns. Completed in late 1917, ''Ramillies'' saw no combat during the war as both the British and the German fleets had adopted a more cautious strategy by this time owing to the increasing threat of naval mines and submarines.

''Ramillies'' spent the 1920s and 1930s alternating between the Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet. Whilst serving in the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the early 1920s, the ship went to Turkey twice in response to crises arising from the Greco-Turkish War, including the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922. She also saw limited involvement during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The ship's interwar career was otherwise uneventful. With the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, ''Ramillies'' was initially assigned to escort duties in the North Atlantic. In May 1940, she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as war with Italy loomed. After the Italians entered the war in June, ''Ramillies'' bombarded Italian ports in North Africa, escorted convoys to Malta, and supported the Taranto raid in November.

The ship returned to Atlantic escort duties in 1941, during which time she prevented the two s from attacking a convoy; she also joined the search for the battleship . In late 1941, ''Ramillies'' was transferred to the Eastern Fleet as tensions with Japan rose; the following year, she was the flagship for the invasion of Madagascar. While moored there, she was torpedoed and badly damaged by Japanese midget submarines. The ship was updated for coastal bombardment duties in 1944, which she performed later that year during the Normandy landings in June and the invasion of southern France in August. In January 1945, the worn-out battleship was withdrawn from service and used as a barracks ship attached to the training establishment . She was ultimately broken up in 1948.

Design and description

The ''Revenge''-class super-dreadnought battleships were designed as slightly smaller, slower, and more heavily protected versions of the preceding s. As an economy measure they were intended to revert to the previous practice of using both fuel oil and coal, but First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher rescinded the decision to use coal in October 1914. Still under construction, the ships were redesigned to employ oil-fired boilers that increased the power of the engines by over the original specification.

''Ramillies'' had a length overall of , a beam of and a deep draught of . She had a designed displacement of and displaced at deep load. She was powered by two pairs of Parsons steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam provided by eighteen Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The turbines were rated at and intended to give the ship a maximum speed of . During her sea trials on 1 October 1917, the ship reached a top speed of only from . She had a range of at a cruising speed of . Her crew numbered 909 officers and ratings in 1916. Her metacentric height was at deep load.

The ''Revenge'' class was equipped with eight breech-loading (BL) Mk I guns in four twin gun turrets, in two superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. Twelve of the fourteen BL Mk XII guns were mounted singly in casemates along the broadside of the vessel amidships; the remaining pair were mounted on the shelter deck and were protected by gun shields. The ship also mounted four 3-pounder () saluting guns. Her anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of two quick-firing (QF) 20cwt Mk I guns. She was fitted with four submerged 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside.

''Ramillies'' was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with rangefinders. One was mounted above the conning tower, protected by an armoured hood, and the other was in the spotting top above the tripod foremast. Each turret was also fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. The main armament could be controlled by 'X' turret as well. The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in April 1917. A torpedo-control director with a 15-foot rangefinder was mounted at the aft end of the superstructure.

The ship's waterline belt consisted of Krupp cemented armour (KC) that was thick between 'A' and 'Y' barbettes and thinned to 4to 6inches (102 to 152mm) towards the ship's ends, but did not reach either the bow or the stern. Above this was a strake of armour 6inches thick that extended between 'A' and 'X' barbettes. Transverse bulkheads 4to 6inches thick ran at an angle from the ends of the thickest part of the waterline belt to 'A' and 'Y' barbettes. The gun turrets were protected by of KC armour, except for the turret roofs which were thick. The barbettes ranged in thickness from above the upper deck, but were only 4to 6inches thick below it. The ''Revenge''-class ships had multiple armoured decks that ranged from in thickness. The main conning tower had 11 inches of armour on the sides with a 3-inch roof. The torpedo director in the rear superstructure had 6inches of armour protecting it. After the Battle of Jutland, 1inch of high-tensile steel was added to the main deck over the magazines and additional anti-flash equipment was added in the magazines.

The ship was fitted with flying-off platforms mounted on the roofs of 'B' and 'X' turrets in 1918, from which fighters and reconnaissance aircraft could launch. She was also equipped to handle a kite balloon around this same time. That same year, a Sopwith Pup fighter was flown off from the platform on B turret at least twice. During the early 1920s a Fairey Flycatcher fighter was deployed from that same platform. In 1927 a rotating aircraft catapult was installed on ''Ramillies''s quarterdeck. It was removed during her 1929–1931 refit. The flying-off platforms were removed in 1932–1933. A catapult was added on the roof of 'X' turret by September 1936 as well as a crane to handle the aircraft.

