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HMS Royal Oak
As Outfitted in 1924
HMS Royal Oak passing HMS Victory in Portsmouth Harbor. Unknown year.
Background
HMS Royal Oak was the third ship of the Revenge-class of battleships. She was laid down on the 15th of January, 1914, launched on the 17th of November, 1914, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on the 1st of May, 1916.
The Revenge-class of ships were a development on the Queen Elizabeths, with the idea being to create a cheaper version of the previous ships. They were slightly smaller, slower, but more heavily armored than the Queen Elizabeths, so as to reduce their overall cost. However, during the interwar period, they were not modernized to the same extent as the Queen Elizabeths due to their smaller size.
The armor was improved to have the armored deck higher up, and the belt was extended between the outermost barbettes. The single armored deck above the citadel, typical for most ships, would not be present, and instead there were multiple thinner armored decks in that spot. The turrets were similarly armored as the Queen Elizabeths. Torpedo bulges were fitted during the 1920s, and additional armor was fitted after the Battle of Jutland.
HMS Royal Oak would participate in the Battle of Jutland, and, following WW1, she would serve throughout the interwar years until being reduced to a non-primary combatant by WW2. She would be sunk by torpedo attack, on the 14th of October, 1939, during a daring raid by KMS U-47 on Scapa Flow.
Service History
Following her commissioning, on the 1st of May, 1916, Royal Oak was assigned to Third Division, Fourth Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet.
Barely a month later, the ship would raise steam with the rest of the Grand Fleet to intercept the High Seas Fleet, in what would become the Battle of Jutland. By 1800 on the 31st of May, the Grand Fleet was ordered into action. The cruiser SMS Wiesbaden had been disabled, and both the British and German fleets had converged upon the area, the Germans attempting to protect their cruiser, and the British seeking to sink her. At 1829, Royal Oak would open fire on the cruiser, scoring a hit on her third salvo. In return, at 1833, Royal Oak was straddled by a German salvo, but was undamaged. Later, Royal Oak’s secondaries would open fire on a force of German torpedo boats, who were attempting to reach the stricken Wiesbaden, with the gunners of Royal Oak believing they were trying to launch a torpedo attack. By 1920, Royal Oak had opened fire on the flagship of the German battlecruiser force, SMS Derfflinger, and although initially aiming high, this was soon corrected and she scored 2 hits on the battlecruiser until she disappeared into the mist. Fire would then shift to SMS Seydlitz, and one hit was scored before she, too, would disappear.
In the midst of this, a different German torpedo boat squadron launched an attack on the British line, with Royal Oak’s secondaries being the first to open fire, soon followed by the rest of the fleet. After this attack, the High Seas Fleet disengaged, and Royal Oak, and the Grand Fleet at large, would see no further action in the battle. Over the course of the battle, Royal Oak had fired 38 main gun shells, and 84 secondary gun shells.
Painting of Royal Oak during the Battle of Jutland, by Anthony Saunders.
Following the battle, Royal Oak was reassigned to First Battle Squadron, and would sortie a few more times with the Grand Fleet attempting to catch the German fleet, but none were successful. While anchored in the Firth of Forth, on the 5th of November, 1918, during the final week of the war, a Force 10 squall caused the nearby HMS Campania to drag her anchor, and collide, first with Royal Oak and then with HMS Glorious. Neither capital ship suffered major damage, but the seaplane tender was sunk.
Following the capitulation of Germany in 1918, the High Seas Fleet would be interned in Scapa Flow; Royal Oak was present. Following the fleet’s official surrender, reportedly a victory drum roll from a drum would emanate from aboard Royal Oak. Following two searches of the ship, first by officers and then by the captain, no drum nor drummer was located. The sound was attributed to Drake’s Drum, a legendary drum that is said to beat when significant national events take place in England.
Between 1922 and 1924, the ship was modernized. Her original 3-inch AA guns were replaced by a pair of QF 4-inch guns. A 30ft rangefinder was fitted in ‘B’ turret, and a simple high-angle rangefinder was fitted above the bridge. She was also fitted with anti-torpedo bulges, which increased her beam but reduced her draught.
Following this modernization, in 1926, the ship was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, and based in Malta. In early 1928, a notorious incident that would come to be known as the “Royal Oak Mutiny” would occur while stationed here. The ship did not actually mutiny, instead two of the ship’s senior officers, Captain Kenneth Dewar and Commander Henry Daniel, got into an argument with Rear-Admiral Bernard Collard. The two senior officers from Royal Oak accused the Rear-Admiral of openly insulting them in front of the crew of Royal Oak, with the Rear-Admiral counter-accusing the two officers of failing to follow orders. This would result in the three being removed from their posts and sent back to England for a Board of Inquiry. This event happened right on the eve of a major fleet exercise, leading the press to, with some exaggeration, report that the Royal Oak had mutinied. Following the Board, Daniel would retire early, and Collard would be forcibly removed from the Navy. Only Dewar retained a naval career, but was still reprimanded harshly. The scandal would be satirized worldwide, and was an embarrassment for the Royal Navy.
