Her class of eight ships was armed by four obsolete Majestic-class pre-dreadnoughts which had their 12-inch guns and mounts removed, modified and installed in the newly built monitors.

Wolfe spent her entire war service with the Dover Patrol, bombarding the German-occupied Belgian coastline, which had been heavily fortified.

In the spring of 1918 she was fitted with an 18-inch (457 mm) gun, with which she made the longest-range firing in the history of the Royal Navy - 36,000-yard (20 mi) - on a target at Snaeskerke, Belgium.

The outbreak of the First World War and the rapid fall of Belgium into German hands meant that for the first time in decades the North Sea between the United Kingdom and Europe would not be wholly surrounded by friendly or neutral powers.

The speed with which the Abercrombie class of monitor had commenced construction, coupled with the prospect of large-scale shore bombardment presented by the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the First World War led to Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty and political head of the Royal Navy writing to First Sea Lord Jacky Fisher 11 December 1914; I propose as a basis of discussion, that in addition to the 4 Schwab monitors, we prepare 8 more at a cost of not more than £700,000 apiece.

Although 15-inch guns and turrets would later be re-allocated to monitors, at this time it was not thought to be a feasible option while the Queen Elizabeth class and Revenge-class battleships were being completed.

It was then suggested that the 12-inch (305 mm) guns and barbettes of the obsolete pre-dreadnought Majestic-class battleships be removed and placed in the monitors while the older ships were utilised as transports and hulks.

Admiral Percy Scott, the foremost gunnery expert in the navy was consulted, who recommended that if the elevation of the guns was increased from their then limit of 13.5° to 30° then a comfortable range of 21,000-yard (19 km) could be reached.

[3] Wolfe was launched at Hebburn on 9 September 1915, and commissioned for service on 9 November under Commander Neston William Diggle, who had been appointed to her on 27 October.

[6] Her sister-ships had already performed a number of shore bombardments, and Wolfe had to wait until 25 January 1916, when Marshal Foch of the French Army requested a demonstration of the monitors.

In July 1917, Wolfe with a number of her sister-ships was taken off patrolling in preparation for Operation Hush, a planned landing on the Belgian coast by the 1st Division.

The mounting was designed and produced by the Elswick Ordnance Company and due to labour troubles, although ordered in October 1917, it was not completed until May, and finally arrived in Portsmouth for installation on Wolfe on 20 June 1918.

[13] Wolfe was anchored parallel to the coastline, and at 0732 opened fire on the railway bridge at Snaeskerke (four miles south of Ostend) at a range of 36,000-yard (32,918 m) away.

[14] For the next two weeks, Wolfe and the other monitors of the patrol kept up an intermittent bombardment of the Belgian coast, interrupted by bad weather or lack of air support for spotting the fall of shot.

[16] It had been announced on the 6th that she, in company with the other monitors lying at Immingham being tended by care and maintenance parties, would travel singly to the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard to have guns and other useful fittings removed, after which they would then return to the Humber.