File:HMS Barham (04) Model.jpg

English: Contemporary builder’s model of the Queen Elizabeth Class battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth at the Science Museum, South Kensington, 15 November 2008.

Philip Watts’ swan song and masterpiece, the five Queen Elizabeth Class battleships were the first to be armed with 15” guns (when the latest German battleships were still mounting 12” guns) instead of the 13.5" of the predecessor super-dreadnoughts of the Royal Navy and they were much more heavily armoured. Not only that, with a maximum speed of 25 kts, they were significantly faster than the 21-22 kts of the other battleships of the Grand Fleet (and 20-21 kts of the German High Seas Fleet) which enabled them to form a link between the core battle squadrons of the Fleet and the 26-29 kt battlecruisers of the vanguard. This pivotal role they played in the Battle of Jutland, the biggest battle fought between battleships ever. However, the Queen Elizabeth was absent from that battle as she was under repair. She was the flagship of the RN fleet in the 1915 Dardanelles Campaign.

They were all extensively modernised in the late 1920’s - early 1930’s when their two funnels were trunked into one (as per the illustration) and then in the late 1930’s HMS Warspite, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant were completely reconstructed into battleships that could match any others. They looked completely different ships to their original condition and thoroughly modern.

Interestingly, the next battleships to be built, the five Royal Sovereign or R Class ships of 1916-17, were never modernised/reconstructed to the extent the Queen Elizabeths were, being regarded as too slow. Thus in WWII the R’s were largely relegated to subsidiary roles whilst the Queen Elizabeths, with the two Nelson Class battleships, formed the core of the Royal Navy’s battle fleet until the new King George V Class battleships could be commissioned. The Queen Elizabeths were in the thick of the action in that war too, for instance, HMS Warspite participating in the 2nd Battle of Narvik and, with HMS Barham and HMS Valiant, the Battle of Matapan. HMS Barham was torpedoed in 1941 and sank. The surviving four were scrapped 1947-48.

The five Queen Elizabeths were completed in 1915-16. As built they had 75,000 shp oil-fired turbines engines, had a maximum speed of 25 kts, measured 646 ft x 90.6 ft x 30 ft and had a displacement of 31,000 tons. They were armed with 8x15” (5x2), 16x6” (16x1), 2x3” AA guns and 4x21”TT (fixed singles). As modernised and reconstructed these details varied significantly between ships, and increased as various modifications in WWII were applied.

HMS Queen Elizabeth was built at Portsmouth Dockyard, was launched in 1913 and completed in January 1915, the finest battleship in the world at that time. She was extensively modernised in 1926-27 (as pictured) and then completely reconstructed in 1937-41. Her new engines developed 80,000 shp for a speed of 24 kts, she had a displacement of 31,700 tons and was armed with 8x15” (5x2), 20x4.5” DP (Dual Purpose) (10x2), 32x2 pdrs (4x8) AA and 16x0.5” (4x4) AA guns plus 2 seaplanes. By the end of the war all the 0.5” mg’s had been removed (as had the aircraft) and replaced by 54x20 mm (20x2 + 14x1) AA Oerlikons, far more effective weapons. Her displacement in 1945 had risen to 33,700 tons. She was scrapped in 1948.