Battleship HMS Erin

The battleship HMS Erin was originally built for the Ottoman Navy, but was seized by the Royal Navy and used even in World War I.

 

Launching and design:

After the Young Turk revolution in mid-1908, the power of the government relied on the support and will of the Ottoman military. In return for the maintenance of power Sultan Mehmed V. Reşad granted this much higher expenditure on the military and its modernization.

Although particularly many weapons were bought from the German Empire, warships read the Ottoman navy but build in Britain. From the end of 1909 negotiations were therefore underway for the construction of two battleships of the Dreadnought class, which should enable the Ottoman Navy to intimidate the Balkan states and avert further territorial losses.

The first draft initially provided for smaller ships classified as battlecruisers. At the end of the negotiations, the Ottomans then oriented themselves to the HMS Orion, which was under construction since 29 November 1909 and decided to take the two ships from the same class.

On December 6, 1911 began the construction of Reshadije, the Rashad I. Hamiss followed a little later, but was discontinued in 1912 due to financial constraints.

The launching of Reshadije took place on 3 September 1913.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Use in the war:

The transfer Reshadije to the Ottoman Navy was originally planned on August 2, 1914. However, since the German Empire had declared war on Russia on August 1 and it was only a matter of time before Great Britain entered the war, both the ship and the Ottoman occupation already present were confiscated one hour before the beginning of the surrender or interned.

Background for the illegal action of Great Britain was the concern that the allied with the German Empire Ottoman Empire could shift the balance of power in the Mediterranean to the detriment of Great Britain with this warship.

On August 22, 1914, the ship was incorporated into the Royal Navy and renamed HMS Erin.

First assigned to the 4th Battle Squadron, the ship was assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron in October 1914 to replace the sunken HMS Audacious.

The only naval battle in which the HMS Erin took part was from 31 May to 1 June 1916 at the Battle of the Skagerrak. In this battle, the ship scored neither hit nor received it.

Until the end of the war, the Erin remained in reserve and did not participate in any further attempts.

 

 

 

Whereabouts:

According to the provisions of the Washington Naval Agreement of 6 February 1922, the HMS Erin was one of the British ships that could not continue to be used in their form.

Since a conversion would not pay for the British naval command, the ship was sold and scrapped in Queensborough from 1923.

 

 

 

Ship data:

Name:	HMS Erin
Country:	Great Britain
Ship Type:	Battleship
Class:	Single ship (similar to the Orion-Class)
Boatyard:	Vickers, Barrow
Building-costs:	unknown
Launched:	September 3, 1913
Commissioning:	August 22, 1914
Whereabouts:	Sold in 1923 and scrapped in Queensborough
Length:	170,5 meters
Width:	27,7 meters
Draft:	Max. 8,7 meters
Displacement:	Max. 22.700 tons
Crew:	1070 - 1130 men
Drive:	Parsons steam turbines 15 Babcock-water tube boiler
Power:	26.500 PSw
Maximum speed:	21 kn
Armament:	10 x 34,3 cm (BL 13,5 "L / 45) Mk. V guns in twin towers 16 x 15,2 cm (BL 4 "L / 50) Mk. VII guns 4 x 3pdr salute guns 4 x 533 mm torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt armor up to 300 mm

 

 

 

 

 

You can find the right literature here:

 

British Battleships of World War One

This new edition of a classic work on British battleships is the most sought after book on the subject. Containing many new photographs from the author's exhaustive collection this superb reference book presents the complete technical history of British capital ship design and construction during the dreadnought era. Beginning with Dreadnought, all of the fifty dreadnoughts, 'super-dreadnoughts' and battlecruisers that served the Royal Navy during this era are described and superbly illustrated with photographs and line drawings.

Click here!

 

 

The British Battleship: 1906-1946

Norman Friedman brings a new perspective to an ever-popular subject in The British Battleship: 1906-1946. With a unique ability to frame technologies within the context of politics, economics, and strategy, he offers unique insight into the development of the Royal Navy capital ships. With plans of the important classes commissioned from John Roberts and A D Baker III and a color section featuring the original Admiralty draughts, this book offers something to even the most knowledgeable enthusiast.