In the 1930s, during the Spanish Civil War, Royal Oak was assigned to perform non-intervention patrols around the Iberian Peninsula. On the 2nd of February, 1937, the ship came under attack by three Spanish Republican aircraft. The aircraft dropped three bombs, of which one did not explode, within 550m of the ship, but caused no damage. The incident was protested by the British, and the Republican Government later apologized. Later that month, on the 27th, while stationed off Valencia, a Republican anti-aircraft shell that was fired at Nationalist aircraft would hit Royal Oak, injuring 5. The British did not protest about this attack, as it was deemed “an act of God.”
In 1937, she and the destroyer HMS Forester escorted the ocean liner SS Habana, which was carrying child refugees, to Southampton. Royal Oak would return to waters off of Iberia as the war in the northern parts of Spain heated up, and she and her sister HMS Resolution would rescue the steamer Gordonia when Spanish Nationalist warships attempted to capture her. Later, she would be unable to prevent the capture of the British freighter Molton by the Nationalist cruiser Almirante Cervera, while the former was attempting to reach Santandler to evacuate more refugees.
The cruiser KMS Admiral Graf Spee in Spithead, 1937. Behind her are HMS Hood and potentially HMS Royal Oak. Note the dark color scheme.
In 1938, Royal Oak would return to the Home Fleet and become flagship of the Second Battle Squadron. In late November, of 1938, the ship would return the body of the British-born Queen Maud of Norway, who had died in London, to Oslo for a state funeral. Aboard the ship was her husband, King Haakon VII. The ship would then embark on a short training cruise of the English Channel in 1939, but would be recalled to Scapa Flow as hostilities loomed. She was anchored at Scapa Flow when war was declared on the 3rd of September, 1939.
Royal Oak flying the Norwegian flag and the White Ensign at half mast, during the voyage to return Queen Maud’s body.
Following the declaration of war, the next few weeks of the Phoney War would be uneventful. In October of 1939, Royal Oak, and the fleet in general, would search for KMS Gneisenau, who had sortied as a diversion for the commerce raiders KMS Deutschland and KMS Admiral Graf Spee. The search was particularly rough on Royal Oak, which had her speed reduced to 20kts due to poor maintenance, and could not keep up with the rest of the fleet. Along the way, she was battered by a storm, causing minor damage and flooding. She would return on the 12th of October, and soon after was left in Scapa Flow following the rest of the fleet’s departure, after a recent German reconnaissance flight had convinced Admiral Charles Forbes of a coming air attack on Scapa Flow.
Scapa Flow was considered an ideal anchorage, and it was naturally protected. U-boats could still pose a threat, but it was thought this was rectified by the sinking of blockships and the installation of tug-operated booms. Two U-boats had tried and failed to infiltrate Scapa Flow during WW1, with SMS U-18 being captured and SMS UB-116 being sunk. Nonetheless, aided by the high-quality reconnaissance photographs taken from the aforementioned flight, an Operation was conceived to have a U-boat infiltrate Scapa Flow. It was to scatter the Home Fleet, and weaken the North Sea blockade, and was also to serve as a symbol of defiance - striking at the location at which the High Seas Fleet had been scuttled following Germany’s capitulation during the First World War. The reconnaissance photographs had identified a few areas of weakness in the defenses, and so the submarine KMS U-47, under the command of Günther Prien, was dispatched to carry out the raid, scheduled for the night of the 13/14th of October, when there would be no moon and high tides.
Despite being briefly illuminated by headlights while surfaced, no alarm was raised and the submarine would successfully enter the harbor, with Prien writing a triumphant “Wir sind in Scapa Flow!!!” in the ship’s logs. Prien was surprised to find the harbor mostly empty, the product of the order to scatter the Home Fleet, but would soon spot the battleship HMS Royal Oak about 4km away.
The first torpedo salvo would mostly miss, but one would hit the bow of Royal Oak and wake the crew. It caused little damage, but split the starboard anchor chain, which would then clatter through its slips. The submarine had not been detected, and the noise was suspected to have been an explosion in the ship’s forward inflammable store. Mindful of the loss of HMS Vanguard, which had been victim to an ammunition explosion of unknown cause while at harbor, an announcement was made to check the temperatures of the magazine; however many sailors would return to bed, unaware the ship was under attack.
Following a turnaround, U-47 launched another salvo using the stern tubes, which completely missed. After reloading the bow tubes, Prien ordered U-47 to double back, and she launched a final salvo of torpedoes. This time, all three struck Royal Oak in quick succession amidships, blowing a hole in the armored deck and cutting the power. Cordite from a nearby magazine had ignited, and the resulting fireball would quickly ingulf the ships internal spaces. Royal Oak would begin a list to 15°, already enough to push the open starboard portholes below the water. She would then roll further to 45°, and would remain at that list for several minutes until disappearing beneath the surface at 0129, thirteen minutes after the torpedoes had impacted the ship. 424 men would survive, out of the 1,260 man crew. 835 men would go down with the ship or later died of wounds sustained, among them Rear-Admiral Henry Blagrove. 134 of the men lost were boy seamen, not yet 18 years old, the largest ever such loss in a Royal Navy action.
