Difference between revisions of "HMS Glorious"
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== Description == | == Description == | ||
<!-- ''In the first part of the description, cover the history of the ship's creation and military application. In the second part, tell the reader about using this ship in the game. Add a screenshot: if a beginner player has a hard time remembering vehicles by name, a picture will help them identify the ship in question.'' --> | <!-- ''In the first part of the description, cover the history of the ship's creation and military application. In the second part, tell the reader about using this ship in the game. Add a screenshot: if a beginner player has a hard time remembering vehicles by name, a picture will help them identify the ship in question.'' --> | ||
| − | + | One of the trio of the Courageous-class "large light cruisers", the {{PAGENAME}}'s design perfectly encapsulates First Sea Lord John ('Jackie') Fisher's obsession with superior speed and firepower. Built with his 'Baltic Project' in mind, the ship was designed with high speed and large guns to devastate enemy cruisers while having a shallow draught to allow operations supporting coastal landings in the Baltics. Despite being a capital ship, it was designed with paper thin armour, partly to allow for the high speed and partly to get around a restriction imposed by the Government on the construction of new capital ships, with First Sea Lord Fisher presenting the ships as simply large light cruisers. In fact, the ships were so lightly built that the lead ship HMS ''Courageous'' took not insignificant structural damage in rough seas during sea trials, buckling the hull and deck in several places, shearing off rivets and allowing water to pour in. | |
| + | |||
| + | As for the ''Glorious'', she saw only a brief action in her "large light cruiser" configuration" in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight, where she was forced to retreat after a shell in her forward 15 inch turret prematurely detonated inside the barrel. After the Great war ended, such a specialized ship like the ''Couragous''-class were deemed unnecessary, and all three of the Courageous-class would be converted into an aircraft carrier to make the better use of the hull (and to avoid being scrapped altogether by restrictions imposed by the Washington Naval treaty). | ||
| + | |||
| + | In her aircraft carrier configuration, HMS ''Glorious'' would went on to serve until the early stage of World War II. After being recalled from the hunt of the ''[[Admiral Graf Spee]]'' in 1940 to evacuate British aircrafts from Norway, ''Glorious'' was intercepted and sunk by German battleships ''[[Scharnhorst]]'' and ''Gneisenau'' on 8 June, 1940, with over 1,200 loss of lives. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Introduced in [[Update "Fire and Ice"]], the unconventional design of HMS Glorious in her 1919 configuration makes her very distinctive from the other "pocket battleships" at her BR, such as [[Admiral Graf Spee|Graf Spee]] and the [[IJN Ikoma|Ikoma]]. The ship is a true "glass cannon", featuring high offensive firepower in the form of four 381 mm cannons, numerous 102 mm guns, a huge stockpile of torpedoes, along with great mobility to boot, however still lacks adequate armour to shield from even cruiser-calibre guns. | ||
== General info == | == General info == | ||
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{{Specs-Fleet-Armour}} | {{Specs-Fleet-Armour}} | ||
<!-- ''Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.'' --> | <!-- ''Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.'' --> | ||
| − | + | Due to how huge the HMS Glorious' hull is, this will be both a blessing and a curse, as on one hand she is capable of soaking huge amount of cruiser-calibre rounds due to her massive empty bow and stern section eating most of the shots before it could hit critical compartments, while on the other hand it makes her stuck out like a sore thumb, and leaves her an easy target against capital ships that can easily demolish her in a few salvo. | |
| + | |||
| + | The armour of the HMS Glorious is not good, even when compared to some light cruisers. The front belt armour which protects the forward ammunition storage is 50.8mm, with the rest of the belt armour having a thickness of 76.2mm. The ammunition storage has an extra 25mm plate surrounding them, with the engine rooms having a 38mm plate instead. The main deck armour consists of two plates of 25mm. The citadel roof armour has 44mm protecting the ammunition, with 19mm on the engine room. The front and rear of the citadel has 76.2mm of armour. The bridge is one of the most well protected parts of the ship, with 254mm of cemented armour in all directions, with a respectable 76mm on the roof. The turrets have 330mm of cemented armour on the front, with the sides and rear protected by 228mm and 279mm respectively. The roof armour has a thickness of 108mm with the barbettes being protected by 178-152mm | ||
