| 3rd Battle Squadron | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1913–1945 |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  Royal Navy |
| Size | Squadron |
The 3rd Battle Squadron was a naval squadron of the British Royal Navy consisting of battleships and other vessels, active from at least 1914 to 1945. The 3rd Battle Squadron was initially part of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. During the First World War, the Home Fleet was renamed the Grand Fleet. During the Second World War, the squadron covered Atlantic convoys.
On 5 August 1914, the squadron had eight ships: [1] King Edward VII, Africa, Britannia, Commonwealth, Dominion, Hibernia, Hindustan and Zealandia. The squadron of eight King Edward VII-class pre-dreadnought battleships were nicknamed "the wobbly eight" [2] after their slight tendency to roll under way.
The squadron was initially used as part of the Grand Fleet in support of the cruisers on the Northern Patrol. On 29 April 1916, the 3rd Battle Squadron was moved to Sheerness from Rosyth and came under the Nore Command in the Thames estuary. The move was intended to make more large ships available for coastal defence duties, after the Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft by German ships on 24 April 1916. [3]
At the time of the Battle of Jutland, the squadron consisted of: Dreadnought (flagship of Vice-Admiral E. E. Bradford), Africa, Commonwealth, Hibernia, Dominion, Hindustan, Zealandia and Britannia, plus the protected cruiser Diamond. In addition the 3rd Cruiser Squadron, consisting of the armoured cruisers Antrim, Devonshire and Roxburgh, was attached, together with the destroyers Beaver, Druid, Ferret, Hind, Hornet and Sandfly from the 1st Destroyer Flotilla, and Mastiff and Matchless from the 10th Destroyer Flotilla.
Essentially made obsolete by the introduction of the revolutionary battleship Dreadnought, and as battleships the world over began mimicking her design, the 3rd Battle Squadron played no role in the Battle of Jutland. The need for accompanying destroyers for these battleships was later given as the reason the Harwich destroyer squadron was also held back and took no part in the Jutland action. [4]
Following the loss of King Edward VII in January 1916, Africa and Britannia served in the Mediterranean 1916–17. The remaining ships were augmented by Dreadnought from June 1916 onwards. Starting in November 1917, the 3rd Battle Squadron progressively shrank in size as its predreadnoughts were gradually detached for other duties. [5]
The squadron, consisting by now of Dreadnought alone, was disbanded on 20 April 1918. [5]
At the start of the Second World War, the squadron formed part of the Channel Force and comprised just two ships: [6]
Later in the war, the squadron was based at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Rear Admiral, Third Battle Squadron, was responsible for covering Atlantic convoys; [7] and was later to become the North Atlantic Escort Force. [8] At the time, German surface raiders were a distinct concern, thus the allocation of battleships. RMS Ascania—an armed merchant cruiser—was part of the squadron during this period. Seaborn—a Fleet Air Arm base was established at RCAF Station Dartmouth in September 1940. Seaborn was to provide a shore base with administrative and maintenance facilities for the Swordfish and Walrus aircraft assigned to ships of the Third Battle Squadron. [9]
In 1942, the Third Battle Squadron, now comprising; [10]
sailed for the Far East and became part of the Eastern Fleet. The squadron formed part of Force B. [11] Facing the superior striking force of the Japanese Kido Butai carrier striking force during the 1942 Indian Ocean raid, the slow component of the Eastern Fleet—including the battleships of Force B—was withdrawn all the way back to Kilindini in East Africa to avoid their destruction at Japanese hands. Hermes—Force B's sole aircraft carrier—was detached and destroyed near Ceylon.
In 1945, the Squadron consisted of two battleships, Queen Elizabeth and the Free French Richelieu, as well another two escort carriers, four cruisers and six destroyers. Two battleships and escort carriers formed part of the covering force for Operation Dracula, the retaking of Rangoon. Vice-Admiral H.T.C. Walker commanded the squadron at the time.
Commanders were as follows: [12]
Post holders included: [13]
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The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.
The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated from the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. In 1967, it was merged with the Mediterranean Fleet creating the new Western Fleet.
