HMS MALAYA

HMS Malaya was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. Shortly after commissioning in 1916, she participated in the Battle of Jutland as part of the Grand Fleet.

Other than that battle, and the inconclusive Action of 19 August, her service during the First World War generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.

Design and description

The Queen Elizabeth-class ships were designed to form a fast squadron for the fleet that was intended to operate against the leading ships of the opposing battleline.

This required maximum offensive power and a speed several knots faster than any other battleship to allow them to defeat any type of ship.

HMS Malaya had a length overall of 643 feet 9 inches (196.2 m), a beam of 90 feet 7 inches (27.6 m) and a deep draught of 33 feet (10.1 m). She had a normal displacement of 32,590 long tons (33,110 t) and displaced 33,260 long tons (33,794 t) at deep load.

She was powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam from 24 Yarrow boilers.

The turbines were rated at 75,000 hp (56,000 kW) and intended to reach a maximum speed of 24 knots (44.4 km/h; 27.6 mph).

HMS Malaya had a range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,260 km; 5,754 mi) at a cruising speed of 12 knots (22.2 km/h; 13.8 mph). Her crew numbered 1,217 officers and ratings in 1919.

The Queen Elizabeth class was equipped with eight breech-loading (BL) 15-inch (381 mm) Mk I guns in four twin gun turrets, in two superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure, designated ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘X’, and ‘Y’ from front to rear.

Twelve of the fourteen BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk XII guns were mounted in casemates along the broadside of the vessel amidships; the remaining pair were mounted on the forecastle deck near the aft funnel and were protected by gun shields.

Their anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of two quick-firing (QF) 3-inch (76 mm) 20 cwt Mk guns. The ships were fitted with four submerged 21 inches (533 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside.

HMS Malaya was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with 15-foot (4.6 m) rangefinders. One was mounted above the conning tower, protected by an armored hood, and the other was in the spotting top above the tripod foremast.

Each turret was also fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. The main armament could be controlled by ‘B’ turret as well. The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in April 1917.

The waterline belt of the Queen Elizabeth class consisted of Krupp cemented armor (KC) that was 13 inches (330 mm) thick over the ships’ vitals. The gun turrets were protected by 11 to 13 inches (279 to 330 mm) of KC armor and were supported by barbettes 7–10 inches (178–254 mm) thick.

The ships had multiple armored decks that ranged from 1 to 3 inches (25 to 76 mm) in thickness. The main conning tower was protected by 13 inches of armor.

After the Battle of Jutland, 1 inch of high-tensile steel was added to the main deck over the magazines and additional anti-flash equipment was added in the magazines.

Construction and career

HMS Malaya was built by Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth and Company at High Walker and launched in March 1915.

She was named in honor of the Federated Malay States in British Malaya, whose government paid for her construction. She served in Rear-Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomas’s 5th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet.

She took part in the Battle of Jutland, on 31 May 1916, where she was hit eight times and took major damage and heavy crew casualties.

A total of 65 men died, in the battle or later of their injuries.

Among the wounded was Able Seaman Willie Vicarage, notable as one of the first men to receive facial reconstruction using plastic surgery and the first to receive radical reconstruction via the “tubed pedicule” technique pioneered by Sir Harold Gillies.

Uniquely among the ships at the battle, HMS Malaya flew the red-white-black-yellow ensign of the Federated Malay States.

Between the wars

On 17 November 1922 HMS Malaya carried the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, from Istanbul into exile on Malta (and later San Remo). In August–September 1938 she served in the port of Haifa during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine.

Unlike her sisters Queen Elizabeth, Warspite and Valiant, Malaya did not undergo a comprehensive reconstruction between the wars. She did receive a Le Cheminant deck watch from the Royal Observatory on 5 April 1933.

Second World War

HMS Malaya served in the Mediterranean in 1940, escorting convoys and operating against the Italian fleet. She shelled Genoa in February 1941 as part of Operation Grog but due to a crew error, fired a 15-inch armor-piercing shell into the south-east corner of the Cathedral Nave. The fuse failed to detonate.

In March 1941, HMS Malaya’s presence in a convoy near Cape Verde was sufficiently discouraging to the German commerce raiders Scharnhorst and Gneisenau that they withdrew rather than risk damage in an attack.

HMS Malaya was damaged by a torpedo from U-106 at 2323 on 20 March 1941. U-106 attacked the shadow of a merchant ship with a spread of two stern torpedoes in a bad light from the port side of the Convoy SL 68 about 250 miles west-northwest of the Cape Verde Islands. Kapitänleutnant Jürgen Oesten heard hits after 2 minutes 37 seconds and 3 minutes 35 seconds.

One torpedo damaged HMS Malaya and the other the Meerkerk. HMS Malaya was hit by the torpedo on the port side, causing considerable damage.

Due to the flooding of some compartments, the ship took a list of 7 degrees but safely reached Trinidad.

After temporary repairs were made, she continued to the New York Navy Yard, where she was docked for four months.

On 9 July, under the command of Captain Cuthbert Coppinger, the battleship left New York on trials and steamed to Halifax, Nova Scotia to provide protection for an urgent fast convoy.

No ships were lost, and HMS Malaya arrived in Rosyth on 28 July.

Thereafter she escorted convoys from the United Kingdom to Malta and Cape Town until summer 1943.

HMS Malaya was placed in reserve at the end of 1943. During this time her entire secondary 6-inch armament was offloaded and her anti-aircraft armament was enhanced.

Between 15 and 17 May 1944, HMS Malaya was used in Loch Striven as a target ship for inert bouncing bomb prototypes, one of which punched a hole in the ship’s side.

She was reactivated just before the Normandy landings to act as a reserve bombardment battleship.

Fate

HMS Malaya was finally withdrawn from all service at the end of 1944 and became an accommodation ship for a torpedo school.

Sold on 20 February 1948 to Metal Industries, she arrived at Faslane on 12 April 1948 for scrapping.

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21.6.2019: 8.53 pm