| + | |||
| + | The HMS Glorious has a relatively small crew of 842, which combined with terrible armour makes most enemies at and below the main BR a significant threat, especially at closer range. Though due to most of her crew compartments being located significantly below the deck, this allows the Glorious to tank a lot of cruiser-calibre HE rounds and even some AP rounds at longer ranges. | ||
=== Mobility === | === Mobility === | ||
{{Specs-Fleet-Mobility}} | {{Specs-Fleet-Mobility}} | ||
<!-- ''Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.'' --> | <!-- ''Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.'' --> | ||
| − | + | For a ship of this size, the Glorious's mobility is surprisingly good. She has a good top speed that allows her to catch up with most cruisers and can turns surprisingly well when upgraded. Though while stock, the Glorious' traverse speed is quite poor, and as such upgrade for her rudder would be one of your first priority, as you would often have to do evasive manoeuvre quite often to evade the incoming fire and torpedoes. | |
{{NavalMobility}} | {{NavalMobility}} | ||
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=== Modifications and economy === | === Modifications and economy === | ||
{{Specs-Economy}} | {{Specs-Economy}} | ||
| − | + | Since the Glorious' stock shell are more than adequate against typical targets that she would face at her BR, one may start with upgrading her damage control crews, then either upgrading her main armament targeting or rudder to make them more responsive. After this, you can either upgrading fire control system or mobility to improve the accuracy and speed. The rest of the upgrade can be then chosen at your liking. | |
== Armament == | == Armament == | ||
{{Specs-Fleet-Armaments}} | {{Specs-Fleet-Armaments}} | ||
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{{main|15 inch/42 BL Mark I (381 mm)}} | {{main|15 inch/42 BL Mark I (381 mm)}} | ||
| − | + | The main armament of the {{PAGENAME}} is four 15 inch/42 BL Mark I cannons, the same massive gun featured on the [[HMS Hood]] and [[HMS Renown]]. The guns are housed in two twin turrets placed at the bow and stern each. Both turrets has a very good coverage on either sides, albeit it suffered from a painfully slow traverse speed, especially while stock. This will significantly reduce the firepower of the Glorious while she was turning around, and leaves her vulnerable from flankers. Due to being the gun of this size, it also has a comparatively slow reload speed (compared to traditional cruisers) at 2 rpm (maxed), and as such precision is often needed to make the most use out of it. | |
| + | |||
| + | She has two rounds available, 15 inch 4crh CPC, an SAPCBC shell, and 15 inch 4crh Mark XIIa APC, an APCBC shell. The SAPCBC shell, while having a smaller filler than the equivalent SAP shells on the [[SMS Bayern]] and the Japanese 356 mm, is still the strongest SAP shell in the game, solely due to its penetration. This allows the Glorious to smash any battleship designed before "all or nothing" armour schemes came into wide use, as while their main belts may be able to hold up, their weaker upper belts stand no chance, and several of these SAP shells finding their way around the realms of enemy ammunition magazines will have very entertaining results. Due to the high filler, even hits to the upper hull may cause a large enough explosion to detonate ammunition several decks below. Against cruisers and destroyers that the Glorious would usually faces, these shells are nothing short of an overkill, as a few of these hits can easily cause a huge flood damage that can be nearly impossible to control, or a one-hit-kill if the shell were detonated within the vicinity of the ammunition storage. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The APCBC shell is fairly strong with ~20 kg of TNT effective filler and decent penetration statistics, making it quite handy for punching deep into the internals of an opposing capital ship and bypassing most, if not all armour that it comes across while in regular battle ranges. Though given that the Glorious would face cruisers or early dreadnoughts most of the time, you should prioritize on the SAP shell and only load as much APCBC as you would be realistically needed. | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{:15 inch/42 BL Mark I (381 mm)/Ammunition|15 inch 4crh CPC, 15 inch 4crh Mark XIIa APC}} | ||
=== Secondary armament === | === Secondary armament === | ||
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{{main|BL Mark IX (102 mm)}} | {{main|BL Mark IX (102 mm)}} | ||
