Name Revenge class In commission 1916–49 | Preceded by Queen Elizabeth class Planned 8 | |
 | ||
Operators Royal Navy
Soviet Navy Succeeded by N3 class (planned)
Nelson class (actual) | ||
The Revenge-class battleships (listed as Royal Sovereign class in several editions of Jane's Fighting Ships, as with the 1919 and 1931 editions, and sometimes also known as the "R" class) were five battleships of the Royal Navy, ordered as World War I loomed, and launched in 1914–16. There were originally to have been eight of the class, but two were later redesigned, becoming the Renown-class battlecruisers, while the other, which was to have been named HMS Resistance, was cancelled.
Contents
Design
The ships of the class were slower and smaller than the preceding Queen Elizabeth-class battleships. Despite sometimes being referred to as the "Royal Sovereign class", official documents from World War I clearly state that the class was known as the Revenge class; the confusion apparently even extended to the Grand Fleet's commander, Admiral of the Fleet Jellicoe, as they are mentioned in both fashions in his voluminous The Grand Fleet 1914–1916: Its Creation, Development and Work---as the Revenge class in some places as well as the Royal Sovereign class in others. The ships have also been referred to on occasion as the "R" class.
Propulsion
They were designed to be able to use coal and oil as fuel sources. This was partially due to fears over the total reliance of the Queen Elizabeth class on oil as their fuel source, which was a first for a British class of dreadnought battleships. At that time, oil could be obtained only from overseas sources, while high-quality coal was readily available in the British Isles, and there seemed to be a possibility that oil supplies might not be able to be maintained during wartime, thus placing crippling restrictions on the usefulness of the five Queen Elizabeths. The unusual design of the Revenge class was a response to these concerns. They were also designed to be cheaper than the Queen Elizabeths. This was achieved by reducing their size and using lower power engines—their slim single funnel design makes them easy to distinguish from the Queen Elizabeths, which had twin funnels (or thick trunked funnels after being rebuilt during the interwar years).
Armour protection
The armour was very different from that of the Queen Elizabeths: the armoured deck was raised much higher in the ship, and the side armour was much more extensive at its full thickness of 13 inches (330 mm). This scheme was chosen since, at the time the Revenges were being designed, it was still believed that any major fleet-to-fleet engagement would take place at relatively close ranges such that the principal danger would be direct fire striking the sides of the ship, rather than plunging fire striking the deck. Additionally, this change in the armour layout was a cost-saving measure. The Queen Elizabeths had plates that tapered at the top and bottom of the armour belt, and tapered armour was extremely expensive to produce. Overall, it was probably an effective armouring scheme, made obsolete by developments in naval gunnery and tactics that, unfortunately, occurred almost immediately after the ships entered service and that, ultimately, did not lend itself to the upgrades necessitated by World War II-era weapons.
Anti-torpedo bulges were included; these provided superb protection against attacks by torpedo for their time, but due to the increasing power of torpedo warheads, proved to be deficient for Royal Oak when she was torpedoed at Scapa Flow in 1939.
Armament
Similar to the Queen Elizabeth, the Revenges mounted 8 15" Mk 1* guns. The barrel was 42 calibers long (i.e., 15 in x 42 = 630 in) and was referred to as "15 inch/42". This wire-wound gun fired a 1938 lb (879 kg) Mk XVIIB shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,458 ft/s (749 m/s).[2] Maximum range in shipboard mountings was 33,550 yards (30,680 m) (30 degrees elevation).[2] During World War II older battleships with gun elevation limited to 20 degrees were supplied with supercharges to increase their maximum range to 29,930 yards (27,370 m) at 2638 ft/s (804 m/s) using the Mk XVIII or Mk XXII projectile, while HMS Vanguard could range to 37,870 yards (34,630 m) while using supercharges at a gun elevation of 30 degrees.[2] Coastal artillery mountings with higher elevations could reach 44,150 yards (40,370 m). The firing life of a 15-inch gun was approximately 335 full-charge firings using standard charges, after which it had to be re-lined.[3] In accordance with contemporary practice, the Revenges were fitted with 6-inch (152 mm) secondary batteries. The heavier guns were intended to combat the larger classes of destroyers entering service but in practice proved to be somewhat too heavy to be of practical use against light craft. Additionally, their low positioning made them largely unworkable in heavy seas—a flaw shared with the similarly equipped Iron Duke and Queen Elizabeth-class battleships.
Seakeeping
The major flaw in the class was the deliberately reduced stability to give the ships a slow rolling motion to make gunnery easier. This made it almost impossible to update them. In addition, it was not economically possible to fit more powerful machinery later in their lives.
Accommodation
Due to their smaller size, at 624 feet (190 m) conditions were decidedly more cramped for the crew of a Revenge-class battleship compared to the Queen Elizabeths.
Service
Only two ships of the class, Revenge and Royal Oak, were ready in time for the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. During the engagement neither ship suffered damage or casualties.
Unlike Queen Elizabeths, the Revenges were not given major reconstructions between the two World Wars. In fact, apart from some minor upgrades, they remained very much unchanged until the Second World War began. Partly this was because of the expense involved in giving them a thorough modernization; what money the Royal Navy received for this purpose was better spent on the Queen Elizabeths which, because of their higher speed and better adaptability, had retained better fighting value. Moreover, the Revenges were scheduled to be replaced by the new Lion-class capital ships as they came into service. However, the coming of the Second World War resulted in the cancellation of the Lions, leaving the Revenges to remain in service despite their limited value in the face of advances in naval technology.
The Revenge class were in general reduced to subsidiary roles during World War II. Churchill wrote that the Revenge class were a source of constant anxiety, and that he saw the Admiralty keep them as many thousands of miles away from the enemy as possible. Two joined the hunt for the battleship Bismarck, but mainly they escorted convoys and performed shore bombardment (including the Normandy landings). However, they were valuable as second-class battleships, performing these duties and freeing up front-line ships. The scrapping of the Revenge class and other battleships after the war's end reflected the status of the aircraft carrier as the new queen of the seas.
The Revenge class brought to a close the tale of Royal Navy World War I battleship construction. For subsequent British capital ships, see Renown-class battlecruisers that fought in World War I, HMS Hood which was laid down during World War I, the Nelson-class battleships laid down in 1922, the King George V-class battleships built during World War II, and the world's last battleship, HMS Vanguard. For other battleships that were acquired as "war purchases", see HMS Erin, HMS Canada, and HMS Agincourt.