HMS Duke of York was one of five battleships built for the Royal Navy (RN) during the late 1930s. Completed in November 1941, during the Second World War, the ship transported the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, to the United States to meet President Franklin D. Roosevelt the following month. Between March and September 1942 she was assigned to convoy escort duties in the Arctic as the flagship of the Second Battle Squadron, but in October she was transferred to Gibraltar where she became the flagship of Force H. The following month, Duke of York played a minor role in the Allied invasion of North Africa. After the invasion, the ship became the flagship of the Home Fleet, participating in diversionary operations designed to draw the Germans' attention away from Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. In October, Duke of York covered a force of Allied ships that attacked German shipping off Norway (Operation Leader).
In December 1943 the ship was part of a task force that encountered the off the North Cape of Norway. During the engagement that followed, Scharnhorst hit Duke of York twice with little effect, but was herself hit by 10 shells from Duke of Yorks guns. One of these hits slowed the German ship, allowing her to be torpedoed and sunk by the accompanying destroyers. In 1945, the ship was assigned to the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) as its flagship, but arrived too late to see any action before Japan surrendered. After the war, she resumed her role as the flagship of Home Fleet until she became the flagship of the Reserve Fleet in 1949. Two years later she was mothballed. She was placed on the disposal list in 1957 and scrapped the following year.
Background In the aftermath of the First World War, the Washington Naval Treaty was signed in 1922 in an effort to stop an arms race developing between Britain, Japan, France, Italy and the United States. This treaty limited the number of ships each nation was allowed to build and capped the displacement of capital ships at . These restrictions were extended in 1930 by the London Naval Treaty, although France and Italy refused to sign it. Both nations laid down a pair of battleships armed with 15-inch (380 mm) gun by 1934, although these nominally complied with the tonnage limit of the naval treaties. The Admiralty had already made plans to build a new class of battleships compliant with all of the treaty restrictions once the RN could legally begin construction after the London Naval Treaty expired on 1 January 1937.Raven & Roberts, pp. 107, 273
A clause in the Second London Naval Treaty of March 1936 further limited the maximum calibre of the guns which battleships could carry to 14 inches (356 mm), although the treaty contained an "escalator" clause that permitted the calibre to be increased to 16 inches (406 mm) if any of the nations that signed the original Washington Treaty failed to sign it by 1 April 1937. The Admiralty was anxious to get the King George V-class ships into service as quickly as possible and declined to wait until the deadline passed since design work with the smaller guns had been completed and the first two ships had already been ordered with construction to commence on 1 January 1937.Raven & Robers, pp. 282–283
Description
Duke of York had a length overall of , a beam of and a deep draught of . She displaced at light load and at deep load as completed. By 1945 her deep displacement had increased to with the installation of additional weapons, equipment and the manpower needed to operate them. Her metacentric height was at deep load as built.Burt, pp. 388–389Raven & Roberts, p. 284 By 1945, it had decreased to .Garzke & Dulin, p. 251 Her crew numbered 84 officers and 1,530 ratings as a squadron flagship and 104 officers and 1,578 ratings as a fleet flagship.Burt, p. 389
The King George V class was powered by four Parsons geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by eight Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers. The propulsion machinery was configured in a staggered unit system with each pair of boilers normally feeding one turbine, but they could be cross-connected with each other to minimise the effects of any damage.Raven & Roberts, pp. 297, 301 The turbines were rated at , but could deliver at emergency overload. During Duke of Yorks speed trials on 1 November 1941, she reached from at deep load.Burt, p. 402 The ship carried of fuel oil which was later increased to in 1945.Buxton & Johnston, pp. 258–259 Duke of York had a range of at in 1944.Garzke & Dulin, p. 254
Armament, fire-control equipment and aviation
The main battery of the King-George V-class ships consisted of 10 BL Mk VII guns, two quadruple-gun turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure with one twin turret superfiring over the forward quadruple turret. From front to rear the turrets were designated "A", "B" and "Y". The secondary armament consisted of 16 QF Mk I dual-purpose guns which were mounted in eight twin-gun turrets amidships.Garzke & Dulin, pp. 227–229 Duke of Yorks light anti-aircraft suite consisted of six octuple QF 2-pounder () Mk VIII "pom-pom" guns in power-driven mountings. One mounting each was located on the roof of "B" and "Y" turrets. The remaining mounts were located on the forward superstructure, two on each broadside. These were supplemented by six Oerlikon AA guns in single, hand-worked, mounts. Two of these were positioned on the quarterdeck on the centreline while the other were in the superstructure.Raven & Roberts, pp. 287, 290Burt, pp. 398–399
