Northumbrian Gunner: Portsmouth 2022

HMS M33 Portsmouth

HMS M33 Portsmouth IJ DM

HMS M33 is a class M-29 monitor, one of five built in Belfast in 1915 as part of an Emergency War Programme of ship construction. It is now preserved at the Royal Dockyard Portsmouth.

A monitor was a small ship that was equipped with disproportionately large guns designed to operate in shallow waters. Their role was to provide naval gun fire support to troops ashore.

HMS M33 was commissioned in June 1915. Her armament consisted of two 6 inch (152mm) guns, a QF 6 pounder (57mm) gun and two maxim guns. The crew of 72 included men form the Royal Marine Artillery to man the primary armament, the six inch guns.

Class M26 Monitor

HMS M33

HMS M33 6 inch gun

BL 6-inch Mk XII naval gun

Calibre: 6 inches (152.4 mm)

Maximum firing range: 19,660 metres (21,500 yd)

Shell: 100 pounds (45.36 kg)

[Lyddite / Armour-piercing / Shrapnel]

Rate of fire: 5-7 rpm

HMS M33 Ammunition Magazine

HMS M33 Ships Office

HMS M33 - RMA Gunners Accommodation

HMS M33's first active operation was during the Gallipoli campaign supporting the British landings at Suvla Bay in August 1915.

She remained stationed at Gallipoli until the peninsular was evacuated in January 1916.

Gallipoli Sulva Bay Landings August 1915

HMS M33 Sulva Bay 1915

Serving in the Mediterranean, HMS M33 and was involved in the seizure of the Greek fleet at Salamis Bay on 1 September 1916. A preventive operation against neutral Greece to prevent the fleet from falling into German or Bulgarian hands. The ship remained in the Mediterranean till the end of the war.

HMS M33 crew at work

HMS M33

HMS M33 Crew

After the Armistice, HMS M33 along with five other monitors (M23, M25, M27, M31 and Humber) were sent to Murmansk in 1919 to relieve the North Russian Expeditionary Force. HMS M33 moved to Archangel in June travelling up the Dvina River to cover the withdrawal of British and White Russian forces

HMS M33 returned to Chatham in October 1919.