Montague Dawson

(British, 1890-1973)

H.M.S. Howe steaming at speed in open water

Footnotes

Named for the victor of the battle of the 'Glorious First of June' (1794), H.M.S. Howe was the last to be completed of the five "King George V" class battleships ordered in 1936 and laid down in 1937. Like her essentially identical sisters, Howe displaced 36,750 tons (44,460 fully loaded) and measured 745 feet in length with a massive 103 foot beam. Built by Fairfields on the Clyde, she was launched on 9th April 1940 and ready for sea in August 1942. Heavily armed with 10-14in. guns, and 16-5.25in. guns, she could make almost 30 knots at full speed and proved a powerful addition to the fleet in every way. She, like her sisters, was also regarded as a particularly handsome ship given the slender and overlong foredeck which her designers had favoured and which gave her such a beautiful silhouette.

Initially attached to the Home fleet, she was detached to the Mediterranean in May 1943 to join Vice-Admiral Willis's 'Force H' in readiness to support "Operation Husky", the allied invasion of Sicily, that July. Flying the flag of Vice-Admiral Power, she was amongst the capital ships which bombarded the naval base at Trapani, and then remained in Italian waters for some time after the successful invasion to take part in all the subsequent operations in the region. Re-commissioned in July 1944 and sent to join the Eastern Fleet based at Trincomali, she later became Flagship to Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, C.in C. of the newly-formed Pacific Fleet. After lending valuable support to U.S. forces in a number of Pacific operations including the allied landings on Okinawa on 1st April 1945, she was sent to South Africa to refit that June. With the War over by the time the work was finished, she returned to Portsmouth (in January 1946) where she spent the next four years as flagship to the Training Squadron based at Portland. Placed in reserve in 1950, she was sold for scrapping in 1958 and had been completely broken up by 1961.

We are grateful to Michael Naxton for his assistance with cataloguing this lot.