Overview of the Design of King George V Battleship

In the treaty era, the concept of saving valuable displacement by centralized arrangement of weapons and armor has been recognized by ship designers. George V originally designed a 12 main gun with a caliber of 14 inch. The newly-developed 14-inch Mark VII main gun will adopt an unprecedented four-piece main turret, which will be installed at the bow, stern, the first two and the last one respectively.

Because the treaty did not expire in the design stage, the "George V" class is still subject to strict displacement restrictions. It was not until the construction started that it was discovered that the original designed displacement was too small and the weapon system was too heavy, which affected the buoyancy and resilience of the reserve. In order to ensure the defense capability without major changes to the design drawings (the overall design was completed at that time, and the service of this class of battleships may wait until the end of the war), the second main turret at the bow of the ship was simplified from four to two to save weight (even so, the weight of the double turret still reached 924 tons), and finally the number of main guns was reduced to 10, with 8-9 main guns.

In short, the most important factor that restricts the "George V" class is that there is no suitable main gun: in order to catch up with the progress, the main gun with smaller caliber was chosen, but later the opportunity was lost due to various factors, and finally the advantage of firepower density was lost due to design mistakes, which can be described as ill-fated.

However, the "George V" class 14 inch 45 times caliber main gun is not invalid, and its armor-piercing projectile weighs as high as 72 1 kg! The power far exceeds the 680kg armor-piercing projectile used by American 14 inch 50 caliber artillery, and also exceeds the 640kg armor-piercing projectile used by Japan. In contrast, the complex design of the quadruple turret leads to poor reliability, which brings more trouble to the ship. Unlike Germany, Japan and Italy, which have always lacked high-performance and high-grade dual-purpose guns, the 5.25-inch (about133mm) high-grade dual-purpose gun equipped by "George V" has excellent performance, heavy projectile, fast muzzle velocity, long range and strong destructive power, and it is 40 times stronger than Japan's127mm caliber in air and sea. Only the American 127mm 38 times caliber high-level dual-purpose gun is more "professional" because it uses VT radio fuze.

In terms of small caliber anti-aircraft guns, this class of battleships use British two-pound guns (40.5 mm caliber), which are generally installed in eight packs. The rate of fire can reach 300 rounds per minute, and the firepower is fierce. Commonly known as the "bomb" gun, it was the cutting-edge force in the air defense weapons of various countries at that time. Although it has been difficult for the Royal Navy to have sophisticated warships to serve since the Treaty era, from battleships to destroyers, they are equipped with more advanced anti-aircraft guns than their counterparts in other countries, which shows that the design department of the Royal Navy is forward-looking for future air threats.

However, the "George V" class two-pound gun also has some problems such as unstable performance and easy jamming. These sophisticated weapons with advanced technical indicators and insufficient reliability have made this class of warships suffer a lot in high-intensity operations in the future. "George V" class attaches great importance to defense. The main armor belt on the ship side runs through 60% of the waterline length, and the carburized steel armor with the thickness of 15 inch (38 1mm) covers all the front and rear ammunition depots, boiler rooms and engine rooms, and can withstand the normal engagement distance (20,000-30,000 meters). The armor belt is reduced to 4 inches (about 102 mm) in the front-rear direction.

In order to resist more and more powerful armor-piercing projectiles, as early as 1927, the Royal Navy installed a main armor belt on the battleship Nelson, which tilted inward by 22 degrees, making the shells hit at a larger incident angle and bounce off more easily, thus greatly improving the defense effect.

On the "George V" class drawings, the inclined armor was changed to be installed vertically, on the grounds that if it was hit by a ricochet bouncing off the water, the incident angle would be more vertical, which was not conducive to defense. It is absolutely true in theory, but this phenomenon is extremely rare. Therefore, Japanese Daiwa class, American Iowa class, South Dakota class and North Carolina class, French Li Sailiu class and Dunkirk class all adopted the built-in main armor belt, and the problems that the Royal Navy was worried about did not appear in actual combat.

