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The ''Queen Elizabeth''-class battleships were a class of five super-dreadnoughts of the Royal Navy commissioned in 1915–16. The lead ship was named after Elizabeth I of England. These battleships were superior in firepower, protection and speed to their Royal Navy predecessors of the as well as preceding German classes such as the , although the corresponding ships were competitive except for being slower. As such, the ''Queen Elizabeth''s are generally considered the first fast battleships. The ''Queen Elizabeth''s were the first battleships to be armed with , and were described in the 1919 edition of ''Jane's Fighting Ships'' as "the most successful type of capital ship yet designed." They saw much service in both world wars. HMS ''Barham'' was lost to U-boat attack in 1941, but the others survived the wars and were scrapped in the late 1940s. ==Design== Following the success of the 45 calibre gun, the Admiralty decided to develop a to equip the battleships of the 1912 construction programme.〔 The move to the larger gun was accelerated by one or two years by the intervention of Winston Churchill, now at the Admiralty. Rather than waiting for prototype guns, the entire design was optimised on paper for the new weapon, and construction commenced immediately. In making this decision, the Admiralty ran a considerable risk, as a forced reversion to the or gun would have resulted in a ship with weakened striking power.〔 The initial intention was that the new battleships would have the same configuration as the preceding , with five twin turrets and the then-standard speed of . However, it was realised that, by dispensing with the so-called "Q" turret amidships, it would be possible to free up weight and volume for a much enlarged powerplant, and still fire a heavier broadside than the ''Iron Duke''. The original 1912 programme envisaged three battleships and a battlecruiser, possibly an improved version of named ''Leopard''. However, given the speed of the new ships, envisaged as , it was decided that the battlecruiser would not be needed and a fourth battleship would be built instead.〔Breyer, p. 135, 141.〕 When the Federation of Malay States offered to fund a further capital ship, it was decided to add a fifth unit to the class ().〔 The Director of Naval Construction (DNC) advised that the concept would be feasible only if the ships were powered solely by oil. Previous classes, including those still in construction, used fuel oil, which was still relatively scarce, as a supplement to coal, of which the UK then commanded huge reserves. However, the then First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, undertook to guarantee a supply of oil in wartime, thereby allowing the programme to proceed. The oil eventually was guaranteed by the negotiation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Convention.〔Churchill〕 Meanwhile, an investigation led by Admiral Jackie Fisher had worked through all the logistical problems associated with using oil fuel instead of coal, and so oil fuelling was selected for the Queen Elizabeth class . Relative to coal, oil has a much greater energy density, vastly simplified refuelling arrangements, requires no stokers, and emits much less smoke to obscure gun laying, and makes the ships less visible on the horizon. A further ship was authorised in 1914 and would have been named ''Agincourt'' (a name later applied to a dreadnought expropriated from Turkey). Although most sources and several official papers in the class's Ships Cover〔A Ships Cover was an official volume prepared by the Constructor's Department and contained machinery contracts, rough design specifications, trials reports, and other documents relating to the design, construction, and repair work for a specific class of ships. Surviving Covers are held by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.〕 describe her as a further repeat of the ''Queen Elizabeth'' design, one historian has suggested that ''Agincourt'' would have been built on battlecruiser lines. This design would have kept the ''Queen Elizabeth'' armament, but substituted thinner armour (to instead of , for example ) in order to gain a top speed.〔Lambert, Nicholas A. "'Our Bloody Ships' or 'Our Bloody System': Jutland and the Loss of the Battle Cruisers, 1916." ''The Journal of Military History'': 61, January 1998, pp. 29–55.〕 Whatever the case, ''Agincourt'' was cancelled at the outbreak of war in 1914.〔Breyer, p. 140.〕 In some respects, the ships did not quite fulfill their extremely demanding requirement. They were seriously overweight, as a result of which the draught was excessive and they were unable to reach the planned top speed of . In the event, the combination of oil fuel and more boilers provided for a service speed of about , still a useful improvement on the traditional battle line speed of and just fast enough to be thought of as the first fast battleships.〔Greger, p. 101〕 However, after Jutland Admiral John Jellicoe was persuaded that the slowest ship of this class was good only for about , he concluded that, since this should be considered as the speed of the squadron, it would not be safe to risk them in operations away from the main battlefleet. Despite these problems, most of which were mitigated in service, the ships were well received and proved outstandingly successful in combat. The savings in weight, cost and manpower made possible by oil fuel only were convincingly demonstrated, as were the benefits of concentrating a heavier armament into fewer mountings. The class was followed by the , which took the ''Queen Elizabeth'' configuration and economised it back down to the standard battle line. The intended successor to the ''Queen Elizabeth''s was to be an unnamed fast battleship with high freeboard, with secondary armament mountings clear of spray, a shallow draught and a top speed of at least ; however, First Sea Lord Fisher changed it to an even faster but less armoured battlecruiser. Out of the class of four ships, only was completed. Though armour was hastily added during construction that would have made her theoretically on a par with the ''Queen Elizabeth''s, the Royal Navy were well aware of the flawed reworking and always considered ''Hood'' a battlecruiser and not a fast battleship.〔(H.M.S. Hood Association-Battle Cruiser Hood: History of H.M.S. Hood: Designing H.M.S. Hood )〕 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「Queen Elizabeth-class battleship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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