Revenge-class battleship: Difference between revisions

|Ship image=[[File:HMS Royal Sovereign FL18403.jpg|300px|HMS ''Royal Sovereign'']]

|Ship type=[[Dreadnought#Super-dreadnoughts|Superdreadnought battleship]]

The '''''Revenge'' class''', sometimes referred to as the '''''Royal Sovereign'' class''' or the '''R class''', consisted of five [[Dreadnought#Super-dreadnoughts|superdreadnought battleship]]s built for the [[Royal Navy]] in the 1910s. All of the ships were completed to see service during the [[World War I|First World War]]. There were originally to have been eight of the class, but two were later redesigned, becoming the {{sclass|Renown|battlecruiser}}s, while the other, which was to have been named HMS ''Resistance'', was cancelled outright. The design was based on that of the preceding {{sclass|Queen Elizabeth|battleship|4}}, but with reductions in size and speed to make them more economical to build.

Two of the ships, {{HMS|Revenge|06|2}} and {{HMS|Royal Oak|08|2}}, were completed in time to see action at the [[Battle of Jutland]] during the [[First World War]], where they engaged German battlecruisers. The other three ships were completed after the battle, by which time the British and German fleets had adopted more cautious strategies, and as a result, the class saw no further substantial action. During the early 1920s, the ships were involved in the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)|Greco-Turkish War]] and the [[Russian Civil War]] as part of the [[Mediterranean Fleet]]. They typically operated as a unit during the [[interwar period]], including stints in the [[Atlantic Fleet (United Kingdom)|Atlantic Fleet]]. All five members of the class were modernised in the 1930s, particularly to strengthen their anti-aircraft defences and [[Ship gun fire-control system|fire-control equipment]].

The ships remained in the Atlantic until 1927, when they once again transferred to the Mediterranean. The ''Revenge''s and ''Queen Elizabeth''s again traded places in 1935, and the five ''Revenge''-class ships were present for the [[Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth#The Coronation Review of the Fleet|Coronation Review]] for [[George VI]] on 20 May 1937.{{sfn|Burt 2012b|pp=312–320}} Throughout this period, the ships underwent repeated refits as anti-aircraft suites were upgraded so that each ship had a pair of HACS Mk III systems in lieu of their anti-aircraft control positions, except for ''Ramillies'' which received Mk I directors, and [[QF 4-inch naval gun Mk XVI|QF four-inch Mk XVI]] AA guns in twin mounts replaced the single Mk V guns. They also received light AA guns for the first time in the form of two octuple [[QF 2 pounder naval gun#QF 2-pounder Mark VIII|two-pounder ({{cvt|40|mm|in|1}}) Mk VIII "pom-pom"]] mounts, each with their own directors, and a pair of quadruple [[Vickers .50 machine gun|Vickers {{cvt|0.5|in|1}}]] [[anti-aircraft machinegunmachine-gun|AA machinegun]] mounts. The submerged torpedo tubes were removed as was all of the torpedo-control equipment. ''Royal Oak'' was the exception as she had her submerged tubes replaced by above-water tubes. She was also the only ship to receive additional armour when 4-inch plates were added to the deck over her magazines and {{convert|2.5|in|adj=on|0}} over her engine rooms. This armour increased her displacement by {{convert|900|LT|t}}.{{sfn|Raven & Roberts|pp=166–168, 170, 172–173, 177, 182}} The ''Royal Sovereign''s did not, however, receive the same extensive reconstructions that some of the ''Queen Elizabeth''-class ships underwent, as the modernization program was interrupted by the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] in 1939.{{sfn|Levy|p=9}} The war also forced the cancellation of a plan to add the same armour to ''Royal Sovereign'' and ''Ramillies''.{{sfn|Raven & Roberts|p=185}}

Wartime changes to the battleships were generally limited to augmenting their deck armour, their anti-aircraft suites and the addition of radars. Each ship received a pair of quadruple two-pounder mounts and anywhere from 10 (''Revenge'' and ''Resolution'') to 42 (''Royal Sovereign'') [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|{{convert|20|mm|1|adj=on}} Oerlikon guns]]. Radars were added beginning in 1941, including [[early-warning radar|early-warning]], [[search radar|search]] and [[Fire-control radar|fire-control systems]]. Armour plates {{convert|2|in|}} thick were added over the magazines on ''Resolution'', ''Royal Sovereign'' and, partially, in ''Ramillies'' in 1941–1942. To increase the accommodationsaccommodation available for the greatly-enlarged wartime crew, the four forward six-inch guns were removed from each ship in 1943, except for ''Resolution'', which only lost two guns.{{sfn|Raven & Roberts|pp=166, 185, 189}}