Admiral Sir William Wordsworth Fisher was a Royal Navy officer who captained a battleship at the Battle of Jutland and became Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Arthur Marder wrote that he was "the outstanding admiral of the inter-war period".
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Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Keith Arbuthnot, 4th Baronet, was a British Royal Navy officer during World War I. He was killed at the Battle of Jutland, when the cruiser squadron he commanded came under heavy fire after a bold but ill-judged attack on the German battle fleet.
The Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914 was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby. The bombardments caused hundreds of civilian casualties and resulted in public outrage in Britain against the German Navy for the raid and the Royal Navy for failing to prevent it.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Edward Madden, 1st Baronet,, was a Royal Navy officer who served during the First World War as Chief of the Staff to Sir John Jellicoe in the Grand Fleet from 1914 to 1916 and as Second-in-Command of the fleet under Sir David Beatty from 1916 to 1919. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet after the war and served as First Sea Lord in the late 1920s. In that role, in order to avoid an arms race, he accepted parity with the United States in the form of 50 cruisers defending his position on the basis that he only actually had 48 cruisers anyway.
The 1st Battle Squadron was a naval squadron of the British Royal Navy consisting of battleships. The 1st Battle Squadron was initially part of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet. After World War I the Grand Fleet was reverted to its original name, the Atlantic Fleet. The squadron changed composition often as ships were damaged, retired or transferred.
Admiral Sir William Edmund Goodenough was a senior Royal Navy officer of World War I. He was the son of James Graham Goodenough.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cecil Burney, 1st Baronet, was a Royal Navy officer. After seeing action as a junior office in naval brigades during both the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Mahdist War, he commanded a cruiser in operational service during the Second Boer War. As a flag officer he commanded the Plymouth Division of the Home Fleet, the 5th Cruiser Squadron, the Atlantic Fleet and then the 3rd Battle Squadron.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Morton Forbes, was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the First World War, seeing action in the Dardanelles campaign and at the Battle of Jutland and, as captain of a cruiser, was present at the surrender of the German fleet. During the Second World War, he served as Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet: his fleet suffered heavy losses including the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and nine destroyers during the Norwegian campaign in Spring 1940. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in May 1941 and in that capacity he organised the defence of Plymouth from air attack, prosecuted attacks on enemy shipping using the harbour at Brest as well as other ports along the French coast, and also initiated the St Nazaire Raid in March 1942 before retiring in August 1943.
The Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, often referred to as the Lowestoft Raid, was a naval battle fought during the First World War between the German Empire and the British Empire in the North Sea.
The Harwich Force originally called Harwich Striking Force was a squadron of the Royal Navy, formed during the First World War and based in Harwich. It played a significant role in the war.
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Vice-Admiral Sir George John Scott Warrender of Lochend, 7th Baronet, was a senior officer in the Royal Navy during the First World War.
The action of 19 August 1916 was one of two attempts in 1916 by the German High Seas Fleet to engage elements of the British Grand Fleet, following the mixed results of the Battle of Jutland, during the First World War. The lesson of Jutland for Germany had been the vital need for reconnaissance, to avoid the unexpected arrival of the Grand Fleet during a raid. Four Zeppelins were sent to scout the North Sea between Scotland and Norway for signs of British ships and four more scouted immediately ahead of German ships. Twenty-four German submarines kept watch off the English coast, in the southern North Sea and off the Dogger Bank.
The naval order of 24 October 1918 was a plan made by the German Admiralty at the end of World War I to provoke a decisive battle between the German High Seas Fleet and the British Grand Fleet in the southern North Sea. When the order to prepare for the sortie was issued on 29 October, mutiny broke out aboard the German ships. Despite the operation being cancelled, these in turn led to the more serious Kiel mutiny, which was the starting point of the November Revolution and the proclamation of the Weimar Republic.
The Eastern Mediterranean Squadron later known as the British Aegean Squadron was a naval formation of the Mediterranean Fleet based at Mudros from 1914 to 1916. It then alternated between Mudros and Salonika from 1917 to 1919.
