G3 battlecruiser
The G3 class was a class of battlecruisers planned by the Royal Navy after the end of World War I in response to naval expansion programmes by the United States and Japan. The four ships of this class would have been larger, faster and more heavily armed than any existing battleship. The G3s have been considered to be proper "fast battleships" since they were well-balanced designs with adequate protection. Nonetheless, the class was officially designated as a "battlecruiser" due to their higher speed and lesser firepower and armour relative to the planned N3-class battleship design. The G3s would have carried nine guns and were expected to achieve, while the N3s would carry nine guns on the same displacement at the expense of speed.
The G3 design was approved by the Board of Admiralty on 12 August 1921. Orders were placed in October, but were suspended in mid-November shortly after the beginning of the Washington Naval Conference which limited battleship sizes. The orders were cancelled in February 1922 with the ratification of the Washington Naval Treaty which limited construction to ships of no more than displacement.
Background
In 1916 the US had declared its intention to create a Navy "second to none"; the United States Congress had authorized the building of a large number of battleships and battlecruisers. In the aftermath of the First World War, the Japanese government were also embarking on a large programme of warship building. Meanwhile, in Great Britain, the s were followed by the slower and cheaper. Two improved Revenge-class hulls were converted during construction into the two s as emergency builds during the war. The only new capital ships laid down in the war were the s. Their design had been called into question after the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Three of this class were cancelled, leaving only to be completed to an altered design.The US plan had been delayed by the wartime need to build smaller vessels. Nevertheless, estimates by the Admiralty were that by the early 1920s the UK would be behind in ships. The British did have access to German technology through ships such as the battleship which had been saved from the scuttling of the interned German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow and the experiences of the war. A committee concluded that any new ship should be able to match the speed of the new US s, expected to make 32 knots. Consequently, a series of designs was prepared of ships with displacements ranging from, the only limitations being the ability to use British dockyards and passage through the Suez Canal. These designs were given letters of the alphabet running backwards from K to G. The related battleship designs under consideration at the same time had design letters from L upwards.
The first two design proposals, 'K2' and 'K3', had a general layout similar to Hood, but were armed with either eight or nine 18-inch guns, in four twin or three triple gun turrets, respectively. The numeral in the designation came from the number of guns in each turret. These ships were very large, displacing, could only reach, and could only be docked in a single ex-German floating dock and one dock, Gladstone Dock, in Liverpool. The next proposal, 'J3' saved nearly by reducing the main armament to nine 50-calibre guns and the main deck armour to. This reduction in size allowed the ship to dock anywhere that Hood could dock and to pass through the Suez and Panama Canals. 'I3' took another route in saving weight and concentrated the main armament amidships with 'X' turret placed between the forward superstructure and the funnels. The consequent weight savings were negated by additional hull and machinery weights and the ship displaced only slightly less than 'K3'. It had the advantage, however, that it could be docked in Rosyth and Portsmouth and pass through both canals, once the Suez Canal had been deepened. The primary drawback was that the main armament had a blind spot towards the rear of the ship of not less than 40°. Several variations were evaluated of the 'H3' design with the number of turrets reduced. In 'H3a' both turrets were forward of the superstructure while in 'H3b' one was forward and the other was aft of the forward superstructure. 'H3c' retained the layout of 'H3b', but lowered the turrets by one deck and saved over the of 'H3b'. All three 'H3' designs had a maximum speed of, but the reduced number of main guns was disliked so the 'G3' was proposed with the three triple turrets, armed with guns to save weight.
This design was accepted at the end of 1920, but changes were made as the plans were finalized in early 1921, including the reduction of the ship's horsepower from 180,000 to 160,000 and the reduction of the main armament from 16.5 in to.
Design and description
The G3s incorporated several novel features for dreadnought-era capital ships, or at least for British designs of this type. Most immediately noticeable was the concentration of the main battery forward of the bridge and engineering spaces, giving the ships a tanker-like appearance. Since the G3s were to use existing dockyard facilities, this layout allowed designers to keep the length of the ships, as well as the weight of armour, to a minimum. The resulting loss of heavy fire astern was considered justifiable since the ships were intended to fight on the broadside. A related feature of the G3 and N3 designs was their tower bridge structure behind the first two gun turrets. This provided a better and more stable foundation for fire-control equipment, greatly improved accommodation and protection from the weather.General characteristics
The G3 battlecruisers were significantly larger than their predecessors of the Admiral class. They had an overall length of, a beam of, and a draught of at deep load. They would have displaced normally and at deep load, over more than the older ships. They had a metacentric height of at deep load as well as a complete double bottom.Propulsion
The G3 battlecruisers would have had four geared steam turbine sets, each of which drove one propeller shaft. They were arranged in three engine rooms. The forward engine room held the two turbines for the wing shafts, the middle compartment housed the turbine for the port inner shaft and the aft engine room contained the turbine for the starboard inner shaft. The turbines were powered by 20 Yarrow small-tube boilers divided between nine boiler rooms. They were designed to produce a total of at a working pressure of and temperature of with superheat. Maximum speed would have been.The ships had a maximum capacity of of fuel oil. Using the cruising turbines, they had an estimated maximum range of at. They had six turbo-driven dynamos and two diesel generators.
Armament
Housing the main armament in triple turrets was new to the Royal Navy though British companies had been involved in the production of triple gun turret designs for other navies. The choice of a high muzzle velocity with a relatively lighter shell was taken from the German practice; it ran counter to previous British guns such as the BL 15-inch Mark I gun of 42-calibre length which were lower-muzzle-velocity weapons firing heavy shells.The G3 design mounted nine BL 16-inch Mark I 45-calibre guns in three triple hydraulically powered Mark I gun turrets, designated 'A', 'B', and 'X' from front to rear. The guns could be depressed to −3° and elevated to 40°. The ships' maximum stowage was 116 shells per gun. They fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of. Their maximum range was about at maximum elevation. The G3s carried a secondary armament of sixteen BL 6-inch Mark XXII guns in superfiring twin turrets instead of casemates or shields – the first time in a British capital ship since the of 1904. Four turrets were sited around the forward superstructure and four at the stern. The forward turrets were provided with 150 rounds per gun and the rear turrets with 110 rounds per gun. The guns could elevate between –5° and +60°. They fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of. Their maximum range was at 45° elevation. Their rate of fire was five rounds per minute.
An anti-aircraft battery of six QF 4.7-inch Mark VIII guns was included. They had a maximum depression of -5° and a maximum elevation of 90°. They fired a high explosive shell at a muzzle velocity of at a rate of eight to twelve rounds per minute. The guns had a maximum ceiling of, but an effective range of much less. A maximum of 256 rounds per gun could be carried. The ships were intended to carry four 8-barreled mountings for the QF 2-pounder Mark VIII gun, two abaft the funnels and two at the stern. Each barrel was provided with 1300 rounds of ammunition. The gun fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of to a distance of. The gun's rate of fire was approximately 96–98 rounds per minute.
Like previous classes of British battlecruisers, a pair of submerged, broadside-firing torpedo tubes were planned for these ships. Their compartment was located just forward of the 'A' shell room on the platform deck. Six torpedoes per tube were to be carried in peacetime, but this would increase to eight in wartime. These Mark I torpedoes had a warhead of of TNT and were powered by oxygen-enriched air. They had two speed settings which governed their range: either at, or at.