Major alterations

The existing rangefinders in 'B' and 'X' turrets were replaced by models in 1919–1921 and her anti-aircraft defences were upgraded by the replacement of the original three-inch AA guns with a pair of QF AA guns during a short refit in 1924. ''Ramillies'' was refitted in 1926–1927, when her bulge was extended above her waterline and the "crushing tubes" were removed from most of the lower bulge. An additional pair of four-inch AA guns were added, the six-inch guns from the shelter deck were removed and a simple high-angle rangefinder was added above the bridge.

During a more extensive refit in 1933–1934, a High-Angle Control System (HACS) Mk I director replaced the high-angle rangefinder on the spotting top and another replaced the torpedo director aft. A pair of octuple mounts for 2-pounder () Mk VIII "pom-pom"s were added on platforms abreast the funnel and directors for them were fitted on the foremast. A pair of quadruple mounts for Vickers AA machineguns were added abreast the conning tower and the mainmast was reconstructed as a tripod to support the weight of the second HACS. In addition the aft torpedo tubes were removed. By June 1938 the single mounts of the AA guns were replaced by twin mounts, the forward torpedo tubes were removed, a radio-direction finding office was added and the catapult was removed.

Wartime modifications for the ''Revenge''-class ships were fairly minimal. A pair of four-barrel "pom-poms" were added in late 1941 atop 'B' and 'X' turrets as well as ten 20mm Oerlikon cannon that replaced the quadruple .50-caliber mounts. By 1943 ''Ramillies'' was fitted with a Type 279 early-warning radar, a Type 273 surface-search radar, a Type 284B gunnery radar for the main guns, a pair of Type 285 anti-aircraft gunnery sets and two Type 282 radars for the "pom-poms". A Type 650 radio-guided missile jammer was added before June 1944. To save weight and make more room available for the additional crew required to man the new equipment like the radars and Oerlikons, four 6-inch guns were removed in 1943. In April of that year, 10 more Oerlikons were added and an additional three in 1944–1945.

Service history

Construction and the First World War

''Ramillies'', the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was laid down at the William Beardmore and Company shipyard in Dalmuir, Scotland, on 12 November 1913. During construction, the decision was made to fit the vessel with anti-torpedo bulges, since her hull was the least complete of the members of her class. She was christened ''Ramillies'' after the 1706 Battle of Ramillies and was launched on 12 September 1916, but she struck the slipway, badly damaging the bottom of her hull and her rudders. Since the dry docks in Dalmuir were not long enough to accommodate ''Ramillies'', she would have to be towed to the Cammell Laird shipyard in Liverpool. The ship was not seaworthy, however, so temporary repairs were effected in Dalmuir before she could be towed to Liverpool. Captain Henry Doughty was appointed in command on 11 April. The initial repairs were completed by May 1917, and she departed on 7 May; she ran aground on the way and had to be pulled free by eight tugboats on 23 May. These accidents significantly delayed completion of the ship compared to her sister ships, and she was the last member of the ''Revenge'' class to enter service with the Grand Fleet. Captain Percy Grant relieved Doughty in July and the ship was assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron in September 1917. ''Ramillies'' conducted extensive sea trials to determine what effect the bulges had on her speed and stability, and when it became clear that the bulges did not significantly reduce her speed and in fact improved stability, the Admiralty decided to install them on all four of her sisters.

After the action of 19 August 1916, in which the Grand Fleet had lost two light cruisers to German U-boat attacks, Admiral John Jellicoe, the fleet commander, decided the fleet should not be risked in such sorties unless the German High Seas Fleet ventured north or the strategic situation warranted the risk. For its part, the German fleet remained in port or trained in the Baltic Sea through 1917, as both sides had largely abandoned the idea of a decisive surface battle in the North Sea. Both sides turned to positional warfare, laying fields of naval mines, and Germany resumed the unrestricted submarine warfare campaign early in the year. As a result, ''Ramillies'' and the rest of the Grand Fleet saw no action during the last two years of the war.