| − | ' | + | To compensate for the main guns' relatively slow rate of fire, the Glorious features a staggering 18 х 4 inch (102 mm) BL Mark IX cannons, housed in six open triple turrets placed around the midship section. With up to 12 guns available while in full broadsides and decent rate of fire of 12 rpm (maxed), these guns are great at chipping away the deck mount of enemy ships, especially cruisers and smaller ships. Though they are obviously ineffective against capital ships. |
| + | |||
| + | The gun has two shell choices; the default HE with a rather small HE mass of 721 g of TNT, though due to the sheer burst mass, they can deal quite a good amount of damage against cruisers and destroyers, especially since it can easily suppress the enemy ship while they are repairing their critical modules by repeatedly destroy their outer compartments over and over again. The other option, a SAP shell, is very weak, with a penetration of only 51 mm at 5 km range, these shell would struggle to even penetrate light cruisers, and is generally inferior in terms of damage compared to the HE shell. As such, it is recommended to only use the HE shell instead. | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{:BL Mark IX (102 mm)/Ammunition|4 inch HE, 4 inch SAP}} | ||
=== Anti-aircraft armament === | === Anti-aircraft armament === | ||
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{{main|76 mm/45 QF 3in 20cwt HA Mark I (76 mm)}} | {{main|76 mm/45 QF 3in 20cwt HA Mark I (76 mm)}} | ||
| − | + | Being a Great War-era ship, the Glorious' AA armaments is unsurprisingly poor. She only has two 76 mm flak cannons located on the second fire command tower as her anti-air armament. While this is certainly better than an old machine gun common with most of the Great War capital ship, it is still largely inadequate to defend her from enemy fire. As such, be sure to stick with your teammates who have better AA cover instead of relying on your own defense. | |
=== Additional armament === | === Additional armament === | ||
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{{main|Mk.IV (533 mm)}} | {{main|Mk.IV (533 mm)}} | ||
| − | + | Other than the disproportionally large main guns, another novel features of the Glorious is the absurd amount of torpedoes at her disposal. | |
| + | |||
| + | The Glorious is equipped with 40 х 533 mm Mk.IV torpedoes, launched from a pair of underwater fixed tube at the bow, and six pair of surface-level fixed launchers at the stern, with up to 7 torpedoes can be launched per each salvos. The torpedoes themselves are of average quality, with 234 kg of TNT filler, a speed of 65 km/h, and a range of 7.3 km, this means it is generally dependable enough to cause significant damage to the enemy ship when hit, but often requires several hits for a guaranteed kill. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Due to the fixed nature of the launchers and the "quantity over quality" performance of the torpedoes, the Glorious' torpedoes are strictly an area denial weapon, as the ship would have to turn full boardsides to launch them, exposing her hull to the enemy fire in the process. Given the torpedoes' relatively short range, the "Torpedo mode" modification is recommended to extend the range up to 12.35 km/h at the cost of some top speed. In certain maps with several islets and covers, it is not recommended to carry them, as there will be rarely, if any, opportunity for you to use them. | ||
== Usage in battles == | == Usage in battles == | ||
<!-- ''Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).'' --> | <!-- ''Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).'' --> | ||
| − | + | HMS Glorious is a classic "glass cannon", featuring extremely powerful 381 mm cannons, backed up by a suite of decent secondary armaments and torpedoes, and great mobility. However, it also has extremely thin armour, which can sometimes prove insufficient against even cruiser-calibre cannons. | |
| + | |||
| + | Against other battleships and battlecruisers, the armour is wholly inadequate, and the ship really does become equivalent to a large light cruiser. Its mobility can be used to play around hard cover and attempt to dodge incoming shells; however, if caught in the open, Glorious is unlikely to survive for long. | ||
| + | |||
| + | On the other hand, if in a match against only cruisers, the unusual armaments can be used to great effect, quickly destroying any cruiser in a few good hits. When facing destroyers, consider switching to control of the 102 mm cannons - the greater volume of fire (up to 12 guns on a broadside) and sufficient stopping power of the guns will rapidly wreck any small ship. The 4" SAP ammunition is significantly better for this than the stock HE. | ||
=== Pros and cons === | === Pros and cons === | ||
