The battleship HMS Orion was one of the four ships of the same class ships and was in Great Britain as a ship of the Super Dreadnoughts.
Launching and design:
After the Imperial German Navy launched the first ship of the Helgoland class on September 25, 1909, while increasing the caliber of the main armament to 30.5 cm, the British Navy Ministry was forced to also develop battleships with a larger caliber.
On November 29, 1909 began the keel laying of the type ship HMS Orion. In this type of battleships, a caliber of 34.3 cm was used for the first time and the main armament placed in midship line, the front towers were excessive. With this battleship began the construction of the so-called super dreadnoughts in the UK.
The Orion class was limited to four ships, with the HMS Conqueror was the last ship in the class.
The launching of the HMS Orion took place on 20 August 1910, the commissioning on 2 January 1912.
History of HMS Orion:
After commissioning the usual test drives were made.
After the transfer to the Royal Navy, the HMS Orion replaced the liner HMS Hibernia in the 2nd Division of Home Fleet as a flagship. With this division, some exercises and maneuvers were then carried out, where there was an accident on January 7, 1912, when the HMS Revenge broke the anchor chain and the ship rammed the Orion.
Shortly before the First World War, the transfer was made to the 2nd battleship squadron of the Grand Fleet.
Use in the war:
With the outbreak of the First World War, the ships of the squadron were among those who participated in the blockade of the North Sea.
The first and only naval battle in which the HMS Orion took part took place from 31 May to 1 June 1916 at the Battle of the Skagerrak. There, the ship served under Rear Admiral Sir Arthur Leveson as a flagship. During the battle, the ship received no hit, in return, however, scored only four unconfirmed hits on the SMS Lützow.
Until the end of the war, the HMS Orion remained in the 2nd battleship squadron, but still made some forays into the North Sea through but there was no more enemy contact.
Whereabouts:
After the First World War, the HMS Orion was first assigned on October 3, 1919 as a flagship of the reserve fleet and used from June 1921 as artillery training ship in Portland.
Under the provisions of the Washington Naval Agreement of April 12, 1922, the HMS Orion was one of the ships that could no longer be deployed in the Royal Navy to meet the tonnage limit. It was therefore sold on 19 December 1922 to the company Cox & Danks, who scrapped the ship from February 1923 in Upnor.
Ship data:
Name: |
HMS Orion |
Country: |
Great Britain |
Ship Type: |
Battleship |
Class: |
Orion-Class |
Boatyard: |
Portsmouth Dockyard, Portsmouth |
Building-costs: |
unknown |
Launched: |
August 20, 1910 |
Commissioning: |
January 2, 1912 |
Whereabouts: |
Sold on 19 December 1922 and scrapped in Upnor from February 1923 |
Length: |
177 meters |
Width: |
26,9 meters |
Draft: |
8,2 meters |
Displacement: |
Max. 26.290 tons |
Crew: |
750 - 1100 men |
Drive: |
18 Babcock & Wilcox water tube boilers 4 Parsons steam turbines with gearbox
|
Power: |
22.000 PSw |
Maximum speed: |
21 kn |
Armament: |
10 x 34,3 cm Mk. V guns in twin turrets 16 x 10,2 cm Mk. VII guns 3 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.
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.
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.
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.
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