Roberts class monitor

Updated on Oct 26, 2023

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Name Roberts In commission 1 April 1941 Lost 0		Operators Royal Navy Completed 2 Type monitor

The Roberts class of monitors of the Royal Navy consisted of two heavily gunned vessels built during the Second World War. They were the Roberts, completed in 1941, and Abercrombie, completed in 1943.

Features of the class, apart from two 15-inch guns in a twin mounting (taken from two First World War era Marshal class monitors), were shallow draught for operating inshore, broad beam to give stability (and also resistance to torpedoes and mines) and a high observation platform to observe fall of shot.

Ships

HMS Roberts: Reused the turret of the World War I monitor Marshal Soult. Roberts provided bombardment support during Operation Torch in north Africa, where she was damaged by two 500 kg bombs. She was repaired in time to support Operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily), Allied landings near Salerno Operation Avalanche, the D-Day landings and the Walcheren operations.

One of Roberts' guns (formerly in HMS Resolution) is mounted outside the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth, South London, together with one from the battleship Ramillies. Roberts herself was sold for scrapping shortly after the war, but hired back by the Royal Navy as an accommodation ship at Devonport until 1965. It was widely rumoured that the ship-breakers who bought her had more than recovered their purchase price in rent before they then sold her remains as scrap metal.

HMS Abercrombie: She used a 15-inch gun turret originally built as a spare for HMS Furious. She was damaged by contact mines on several occasions while supporting the invasion of Italy, but was repaired. On completion of repairs, Abercrombie was sent for service in the Pacific, although the war ended before her arrival. She was used as a gunnery training and accommodation ship at Chatham after the war.

References

Roberts-class monitor Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Dermott Brereton

Terry Finn