To deal with the challenges of landing and supporting troops ashore, the Royal Navy revived and repurposed an older type of warship, acquiring and building several during the Great War. Rob Langham profiles one of those classes – the M29 monitors.
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is home to significant survivors from the Royal Navy’s history – HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and the Mary Rose, the most powerful vessels in the Royal Navy of their time. The adjacent Royal Navy facility now houses the new aircraft carriers Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales, the huge vessels dominating the background of the historic dockyard when in port.
Next to Victory, almost hidden in No.1 Dry Dock, is a warship that, although small in stature and never representing the level of power and influence as the other warships on display or in service today, is nonetheless an equally remarkable survivor.
This is HMS M33, a diminutive, cheap, M29-class monitor constructed in 1915. Restored and opened to the public for the first time in August 2015 on the centenary of the Suvla Bay landings, in Gallipoli, M33 and her classmates were born from wartime expediency and it is incredible that one survives to this day.
Challenges of Modern Warfare
