HMS Ramillies (pennant number: 07) was one of five s built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. They were developments of the s, with reductions in size and speed to offset increases in the armour protection whilst retaining the same main battery of eight guns. Completed in late 1917, Ramillies saw no combat during the war as both the British and the German fleets had adopted a more cautious strategy by this time owing to the increasing threat of naval mines and submarines.

Ramillies spent the 1920s and 1930s alternating between the Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet. Whilst serving in the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the early 1920s, the ship went to Turkey twice in response to crises arising from the Greco-Turkish War, including the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922. She also saw limited involvement during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The ship's interwar career was otherwise uneventful. With the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Ramillies was initially assigned to escort duties in the North Atlantic. In May 1940, she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as war with Italy loomed. After the Italians entered the war in June, Ramillies bombarded Italian ports in North Africa, escorted convoys to Malta, and supported the Taranto raid in November.

The ship returned to Atlantic escort duties in 1941, during which time she prevented the two s from attacking a convoy; she also joined the search for the battleship . In late 1941, Ramillies was transferred to the Eastern Fleet as tensions with Japan rose; the following year, she was the flagship for the invasion of Madagascar. While moored there, she was torpedoed and badly damaged by Japanese midget submarines. The ship was updated for coastal bombardment duties in 1944, which she performed later that year during the Normandy landings in June and the invasion of southern France in August. In January 1945, the worn-out battleship was withdrawn from service and used as a barracks ship attached to the training establishment . She was ultimately broken up in 1948.

Design and description

The Revenge-class battleships were designed as slightly smaller, slower, and more heavily protected versions of the preceding s. As an economy measure they were intended to revert to the previous practice of using both fuel oil and coal, but First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher rescinded the decision to use coal in October 1914. Still under construction, the ships were redesigned to employ oil-fired boilers that increased the power of the engines by over the original specification.

Ramillies had a length overall of , a beam of and a deep draught of . She had a designed displacement of and displaced at deep load. She was powered by two pairs of Parsons steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam provided by eighteen Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The combined turbines were rated at and intended to give the ship a maximum speed of . During her sea trials on 1 October 1917, the ship reached a top speed of only from . She had a range of at a cruising speed of . Her crew numbered 909 officers and ratings in 1916. Her metacentric height was at deep load.

The Revenge class was equipped with eight breech-loading (BL) Mk I guns in four twin gun turrets, in two superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. Twelve of the fourteen BL Mk XII guns were mounted singly in casemates along the broadside of the vessel amidships; the remaining pair were mounted on the shelter deck and were protected by gun shields. The ship also mounted four 3-pounder () saluting guns. Her anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of two quick-firing (QF) 20cwt Mk I guns. She was fitted with four submerged 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside.

Ramillies was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with rangefinders. One was mounted above the conning tower, protected by an armoured hood, and the other was in the spotting top above the tripod foremast. Each turret was also fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. The main armament could be controlled by 'X' turret as well. The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in April 1917. A torpedo-control director with a 15-foot rangefinder was mounted at the aft end of the superstructure.

The ship's waterline belt consisted of Krupp cemented armour (KC) that was thick between 'A' and 'Y' barbettes and thinned to 4to 6inches (102 to 152mm) towards the ship's ends, but did not reach either the bow or the stern. Above this was a strake of armour 6inches thick that extended between 'A' and 'X' barbettes. Transverse bulkheads 4to 6inches thick ran at an angle from the ends of the thickest part of the waterline belt to 'A' and 'Y' barbettes. The gun turrets were protected by of KC armour, except for the turret roofs which were thick. The barbettes ranged in thickness from above the upper deck, but were only 4to 6inches thick below it. The Revenge-class ships had multiple armoured decks that ranged from in thickness. The main conning tower had 11 inches of armour on the sides with a 3-inch roof. The torpedo director in the rear superstructure had 6inches of armour protecting it. After the Battle of Jutland, 1inch of high-tensile steel was added to the main deck over the magazines and additional anti-flash equipment was added in the magazines.

The ship was fitted with flying-off platforms mounted on the roofs of 'B' and 'X' turrets in 1918, from which fighters and reconnaissance aircraft could launch. She was also equipped to handle a kite balloon around this same time. That same year, a Sopwith Pup fighter was flown off from the platform on B turret at least twice. During the early 1920s a Fairey Flycatcher fighter was deployed from that same platform. In 1927 a rotating aircraft catapult was installed on Ramilliess quarterdeck. It was removed during her 1929–1931 refit. The flying-off platforms were removed in 1932–1933. A catapult was added on the roof of 'X' turret by September 1936 as well as a crane to handle the aircraft.

