29

There were five Queen Elizabeth class battleships built for the British Navy, the others being Warspite, Barham, Valiant and Malaya. Queen Elizabeth class battleships were the first warships to exceed the 27,000 tons of the US Texas class battleships that entered service in 1914 with 14inch guns. Queen Elizabeth’s first deployment was to bombard Turkish forts along the Dardanelle’s Strait prior to the Allied landings at Gallipoli. Due to her undergoing a refit at the time of Jutland, she was the only ship in this class to miss the battle.

After the outbreak of World War Two, Queen Elizabeth served with the Mediterranean Fleet until herself and Valiant were damaged in the port of Alexandria. It is thought Italian frogmen using limpet mines caused the explosions. After being repaired in America, she spent the remainder of the war with the Pacific Fleet in the battle against Japan. Queen Elizabeth was decommissioned after the war and scrapped in 1948 at Dalmuir and Troon/Scotland. Warspite managed to survive 15 hits at Jutland and served throughout the Second World War seeing action in the Mediterranean and Pacific before being scrapped in 1947. Barham survived serious damage at Jutland and joined the Mediterranean fleet during World War Two. She blew up and sunk November 25th 1941 after being hit by three torpedoes from U-331. Valiant was repaired after Jutland and saw action in the Mediterranean and Pacific during World War Two before being dismantled in 1948. Malaya also survived Jutland and served mainly as a convoy escort during World War Two, she was scrapped at Faslane in 1948.