HMS Queen Elizabeth was a Queen Elizabeth Class Battleship built for the British Royal Navy during the years of 1912 to 1914. Queen Elizabeth Class Battlships were designed specifically to oppose the leading ship of any battle-line against her; thus needing maximum firepower as well as superior speed. Of the 6 planned, 5 were completed and one canceled.
Queen Elizabeth Class Battleships served between the years of 1914 to 1947.
Preceded by: Iron Duke class
Succeeded by: Revenge class
HMS Queen Elizabeth was the flagship of the Grand Fleet only towards the end of WWI. Her main action of interest happens well into WWII. In May 1941 she returned to the Mediterranean to cover a convoy (Operation Tiger), where she joined the 1st Battle Squadron as Flagship, Mediterranean Fleet.
On 8 May she narrowly avoided a torpedo attack. Based at Alexandria, Queen Elizabeth operated in the eastern Mediterranean in support of the evacuation of Crete and of the supply convoys to Malta.
On 19 December 1941 while anchored at Alexandria, she was heavily damaged by limpet mines in an attack by the Italian two-man chariots of the Decima Mas, launched from the submarine Scire. The charges exploded below 'B' boiler room and destroyed some 11,000 square feet of the double bottom. Three boiler rooms flooded and the ship settled to the bottom, though her decks remained above water.
After makeshift repairs she sailed for the USA and full repairs at Norfolk Navy Yard on 27 June 1942. On 26 June 1943 she sailed for England and worked-up with the Home Fleet.
On 23 December 1943 Queen Elizabeth sailed for the Indian Ocean with the 1st Battle Squadron, arriving to join the Eastern Fleet at Colombo on 30 January 1944.
As Flagship she participated in the carrier raid on Sabang 16-24 April, on Surabaya (TF65) 6-27 May, and a mixed carrier and gunnery bombardment raid on Sabang 22 June-17 July, this latter being the first time that the Eastern Fleet had used its guns against Japanese shore targets.
She was under refit at Durban in October-November 1944, but participated in a raid against refineries at Belawan and airfields at Sabang by aircraft carriers 17-23 November. She provided gunnery support for the landings at Ramree Island during the Arakan campaign in January 1945, and in April, as a unit of TF63, took part in another carrier and bombardment raid against Sabang. By April 1945 Queen Elizabeth was involved in shelling Car Nicobar and Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, covering the capture of Rangoon.
She was relieved by Nelson on 12 July 1945 and returned home, arriving at Portsmouth on 7 August 1945 and reduced to reserve at Rosyth on 10 August.