<!-- ''Summarise and briefly evaluate the vehicle in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark its pros and cons in the bulleted list. Try not to use more than 6 points for each of the characteristics. Avoid using categorical definitions such as "bad", "good" and the like - use substitutions with softer forms such as "inadequate" and "effective".'' --> | <!-- ''Summarise and briefly evaluate the vehicle in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark its pros and cons in the bulleted list. Try not to use more than 6 points for each of the characteristics. Avoid using categorical definitions such as "bad", "good" and the like - use substitutions with softer forms such as "inadequate" and "effective".'' --> | ||
| − | |||
'''Pros:''' | '''Pros:''' | ||
| − | * | + | |
| + | * Four 381 mm guns, enough to cripple any enemy it might have to face | ||
| + | * Numerous fast-firing 102 mm provides steady damage output at mid-to-close range | ||
| + | * Huge empty space at the bow and stern can absorb several hits from shells and torpedoes | ||
| + | * Quite fast and manoeuvrable, despite the size | ||
| + | * Equipped with 40 torpedoes for aerial denial barrages | ||
'''Cons:''' | '''Cons:''' | ||
| − | * | + | |
| + | * Very large and distinctive hull shape, easily identified and hit by any enemies | ||
| + | * Poor armour protection, relies heavily on fuel tanks and empty space to absorb damage | ||
| + | * Terrible main turret traverse speed, inability to fire reactively | ||
| + | * Poor anti-air defence | ||
| + | * Fixed torpedo tubes restrict their usage to saturational barrages | ||
== History == | == History == | ||
<!-- ''Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: <nowiki>https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History</nowiki>) and add a link to it here using the <code>main</code> template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <code><nowiki><ref></ref></nowiki></code>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <code><nowiki><references /></nowiki></code>. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under <code><nowiki>=== In-game description ===</nowiki></code>, also if applicable).'' --> | <!-- ''Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: <nowiki>https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History</nowiki>) and add a link to it here using the <code>main</code> template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <code><nowiki><ref></ref></nowiki></code>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <code><nowiki><references /></nowiki></code>. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under <code><nowiki>=== In-game description ===</nowiki></code>, also if applicable).'' --> | ||
| − | '' | + | |
| + | The Courageous-class battlecruisers were formulated during WW1 by the ever-eccentric First Sea Lord, Jacky Fisher, as part of his 'Baltic Project', a planned attack on the German Baltic coastline. In 1915, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had forbidden new construction of any warships larger than light cruisers, yet Lord Fisher wanted new fast capital ships for the Baltic Project in order to support his proposed landings of troops on the beaches of Pomerania. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In order to get around the rule against new capital ships and also because of Lord Fisher's obsession with speed at the expense of all else, the Courageous class were presented as 'large light cruisers', with extremely light armour, extremely high speed and half the main armament of the new Queen Elizabeth-class battleships. Fortunately for Fisher, many of the politicians up top had little knowledge in naval matters and so they saw the high speed, low armour and just approved the design for construction. Unfortunately, however, the ships proved to be a little too lightly built and had a tendency to take structural damage in rough seas or at high speed or even when firing the main guns until they were structurally stiffened in response. | ||
| + | |||
| + | As Fisher's Baltic Project never took place, the ships spent the war patrolling the North Sea. HMS Glorious saw little action, other than the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight, during which she only suffered damage from a premature shell detonation and her own muzzle blasts. She was also present for the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet in 1918. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Following the end of WW1, the battlecruisers were converted into aircraft carriers due to their high speed, whilst the 381 mm turrets of Courageous and Glorious were put into storage. During WW2, these turrets would be reused in the construction of HMS Vanguard, the last battleship ever built. | ||