The King George Vs were equipped with two director-control towers (DCT), one was located above the bridge (nautical) and the other on the aft superstructure. These controlled the main guns; The forward DCT was fitted with a rangefinder while the rear one had one wide. "B" turret could also control all of the main guns and was fitted with a duplex rangefinder.Garzke, p. 228 The other turrets had rangefinders for use in local control. Four Mark V HACS directors with 15-foot rangefinders were positioned aboard Duke of York near the DCTs to control the secondary battery. Each "pom-pom" mount had an associated Mark IV director.Raven & Roberts, pp. 284, 291, 293
The ship was initially equipped with a Type 281 early-warning radar with separate transmission and receiver antennas, and a Type 273 surface-search radar.Buxton & Johnston, pp. 174–175, 189 A Type 284 gunnery radar was mounted on the forward DCT while each HACS director was fitted with a Type 285 gunnery radar. The "pom-pom" directors were equipped with Type 282 radars.Burt, p. 405
Duke of York was equipped with a fixed catapult amidships for two Supermarine Walrus flying boats. Each amphibian was provided with a hangar in the forward superstructure.Tarrant, p. 29Raven & Roberts, p. 310
Late-war refit In preparation for service against the Japanese, Duke of Yorks radars and anti-aircraft suite were upgraded and increased in number from September 1944 to April 1945. The Type 281 radar was replaced by an upgraded Type 281B model with a single antenna on the mainmast. A pair of Type 274 gunnery radars, one each on the forward and aft DCTs, replaced the existing Type 284 set. The Type 273 equipment was exchanged for Type 293 and Type 277 radars; in addition to surface-search modes, the latter set had a height-finding capability. Two additional Type 282 sets were added for the additional "pom-pom" directors installed.Raven & Roberts, p. 313
To make room for the additional anti-aircraft weapons and relieve overcrowding, the aircraft were removed as were most of their equipment. The hangars and catapult area were converted into mess decks, recreational spaces and boat stowage. A pair of quadruple mounts for guns added on the rear superstructure as were a pair of octuple mounts for 2-pounder "pom-pom"s. Four quadruple mounts for 2-pounder guns were installed on the forward superstructure and another pair on the quarterdeck. All of the single Oerlikon mounts abaft the breakwater were removed and redistributed across the ship.Buxton & Johnston, p. 217Raven & Roberts, pp. 306–307, 310 Duke of York had a total of 38 single Oerlikon mounts and eight twin-gun mounts when the refit was completed.Buxton & Johnston, p. 259
Protection The waterline belt of the King George V-class ships was composed of Krupp cemented armour (KCA) and protected of the hull between the leading edges of the main gun barbettes to form the sides of the armoured citadel in three strakes. The main deck served as the belt's upper edge and it extended downwards of which was below the normal waterline. The two upper strakes of armour were 14 inches thick covering the propulsion machinery spaces, but increased to abreast the main magazines. The upper edges of the plates of the lowest strake were equally as thick, but tapered down to thicknesses of abreast the propulsion machinery and magazines, respectively. The lowest strake continued forward towards the bow and gradually reduced to a thickness of the closer it got to the bow. The bottom edges of the plates tapered down from 5.5 inches to . The strake continued towards the stern and were configured identically to the forward extension. The front and rear ends of the citadel were closed off by KCA transverse bulkheads fore and aft of the main-gun barbettes. Extending from the main deck down to the lower deck, the plates ranged in thickness from in thickness with the thicker plates being closer to the sides of the ship.Buxton & Johnston, p. 52Raven & Roberts, p. 293Burt, p. 402
The KCA faceplates of the main-gun turrets were 13 inches thick and the KCA forward side plate was in thickness. The rest of the turret armour consisted of non-cemented armour plates. Those of the rear sides and rear were thick while the roof plates were thick. The KCA armour of the barbettes for the 14-inch gun turrets were 13 inches thick on the sides but tapered to closer to the centreline of the ship. The side and roof armour of the 5.25-inch turrets was thick. Protecting the conning tower were 4-inch plates fore and aft while the side plates were 3 inches thick. Its roof was 1.5 inches thick. After the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941, 1.5-inch bulkheads of Ducol steel were added to the ships still under construction on the sides of the main and secondary magazines to protect them from splinters from any hits from plunging shells that might have penetrated the ship's side beneath her belt.Buxton & Johnston, pp. 49–51Raven & Roberts, p. 294Garzke & Dulin, p. 252
Like the belt armour, the main deck of the armoured citadel varied over what it protected. It was five inches thick over the propulsion machinery and six inches thick over the magazines. The rear lower deck stretched almost to the stern and varied in thickness between five-inch plates closest to the citadel while the rest of the deck consisted of three-inch plates. The lower deck forward armour continued almost to the bow, varying between three and five inches in thickness with the thicker plates closer to the citadel.
The torpedo-defence system of the King George V-class consisted of a three-layer system of voids and liquid-filled compartments meant to absorb the energy of an underwater explosion. It was bounded on the inside by the torpedo bulkhead. The side protection system had a maximum depth of , but this decreased significantly as the ship narrowed at its ends. Over the length of the citadel, this system was found during full-scale trials to be proof against of TNT.Raven & Roberts, pp. 294, 297
Construction and career