Scale: 1:48. One of the largest and most impressive models in our collection, the ‘King George V’ overwhelms visitors to the Museum by its sheer size at over five metres in length. With its bespoke case and display table it weighs around half a tonne so moving it is always a considerable operation. Its immensity belies the modelmakers’ close and meticulous attention to the smallest details. The awarding of the five ships of the class to the successful shipyards would have been prestigious contracts and this model is a potent symbol of Vickers Armstrong’s pride at winning an order of such status and importance. Metal fittings, including the anchor cable links, have been silver-plated; rigging has been reproduced to scale in silk, woven cotton, and copper wire; the ship’s boats and its ‘Walrus’ amphibious biplane are models in their own right. Looking along the deck, one is made aware of the fact that these ships were floating fortresses.

When the Washington Treaty terminated on 31 December 1936 the fifteen years of international limitations on the design of warships came to and end and the Great Powers were again able to proceed with unrestricted battleship construction. In Britain, in the mid-1930s, with the exception of HMS ‘Rodney’ and HMS ‘Nelson’, the battle fleet consisted entirely of capital ships built or designed during the First World War. A building programme began in earnest and, by July 1937 all five ships of the ‘King George V class’ were laid down. They were to be 745 feet overall, a beam of 103 feet, and a displacement of 44,460 tons. The total weight of the armour alone was 12,410 tons, which included an armoured belt, 15 inches thick, protecting the magazines. They had ten 14 inch guns arranged over three turrets, two positioned fore and one aft. Thus, uniquely, two of the turrets had quadruple mountings, making the class immediately identifiable. HMS ‘King George V’, herself, was the first of the class to be launched on 21 February 1939, and she was completed in the autumn of the following year.

Early 1941 found her on North Atlantic escort duty and, in March, covering a landing force in the Lofoten Islands, Norway. She replaced HMS ‘Nelson’ as the flagship of the Home Fleet in April and, in the following month, took part in the epic search and final destruction of the ‘Bismarck’. With a rate of fire from her 14 inch broadside of two rounds per-gun, per-minute, she unleashed 339 shells at the German battleship. Despite the unequal battle that ensued it was difficult for the Allied ships to finish off ‘Bismarck’. Although clearly damaged by “KGV” and the other attacking ships, her surviving crew maintained that she was eventually scuttled. During her time as a convoy escort to and from Russia, from 1942-43, ‘King George V’ accidentally rammed and sank the ‘Tribal class’ destroyer ‘Punjabi’. The battleship herself received extensive damage to her bow and she limped to Rosyth, Scotland, for repairs. Following her return to duty, in July 1943, she was dispatched to the Mediterranean to cover the Sicily landings and carry out bombardments against the Italian coast line. Shortly after that she was present at the occupation of Taranto.

Following a refit ‘King George V’ arrived in the Far East in December 1944 and the following month, at the request of Admiral Nimitz, Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific, she provided cover for the carrier attack on the oil refineries at Sumatra. From March until the end of May 1945, she was almost continuously at sea working mainly with the US Navy. She took part in the bombardment of Tokyo and other ports on the Japanese mainland, and was present at the surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay, on 15 August. After the War she was refitted and recommissioned as the flagship of the Home Fleet. She was decommissioned in December 1949 and placed in reserve, until her arrival in the Clyde for scrapping on 20 January 1958.