| + | |||
| + | During WW2, Glorious served in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and in the Norwegian Campaign, before being intercepted in the Norwegian Sea by [[Scharnhorst]] and Gneisenau. Due to a number of faults in leadership, the ship was flying no patrols and made no effort to change course or speed. Glorious was struck by Scharnhorst at a range of 24 km, the longest range capital ship hit in history (a title which Scharnhorst shares with HMS Warspite, which struck an Italian battleship at approximately the same range). Despite the heroic efforts of her two escorting destroyers, Ardent and Acasta, Glorious was sunk by the German battleships a little over two hours after first sighting them, although Scharnhorst was badly damaged by a torpedo from Acasta, requiring the ship to head to port for immediate repairs. | ||
== Media == | == Media == | ||
<!-- ''Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.'' --> | <!-- ''Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.'' --> | ||
| − | + | ||
| + | ;Skins | ||
| + | |||
| + | * [https://live.warthunder.com/feed/camouflages/?vehicle=uk_battlecruiser_glorious Skins and camouflages for the {{PAGENAME}} from live.warthunder.com.] | ||
== See also == | == See also == | ||
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* ''links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.'' --> | * ''links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.'' --> | ||
''Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:'' | ''Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:'' | ||
| + | |||
* ''reference to the series of the ship;'' | * ''reference to the series of the ship;'' | ||
* ''links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.'' | * ''links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.'' | ||
| Line 88: | Line 138: | ||
* ''topic on the official game forum;'' | * ''topic on the official game forum;'' | ||
* ''other literature.'' --> | * ''other literature.'' --> | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| + | * [[wt:en/news/7920-development-hms-glorious-an-outrageous-warship-design-en|[Devblog] HMS Glorious: An Outrageous Warship Design]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{ShipManufacturer Harland and Wolff}} | ||
{{Britain battlecruisers}} | {{Britain battlecruisers}} | ||
Latest revision as of 20:26, 26 April 2024
Contents
Description
One of the trio of the Courageous-class "large light cruisers", the HMS Glorious's design perfectly encapsulates First Sea Lord John ('Jackie') Fisher's obsession with superior speed and firepower. Built with his 'Baltic Project' in mind, the ship was designed with high speed and large guns to devastate enemy cruisers while having a shallow draught to allow operations supporting coastal landings in the Baltics. Despite being a capital ship, it was designed with paper thin armour, partly to allow for the high speed and partly to get around a restriction imposed by the Government on the construction of new capital ships, with First Sea Lord Fisher presenting the ships as simply large light cruisers. In fact, the ships were so lightly built that the lead ship HMS Courageous took not insignificant structural damage in rough seas during sea trials, buckling the hull and deck in several places, shearing off rivets and allowing water to pour in.
As for the Glorious, she saw only a brief action in her "large light cruiser" configuration" in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight, where she was forced to retreat after a shell in her forward 15 inch turret prematurely detonated inside the barrel. After the Great war ended, such a specialized ship like the Couragous-class were deemed unnecessary, and all three of the Courageous-class would be converted into an aircraft carrier to make the better use of the hull (and to avoid being scrapped altogether by restrictions imposed by the Washington Naval treaty).
In her aircraft carrier configuration, HMS Glorious would went on to serve until the early stage of World War II. After being recalled from the hunt of the Admiral Graf Spee in 1940 to evacuate British aircrafts from Norway, Glorious was intercepted and sunk by German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on 8 June, 1940, with over 1,200 loss of lives.
Introduced in Update "Fire and Ice", the unconventional design of HMS Glorious in her 1919 configuration makes her very distinctive from the other "pocket battleships" at her BR, such as Graf Spee and the Ikoma. The ship is a true "glass cannon", featuring high offensive firepower in the form of four 381 mm cannons, numerous 102 mm guns, a huge stockpile of torpedoes, along with great mobility to boot, however still lacks adequate armour to shield from even cruiser-calibre guns.
