Iron Duke was laid down at
Portsmouth Dockyard on 12 January 1912 and launched on 12 October of that year. After completing
fitting-out work, she began
sea trials on 25 November 1913. The ship was completed in March 1914, On 29 July 1914, as war loomed on the Continent,
Iron Duke and the rest of the Home Fleet was ordered to proceed to
Scapa Flow from
Portland to safeguard the fleet from a possible German surprise attack.
World War I In August 1914, after the outbreak of
World War I, the Home Fleet was reorganised as the
Grand Fleet;
Iron Duke remained the flagship of the fleet, now under Admiral
Sir John Jellicoe.
Iron Duke and most of the fleet initially remained in port during the German
raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914, though the
3rd Battle Squadron was sent to reinforce the British forces in the area. After receiving further information about the possibility of the rest of the German fleet being at sea, Jellicoe gave the order for the fleet to sortie to try to intercept the Germans, though by that time they had already retreated.
Iron Duke went to sea with the
2nd and
4th Battle Squadrons for gunnery practice north of the
Hebrides on 23 and 24 December. The following day, the rest of the fleet joined
Iron Duke for a sweep in the North Sea, which concluded on 27 December.
Iron Duke and the rest of the fleet conducted gunnery drills on 10–13 January 1915 west of
Orkney and
Shetland. On the evening of 23 January, the bulk of the Grand Fleet sailed in support of Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, but
Iron Duke and the rest of the fleet did not become engaged in the ensuing
Battle of Dogger Bank the following day. Upon returning from the operation,
Iron Duke went to
Invergordon for refit; while she was away, acted as the temporary fleet flagship. The work was completed by 23 February, after which she returned to Scapa Flow. On 7–10 March, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it conducted training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place on 16–19 March. On 11 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a patrol in the central North Sea and returned to port on 14 April; another patrol in the area took place on 17–19 April, followed by gunnery drills off Shetland on 20–21 April. The Grand Fleet conducted a sweep into the central North Sea on 17–19 May without encountering any German vessels. On 25 May,
Iron Duke carried Jellicoe to
Rosyth to meet with Admiral
Henry Jackson, the new
First Sea Lord.
Iron Duke returned to Scapa Flow on 28 May, in time to participate in another sweep into the North Sea on 29–31 May. After returning to Scapa Flow,
Iron Duke immediately departed for
Cromarty. The fleet conducted gunnery training in mid-June.
Iron Duke, the 2nd Battle Squadron, and the
1st Cruiser Squadron conducted gunnery training at Cromarty on 2 August; after completing the drills, the ships returned to Scapa Flow. On 7 August, the ship again took Jellicoe to Cromarty for another meeting, this time with the Prime Minister,
H. H. Asquith.
Iron Duke was back in Scapa Flow by 16 August. On 2–5 September, the fleet went on another cruise in the northern end of the North Sea and conducted gunnery drills. Throughout the rest of the month, the Grand Fleet conducted numerous training exercises.
Iron Duke went to Invergordon on 1 October for another period of refitting—the work lasted until 11 October. Two days later, the majority of the fleet conducted another sweep into the North Sea, returning to port on 15 October. On 2–5 November,
Iron Duke participated in another fleet training operation west of Orkney. Another such cruise took place on 1–4 December. Later in the month,
Iron Duke took part in gunnery drills, and during them, conducted an experiment of sorts to determine the accuracy of the ship's gunners. Jellicoe concluded that the "result was very satisfactory."
Iron Duke collided with the tanker on 12 January 1916 while in Scapa Flow, and the latter sank. The fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February; Jellicoe had intended to use the
Harwich Force to sweep the
Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. On the night of 25 March,
Iron Duke and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow to support the Battlecruiser Fleet and other light forces that raided the German
zeppelin base at
Tondern. By the time the Grand Fleet approached the area on 26 March, the British and German forces had already disengaged and a severe gale threatened the light craft.
Iron Duke guided the
destroyers back to Scapa while the rest of the fleet retired independently. On 21 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a demonstration off
Horns Reef to distract the Germans while the Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the
Baltic Sea. The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a
raid on Lowestoft. The Grand Fleet did not arrive in the area until after the Germans had withdrawn, however. On 2–4 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea.
Battle of Jutland In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the German
High Seas Fleet, composed of 16 dreadnoughts, six pre-dreadnoughts, six light cruisers, and 31 torpedo boats, departed the Jade early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Rear Admiral
Franz von Hipper's five battlecruisers and supporting cruisers and torpedo boats. The Royal Navy's
Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. The Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, totalling some 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. On the day of the battle,
Iron Duke steamed with the 4th Battle Squadron, and was the 9th ship in the British
line. The initial action was fought primarily by the British and German
battlecruiser formations in the afternoon, but by 18:00, the Grand Fleet approached the scene. At around 18:14, two large-calibre shells fell near
Iron Duke but caused no damage. Fifteen minutes later,
Iron Duke had closed to effective gunnery range—some —of the German fleet, and took the dreadnought under fire.
Iron Dukes first salvo fell short, but the next three were on target; the ship's gunner claimed at least six hits on the German battleship. In fact, they had scored seven hits on
König and inflicted significant damage. Shortly after 19:00, fighting around the disabled German cruiser —which had been badly damaged earlier in the engagement—resumed.
Iron Duke opened fire on the crippled cruiser and nearby destroyers with her secondary battery at 19:11 at a range of .
