The World’s Greatest Battleships

Vanguard (1946)

Great Britain’s last and most powerful battleship was completed too late to be in action during World War II. Although a potent symbol of naval power, the changing requirements of the post-imperial Royal Navy left it essentially as a battleship without a role.

Orders for four battleships to form the Lion class, placed in 1938–39, had been suspended in 1939 and later cancelled. They were to have had new 406mm (16in) guns. Vanguard was a one-off, laid down at John Brown’s yard in Clydebank on 2 October 1941, launched on 30 November 1944 and completed on 25 April 1946, at a cost of £11,530,503. Its 381mm (15in) guns, mountings and turrets were identical to those on HMS Queen Elizabeth, having been removed from HMS Courageous and Glorious on their conversion to aircraft carriers, and kept in store.

Vanguard’s best aspect was the hull design, making it an exceptionally steady ship in rough seas, but in terms of armament and propulsion machinery it was less well equipped than the contemporary American Iowa and Japanese Yamato.

Modifications included heightening of the turret faces to allow for elevation to 40 degrees, and rangefinders were laid across the turret roofs. In addition 16 133mm (5.25in) guns were also carried in twin turrets, and 11 single-mount 40mm (1.6in) Bofors guns, one two-barrelled and 10 six-barrelled 40mm Bofor guns, all power-operated, with a maximum elevation of 90 degrees. The multiple Bofors guns were removed in 1954. Also carried were four 3-pounder guns for saluting purposes. No torpedo tubes or planes were carried.

Much of the Lion and King George V class design work was incorporated, but during the long construction time numerous changes were made as a result of war experience. A straight bow and level forecastle, as in King George V, was replaced by a handsome cutaway bow with considerable flare, which helped to make Vanguard an exceptionally good sea-boat. It was also the only twentieth century British battleship with a flat transom stern. Armour and protective equipment were very much on the lines of the George V class, though internal subdivision and underwater protection were both much improved following the sinking of Prince of Wales.

Last battleship

A leading historian of warships wrote (after Vanguard’s commissioning) that ‘Nothing radically new had been created since the resumption of battleship construction in the 1930s… There was no denying that the end had been reached in their scope for development.’ Vanguard was the last classic battleship to be built; the atomic era had already begun by the time it was commissioned. Its slow building history already reveals the decline in the importance of the battleship in war, though other factors contributed to the delay. Frigates, destroyers and submarines all were more urgently needed. If Germany had had more battleships, more vigorously deployed, Vanguard might have been completed as early as 1943; as it was, it did not join the fleet until a year after the end of the war, and Britain’s biggest and best battleship was never put to the ultimate test.

HMS Vanguard being broken up at Faslane, Scotland, 1960. She was decommissioned on 7 June 1960 and sold to the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain for £560,000. By mid-1962 the last great battleship of the Royal Navy had ceased to exist.

Radar

Specification

Dimensions	Length 249m (814ft 6in), Beam 32.8m (107ft 7in), Draught 9.3m (30ft 6in), Displacement 41,871 tonnes (46,155 tons); 46,665 tonnes (51,440 tons) full load
Propulsion	8 Admiralty 3-drum superheated boilers, 4 Parsons single reduction gear turbines developing 96,941kW (130,000hp)
Armament	8 381mm (15in) MkI guns, 16 133mm (5.25in) guns, 73 40mm (1.6in) Bofors AA guns
Armour	Belt 355–330mm (14–13in), Bulkheads 305– 101mm (12–4in), Deck 152–133mm (6–5in), Barbettes 330–279mm (13–11in), Turrets 330–152mm (13–6in)
Range	16,670km (9000nm) at 20 knots
Speed	29.75 knots
Complement	1500

Steam heating was provided in the turrets, look-out points and other exposed positions to enable the ship to operate effectively in Arctic waters. Amenities for the crew were superior to anything seen before: there was a chapel, a cinema, a dental surgery and schoolrooms.

Ceremonial duties

In the later 1940s much of Vanguard’s use was ceremonial, including a royal visit to South Africa in 1947. From March to July 1949 it was flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, then of the Home Fleet Training Squadron from 12 November. On 13 September 1950 it was flagship of the Home Fleet, a role it alternated with that of flagship of the Royal Navy’s Training Squadron.

While docking at Gibraltar on 10 February 1951 the carrier Indomitable collided with Vanguard, inflicting minor damage on the stern. During 1952–54 it participated in NATO exercises with the ships of the US, Dutch, French and Danish navies and made visits to ports in Norway and Sweden; it also played a prime role in the Coronation fleet review of 15 June 1953.

Tugs cluster round Vanguard after the battleship grounded when leaving Portsmouth naval dockyard at the start of its last voyage, to the shipbreakers, on 4 August 1960.

On 25 September 1954 it went to Devonport for a refit and preparation for reserve status, and from 28 November 1955 became flagship of the Reserve Fleet, making no further voyages. It was decommissioned on 7 June 1960 and towed to Faslane in Scotland for scrapping.

Vanguard (1946)

Lengthy construction

Radar

Ceremonial duties