HMS Prince of Wales is pictured soon after commissioning in 1940 while working up prior to seeing action during the latter stages of the unsuccessful Norway campaign.
The five ship strong King George the fifth class of battleships (including Nelson and Collingwood) were the first British battleships laid down to enter service since the Thunderer and Conqueror of 1921, and the first British battleships to comply with the terms of the Washington naval treaty. Planning for the ships began in 1934, and the four ships initially ordered were meant to replace the Revenge class battleships in the Royal navies lineup. In compliance with the further restrictions of the first London naval treaty of 1930 the first three ships, King George V, Prince of Wales, and Duke of York, were armed with 14 inch guns.
The ships were built to the maximum tonnage limit of 35,000 tons and were to feature twelve 14 inch guns in three quadruple turrets, however balancing issues and weight restrictions meant that the forward superfiring turret was reduced to a mere twin 14 inch gun. While unusual this arrangement, as well as several other weight saving methods, would be successful in keeping the ships within the 35,000 ton weight limit. The ship were built to have a speed of twenty eight knots, slower than the fastest British warships, but comparable to most foreign designs and only slightly faster than even the modernized Queen Elizabeth class battleships.
While the first London treaty had reduced gun caliber to 14 inch down from the 16 agreed upon in the earlier Washington treaty only the UK, US and France would abide by this limit. With the Alyskans, Italians, and Japanese refusing to accept the smaller gun and building ships with larger caliber artillery. Because work had already advanced to a significant degree on the guns and turrets to house them suggestions to abandon the 14 inch in favour of a newer triple 15 turret were ignored initially. With it being decided that the new 15 inch guns would be instead installed on the next British battleship. The eventual Lion class of 1942.
Work proceeded on the ships during the second London naval treaty as the British made a final attempt to coerce the remaining signatories to agree to the 14 inch limit, with plans to order the ships late in the year once the treaty had concluded being finalized. However the collapse of the treaty and the revelation of the Japanese Kii caused a panic in the admiralty as it suddenly appeared that the planned battleships were going to be obsolete from the time of their laying down in the face of these new Japanese ships.
The British response was the immediately addition of a fifth member of the class to the order. As well as some additions to the design which added some weight, delayed their laying down, but improved their combat performance slightly. All five ships were ordered in early to mid 1936, though the final pair of ships, Nelson and Collingwood, would feature some significant changes to the base design of the first three ships. Namely the exchange of the 14 inch guns for the new 15 inch triple turrets. Making the ships a distinct subclass which fits nicely between the KGVs and the later Lions. In other means however the ships were generally similar to the earlier vessels of the class when it came to other features and displacement.
The ships construction was rushed to varying degrees to get them into service as soon as possible. King George V herself commissioned in November of 1939, followed by Prince of Wales and Duke of York in 1940, with Nelson and Collingwood following in early 1941 thanks to their alterations. The ships immediately found themselves in action during the early part of the war. With KGV herself acting as flagship during the Norway campaign, dueling the two German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau briefly during a pitched battle. PoWs would engage German shore positions in the final part of the German takeover of the nation of Norway. Later taking a torpedo from a submarine as she withdrew from the area, one of a volley of four fired at the ship. Although her speed dropped to 24 knots the ships escorts drove off the submarine and PoWs returned to dockyard for repairs.
Duke of York and King George V would be dispatched to the Med after commissioning, but after a brief stint there they would be rushed north into the Atlantic to hunt for the German battleship Bismarck after she broke out into the north Atlantic, DoY would participate in the final defeat of the ship after the loss of HMS Anson and damage to Hood alongside Conqueror. The ships gun turrets suffered significant issues during the battle, with both of the quadruple turrets suffering electrical problems. Both KGV and PoWs had earlier endured some troubles before working out a solution, however the new DoY had not yet conducted these repairs. This failure would be well publicized at the end of the war in many books and lead to a false reputation of unreliability for the guns and turrets for many years.
KGV and DoY would spend much of their war in service with the home fleet, countering the increasingly small number of German battleships and escorting particularly important convoys in addition to the surviving Revenge class and less modernized Queen Elizabeth class battleships. Both ships would also serve during the Normandy landings, missing out on any further battleship actions but still seeing hard use. They escorted surviving German capital ships to Scapa flow at the end of the war. Prince of Wales would see much service in the Med as flagship of the fleet based in Alexandria. It would be while in the harbor of Alexandria that Prince of Wales would suffer a magazine explosion in 1943 at the hands of Italian frogmen. The ships wreck causing issues for shipping in the harbor for the remainder of the war before she was scrapped in the late 40s.
The slightly different Nelson and Collingwood were dispatched initially to the Med after completing their working up. Dueling Italian battleships in August in the waters around Malta during an attempted Regina Marina bombardment of the island fortress. However the Japanese entry into the war saw both ships, as well as HMS Renown dispatched to the Indian ocean alongside several other units to reinforce Singapore. Designated Force Z the fleet never reached the city, as it fell to the Japanese while they were enroute. Nelson would take torpedo hits from Japanese aircraft while on the way to Australia but carrier based aircraft drove off the rest of the attackers before they could cause any more damage.
The three British battleships, alongside the Australian HMAS Victoria would engage Japanese forces as a part of the Dutch East Indies campaign. During this campaign Collingwood would be lost in a brutal night action around Java with ambushing Japanese destroyers. The ships radar failing to detect the ships as they swung around from behind some small islands. With the fall of the DEI to the Japanese, the loss of Collingwood, damage to Victoria and destruction of several Dutch units Nelson found herself as the Only British battleship present in the region. Renown being previously sent to the US for a refit after suffering engine failure.
Joined by the Alyskan Neptune late in 1942, and later by the Dutch De Zeven Provincen early in 1943 the Nelson served as the main defense of Australia and a significant force in being which the Japanese needed to counter with their own vessels. Several attacks were made by the Japanese with submarines against this force, but it endured until Nelson was reassigned to the Med to replace the lost PoWs as it had been decided that the Neptune and De Zeven Provincen would be sufficient after the withdraw of most Japanese units in prelude to the Alyskan campaign.
Nelsons tenure in the Med would be quite short however as it was found that the ship was very hard worn. Being involved in practically constant action after entering service in 1941 the ship had many small bits of damage accrued during her war which had been only quickly patched. With the entry of HMS Rodney into service it was decided that the ship would be sent to the United States for an extensive rebuild and modernization. Nelson returning to service after the German surrender she was sent with a US navy force through the Panama canal to replace HMS Lion as flagship of the British Pacific fleet.
With the end of the war and desperate economic situation the Navy placed the Nelson, King Georve V, and Duke of York into reserve by 1946. Keeping the three ships around until 1954 as a counter to the Soviet battlefleet until cost limitations forced their sale for scrapping in 1955. Though with American sponsorship the Duke of York, the least worn of the three, would be loaned to the Netherlands while their Admiral Tromp was undergoing refit. Duke of York being returned in 1959. Although it had been planned to scrap the ship after her return she was instead used as a stand in for the Superb while she went through lengthy repairs following her grounding off Brittany in France.
Duke of York would continue in service after it was decided to simply scrap Superb with repairs seventy percent complete by a new government in 1962. The ship thus surviving alongside the other final British battleships until they were finally retired in 1966 with the future fleet acts passing the previous year. Duke of York, alongside the battleships Dreadnought, Warspite, and Vanquisher would be preserved as a museum ship, with DoY preserved in Rosyth to this day.
