HMS Nelson (1925)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Nelson.

Career UK
HMS Nelson
Ordered:	1922
Builder:	Armstrong-Whitworth
Laid down:	28 December 1922
Launched:	3 September 1925
Commissioned:	10 September 1930
Decommissioned:	February 1948
Status:	Scrapped starting on 15 March 1949
General Characteristics
Displacement:	33,950 tons (38,000 tons full load)
Length:	710 ft (216.5 m) (overall)
Beam:	106 ft (32 m)
Draught:	33 ft (10 m)
Propulsion:	8 3-drum superheated boilers 2 Brown-Curtiss single reduction geared turbines, 2 screws, 45,000 hp (33.6 MW)
Speed:	23.5 knots (43.5 km/h) (trials)
Range:	7,000 nautical miles at 16 knots (13,000 km at 30 km/h)
Complement:	1,361
Armament:	(1945):
Armour:	14 inch (356 mm) midships 6.75 inch deck 16 inch (406 mm) turret face 13.4 inch (330 mm) conning tower sides
Aircraft carried:	1, no catapult
Motto:	Palmam qui meruit ferat "Let him bear the palm who has deserved it"
Badge:	A rearing lion facing back clasping a palm frond

HMS Nelson was a Nelson-class battleship of the Royal Navy built between the two World Wars. She was named in honour of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, the victor at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Built under the constraints of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, the design was limited to 35,000 tons and showed certain compromises. Inheriting some of the design of the G3 battlecruisers all of the 16 inch (406 mm) main guns in three turrets, were placed forward, and the vessel's speed was reduced and maximum armour was limited to vital areas.

The three turrets from forward to aft were "A", "B" and "X". The guns received individual nicknames being known as Happy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Dopey, Sleepy, Bashful, Doc, Mickey and Minnie, some time after the release of the film Snow White in 1937. The secondary armament was in turrets P1 to P3 on the port, S1 to S3 on the starboard. The six 4.7 inch anti-aircraft mounts were designated HA1 to HA6, the even numbers on the port. The six pom-pom mounts were numbered from M1 (on top of B turret) to M7 at the extreme aft - there was no M2 position - the odd numbers 3 and 4 to the starboard.

[edit] History

Nelson was laid down in December 1922 and built at Newcastle by Armstrong-Whitworth. Launched in September 1925, she was commissioned in August 1927 and joined by her sister ship Rodney (built by Cammell Laird) in November. She cost 7.504 million British Pounds to build, and made partial use of the material prepared for the cancelled HMS Anson and Howe, planned sisterships of HMS Hood.

She was the flagship of the Home Fleet from launch. In 1931, the crews of both ships took part in the Invergordon Mutiny. Nelson was modified little during the 1930s, and was with the Home Fleet when war broke out in September 1939. On 12 January 1934 she ran aground on Hamilton's Shoal, just outside Portsmouth, as she was about to embark with the Home Fleet to the West Indies. On 25 September–26 September, she performed escort duty during the salvage and rescue operations of the submarine Spearfish.

Nelson was first deployed in the North Sea in October against a German formation of cruisers and destroyers, all of which easily evaded her. On 30 October, she was unsuccessfully attacked by U-56 near the Orkney Islands, being hit by 3 torpedoes, none of which exploded. She was later again shown up for pace in the futile pursuit of German battlecruisers. In December 1939, she struck a mine (laid by U-31) off the Scottish coast and was laid up for repairs until August 1940.

Upon return to service, she was deployed in the English Channel. From April to June 1941 she was on convoy escort in the Atlantic. In late May, she was in Freetown, and was ordered to Gibraltar to stand by to take part in the chase of the German battleship Bismarck.

In June 1941, Nelson, now in Gibraltar, was assigned to Force H, operating in the Mediterranean as an escort. On September 27, 1941, she was extensively damaged by an Regia Aeronautica torpedo strike, and was under repair in Britain until May 1942. She returned to Force H as the Flagship in August 1942, performing escort duties for supply convoys running to Malta. She supported Operation Torch around Algeria in November 1942, the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and the Salerno operation in September 1943 by coastal bombardment. The Italian armistice was signed between Eisenhower and Marshal Pietro Badoglio aboard Nelson on September 29.

Nelson returned to England in November 1943 for a refit including extensive additions to her anti-aircraft defenses. Returning to action, she supported the Normandy landings but hit two mines on June 18, 1944, and was sent to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for repairs. She returned to Britain in January 1945, and then was deployed to the Indian Ocean, arriving in Colombo in July. She was used around the Malayan Islands for 3 months; the Japanese forces there formally surrendered aboard her.

Nelson returned home in November 1945, as the flagship of the Home Fleet, until reduced to a training vessel in July 1946 and decommissioned in February 1948. She was used as a target vessel for bombing exercises for a few months before being scrapped on 15 March 1949 at Inverkeithing.

[edit] References

Siegfried Breyer, Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970 (Doubleday and Company; Garden City, New York, 1973) (originally published in German as Schlachtschiffe und Schlachtkreuzer 1905-1970, J.F. Lehmanns, Verlag, Munchen, 1970). Contains various line drawings of the ship in various configurations.
Robert Gardiner, ed., Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1922 - 1946 (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1980)