Click here!

 

 

British Battlecruisers 1905-1920

The brainchild of Admiral Sir John Fisher, battlecruisers combined heavy guns and high speed in the largest hulls of their era. Conceived as "super-cruisers" whose job it was to hunt down and destroy commerce raiders, their size and gun-power led to their inclusion in the battlefleet as a fast squadron of capital ships. This book traces in detail the development of Fisher's original idea into the first battlecruiser Invincible of 1908, through to the "Splendid Cats" of the Lion class, and culminating in HMS Hood in 1920, the largest warship in the world for the next twenty years. The origins of the unusual "light battlecruisers" of the Courageous type are also covered.

The well-publicized problems of British battlecruisers are examined, including the latest research throwing light on the catastrophic loss of three of the ships at the Battle of Jutland. The developmental history is backed by chapters covering machinery, armament, and armor, with a full listing of important technical data. The comprehensive collection of illustrations includes the author's superb drawings and original Admiralty plans reproduced in full color. This revised and updated edition of the classic work first published in 1997 will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in the most charismatic and controversial warships of the dreadnought era.

Click here!

 

 

British Battlecruiser vs German Battlecruiser: 1914–16 (Duel)

Battles at Dogger Bank and Jutland revealed critical firepower, armor, and speed differences in Royal Navy and Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) Battlecruiser designs.

Fast-moving and formidably armed, the battlecruisers of the British and German navies first encountered one another in 1915 at Dogger Bank and in the following year clashed near Jutland in the biggest battleship action of all time. In the decade before World War I Britain and Germany were locked in a naval arms race that saw the advent of first the revolutionary dreadnought, the powerful, fast-moving battleship that rendered earlier designs obsolete, and then an entirely new kind of vessel - the battlecruiser. The brainchild of the visionary British admiral John 'Jacky' Fisher, the battlecruiser was designed to operate at long range in 'flying squadrons', using its superior speed and powerful armament to hunt, outmanoeuvre and destroy any opponent. The penalty paid to reach higher speeds was a relative lack of armour, but Fisher believed that 'speed equals protection'. By 1914 the British had ten battlecruisers in service and they proved their worth when two battlecruisers, Invincible and Inflexible, sank the German armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off the Falklands in December 1914.

Based on a divergent design philosophy that emphasised protection over firepower, the Germans' battlecruisers numbered six by January 1915, when the rival battlecruisers first clashed at Dogger Bank in the North Sea. By this time the British battlecruisers had been given a new role - to locate the enemy fleet. Five British battlecruisers accompanied by other vessels intercepted and pursued a German force including three battlecruisers; although the battle was a British tactical victory with neither side losing any of its battlecruisers, the differences in the designs of the British and German ships were already apparent. The two sides responded very differently to this first clash; while the Germans improved their ammunition-handling procedures to lessen the risk of disabling explosions, the British drew the opposite lesson and stockpiled ammunition in an effort to improve their rate of fire, rendering their battlecruisers more vulnerable. The British also failed to improve the quality of their ammunition, which had often failed to penetrate the German ships' armour.

These differences were highlighted more starkly during the battle of Jutland in May 1916. Of the nine British battlecruisers committed, three were destroyed, all by their German counterparts. Five German battlecruisers were present, and of these, only one was sunk and the remainder damaged. The limitations of some of the British battlecruisers' fire-control systems, range-finders and ammunition quality were made clear; the Germans not only found the range more quickly, but spread their fire more effectively, and the German battlecruisers' superior protection meant that despite being severely mauled, all but one were able to evade the British fleet at the close of the battle. British communication was poor, with British crews relying on ship-to-ship flag and lamp signals even though wireless communication was available. Even so, both sides claimed victory and the controversy continues to this day.

Click here!

 

 

 

 

 

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