General info
Survivability and armour
Due to how huge the HMS Glorious' hull is, this will be both a blessing and a curse, as on one hand she is capable of soaking huge amount of cruiser-calibre rounds due to her massive empty bow and stern section eating most of the shots before it could hit critical compartments, while on the other hand it makes her stuck out like a sore thumb, and leaves her an easy target against capital ships that can easily demolish her in a few salvo.
The armour of the HMS Glorious is not good, even when compared to some light cruisers. The front belt armour which protects the forward ammunition storage is 50.8mm, with the rest of the belt armour having a thickness of 76.2mm. The ammunition storage has an extra 25mm plate surrounding them, with the engine rooms having a 38mm plate instead. The main deck armour consists of two plates of 25mm. The citadel roof armour has 44mm protecting the ammunition, with 19mm on the engine room. The front and rear of the citadel has 76.2mm of armour. The bridge is one of the most well protected parts of the ship, with 254mm of cemented armour in all directions, with a respectable 76mm on the roof. The turrets have 330mm of cemented armour on the front, with the sides and rear protected by 228mm and 279mm respectively. The roof armour has a thickness of 108mm with the barbettes being protected by 178-152mm
The HMS Glorious has a relatively small crew of 842, which combined with terrible armour makes most enemies at and below the main BR a significant threat, especially at closer range. Though due to most of her crew compartments being located significantly below the deck, this allows the Glorious to tank a lot of cruiser-calibre HE rounds and even some AP rounds at longer ranges.
Mobility
For a ship of this size, the Glorious's mobility is surprisingly good. She has a good top speed that allows her to catch up with most cruisers and can turns surprisingly well when upgraded. Though while stock, the Glorious' traverse speed is quite poor, and as such upgrade for her rudder would be one of your first priority, as you would often have to do evasive manoeuvre quite often to evade the incoming fire and torpedoes.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 68 | 34 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 59 | 29 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Since the Glorious' stock shell are more than adequate against typical targets that she would face at her BR, one may start with upgrading her damage control crews, then either upgrading her main armament targeting or rudder to make them more responsive. After this, you can either upgrading fire control system or mobility to improve the accuracy and speed. The rest of the upgrade can be then chosen at your liking.
Armament
Primary armament
The main armament of the HMS Glorious is four 15 inch/42 BL Mark I cannons, the same massive gun featured on the HMS Hood and HMS Renown. The guns are housed in two twin turrets placed at the bow and stern each. Both turrets has a very good coverage on either sides, albeit it suffered from a painfully slow traverse speed, especially while stock. This will significantly reduce the firepower of the Glorious while she was turning around, and leaves her vulnerable from flankers. Due to being the gun of this size, it also has a comparatively slow reload speed (compared to traditional cruisers) at 2 rpm (maxed), and as such precision is often needed to make the most use out of it.
She has two rounds available, 15 inch 4crh CPC, an SAPCBC shell, and 15 inch 4crh Mark XIIa APC, an APCBC shell. The SAPCBC shell, while having a smaller filler than the equivalent SAP shells on the SMS Bayern and the Japanese 356 mm, is still the strongest SAP shell in the game, solely due to its penetration. This allows the Glorious to smash any battleship designed before "all or nothing" armour schemes came into wide use, as while their main belts may be able to hold up, their weaker upper belts stand no chance, and several of these SAP shells finding their way around the realms of enemy ammunition magazines will have very entertaining results. Due to the high filler, even hits to the upper hull may cause a large enough explosion to detonate ammunition several decks below. Against cruisers and destroyers that the Glorious would usually faces, these shells are nothing short of an overkill, as a few of these hits can easily cause a huge flood damage that can be nearly impossible to control, or a one-hit-kill if the shell were detonated within the vicinity of the ammunition storage.
