HMS Terror was an Erebus-class monitor built for the Royal Navy during the First World War in Belfast. Completed in 1916, she was assigned to the Dover Patrol where her primary duties involved bombarding German targets on the coast of occupied Belgium, particularly at the ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend. In October 1917 Terror was hit by three torpedoes, taking severe damage to the bow, and had to be towed into Portsmouth for repair. In April 1918 she participated in the Zeebrugge raid and provided gunnery support for the Fifth Battle of Ypres in September of the same year.
After the war the monitor was attached to HMS Excellent, the Royal Navy's gunnery school in Portsmouth and participated in gunnery trials in the 1920s. In January 1934 Terror became the base ship at Sembawang Naval Base in Singapore where she remained for the rest of the decade. From May 1939 to the end of the year she underwent an extensive refit in Singapore's dockyards.
After the outbreak of the Second World War and the completion of her refit, Terror was ordered home to Europe in January 1940. From early March, she served in the Mediterranean and defended Malta from Italian air raids before supporting the land-based assault of Italian positions in North Africa at the end of the year. In January 1941 the ship helped capture Bardia and Tobruk before attempting to defend Benghazi from German air attacks in February. After being damaged by two air attacks and two mines on 22 and 23 February, Terror was scuttled off the coast of Libya in the early hours of 24 February. The crew were evacuated to the minesweeper and corvette before she sank.
Background During the First World War, the Royal Navy developed several classes of ships which were designed to give close support to troops ashore through the use of naval bombardment.Crossley 2013, c. 1; Buxton 2008, c. 1 Termed monitors, they owed little to the monitors of the 19th century, though they shared the characteristics of poor seaworthiness, shallow draught and heavy armament in turrets. The size of the various monitor classes of the Royal Navy and their armaments varied greatly. The was the United Kingdom's first attempt at a monitor carrying guns.Crossley 2013, c. 2, para. 24 Following construction of the first two of the Marshal Ney-class, another four were ordered in May 1915, with the Harland and Wolff shipyard at Govan receiving a contract to construct two hulls, which were given yard numbers 492 and 493. However, all four were cancelled in June when it was realised that there were insufficient gun turrets to complete both the battleship, , and the monitors before 1917.Buxton 2008, c. 8.1
By August 1915, , the first of her class, had revealed a very poor performance in her sea trials. The monitor's engines would not start reliably and were prone to stalling,Crossley 2013, c. 2, para. 25 making it impossible for the ship to achieve even the minimum standard for the trial of four hours of continuous sailing at full power. The vessel was also difficult to steer.Buxton 2008, c. 4.2, para. 3 Disappointed by the failure, the Admiralty began the design of a replacement class on 6 September, which incorporated lessons learned from all of the previous classes of monitor commissioned during the war. Some of the main modifications were an increase in the power supply to guarantee a speed of and a change to the angles and lines of the hull to improve steering. Another significant change was to raise the top of the anti-torpedo bulge above the waterline and reduce its width; both changes would improve the stability and maneuverability of the ship at sea. The bulge was fitted along each side of the ship and was intended to absorb the impact of any explosions. To maintain protection while reducing the bulge's width, its inner compartment was made water tight and filled with 70 steel tubes, rather than leaving the inner compartment open to the sea as in previous designs.Brown 1999, p. 148Buxton 2008, c. 8.2
Design and construction
The new design, which would later be named the Erebus-class, was for a vessel long, wide with a draught of . It would have loaded displacement,Buxton 2008, c. 8.3 para. 2 with a maximum operational speed of produced by triple-expansion steam engines with two shafts, and a crew of 204. Power would be provided by four Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers, which would generate a combined . The monitors would have an operational range of at a speed of 12knots.
The ships would be armoured to a similar standard to the , which were launched in April 1915. Deck armour would range from on the forecastle, through on the upper deck and over the magazine and belt.Buxton 2008, c. 8.2, para. 4 With the main 15 in guns being originally intended for use on a battleship, the armour for the turret was substantially thicker than elsewhere in the design; with on the front, on the other sides and on the roof. The main gun's barbette would be protected by of armour.Buxton 2008, c. 2.2, para. 1 The conning tower was protected by of armour on the sides and on the roof.Buxton 2008, c. 2.11 Each anti-torpedo bulge was wide with an outer air-filled compartment wide and an inner compartment wide containing the steel tubes.
