HMS Monarch (1911) - Service History

Service History

On her commissioning in Feb 1912, Monarch was the second of the Orion class to be completed, she was followed by the Thunderer in June and Conqueror in November of the same year, together they formed the second division of the 2nd Battle Squadron. Pre war their lives were typical of any other major warship in the British fleet with fleet manoeuvres and battle practice.

Early in World War I Monarch was un-successfully attacked by the German submarine U15, on the 8th of August 1914 and off the Fair Isle channel, U15, an early gasoline engined boat, was sighted on the surface by the cruiser HMS Birmingham, after Birmingham opened fire the submarine commenced diving, the cruiser then rammed the submarine which was lost with all 25 of her men, it was U15's first and last patrol.

On the 27th December 1914 Monarch rammed HMS Conqueror suffering moderate damage to her bow, she received temporary repairs at Scapa Flow before proceeding to Devonport for full repairs, she rejoined her sister-ships on the 20th January 1915, Conqueror was also seriously damaged in this collision. At the Battle of Jutland on the 31st May 1916 all four of the Orion Class ships were present under the leadership of Rear Admiral Arthur Leveson flying his flag in the Orion; his CO was Captain O. Backhouse. Monarch was commanded by Captain G.H. Borret. Monarch’s first action at Jutland came at 1833 when she sighted five German battleships, three Koenig and two Kaiser class ships. She opened with Armour Piercing Capped shells at the leading Koenig class ship, but could only fire two salvoes before the Koenig ships disappeared. She then fired a further salvo at the leading Kaiser class ship. Although claiming a ‘straddle’ on the leading Koenig, she actually scored one hit on the Koenig herself. This 13.5” shell hit the 6.75” casemate side armour in way of Number 1 port 5.9” gun, the shell burst on the armour blowing a hole some three by two feet in size. Most of the blast went downwards, blowing a ten foot square hole in the 1.5” thick armoured upper-deck; the deck was also driven down over a large area. Several charges for the 5.9” gun were ignited and burnt including those in the hoists to Number 14 magazine, but the fires did not penetrate the magazine. The crew of the gun had a lucky escape as an earlier nearby hit had forced them to evacuate the gun-house due to gas from the explosion and so no injuries were incurred. The gun however whilst largely undamaged had its sights and control cables destroyed. In 1914 Monarch sighted the German battle-cruiser Lutzow and opened on her with five salvoes of Armour Piercing Capped shells at a range of 17,300 yards increasing to 18,500 yards; straddles were claimed but no hits before the target was lost in smoke and spray. There were five hits on the Lutzow at this time and they could only have been fired by either the Orion or the Monarch. Lutzow was in serious trouble and was only saved from further serious damage by the actions of her escorting destroyers in making smoke and shielding her from view. This was effectively the end of the battle for the Orion class as the German high seas fleet was in retreat to the south under cover of smoke and a torpedo attack by their destroyers which for a while had the British fleet turned away to the North to avoid the torpedoes. In total Monarch fired 53 rounds of 13.5” shell all of which were Armour Piercing Capped shells. Like the rest of her sister ships she did not use her 4” secondary batteries, and also like the rest of her sister ships she received no damage or injuries. After the Battle of Jutland the German High Seas put in very few appearances on the North sea so life for the British fleet became mainly sweeps and patrols of the North Sea.

The Monarch was assigned as a target ship: on the 14th June 1924 she was assigned her final role, she was decommissioned and then stripped of anything valuable including scrap metals at Portsmouth dockyard. She was then towed out by dockyard tugs into the Hurd deep and on the 21st January 1925 she was attacked by a wave of bombers scoring several hits; this was followed by the light C class cruisers Carysfort, Caledon, Caracoa and Calliope firing shells of 6" caliber, and the V&W class destroyer Vectis using her guns of 4” calibre. Following this exercise the battle-cruisers Hood and Repulse, and the five Revenge class battleships, Revenge, Royal oak, Royal Sovereign, Ramilies and Resolution commenced firing with their 15” guns at her: the number of hits on Monarch are unknown but after 9 hours of shelling at 2200 she finally sank after a final hit from the Revenge approximately 50 miles south of the Scilly Isles.