In 1917, Britain began running regular convoys to Norway, escorted by light forces; the Germans raided these convoys twice late in the year, prompting Admiral David Beatty, who had replaced Jellicoe the previous year, to send battle squadrons of the Grand Fleet to escort the convoys. The High Seas Fleet went to sea on 23 April to attack one of the escorted convoys, but after the battlecruiser suffered a serious mechanical accident the next day, the Germans were forced to break off the operation. ''Ramillies'' and the rest of the Grand Fleet sortied on 24 April once they intercepted wireless signals from the damaged ''Moltke'', but the Germans were too far ahead of the British, and no shots were fired. On 21 November 1918, following the Armistice, the entire Grand Fleet left port to escort the surrendered German fleet into internment at Scapa Flow.

Interwar years

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, ''Ramillies'' typically operated with her sister ships, apart from periods where they were detached for refit or modernisation. Grant was relieved by Captain John Luce on 1 February 1919. In April the ships were transferred to the Atlantic Fleet, still as part of the 1st Battle Squadron. They were then attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in early 1920 for operations in Turkey and the Black Sea as part of Britain's responses to the Greco-Turkish War and the Russian Civil War, respectively.

On 16 March ''Ramillies'' and her sisters , , and landed parties of Royal Marines and sailors to assist the British Army in occupying Constantinople. Early the following month, ''Ramillies'' and ''Revenge'' were sent to Georgia to monitor the situation as Bolshevik troops approached that country. Luce was relieved in his turn by Captain Aubrey Smith on 9 April. In mid-June ''Ramillies'' and ''Revenge'' bombarded Turkish Nationalist forces advancing on Ismid, with the former expending 46 fifteen-inch shells and 657 shells from her six-inch guns. The sisters also off-loaded Royal Marine landing parties to reinforce the 242nd Infantry Brigade defending the city. They were supported by seaplanes from and . Sailors from ''Ramillies'' boarded the battlecruiser '' Yavuz Sultan Selim'' and prepared her to be towed away from Ismid. ''Ramillies'', ''Revenge'' and ''Royal Sovereign'' covered the landings in Eastern Thrace at the beginning of the Greek Summer Offensive.

The ships returned to the Atlantic Fleet in August. The 1st and 2nd Battle Squadrons merged in May 1921, with the ''Ramillies'' and her four sisters forming the 1st Division and the five ''Queen Elizabeth''-class battleships forming the 2nd Division. Captain Francis Mitchell assumed command of the ship on 19 August. ''Ramillies'' and three of her sisters were again sent to the Mediterranean Fleet in September 1922 during the crisis in Smyrna that culminated in the Great Fire of Smyrna as the Greco-Turkish War came to its conclusion. The ships primarily operated in the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora. With the war over by November, the ships were free to return once again to the Atlantic Fleet.

Captain Wilfrid Nunn relieved Mitchell on 20 April 1924 before ''Ramillies'' underwent a refit at Rosyth in June. On 1 November, the Atlantic Fleet underwent a reorganisation that saw the ''Queen Elizabeth''-class ships sent to the Mediterranean Fleet and the ships of the 1st Division reconstituted as the 1st Battle Squadron. She decommissioned for an extensive refit at Devonport in September 1926 which concluded on 1 March 1927, when she recommissioned for service. ''Ramillies'' and her sisters were transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in August. Captain Hubert Monroe was appointed in command of the ship on 3 February 1928. In August and September, ''Ramillies'' participated in torpedo and anti-submarine exercises. She took part in manoeuvres simulating a surprise attack in January 1929 and then in combined exercises with the Atlantic Fleet two months later. Captain Bernard Fairbairn replaced Monroe in late April. She went to Jaffa in Mandatory Palestine in October during a period of unrest in the city. ''Ramillies'' briefly ran aground in Malta's Grand Harbour in January 1930. She steamed to Alexandria in September 1930 in response to rioting there. The ship paid off in June 1932 for another extensive refit at Devonport that lasted until August 1934. In early 1935, the ''Revenge'' and ''Queen Elizabeth'' classes again swapped places, though by this time, the Atlantic Fleet had been renamed the Home Fleet. On 16 July, the ships were present during the fleet review at Spithead for King George V's silver jubilee. ''Ramillies'' accidentally collided with the German steamship in a gale

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