Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes (Royal Navy)

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Duties

In ship construction, the Director of Naval Ordnance was responsible for turret armour, with the Director of Naval Construction being responsible for the rest.[1]

Lord Jellicoe (D.N.O., 1905 - 1907) wrote in his unpublished memoirs:

In those days the staff of the D.N.O. composed an Assistant Director of Torpedoes, three officers of Commanders or Lieutenants rank for gunnery work, three for torpedo work and a marines' officer for general duties.[2]

In a note of 12 December, 1911, the First Lord, Winston S. Churchill, ordered that the title of Director of Naval Ordnance be altered to "Director of Naval Armaments" as from 1 January, 1912, so that the initialism "D.N.O." could be applied to the "Director of Naval Operations Division" of the new Admiralty War Staff. However, at the suggestion of Prince Louis of Battenberg this latter title was changed to Director of the Operations Division (D.O.D.).[3]

On 1 March, 1917, when Captain F. C. Dreyer succeeded Singer, the torpedo branch was devolved into the Department of the Director of Torpedoes and Mining under Rear-Admiral The Hon. Edward S. Fitzherbert and Dreyer became solely Director of Naval Ordnance.[4]

Directors of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes

Assistant Directors

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Brown; McCallum. "Ammunition Explosions in World War I". p.67.
  2. British Library. Jellicoe Papers. Add. MSS. 49038. f. 53.
  3. Churchill to the Permanent Secretary to the Board of Admiralty. The National Archives. ADM 1/8377/120. f. 46.
  4. Jellicoe. The Crisis of the Naval War. p. 228.
  5. Ley Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/43. f. 74.

Bibliography