Orders for two vessels of the new design were placed with Harland and Wolff on 29 September with reinstated yard numbers 492 and 493, which were renamed respectively and Terror on 13 October. Terror was laid down at Harland and Wolff's shipyard in Belfast on 26 October 1915 and launched on 18 May 1916.Buxton 2008, c. 8.3
The ship's main armament consisted of two BL 15in Mk I naval guns in a single forward turret. Terror's turret had previously been installed on Marshal Ney, which had been rearmed with smaller guns following its poor sea trials.Crossley 2013, c. 2, para. 29 Learning from the earlier experience with Ney, the turrets were adjusted to increase elevation to 30 degrees, which would add greater firing range. Unlike her sister, Terror was launched with a minimal secondary armament of one anti-aircraft gun and two "12-pounder" 3-inch (76 mm) guns.Buxton 2008, c. 8.8, para. 1
Terror was commissioned on 22 July 1916 before conducting sea trials, during which the ship was slower than her sister at compared to for Erebus. However, under service conditions the maximum speed that could be achieved for both vessels was with a clean hull or with a fouled hull. Terror was recorded as officially completed on 6 August.Buxton 2008, c. 8.3, para. 3 & c. 8.9
Modifications Within a few months of launch, Terror's armament was supplemented by two QF 6-inch naval guns with a second 3in gun following soon after. Additional guns were fitted while her bow was being repaired from October 1917; two more 6in guns and two 2 pdr (40 mm) "pom-poms", which fired projectiles. In the summer of 1918 the 6in guns were replaced with eight BL 4in Mk IX naval guns. During the early 1920s, the monitor's armaments were modified temporarily while the ship took part in gunnery trials to test new types of shells and armour.Buxton 2008, c. 8.5, para. 9-10
The 12pdr and 2pdr guns were removed during Terror's 1933 refit while the ship's capacity for oil and ammunition reserves were increased for her journey to Singapore. During the monitor's 1939 refit her eight 4-inch guns were replaced with six QF 4-in Mk V high-angle anti-aircraft guns and the 3in anti-aircraft guns were replaced by eight Vickers machine guns in two quadruple mounts. At the same time, her ageing 15in gun barrels were replaced by partly worn barrels from the old battleship .Crossley 2013, c. 7, para. 2 At Malta in 1940 Terror had a further refit to increase her armour to 4in on the upper and main deck along with additional plating on her sides.Buxton 2008, c. 8.8, para. 3-5
Service history
First World War
On completion, Terror immediately departed Belfast and joined the Dover Patrol on 8 August.Prince 2012, p. 36 In August and September she joined with other members of the patrol to bombard minor targets in occupied Belgium. However, the new monitor only fired a small number of shots, as it was felt wiser to conserve her guns for more important targets. On 24 September the ship made an attempt to bombard the port of Zeebrugge but this was soon aborted when the weather conditions prevented the accurate observation of the fall of shot and any subsequent correction of trajectory. Poor weather conditions continued for the rest of 1916 and the patrol made no further attempts that year to bombard the Belgian coast. During the winter of 1916 and 1917, Terror acted as a guard ship for merchant vessels anchored at The Downs, following a spate of attacks by German destroyers.Buxton 2008, c. 8.4
In early 1917, Terror and the rest of the patrol made several aborted attempts to bombard the lock gates of the Bruges Canal at Zeebrugge but the operation had to be postponed each time. Reasons for postponement included snapped towlines and poor weather conditions. The operation eventually commenced on the evening of 11 May with Terror acting as flagship for Vice-Admiral Reginald Bacon. The flotilla anchored off Zeebrugge and began their bombardment at around 05:00 on 12 May, with the monitors and Terror concentrating on the south lock gate and her sister ship Erebus concentrating on the north gate. Poor visibility and problems with spotting aircraft meant that the fall of shot couldn't be fully observed or their trajectories corrected. The German shore battery began to return fire but ceased after four rounds due to the same poor visibility, enhanced by a British smoke screen. The British bombardment was called off at 06:00 due to a change in the wind direction clearing their smoke screen and making their ships visible from the shore. The flotilla withdrew to Dover, in the mistaken belief that their bombardment had been successful. Subsequent aerial reconnaissance revealed damage to the surrounding area but the lock gates, the primary targets, were untouched.Buxton 2008, c. 4.3Dunn 2017, c. 14, sec. "The bombardment of Zeebrugge, 12 May 1917"
A bombardment of Ostend on 5 June by Erebus and Terror was more successful, destroying or damaging several vessels and damaging the dockyard.Dunn 2017, c. 17, sec. "The bombardment of Ostend, 5 June 1957" The port's floating docks were not affected by the June attack and remained operational until a subsequent bombardment by Terror on 22 September caused severe damage to both the dockyard and the floating docks.Crossley 2013, c. 5, para. 39-42
On 19 October, in an encounter with three German coastal torpedo boats (A59, A60 and A61) off Dunkirk, Terror was hit by three torpedoes. Two impacted towards the front of the ship on the starboard side, where the anti-torpedo bulge curved inwards towards the bow, blowing away a large proportion of the first of the bow below the waterline. The third torpedo hit the main section of the anti-torpedo bulge further aft, which absorbed the damage. There were no casualties and the ship was beached before being refloated and towed into Dunkirk harbour for temporary repairs. Interrupted by German air raids and the rising tide, the repair crew opted to leave the holes in the bow substantially open and focused instead on reinforcing the bulkheads.