Despite the shallow water in which she sank, the majority of the dead from Royal Oak could not be recovered, and the ship was designated a war grave in 1986. A green buoy marks the ships’ location, and her loss is commemorated yearly by divers of the Royal Navy placing the White Ensign at her stern.
Oil leaking from the sunken Royal Oak, sometime in the 2000s.
Royal Oak had sunk with full oil tanks, and so throughout the 20th century following her sinking oil had been leaking. During the 1990s, the hull had begun to corrode at an increased rate, and environmental concerns had begun to be noticed. Plans to pump oil out of the ship were slowed by ethical concerns, as the ship is a war grave, but by 2010, 1,600 tons of oil were thought to have been removed from the ship.
In 2019, scientists began to make a 3D mapping of the sunken ship, using various forms of technology, such as videography, underwater photography, and 3D photogrammetry. The project was backed by the Royal Navy and the Royal Oak association.
3D model of Royal Oak as she is today, showing damage from where the bow torpedo hit and additionally holes where the third salvo of torpedoes hit.
Profile of HMS Royal Sovereign, another Revenge-class ship. Unknown date/configuration, estimated 1935.
Specifications
1924
| General Information | |
|---|---|
| Displacement | 31,130 tons (full load) |
| Length | 620ft 7in (189.2m) |
| Beam | 102ft 1in (31.1m) |
| Draft | 29ft 6in (9m) |
| Speed | 22 knots (41 km/h) |
| Complement | 1,188 officers and enlisted |
| Gun | Turret/Mount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 8 × 15"(381mm)/42 BL Mk I | 4 × Mk I Twin | Limited to 20 degrees of elevation |
| 14 x 6"(152mm)/45 BL Mk XII | 14 x Single | 12 casemates, 2 turreted |
| 2 x 4"(102mm)/45 QF Mk V | 2 x AA Mountings | |
| ? x 21"(533mm) Mk II*** Torpedoes | 4 x Broadside Underwater Tubes | 2 per side |
| 15" (381mm) Ammunition | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Designation | Mass | Bursting Charge | Muzzle Velocity | Notes | |
| APC Mk Va (4crh) | 1,917lbs (869.5kg) | 45.3lbs (20.5kg) Shellite | 2,467f/s (752m/s) | Post-WW1 shell, second version called AP Mk VIIa (4crh) with similar characteristics | |
| APC Mk IIIa (4crh) | 1,910lbs (866.4kg) | 45.3lbs (20.5kg) Shellite | 2,467f/s (752m/s) | Greenboy shell | |
| APC Mk Ia (4crh) | 1,920lbs (871kg) | 60.5lbs (27.4kg) Lyddite | 2,467f/s (752m/s) | ||
| CPC (4crh) | 1,920lbs (871kg) | 129.3lbs (58.6kg) TNT | 2,467f/s (752m/s) | ||
| HE (4crh) | 1,920lbs (871kg) | 216.5 - 224lbs (98.2 - 106.6kg) TNT | 2,467f/s (752m/s) |
| Armor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Belt | 13" (330mm) | |
| Deck | 1-4" (25-102mm) | |
| Turrets | 11-13" (279-330mm) | |
| Barbettes | 6-10" (152-254mm) | |
| Conning Tower | 3-11" (76-279mm) | |
| Bulkheads | 6" (152mm) |
Conclusion
HMS Royal Oak, and the Revenge-class in general, represent the last dreadnought battleships of the UK. I think that, while not really majorly effective compared to something like the Colorado-class or the Nagato-class, the Revenge-class should still be represented. As an early depiction of the class, Royal Oak could fit in a folder with a later depiction of the class, perhaps in a Revenge > Queen Elizabeth folder, with a second Revenge (Modernized) > Queen Elizabeth (Modernized) folder. These ships are basically sidegrades to the Queen Elizabeths, and this one in particular would be a downgrade, lacking the AA weapons of a more modern depiction - but on the level of Mutsu as currently in game.
Memorial depicting the crest of HMS Royal Oak, at the Scapa Flow visitor center.
Sources
Wikipedia - HMS Royal Oak (08)
Wikipedia - Revenge-class Battleship
Naval-Encyclopedia - Revenge-class Battleships
Battleships-Cruisers - Royal Oak
NavWeaps - BL 15-inch Mk I
Navweaps - BL 6-inch Mk XII
Navweaps - QF 4-inch Mk V
Navweaps - Pre-WW2 British Torpedoes
Wikipedia - BL 15-inch Mk I