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| HMS Valiant (D23) | |
|---|---|
| Ship name | HMS Valiant (D23) |
| Ship class | Valiant-class battleship |
| Built by | Vickers-Armstrongs |
| Laid down | 1912 |
| Launched | 1914 |
| Commissioned | 1916 |
| Decommissioned | 1954 |
| Fate | Scrapped |
| Displacement | 27,800 long tons (standard) |
| Length | 745 ft |
| Beam | 106 ft |
| Draught | 29 ft |
| Propulsion | Parsons steam turbines |
| Speed | 21 kn |
| Complement | 1,301 officers and ratings |
| Armour | 11 in belt |
| Armament | 10 × 15-inch guns; 16 × 4-inch guns; 3 × 21 in torpedo tubes |
HMS Valiant (D23) was a Royal Navy battleship of the Valiant-class battleship built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow-in-Furness. Commissioned during World War I, she served with the Grand Fleet and saw major operations through World War II, including operations in the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. Valiant underwent multiple refits and modernisations, survived major naval engagements such as the Battle of Taranto and the Bombing of Alexandria (1941) aftermath, and was paid off and scrapped in the post-war drawdown.
Valiant was ordered under the 1910–11 Naval Programme and laid down at Vickers' Naval Construction Works alongside her sister HMS Warspite. Designed as a response to developments in the Kaiserliche Marine and the Imperial Japanese Navy, the class incorporated lessons from the Dreadnought revolution initiated by HMS Dreadnought (1906). Her hull lines derived from contemporary Admiralty design bureaux concepts and benefited from industrial advances at Cammell Laird and John Brown & Company shipyards. Launched in 1914 and completed in 1916, Valiant joined the Home Fleet and was integrated into the 1st Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet based at Scapa Flow and later Rosyth Dockyard.
Valiant mounted ten BL 15-inch Mk I guns in five twin turrets, patterned after the armament of HMS Queen Elizabeth (1914), with fire-control systems influenced by developments at Admiralty Research Laboratory and the Royal Navy Fire Control Table initiatives. Secondary batteries comprised 4-inch QF guns for anti-destroyer defence, while submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes provided a tertiary offensive capability similar to that on contemporaries like HMS Royal Sovereign (1915). Armour protection used Krupp cemented armour supplied via Vickers and incorporated belt, barbettes, and turret face designs validated by trials at Firing Range, Isle of Grain and techniques recommended by the Director of Naval Construction. Propulsion employed Parsons turbines fed by Yarrow and Babcock & Wilcox boilers, reflecting boiler design standards used in Royal Navy capital ships and merchant escort conversions. During interwar refits, electrical systems and radar were upgraded with gear from Marconi Company and Admiralty Signal Establishment programmes, and anti-aircraft suites were expanded following lessons from Spanish Civil War naval observations.
Valiant entered service with the Grand Fleet during World War I and was present in the fleet actions and sorties that defined the northern theatre against the Kaiserliche Marine High Seas Fleet. In the interwar years she took part in Mediterranean deployments during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) era of imperial policing and fleet exercises with allies including the French Navy, Regia Marina, and units from the United States Navy under various treating and training arrangements linked to the Washington Naval Treaty environment. By World War II, Valiant had been heavily modernised and deployed to the Mediterranean under commanders coordinating with Force H at Gibraltar and later with the Home Fleet for convoy escort operations linked to the Battle of the Atlantic and Operation Pedestal. Valiant was one of the battleships involved in the Battle of Calabria era manoeuvres and provided naval gunfire support during operations in support of Operation Crusader and the Siege of Malta. She was at Alexandria during the Japanese-style carrier strike lessons derived from the Imperial Japanese Navy attack patterns, which manifested dramatically in the Battle of Taranto; Valiant, with sister ships like HMS Warspite, was damaged in harbour during the Italian torpedo bomber attack phases and underwent repairs at Alexandria Naval Dockyard and later at Portsmouth Dockyard. In 1942–1943 she escorted convoys for the Operation Torch landings and supported Allied operations in the Sicily campaign and Italian Campaign. Later she served with the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean theatre before returning to home waters.
After Victory in Europe Day and the subsequent surrender in Asia, Valiant was assessed in the post-war reduction ordered by the Admiralty Board and the British Government's austerity policies. With rapid demobilisation and the emergence of aircraft carrier-centric doctrines exemplified by HMS Ark Royal (1938) and USS Enterprise (CV-6), older battleships were deemed surplus. Valiant was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Portsmouth and later nominated for disposal. She was sold for scrap to Metal Industries and towed to Swansea for breaking up in 1954, mirroring the fates of contemporaries like HMS Resolution (1916) and HMS Royal Oak (1916) which met different ends during or after the wars.
Valiant's legacy is preserved through records held at the National Maritime Museum, ship plans in the National Archives (United Kingdom), and trials data cited in Royal Navy doctrinal histories at the Imperial War Museum. Her wartime service influenced battleship-modernisation debates at the Admiralty War Staff and contributed to operational analyses compiled by the Royal Historical Society and naval historians such as Sir Julian Corbett-style analysts and post-war scholars including Michael Howard-era strategic studies. Surviving artefacts, plaques, and badge carvings are in collections at Caird Library and various naval museums; oral histories from crew members appear in interviews archived by the BBC and the Oral History Society. Valiant remains a subject in naval wargaming and model-making communities associated with the Royal Yacht Squadron and naval heritage organisations like the Society for Nautical Research.
Category:Valiant-class battleships Category:Ships built by Vickers