The APCBC shell is fairly strong with ~20 kg of TNT effective filler and decent penetration statistics, making it quite handy for punching deep into the internals of an opposing capital ship and bypassing most, if not all armour that it comes across while in regular battle ranges. Though given that the Glorious would face cruisers or early dreadnoughts most of the time, you should prioritize on the SAP shell and only load as much APCBC as you would be realistically needed.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 1,000 m | 2,500 m | 5,000 m | 7,500 m | 10,000 m | 15,000 m | ||
| 4crh CPC | SAPCBC | 487 | 459 | 418 | 382 | 352 | 308 |
| 4crh Mark XIIa APC | APCBC | 644 | 597 | 528 | 470 | 422 | 357 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 4crh CPC | SAPCBC | 752 | 871 | 0.035 | 26 | 58.6 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
| 4crh Mark XIIa APC | APCBC | 752 | 871 | 0.025 | 26 | 20.68 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
Secondary armament
To compensate for the main guns' relatively slow rate of fire, the Glorious features a staggering 18 х 4 inch (102 mm) BL Mark IX cannons, housed in six open triple turrets placed around the midship section. With up to 12 guns available while in full broadsides and decent rate of fire of 12 rpm (maxed), these guns are great at chipping away the deck mount of enemy ships, especially cruisers and smaller ships. Though they are obviously ineffective against capital ships.
The gun has two shell choices; the default HE with a rather small HE mass of 721 g of TNT, though due to the sheer burst mass, they can deal quite a good amount of damage against cruisers and destroyers, especially since it can easily suppress the enemy ship while they are repairing their critical modules by repeatedly destroy their outer compartments over and over again. The other option, a SAP shell, is very weak, with a penetration of only 51 mm at 5 km range, these shell would struggle to even penetrate light cruisers, and is generally inferior in terms of damage compared to the HE shell. As such, it is recommended to only use the HE shell instead.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 1,000 m | 2,500 m | 5,000 m | 7,500 m | 10,000 m | 15,000 m | ||
| 4 inch HE | HE | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
| 4 inch SAP | SAP | 90 | 72 | 51 | 37 | 28 | 24 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 4 inch HE | HE | 805 | 14.06 | 0 | 0.1 | 721 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| 4 inch SAP | SAP | 805 | 15.2 | 0.015 | 5 | 520 | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
Anti-aircraft armament
Being a Great War-era ship, the Glorious' AA armaments is unsurprisingly poor. She only has two 76 mm flak cannons located on the second fire command tower as her anti-air armament. While this is certainly better than an old machine gun common with most of the Great War capital ship, it is still largely inadequate to defend her from enemy fire. As such, be sure to stick with your teammates who have better AA cover instead of relying on your own defense.
Additional armament
Other than the disproportionally large main guns, another novel features of the Glorious is the absurd amount of torpedoes at her disposal.
The Glorious is equipped with 40 х 533 mm Mk.IV torpedoes, launched from a pair of underwater fixed tube at the bow, and six pair of surface-level fixed launchers at the stern, with up to 7 torpedoes can be launched per each salvos. The torpedoes themselves are of average quality, with 234 kg of TNT filler, a speed of 65 km/h, and a range of 7.3 km, this means it is generally dependable enough to cause significant damage to the enemy ship when hit, but often requires several hits for a guaranteed kill.
Due to the fixed nature of the launchers and the "quantity over quality" performance of the torpedoes, the Glorious' torpedoes are strictly an area denial weapon, as the ship would have to turn full boardsides to launch them, exposing her hull to the enemy fire in the process. Given the torpedoes' relatively short range, the "Torpedo mode" modification is recommended to extend the range up to 12.35 km/h at the cost of some top speed. In certain maps with several islets and covers, it is not recommended to carry them, as there will be rarely, if any, opportunity for you to use them.
Usage in battles
HMS Glorious is a classic "glass cannon", featuring extremely powerful 381 mm cannons, backed up by a suite of decent secondary armaments and torpedoes, and great mobility. However, it also has extremely thin armour, which can sometimes prove insufficient against even cruiser-calibre cannons.
