HMS Ramillies (07)

Ramillies at anchor during the First World War, painted in dazzle camouflage
History
United Kingdom
Name	Ramillies
Namesake	Battle of Ramillies
Builder	William Beardmore and Company, Dalmuir
Laid down	12 November 1913
Launched	12 September 1916
Commissioned	1 September 1917
Identification	Pennant number: 07
Nickname(s)	Millie[1]
Fate	Sold for scrap, 2 February 1948
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Revenge-class battleship
Displacement	27,790 long tons (28,236 t) (design) 31,130 long tons (31,630 t) (Deep load)
Length	620 ft 7 in (189.2 m)
Beam	101 ft 5.5 in (30.9 m)
Draught	33 ft 7 in (10.2 m) (Deep load)
Installed power	18 Babcock & Wilcox boilers 40,000 shp (30,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 shafts; 4 steam turbines
Speed	21.5 knots (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph)
Range	7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 10 knots (18.5 km/h; 11.5 mph)
Crew	909
Armament	4 × twin 15 in (381 mm) guns 14 × single 6 in (152 mm) guns 2 × single 3 in (76 mm) AA guns 4 × single 3-pdr (47 mm (1.9 in)) guns 4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Waterline belt: 13 in (330 mm) Deck: 1–4 in (25–102 mm) Barbettes: 6–10 in (152–254 mm) Gun turrets: 11–13 in (279–330 mm) Conning tower: 3–11 in (76–279 mm) Bulkheads: 4–6 in (102–152 mm)

HMS Ramillies (pennant number: 07) was one of five Revenge-class super-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. They were developments of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, with reductions in size and speed to offset increases in the armour protection whilst retaining the same main battery of eight 15-inch (381 mm) guns. Completed in late 1917, Ramillies saw no combat during the war as both the British and the German fleets had adopted a more cautious strategy by this time owing to the increasing threat of naval mines and submarines.

Ramillies spent the 1920s and 1930s alternating between the Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet. Whilst serving in the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the early 1920s, the ship went to Turkey twice in response to crises arising from the Greco-Turkish War, including the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922. She also saw limited involvement during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The ship's interwar career was otherwise uneventful. With the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Ramillies was initially assigned to escort duties in the North Atlantic. In May 1940, she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as war with Italy loomed. After the Italians entered the war in June, Ramillies bombarded Italian ports in North Africa, escorted convoys to Malta, and supported the Taranto raid in November.

The ship returned to Atlantic escort duties in 1941, during which time she prevented the two Scharnhorst-class battleships from attacking a convoy; she also joined the search for the battleship Bismarck. In late 1941, Ramillies was transferred to the Eastern Fleet as tensions with Japan rose; the following year, she was the flagship for the invasion of Madagascar. While moored there, she was torpedoed and badly damaged by Japanese midget submarines. The ship was updated for coastal bombardment duties in 1944, which she performed later that year during the Normandy landings in June and the invasion of southern France in August. In January 1945, the worn-out battleship was withdrawn from service and used as a barracks ship attached to the training establishment HMS Vernon. She was ultimately broken up in 1948.