BRITISH BATTLESHIP HMS IRON DUKE

HMS Iron Duke was a British battleship laid down in 1912, launched in October 1912, and commissioned in the Royal Navy in March 1914. The total length of the ship was 187.5 m, width 27.5 m, and her full displacement was 29,500 tons. HMS Iron Duke's top speed was around 21-22 knots. The main armament at the time of the launch was 10 343 mm guns in five twin turrets. The secondary armament is 12 152 mm guns in casemates, 2 76 mm guns, 4 47 mm salute guns (so-called pom-poms) and 4 533 mm torpedo tubes. HMS Iron Duke was one of four battleships of the same name - the Iron Duke. Battleships of this type were built just before the outbreak of World War I, as a British response to the rapid naval armament of the Second German Reich. Often, it is symbolically said that ships of this type were the last British dreadnoughts. Unlike the Queen Elizabeth class, which was introduced to the line at the same time, the Iron Duke ships operated with a lower caliber main artillery, and their deployment on the later Royal Navy ships was abandoned. They were also slower than the Queen Elizabeth ships. Despite these drawbacks, they were a difficult opponent for German battleships during World War I. HMS Iron Duke was built at the Portsmouth shipyard. Upon entering service, she joined the Home Fleet, and shortly thereafter became the flagship of the Grand Fleet. One of the major clashes in which he took part in World War I was the Battle of Jutland (1916). Later, until the end of World War I, HMS Iron Duke did not come into combat contact with the enemy. In the interwar period, it operated mainly in the Mediterranean Sea and briefly in the Atlantic. In 1931, after the entry into force of the London Treaty, she was largely disarmed and served as a training ship for artillerymen. The outbreak of World War II found him in this role. In October 1939, as a result of an attack by the German air force, it was forced to be washed ashore. However, it was renovated and served as a hulk at the Scapa Flow base until the end of the war. HMS Iron Duke was scrapped in 1946.