HMS Howe (32)
_passing_Suez_Canal_1944.jpg)
Howe transiting Suez Canal on her way to the Pacific, July 1944
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Howe |
| Ordered: | 28 April 1937 |
| Builder: | Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company |
| Laid down: | 1 June 1937 |
| Launched: | 9 April 1940 |
| Completed: | 31 March 1941 |
| Commissioned: | 29 August 1942 |
| Decommissioned: | 1950 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: 53 |
| Motto: | "God's will be done" (Utcumque placuerit deo) |
| Fate: | Scrapped at Inverkeithing in 1958 |
| Badge: | In front of a circle of chain gold, a sword erect point upwards with a diamond studded hilt proper, surmounted by a wolf's head couped black |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | King George V-class battleship |
| Displacement: | |
| Length: | 744 feet 11.5 inches (227.1 m) 740 ft 1 in (225.6 m) (waterline) |
| Beam: | 103 feet (31.4 m) |
| Draught: | 29 feet 6 inches (9.0 m) |
| Installed power: | 110,000 shp (82,000 kW) |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 28.3 knots (52.4 km/h; 32.6 mph) |
| Range: | 15,600 nmi (28,900 km; 18,000 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement: | 1,521 (1941) |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 4 Supermarine Walrus seaplanes, 1 double-ended catapult |
HMS Howe (pennant number 32) was the last of the five British King George V-class battleships of the Royal Navy. Built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, she was laid down on 1 June 1937 and launched 9 April 1940. She was originally to have been named Beatty but this was changed to Howe, after Admiral Richard Howe. Howe was completed on 29 August 1942 after her building time was extended, as needed war supplies were diverted to work of a higher priority such as the construction and repair of both merchant ships and escort ships. Like her sister-ship Anson, Howe would spend most of her career in the Arctic providing cover for Russian convoys.
In 1943 Howe took part in Operation Husky and bombarded Trapani naval base and Favignana in support of the allied invasions. Along with King George V, Howe escorted two surrendered Italian battleships to Alexandria. Howe was also sent to the Pacific and attached to Task Force 113, where she provided naval bombardments for the Allied landings at Okinawa on 1 April 1945.
Following the end of the war, Howe spent four years as flagship of the Training Squadron at Portland, before she was placed in reserve in 1950. The battleship was marked for disposal in 1957, sold for scrap in 1958, and completely broken up by 1961.
In the aftermath of the First World War, the Washington Naval Treaty was drawn up in 1922 in an effort to stop an arms race developing between Britain, Japan, France, Italy and the United States. This treaty limited the number of ships each nation was allowed to build and capped the tonnage of all capital ships at 35,000 tons. These restrictions were extended in 1930 through the Treaty of London, however, by the mid-1930s Japan and Italy had withdrawn from both of these treaties and the British became concerned about a lack of modern battleships within their navy. As a result, the Admiralty ordered the construction of a new battleship class: the King George V class. Due to the provisions of both the Washington Naval Treaty and the Treaty of London, both of which were still in effect when the King George Vs were being designed, the main armament of the class was limited to the 14-inch (356 mm) guns prescribed under these instruments. They were the only battleships built at that time to adhere to the treaty and even though it soon became apparent to the British that the other signatories to the treaty were ignoring its requirements, it was too late to change the design of the class before they were laid down in 1937.
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