Major alterations The existing rangefinders in 'B' and 'X' turrets were replaced by models in 1919–1921 and her anti-aircraft defences were upgraded by the replacement of the original three-inch AA guns with a pair of QF AA guns during a short refit in 1924. Ramillies was refitted in 1926–1927, when her bulge was extended above her waterline and the "crushing tubes" were removed from most of the lower bulge. An additional pair of four-inch AA guns were added, the six-inch guns from the shelter deck were removed and a simple high-angle rangefinder was added above the bridge.

During a more extensive refit in 1933–1934, a High-Angle Control System (HACS) Mk I director replaced the high-angle rangefinder on the spotting top and another replaced the torpedo director aft. A pair of octuple mounts for 2-pounder () Mk VIII "pom-pom"s were added on platforms abreast the funnel and directors for them were fitted on the foremast. A pair of quadruple mounts for Vickers AA machineguns were added abreast the conning tower and the mainmast was reconstructed as a tripod to support the weight of the second HACS. In addition the aft torpedo tubes were removed. By June 1938 the single mounts of the AA guns were replaced by twin mounts, the forward torpedo tubes were removed, a radio-direction finding office was added and the catapult was removed.

Wartime modifications for the Revenge-class ships were fairly minimal. A pair of four-barrel "pom-poms" were added in late 1941 atop 'B' and 'X' turrets as well as ten 20mm Oerlikon cannon that replaced the quadruple .50-caliber mounts. By 1943 Ramillies was fitted with a Type 279 early-warning radar, a Type 273 surface-search radar, a Type 284B gunnery radar for the main guns, a pair of Type 285 anti-aircraft gunnery sets and two Type 282 radars for the "pom-poms". A Type 650 radio-guided missile jammer was added before June 1944. To save weight and make more room available for the additional crew required to man the new equipment like the radars and Oerlikons, four 6-inch guns were removed in 1943. In April of that year, 10 more Oerlikons were added and an additional three in 1944–1945.

Service history Construction and the First World War

Ramillies, the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was laid down at the William Beardmore and Company shipyard in Dalmuir on 12 November 1913. During construction, the decision was made to fit the vessel with anti-torpedo bulges, since her hull was the least complete of the members of her class. She was christened Ramillies after the 1706 Battle of Ramillies and was launched on 12 September 1916, but she struck the slipway, badly damaging the bottom of her hull and her rudders. Since the dry docks in Dalmuir were not long enough to accommodate Ramillies, she would have to be towed to the Gladstone Dock in Liverpool to be repaired by Cammell Laird. The ship was not seaworthy, however, so temporary repairs were effected in Dalmuir before she could be towed to Liverpool. Captain Henry Doughty was appointed in command on 11 April. The initial repairs were completed by May 1917, and she departed on 7 May; she ran aground on the way and had to be pulled free by eight tugboats on 23 May. These accidents significantly delayed completion of the ship compared to her sister ships, and she was the last member of the Revenge class to enter service with the Grand Fleet. Captain Percy Grant relieved Doughty in July and the ship was assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron in September 1917. Ramillies conducted extensive sea trials to determine what effect the bulges had on her speed and stability, and when it became clear that the bulges did not significantly reduce her speed and in fact improved stability, the Admiralty decided to install them on all four of her sisters.

After the action of 19 August 1916, in which the Grand Fleet had lost two light cruisers to German U-boat attacks, Admiral John Jellicoe, the fleet commander, decided the fleet should not be risked in such sorties unless the German High Seas Fleet ventured north or the strategic situation warranted the risk. For its part, the German fleet remained in port or trained in the Baltic Sea through 1917, as both sides had largely abandoned the idea of a decisive surface battle in the North Sea. Both sides turned to positional warfare, laying fields of naval mines, and Germany resumed the unrestricted submarine warfare campaign early in the year. As a result, Ramillies and the rest of the Grand Fleet saw no action during the last two years of the war.

In 1917, Britain began running regular convoys to Norway, escorted by light forces; the Germans raided these convoys twice late in the year, prompting Admiral David Beatty, who had replaced Jellicoe the previous year, to send battle squadrons of the Grand Fleet to escort the convoys. The High Seas Fleet went to sea on 23 April to attack one of the escorted convoys, but after the battlecruiser suffered a serious mechanical accident the next day, the Germans were forced to break off the operation. Ramillies and the rest of the Grand Fleet sortied on 24 April once they intercepted wireless signals from the damaged Moltke, but the Germans were too far ahead of the British, and no shots were fired. On 21 November 1918, following the Armistice, the entire Grand Fleet left port to escort the surrendered German fleet into internment at Scapa Flow.

Interwar years