page_title: King George V-class battleship (1911)
section_title: Postwar activities
hierarchical_section_title: King George V-class battleship (1911) / Careers / Postwar activities
caption_attribution_description: English: The target ship HMS Centurion under fire
context_page_description: The King George V-class battleships were a group of four dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s that were sometimes termed super-dreadnoughts. The sister ships spent most of their careers assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Home and Grand Fleets, sometimes serving as flagships. In October 1914, Audacious struck a mine and sank. Aside from participating in the failed attempt to intercept the German ships that had bombarded Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in late 1914, the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive Action of 19 August, the surviving ships' service during the First World War generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.
  The three surviving ships were briefly reduced to reserve in 1919 before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1920–1921 where they played minor roles in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and the Chanak Crisis of 1922. The first ship to return to Britain, King George V, became a training ship in 1923 but the other two were placed into reserve again upon their return the following year.
context_section_description: The sisters remained with the 2nd Battle Squadron into early 1919, after which King George V became the flagship of the 3rd Battle Squadron until that unit was disbanded later that year. The ship then became flagship of the Reserve Fleet and served until late 1920. In the meantime, Ajax had been transferred to 4th Battle Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet by mid-1919 and sometimes served as the Fleet's flagship. Centurion followed in early 1920, although she spent a lot of time in reserve in Malta. The sisters played minor roles in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea in 1919–1920. King George V joined them in the 4th Battle Squadron in early 1921. After striking a rock in early September 1922, she was in Smyrna, Turkey, receiving temporary repairs when the Great Fire of Smyrna occurred later that month and evacuated some refugees when she sailed for permanent repairs at Malta. Her sisters were in Turkish waters during the Chanak Crisis around the same time. King George V was the first of the trio to return home in early 1923 and she served a training ship until she was sold for scrap at the end of 1926. Ajax and Centurion followed in April 1924, although they were placed in reserve, with the latter serving as the flagship of the Reserve Fleet. Like King George V, Ajax was sold for scrap at the end of 1926.
  The British tonnage allowance granted by the Washington Naval Treaty permitted them to keep the three sisters in service until the two Nelson-class battleship were completed in 1927. While King George V and Ajax were scrapped, Centurion was demilitarized by the removal of her armament and was converted into a radio-controlled target ship. In addition to being used as a target for surface ships, Centurion was used to evaluate the effectiveness of various types of aerial bombing. During the Second World War, she was rearmed with light weapons and was converted into a blockship in 1941. In preparation for that operation (subsequently cancelled), she was modified into a decoy with dummy gun turrets in an attempt to fool the Axis powers. Centurion was sent to the Mediterranean in 1942 to escort a convoy to Malta, although the Italians may have figured out the deception. The ship was scuttled off Omaha Beach in June 1944 to form a breakwater to protect a mulberry harbour built to supply the forces ashore.
caption: Centurion under fire, 1934
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