In the aspect of underwater defense, George V adopted a sandwich structure of multi-layer torpedo-proof cabins, and criss-crossed watertight cabins were installed between the two hulls, so the drainage capacity was better than that of Hood (the specific data is unknown, please refer to Hood's drainage capacity of 2,000 tons per hour). If the drainage capacity of George V with small displacement is strong, its anti-sinking design can be seen.

In order to pursue the isolation range of the protection cabin and avoid the gradual reduction of the thickness of the protection area like the Italian "Vinetot" class, resulting in the decline of the anti-sinking ability of the bow and stern, the bow and stern cabin of "George V" was "pushed" inward by a certain distance, which has the advantage of expanding the isolation area for protecting vulnerable parts, but the disadvantage is that a "right angle" is formed at the transition joint of the inner cabin. If you hit here, the secondary damage effect will be greatly increased.

Lateral defense is the highlight of ship protection. The "George V" class has three layers of horizontal armor plates, of which the middle deck armor (the main layer that bears the blow) is 153 mm thick, which is the thickest among the last battleships in European countries. You know, even the fearsome Bismarck's deck armor is only 120 mm thick. Although the class protection of Yamato and Iowa, which were built in the later period, was mainly over 200mm, the standard displacement of these warships was 45,000-68,000 tons, while the standard displacement of George V was only 36,000 tons. However, it can be seen that the Royal Navy attaches importance to air threats. "George V" class is equipped with 1 10000 horsepower main engine (similar to "North Carolina" class in the United States), and its maximum speed is 29.25 knots (for trial use), which is better than "North Carolina" class (28 knots) and "South Dakota" class (29.25 knots).

In terms of endurance, the "George V" class fuel tank has a total capacity of more than 4,000 cubic meters, usually carrying 3,500 tons of fuel, and its theoretical endurance is 10000 nautical miles (10 knots). However, due to the extra consumption caused by the bow shape and the dependence of a large number of electronic equipment on electricity, the fuel of George V class can't make ends meet, and the actual endurance is less than 3/4 of the theoretical value, about 7,400 nautical miles. This data has no advantage over American battleships, mainly because the United States has stronger industrial manufacturing capacity and can produce more precise transmission mechanisms, which greatly reduces the loss of power systems. Due to the restrictive provisions of the Washington Treaty and the constraints and influences of internal and external factors such as British economic recession, budget cuts and impending war, the Royal Navy was very conservative in designing the "George V" class. For example, the outdated indicators such as insisting on restoring the design of vertical installation of the main armor belt and zero-angle shooting of the bow are not so much the pursuit of safety as the conservatism caused by pressure. All-encompassing design ideas make this class of warships extremely moderate and lack characteristics.

Generally speaking, although the technical parameters of the "George V" class lack two points, they reflect the pragmatic principle of the pre-war period: strive for time and strive for practicality. Although the development of the main gun has been delayed, this class of battleships is still the first batch of treaty battleships in service.

Objectively speaking, from the research and development process, "George V" can be described as "the fate of the times"; Judging from the timing of his service, he was born at the right time. For example, the first ship "George V" was commissioned in 1940, which coincided with the difficult time when France was defeated and Britain ran aground on the island. At that time, before the United States entered the war, France surrendered to its naval attack, hostile Italy was ready to move, and Germany attacked ships everywhere. "George V" became a "firefighter" as soon as he served, and its advanced radar also enabled him to be competent for tasks in complex weather such as Arctic escort and night search, which made most opponents dare not act rashly and guarded the fragile blood sea of the Allies.

Throughout the service history of nearly five years, the "George V" class has participated in almost all major actions of the Royal Navy since the end of 1940. Although there were many faults in use and the price of sinking was paid, it finally ushered in the dawn of victory.

1On the morning of September 2, 945, George V and her sister ship Anson witnessed the end of the war in Tokyo Bay together with the American and French "Treaty Battleship".