King George V-class battleship (1911)

The King George V-class battleships were a series of four Royal Navy super-dreadnought battleships built just prior to and serving in the First World War. The King George V class immediately followed the upon which they were based.

Design
These ships were of slightly larger displacement than the Orions; the extra tonnage allowed for some small enhancements that were incorporated into the design. The most obvious differences in appearance, compared to the Orions, were the repositioning of the main mast and fore-funnel, and the conspicuously slab sided funnels themselves.

They used the same 13.5-inch Mark V gun, but fired a slightly heavier (1400 lb as against 1250 lb) shell. Their secondary armament was re-arranged to improve fire distribution ahead, which had been indicated by tactical modelling to be the most dangerous area for torpedo boat attacks.

Armour was slightly redistributed and, it was thought, improved. Underwater protection was also improved, although these changes did not save HMS Audacious (1912) when she struck a single German mine late in 1914.

There were slight revisions to the superstructure and masts. The engine and boiler arrangements were the same as the Orions with 27,000 SHP giving a design speed of 21 knots but HMS Centurion achieved a best recorded speed of 22.5 knots.

Overall, they were a successful design, although received without particular enthusiasm by the public and press. They had been substantially promoted as a great advance over the Orions. In particular, it was expected that they would carry 6inch guns as their secondary armament. In fact it was the subsequent that first received 6inch secondaries.

Service
The ships remaining after the end of the First World War were all decommissioned in the 1920s to allow for the two s under the Washington Naval Treaty.