Against other battleships and battlecruisers, the armour is wholly inadequate, and the ship really does become equivalent to a large light cruiser. Its mobility can be used to play around hard cover and attempt to dodge incoming shells; however, if caught in the open, Glorious is unlikely to survive for long.
On the other hand, if in a match against only cruisers, the unusual armaments can be used to great effect, quickly destroying any cruiser in a few good hits. When facing destroyers, consider switching to control of the 102 mm cannons - the greater volume of fire (up to 12 guns on a broadside) and sufficient stopping power of the guns will rapidly wreck any small ship. The 4" SAP ammunition is significantly better for this than the stock HE.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Four 381 mm guns, enough to cripple any enemy it might have to face
- Numerous fast-firing 102 mm provides steady damage output at mid-to-close range
- Huge empty space at the bow and stern can absorb several hits from shells and torpedoes
- Quite fast and manoeuvrable, despite the size
- Equipped with 40 torpedoes for aerial denial barrages
Cons:
- Very large and distinctive hull shape, easily identified and hit by any enemies
- Poor armour protection, relies heavily on fuel tanks and empty space to absorb damage
- Terrible main turret traverse speed, inability to fire reactively
- Poor anti-air defence
- Fixed torpedo tubes restrict their usage to saturational barrages
History
The Courageous-class battlecruisers were formulated during WW1 by the ever-eccentric First Sea Lord, Jacky Fisher, as part of his 'Baltic Project', a planned attack on the German Baltic coastline. In 1915, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had forbidden new construction of any warships larger than light cruisers, yet Lord Fisher wanted new fast capital ships for the Baltic Project in order to support his proposed landings of troops on the beaches of Pomerania.
In order to get around the rule against new capital ships and also because of Lord Fisher's obsession with speed at the expense of all else, the Courageous class were presented as 'large light cruisers', with extremely light armour, extremely high speed and half the main armament of the new Queen Elizabeth-class battleships. Fortunately for Fisher, many of the politicians up top had little knowledge in naval matters and so they saw the high speed, low armour and just approved the design for construction. Unfortunately, however, the ships proved to be a little too lightly built and had a tendency to take structural damage in rough seas or at high speed or even when firing the main guns until they were structurally stiffened in response.
As Fisher's Baltic Project never took place, the ships spent the war patrolling the North Sea. HMS Glorious saw little action, other than the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight, during which she only suffered damage from a premature shell detonation and her own muzzle blasts. She was also present for the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet in 1918.
Following the end of WW1, the battlecruisers were converted into aircraft carriers due to their high speed, whilst the 381 mm turrets of Courageous and Glorious were put into storage. During WW2, these turrets would be reused in the construction of HMS Vanguard, the last battleship ever built.
During WW2, Glorious served in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and in the Norwegian Campaign, before being intercepted in the Norwegian Sea by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Due to a number of faults in leadership, the ship was flying no patrols and made no effort to change course or speed. Glorious was struck by Scharnhorst at a range of 24 km, the longest range capital ship hit in history (a title which Scharnhorst shares with HMS Warspite, which struck an Italian battleship at approximately the same range). Despite the heroic efforts of her two escorting destroyers, Ardent and Acasta, Glorious was sunk by the German battleships a little over two hours after first sighting them, although Scharnhorst was badly damaged by a torpedo from Acasta, requiring the ship to head to port for immediate repairs.
Media
- Skins
See also
Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| Harland & Wolff | |
|---|---|
| Frigates | |
| Whitby-class | HMS Blackpool |
| Light Cruisers | |
| Town-class | HMS Belfast |
| Battlecruisers | |
| Courageous-class | HMS Glorious |
| Britain battlecruisers | |
|---|---|
| Invincible-class | HMS Invincible |
| Courageous-class | HMS Glorious |
| Renown-class | HMS Renown |
| Admiral-class | HMS Hood |
