Emergency War Programme. Designed as an improved " Abercrombie " type to outrange the 15 and 11 inch guns mounted by Germans on Belgian Coast. Their speed, considering their great beam. is remarkable. Along with HMS Terror were the "crack" monitors of the famous Dover Patrol.
This class was built after feedback from use of earlier monitors. They were faster, longer with narrower bulges, had a bow rudder leading to straight stem, and a four storey bridge
Erebus arrived at Dover 5/9/1916 and was involved in the bombardment of Zeebruge and Ostend. In 1917 she was hit by a wire controlled explosive boat FL12 which damaged her bulge. She then covered the Zeebruge raid. Later in July she was hit by two bombs causing minor damage.
In 1919 she was attached to the Chatham Gunnery school and then to the White Sea Squadron where she was involved in the bombardment of Onega and covered the withdrawl from Murmansk. She then moved to Estonia and Latvia.
Between the wars she was used for gun trials and as a Turret Drill Ship. She was then refitted in 1939 with a few to being loaned to South Africa for the defence of Cape Town but then war broke out.
