King George V-class battleship (1911)

Audacious underway, about 1914
Class overview
Name	King George V class
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Orion class
Succeeded by	Iron Duke class
In commission	1912–1944
Completed	4
Lost	1
Scrapped	3
General characteristics (as built)
Type	Dreadnought battleship
Displacement	25,420 long tons (25,830 t) (normal)
Length	597 ft 9 in (182.2 m) (o/a)
Beam	89 ft 1 in (27.2 m)
Draught	28 ft 8 in (8.7 m)
Installed power	18 × water-tube boilers 27,000 shp (20,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × shafts; 2 × steam turbine sets
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range	6,310 nmi (11,690 km; 7,260 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	860–1,114 (1916)
Armament	5 × twin 13.5 in (343 mm) guns 16 × single 4 in (102 mm) guns 3 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 12 in (305 mm) Deck: 1–4 in (25–102 mm) Turrets: 11 in (280 mm) Barbettes: 10 in (254 mm)

The King George V-class battleships were a group of four dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the early 1910s that were sometimes termed super-dreadnoughts. The sister ships spent most of their careers assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Home and Grand Fleets, sometimes serving as flagships. In October 1914, Audacious struck a mine and sank. Aside from participating in the failed attempt to intercept the German ships that had bombarded Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in late 1914, the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive action of 19 August, the surviving ships' service during the First World War generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.

The three surviving ships were briefly reduced to reserve in 1919 before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1920–1921 where they played minor roles in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and the Chanak Crisis of 1922. The first ship to return to Britain, King George V, became a training ship in 1923 but the other two were placed into reserve again upon their return the following year. The imminent completion of the two Nelson-class battleships in 1927 forced the sale of King George V and Ajax for scrap at the end of 1926 while Centurion was converted into a target ship to comply with the tonnage limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty.

During the Second World War, Centurion was rearmed with light weapons and was converted into a blockship and was then modified into a decoy with dummy gun turrets. Centurion was sent to the Mediterranean in 1942 to escort a convoy to Malta, although the Italians quickly figured out the deception. The ship was deliberately sunk during the Invasion of Normandy in 1944 to form a breakwater.