|
} |} The ''Lion'' class were a class of battlecruisers built for the British Royal Navy before World War I. Nicknamed the "Splendid Cats",〔 the ships were a significant improvement over their predecessors of the in terms of speed, armament and armour. The ''Lion''-class battlecruisers were faster, exchanged the guns of the older ships for guns, and had a waterline armour belt thick versus the of the ''Indefatigable''s. These improvements were in response to the German , the first German battlecruisers, which were larger and more powerful than the first British battlecruisers of the . served as the flagship of the Grand Fleet's battlecruisers throughout World War I, except when she was being refitted or under repair.〔Campbell, p. 29〕 She sank the German light cruiser during the Battle of Heligoland Bight and served as Vice Admiral Beatty's flagship at the battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland. She was so badly damaged at the first of these battles that she had to be towed back to port by the battlecruiser and was under repair for more than two months. During the Battle of Jutland, ''Lion'' suffered a serious propellant fire that could have destroyed the ship if not for the action of Royal Marine Major Francis Harvey, the turret commander, who posthumously received the Victoria Cross for ordering the magazine to be flooded. However, the fire destroyed Harvey's turret which had to be removed and rebuilt while the ship underwent repairs for several months. participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight a month after the war began and then was sent south to the Caribbean to prevent the German East Asia Squadron from using the Panama Canal. After the East Asia Squadron was sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914 by the and , ''Princess Royal'' rejoined the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron (BCS). During the Battle of Dogger Bank she scored only a few hits, although one crippled the German armoured cruiser which allowed the enemy vessel to be caught and sunk by the concentrated fire of the British battlecruisers. Shortly afterwards, ''Princess Royal'' became the flagship of the 1st BCS, under the command of Rear Admiral Osmond Brock. She was then moderately damaged during the Battle of Jutland and required a month and a half of repairs afterwards. Both ships spent the rest of the war on uneventful patrols in the North Sea, although they did provide distant cover during Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917. In 1920 they were both put into reserve and sold for scrap a few years later in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. == Design and description == The acceleration of the German naval building programme in 1907–08 forced the Government to yield to public pressure and authorize more ships for the 1909–10 Construction Programme. Only a single battleship and a battlecruiser had been authorized in the 1908–09 Construction Programme, but three battleships and a battlecruiser were authorized in the 1909–10 Programme with another three battleships and a battlecruiser planned as "contingency" ships to placate the public and the Admiralty. Continuing pressure forced the Government to announce in July 1909 that the "contingency" ships would also be built. This pressure also allowed the Admiralty to gain approval to improve the size and power of its new ships so as to maintain qualitative superiority over the new German dreadnoughts then under construction.〔Roberts, pp. 31–32〕 The ''Lion''-class battlecruisers were designed to be as superior to the new German battlecruisers of the ''Moltke'' class as the German ships were to the ''Invincible'' class. The increase in speed, armour and gun size forced a 70% increase in size over the ''Indefatigable'' class and made them the largest warships in the world.〔Burt, p. 151〕 Their layout was adapted from the design of the first "super-dreadnought" (or 13.5-inch gunned) class, the s of 1910. The ships were the first battlecruisers to be armed with the new model 13.5-inch gun (343 mm) by Vickers. The design of the ''Lions'' remedied some of the shortcomings of the preceding battlecruisers, which suffered from an inability for the ''en echelon'' amidships turrets to safely fire across deck, which limited them to a three turret broadside. This was done, however, because the greater size and weight of the new guns rendered beam turrets impracticable. As such, all four turrets in the ''Lion''s were arranged on the centreline, although 'Q' turret was located amidships and was unable to fire directly aft.〔Burt, p. 154〕 The Director of Naval Construction, Sir Philip Watts suggested that a fifth turret, superfiring over the rear turret, could be added if the ship was lengthened by three frames, in total, and that this would add very little cost other than the £175,000 for the additional turret, but add 25% more firepower to the ship.〔Roberts, p. 33〕 This was not approved, however, possibly because of doubts about its feasibility.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lion-class battlecruiser」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|