Iron Dukes gunners claimed to have sunk one of the destroyers and hit a second, but they had in fact missed their targets entirely. Shortly thereafter, the German destroyers attempted to launch a torpedo attack on the British line;
Iron Duke began firing at 19:24. The sinking of the destroyer is credited to a salvo from
Iron Duke, but determining which ship fired which shells in the melee is difficult, according to naval historian John Campbell. Following the German destroyer attack, the High Seas Fleet disengaged, and
Iron Duke and the rest of the Grand Fleet saw no further action in the battle. This was, in part, due to confusion aboard
Iron Duke over the exact location and course of the German fleet; without this information, Jellicoe could not bring his fleet to action. At 21:30, the Grand Fleet began to reorganise into its nighttime cruising formation. Early on the morning of 1 June, the Grand Fleet combed the area, looking for damaged German ships, but after spending several hours searching, they found none.
Iron Duke returned to Scapa Flow, arriving at 11:30. Over the course of the battle,
Iron Duke had fired ninety rounds from her main battery, along with fifty rounds from her secondary guns.
Subsequent actions in the North Sea boarding
Iron Duke on 5 June 1916 On 18 August, the Germans again sortied, this time to bombard
Sunderland; Scheer hoped to draw out Beatty's battlecruisers and destroy them. British signals intelligence decrypted German wireless transmissions, allowing Jellicoe enough time to deploy the Grand Fleet in an attempt to engage in a decisive battle. Both sides withdrew, however, after their opponents'
submarines inflicted losses in the
action of 19 August 1916: the British cruisers and were both torpedoed and sunk by German
U-boats, and the German battleship was damaged by the British submarine . After returning to port, Jellicoe issued an order that prohibited risking the fleet in the southern half of the North Sea due to the overwhelming risk from mines and U-boats unless the odds of defeating the High Seas Fleet in a decisive engagement were high. In the aftermath of Jutland, the Royal Navy determined that horizontal protection, particularly over ammunition magazines, was insufficient. As a result, many ships in the Grand Fleet had additional armour installed;
Iron Duke went into dock for this work in October. The work, which saw over of armour added to the ship, was completed by December. On 28 November 1916, while she was still in dry dock, Admiral Beatty replaced Jellicoe as the commander of the Grand Fleet;
Iron Duke served as his flagship until January 1917, when he transferred to . In 1918, flying-off platforms for aircraft were installed on
Iron Dukes "B" and "Q" turrets.
Post-war career In March 1919,
Iron Duke was transferred to the
Mediterranean Fleet, where she again served as flagship. The ship went into the
Black Sea in April to participate in the
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. There,
Iron Duke was involved in the destruction of warships and other
materiel that might be used by the
Bolsheviks. On 12 May,
Iron Duke travelled from Constantinople to
Smyrna, where she provided a landing party to occupy some of the city's outer forts. She returned to the Black Sea, where she remained until June, when she returned to the Mediterranean. On 14 October, the ship stopped in
Sevastopol.
Iron Duke returned to Novorossiysk on 19 January 1920. On 25 January, she stopped in the ports of
Yalta and Sevastopol to inspect the situation of the White Russians there. On 17 June, shore parties from
Iron Duke and the destroyer destroyed Turkish guns in the forts protecting the
Bosporus on the Black Sea. On 2 September 1922,
Iron Duke was steaming to the
Dalmatian coast for a training cruise, when she received news of the Greek defeat in Turkey. Admiral
Osmond Brock, the Mediterranean Fleet commander, ordered
Iron Duke to proceed to Smyrna, where he expected disturbances. There, she served as the flagship of the British naval forces participating in the evacuation of Greek refugees from the city. She was present during the
Great Fire that devastated the city. The following month, the Allies held a conference aboard
Iron Duke at
Mudania to mediate the Greco-Turkish dispute. in 1921 In November 1924,
Queen Elizabeth relieved
Iron Duke as the Mediterranean Fleet flagship;
Iron Duke was then transferred to the 3rd Battle Squadron, Mediterranean Fleet, where she became the squadron flagship. The 3rd Squadron was moved to the
Atlantic Fleet in March 1926, where it was used as a training squadron.
Iron Duke remained the squadron flagship during this period, until 30 May 1928, when she was relieved by her sister
Benbow. That year, the aircraft launching-platform mounted on
Iron Dukes "B" turret was removed. The ship went into dry dock in May 1928 for a periodic refit; the work lasted until May 1929. Two anti-aircraft guns were installed on the forward superstructure. The aircraft platform on "Q" turret was also removed during this period.
Iron Duke returned to service on 30 May 1929, when she was recommissioned as a gunnery training ship. She served in this capacity for only a year and a half, however. On 16 July 1935, she was present at the Silver Jubilee
fleet review at
Spithead for King
George V. She attended another Fleet Review, the coronation review for
George VI, on 20 May 1937. On 16 March 1940 the ship, which was still beached, was attacked again by
Luftwaffe aircraft. This time, eighteen Ju 88s attacked the harbour and surrounding installations.
Iron Duke was again badly damaged, as was the
heavy cruiser . The ship's presence in Scapa Flow may have affected the Germans' plans during
Operation Rheinübung, the Atlantic sortie of the battleship in May 1941. German aerial reconnaissance spotted
Iron Duke and two decoy battleships, merchant ships that had been camouflaged with wood and canvas to look like s, in the harbour, and erroneously identified them as active units of the Home Fleet. Under the mistaken impression that the heavy units of the Home Fleet were still in port, the German fleet commander,
Günther Lütjens, decided to break into the Atlantic via the
Denmark Strait, which resulted in the
Battle of the Denmark Strait. The ship was later repaired and returned to service as a harbour ship for the duration of the war, though she remained beached.
Iron Dukes bell is on display at
Winchester Cathedral. Some of the ship's timbers were used to create commemorative souvenirs, often bearing a plaque describing their origin. ==Footnotes==