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Revenge-class battleship
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<p>The <i>Revenge</i> class, sometimes referred to as the <i>Royal Sovereign</i> class or the R class, consisted of five <a href="/facts/Dreadnought_battleship/Sf8jhx0s">Dreadnought battleships</a> built for the <a href="/facts/Royal_Navy/Xdy8YCH7">Royal Navy</a> in the 1910s. All of the ships were completed to see service during the <a href="/facts/World_War_I/vITTUanQ">First World War</a>. There were originally to have been eight of the class, but two were later redesigned, becoming the <a href="/facts/Renown-class_battlecruiser/dXt1IaJL"><i>Renown</i>-class</a> <a href="/facts/Battlecruiser/jMqN0GHa">battlecruisers</a>, and another, which was to have been named HMS <i>Resistance</i>, was cancelled outright. The design was based on that of the preceding <a href="/facts/Queen_Elizabeth-class_battleship/TrbQu08C"><i>Queen Elizabeth</i> class</a>, but with reductions in size and speed to make them more economical to build. </p><p>Two of the ships, <a href="/facts/HMS_Revenge_(06)/C4S3L45D"><i>Revenge</i></a> and <a href="/facts/HMS_Royal_Oak_(08)/mRdFQD9R"><i>Royal Oak</i></a>, were completed in time to see action at the <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Jutland/TMpDt8xn">Battle of Jutland</a> during the <a href="/facts/First_World_War/vITTUanQ">First World War</a>, where they engaged German battlecruisers. The other three ships were completed after the battle, by which time the British and German fleets had adopted more cautious strategies, and as a result, the class saw no further substantial action. During the early 1920s, the ships were involved in the <a href="/facts/Greco-Turkish_War_(1919%E2%80%931922)/rrXBjRo7">Greco-Turkish War</a> and the <a href="/facts/Russian_Civil_War/MLfkI67n">Russian Civil War</a> as part of the <a href="/facts/Mediterranean_Fleet/E1a13yfL">Mediterranean Fleet</a>. They typically operated as a unit during the <a href="/facts/Interwar_period/EWLuS41R">interwar period</a>, including stints in the <a href="/facts/Atlantic_Fleet_(United_Kingdom)/0tjQ2AYT">Atlantic Fleet</a>. All five members of the class were modernised in the 1930s, particularly to strengthen their anti-aircraft defences and <a href="/facts/Ship_gun_fire-control_system/EoEXnatA">fire-control equipment</a>. </p><p>The ships saw extensive action during the <a href="/facts/Second_World_War/2efV5L1U">Second World War</a>, though they were no longer front-line units by this time and thus were frequently relegated to secondary duties such as convoy escort and <a href="/facts/Naval_gunfire_support/CJFnpuL2">naval gunfire support</a>. <i>Royal Oak</i> was sunk at her moorings in <a href="/facts/Scapa_Flow/PBDsXQmA">Scapa Flow</a> in October 1939 by a German <a href="/facts/U-boat/GgjbMzMT">U-boat</a>, and two other ships of the class were torpedoed during the war; <a href="/facts/HMS_Resolution_(09)/D3xnJrKs"><i>Resolution</i></a>, hit by a <a href="/facts/Vichy_French/7wTyYUnW">Vichy French</a> submarine off <a href="/facts/Dakar/zTxKbsaR">Dakar</a> in 1940 and <a href="/facts/HMS_Ramillies_(07)/rx741RDm"><i>Ramillies</i></a>, attacked by a Japanese submarine in Madagascar in 1942; both survived. <a href="/facts/HMS_Royal_Sovereign_(05)/99mwREbK"><i>Royal Sovereign</i></a> ended the war in service with the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Navy/t2buEMEK">Soviet Navy</a> as <i>Arkhangelsk</i>, but she was returned in 1949, by which time her three surviving <a href="/facts/Sister_ship/yACmRjhd">sister ships</a> had been <a href="/facts/Ship_breaking/qh49CobX">broken up</a> for <a href="/facts/Scrap/lPWqt9vd">scrap</a>. She, too, was dismantled that year. </p>