Destroyer HMS Meteor

The destroyer HMS Meteor belonged to the Thornycroft M-Class which consisted of six destroyers and was put into service shortly before and shortly after the beginning of the First World War.

 

Launching and design:

On February 1, 1913 an order of the British Admiralty to the company John I. Thornycroft & Company over two destroyers of the Thornycroft M-class. The construction of the ships was based on the Admiralty M-class, but you could distinguish the ships at the middle of the three chimneys at the Thornycroft was significantly thicker.

In addition to the first two ships that were commissioned before the First World War, four more ships were ordered in 1915 to be used against the German Navy.

The launch of the HMS Meteor took place on July 24, 1914, the commissioning on September 15, 1914.

 

 

 

 

 

Use in the war:

After commissioning and testing, the HMS Meteor was assigned to the Channel Fleet and was to check merchant ships in the English Channel, which wanted to go in the direction of the German Reich or in the other direction.

Thus, on October 17, 1914, the German hospital ship Ophelia was controlled that survivors of the battle of the German 7th torpedo boats half flotilla and British ships. When the Ophelia crew sank documents in the water, the ship was confiscated, placed under the Royal Navy, and renamed Huntley.

On January 24, 1915, a German federation led an advance on the Dogger Bank to attack the local British outpost vessels. Since the British were already informed about the project by the intercepted radio communication, they sent themselves a federation of the Grand Fleet to the Doggerbank to intercept the German ships. In the morning of the day, the two associations met, in the course of the battle, the HMS Meteor tried to sink the already severely damaged SMS Blücher with a torpedo. In the attack, the ship itself received a hit that destroyed the front engine room and four crew members died. After the battle, the motionless ship had to be towed back to Britain.

1917 was a major conversion to a mine-laying. After graduation, the transfer to the 20th flotilla took place, with no further deployments until the end of the war.

 

 

 

Whereabouts:

After the war, the ship was assigned to the reserve. The decommissioned in May 1921 with the subsequent sale and scrapping.

 

 

 

Ship data:

Name:	HMS Meteor
Country:	Great Britain
Ship Type:	Destroyer From 1917: Minelayer
Class:	Thornycroft M-Class
Boatyard:	Thornycroft, Southampton
Building-costs:	unknown
Launched:	July 24, 1914
Commissioning:	September 15, 1914
Whereabouts:	On May 9, 1921 Sold and scrapped
Length:	84 meters
Width:	8,3 meters
Draft:	3,2 meters
Displacement:	Max. 1.004 tons
Crew:	78 men
Drive:	2 Parsons turbines
Power:	26.500 PSw (35,8 MW)
Maximum speed:	35 kn (65 km/h)
Armament:	3 x 102 mm Mk.IV guns 1 x 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns 4 x 21 inch torpedo tubes in 2 twin sets
Armor:	unknown

 

 

 

 

 

You can find the right literature here:

 

British Battleships of World War One

This new edition of a classic work on British battleships is the most sought after book on the subject. Containing many new photographs from the author's exhaustive collection this superb reference book presents the complete technical history of British capital ship design and construction during the dreadnought era. Beginning with Dreadnought, all of the fifty dreadnoughts, 'super-dreadnoughts' and battlecruisers that served the Royal Navy during this era are described and superbly illustrated with photographs and line drawings.

Click here!

 

 

The British Battleship: 1906-1946

Norman Friedman brings a new perspective to an ever-popular subject in The British Battleship: 1906-1946. With a unique ability to frame technologies within the context of politics, economics, and strategy, he offers unique insight into the development of the Royal Navy capital ships. With plans of the important classes commissioned from John Roberts and A D Baker III and a color section featuring the original Admiralty draughts, this book offers something to even the most knowledgeable enthusiast.

Click here!

 

 

British Battlecruisers 1905-1920

The brainchild of Admiral Sir John Fisher, battlecruisers combined heavy guns and high speed in the largest hulls of their era. Conceived as "super-cruisers" whose job it was to hunt down and destroy commerce raiders, their size and gun-power led to their inclusion in the battlefleet as a fast squadron of capital ships. This book traces in detail the development of Fisher's original idea into the first battlecruiser Invincible of 1908, through to the "Splendid Cats" of the Lion class, and culminating in HMS Hood in 1920, the largest warship in the world for the next twenty years. The origins of the unusual "light battlecruisers" of the Courageous type are also covered.

The well-publicized problems of British battlecruisers are examined, including the latest research throwing light on the catastrophic loss of three of the ships at the Battle of Jutland. The developmental history is backed by chapters covering machinery, armament, and armor, with a full listing of important technical data. The comprehensive collection of illustrations includes the author's superb drawings and original Admiralty plans reproduced in full color. This revised and updated edition of the classic work first published in 1997 will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in the most charismatic and controversial warships of the dreadnought era.

Click here!

 

 

British Battlecruiser vs German Battlecruiser: 1914–16 (Duel)

Battles at Dogger Bank and Jutland revealed critical firepower, armor, and speed differences in Royal Navy and Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) Battlecruiser designs.

Fast-moving and formidably armed, the battlecruisers of the British and German navies first encountered one another in 1915 at Dogger Bank and in the following year clashed near Jutland in the biggest battleship action of all time. In the decade before World War I Britain and Germany were locked in a naval arms race that saw the advent of first the revolutionary dreadnought, the powerful, fast-moving battleship that rendered earlier designs obsolete, and then an entirely new kind of vessel - the battlecruiser. The brainchild of the visionary British admiral John 'Jacky' Fisher, the battlecruiser was designed to operate at long range in 'flying squadrons', using its superior speed and powerful armament to hunt, outmanoeuvre and destroy any opponent. The penalty paid to reach higher speeds was a relative lack of armour, but Fisher believed that 'speed equals protection'. By 1914 the British had ten battlecruisers in service and they proved their worth when two battlecruisers, Invincible and Inflexible, sank the German armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off the Falklands in December 1914.

Based on a divergent design philosophy that emphasised protection over firepower, the Germans' battlecruisers numbered six by January 1915, when the rival battlecruisers first clashed at Dogger Bank in the North Sea. By this time the British battlecruisers had been given a new role - to locate the enemy fleet. Five British battlecruisers accompanied by other vessels intercepted and pursued a German force including three battlecruisers; although the battle was a British tactical victory with neither side losing any of its battlecruisers, the differences in the designs of the British and German ships were already apparent. The two sides responded very differently to this first clash; while the Germans improved their ammunition-handling procedures to lessen the risk of disabling explosions, the British drew the opposite lesson and stockpiled ammunition in an effort to improve their rate of fire, rendering their battlecruisers more vulnerable. The British also failed to improve the quality of their ammunition, which had often failed to penetrate the German ships' armour.

These differences were highlighted more starkly during the battle of Jutland in May 1916. Of the nine British battlecruisers committed, three were destroyed, all by their German counterparts. Five German battlecruisers were present, and of these, only one was sunk and the remainder damaged. The limitations of some of the British battlecruisers' fire-control systems, range-finders and ammunition quality were made clear; the Germans not only found the range more quickly, but spread their fire more effectively, and the German battlecruisers' superior protection meant that despite being severely mauled, all but one were able to evade the British fleet at the close of the battle. British communication was poor, with British crews relying on ship-to-ship flag and lamp signals even though wireless communication was available. Even so, both sides claimed victory and the controversy continues to this day.

Click here!

 

 

 

 

 

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