Britain's Lifeline: H.M.S. King George V

Nameship of a new class of five battleships ordered for the Royal Navy in 1936, King George V was built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow and was the first of the class to be commissioned for service. Designed by Sir Arthur Johns but constructed during the tenure of his successor Sir Stanley Goodall, she was laid down in January 1937, launched on 3rd May 1939 and completed the following year. Displacing 38,000 tons (44,550 fully loaded), she measured 745 feet in length with a 103 foot beam and carried a main armament of 10-14in. guns as well as a plethora of smaller weaponry. Massively armoured, her oil-fired single reduction geared turbines gave her a top speed of 29½ knots and, even at 27 knots, she had a range of 3,200 miles.

Commissioned for the Home Fleet in October 1940, she was detached for V.I.P. duty in January 1941 when she took Lord Halifax to America where he was taking up the post of British Ambassador in Washington. Escorting a 'special' convoy home, she then provided cover for the commando assault on the oil installations on the occupied Norwegian Lofoten Islands on 4th March followed by participation in the search for the Scharnhorst in April. Made flagship to the Home Fleet that same month, her most famous encounter came on 27th May (1941) when, in company with the battleship Rodney and the cruiser Dorsetshire, she engaged and sank the German battleship Bismarck in what was widely regarded as the Royal Navy's most crucial action of the Second World War. Invariably referred to after this victory as the "KG5", she was involved with the search for the Admiral Scheer in February 1942 and then spent much of that year and the next on the highly dangerous Russian convoy run. After covering the Sicily landings in July 1943, she then occupied Taranto in September before returning home towards the end of the year. Refitted for service in the Far East, she arrived there in December 1944 to become second flagship. Actively engaged throughout the assaults on various Japanese-held islands, she then supported the U.S. forces which attacked the mainland and was present at the final surrender in September. Flagship to the Home Fleet in the immediate post-War years, she was decommissioned in 1949, placed in Reserve and finally scrapped in 1957.