HMS Valiant was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship laid down in 1913 and completed in early 1916. She saw action at the battle of Jutland that year and then went on to serve in the second world war as a part of Force H stationed in Gibraltar.
HMS Valiant during WW1 from www.worldnavalships.com
Description[]
HMS Valiant was one of the 6 Queen Elizabeth class battleships built for the royal navy in the 1910's. They were intended to operate against the leading elements of the enemies battle line in their own squadron designated the fifth battle squadron, grand fleet. For this reason the ships were designed to be faster then their counterparts from other nations. Only 4 of the sister ships, HMS Barham (04) HMS Warspite (03) HMS Malaya (01) and HMS Valiant, operated together in the fifth squadron at the battle of Jutland as only 4 had been completed in time.
History[]
Construction and World War 1[]
HMS valiant was ordered in 1912 as one of the most modern Battleships in the Royal Navy, These ships were so big and powerful that they were known as super dreadnoughts. she was laid down on the 31st January 1913, Launched on the 4th November 1914 and commissioned on the 19th February 1916. She was laid down at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at a cost of £2,537,037 while her turbine engines were constructed on sight here belt armor, that was 330 mm (13 inches) at its thickest, was provided by William Beardmore and Company. The ship measured 643.9 ft long, had a 90 ft beam and a draught of 33 ft. Weighing in at 33,790 tons when fully loaded she had a top speed of 24 knots or 28 mph. She was able to achieve this by being equipped with the latest steam turbine technology consisting of 2 steam turbine sets fed by 24 Yarrow boilers. These turbines produced 75000 shp (shaft horse power) and this was then used to turn her 4 propellers. The ship was initially armed with twin 15 inch (381 mm) guns mounted in 4 turrets, 14 single 6 inch (152 mm) guns, 2 single 3 inch (76 mm) guns and 4 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes.
Her first action came on the 31st may 1916 at the Battle of Jutland where, as part of the 5th battle squadron of the grand fleet, under captain Maurice Woollcombe, she fired 288 15 inch shells at the German fleet. Despite the severe damaged sustained by her sister ships, such as HMS Warspite (03), Valiant sustained no damage. She was not so lucky when on the 24th august 1916 she and HMS Warspite collided and she was in for repairs until 18th September that year. The rest of WW1 consisted of a inconclusive action on the 19th august 1916 and patrol duties in the north sea.
Between Wars[]
From 1919 to 1924 HMS Valiant served as part of the 1st battle squadron Atlantic fleet and then in the 1st battle squadron of the Mediterranean fleet until march 1929. Between 1929 and 1930 she received a major refit. This was on top of the modifications made after the battle of Jutland were she had received additional Flash protection and armor around the Magazines. The refit saw torpedo bulges added, increasing her beam to 104 ft (31.7 meters). The two funnels were combined into one, two of her torpedo tubes were removed and 2 octuple 2 pdr mountings were added. The ship also received a single aircraft catapult. Despite the additions the weight of the ship fell from 33,110 t when unloaded to 32,989 t. The remaining inter war years where spend being transferred from squadron to squadron until she ended up as part of the Mediterranean fleet again.
During these years she received various refits and modifications. These included replacing here boilers with 8 Admiralty 3 drum boilers together with 4 Parsons steam turbines producing a total of 80,000 shp. This also changed her fuel from coal to oil and the various changes reduced speed to 23.5 knots due to the increased draught of the vessel. Her deck Armour was also increased to 5 inches (130 mm) over the magazines and 2.5 inches every were else. Extra anti aircraft guns were fitted and modern fire controls were also added. All this increased her draught to 10 meters and her weight to 36,513 tons.
WW2[]
Valiant's first action of the second world war came in June 1940 when she took part in operation Catapult, the operation intended to insure the French navy did not end up in the hands of Germany. As part of force H HMS Valiant attacked the French fleet anchored in Mers-el-Kébir. Following this action she was transferred to Alexandria under the command of Admiral Cunningham.
Her next actions were the Battle of Cape Matapan on the 27th - 29th March 1941 and the bombardment of Tripoli harbor on 21st April 1941 were he was joined by her sister ships HMS Warspite and HMS Barham. Following this she operated of the coast of Crete where she was struck by 2 bombs. On the 19th December 1941 Valiant and her sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth (00) suffered heavy damage from limpet mines attached to her hull by Italian frog men. The mine attached to Valiant was in contact with her hull however and as a result the damage sustained was not as severe as that sustained by Queen Elizabeth. This allowed her to remain afloat and give the appearance of full battle readiness. She was repaired in South Africa and arrived back in the Mediterranean in early 1943. This allowed her to support the landings of operation Husky and other landing further up the Italian coast.
In 1944 she was stationed in the far east taking part in raids on Japanese bases in Indonesia. On the 8th August 1944 there was an accident that nearly resulted in heavy damage. A dry dock was being raised around Valiant by pumping water from ballast tanks however the ballast tanks were emptied in the wrong order and the dry dock broke in half and sank. Valiant remained in steam and was able to avoided heavy damage or sinking. Even so the 2 inner propellers were jammed along with one of her rudders.
It was decided following the accident that the ship should sail for Alexandria were suitable docking and repair facilities existed. The damage however meant the ship was only able to achieve 8 knots and was incapable of holding a straight course. She made it as far as the Suez Bay but it was not possible to travel through the Suez canal in her current state. The crew were forced to cut the two jammed propellers of the underside of the ship and let them fall to the sea bed along with the two propeller shafts. She returned to Britain and decommissioned in July 1945
References[]
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