Warspite

by Iain Ballantyne

  However, an accidental fire aboard HMS Illustrious forced a postponement to 11 November, which was chosen because a three quarter moon would give enough light to see the targets. Both Eagle and Illustrious were supposed to take part but the former had to pull out due to mechanical problems and some of her Swordfish were put on the latter. On 6 November, Warspite, in company with Illustrious, Valiant, Malaya, Ramillies and escort destroyers, sailed out of Alexandria. They were soon being harassed by the usual Italian air attacks which Fairey Fulmar fighters from Illustrious intercepted.

  Aboard HMS Warspite, Manley Power looked on with detached fascination as the Italian aircraft ‘shining like silver in the sky’ tried in vain to hit his ship. Even after the air attacks died away the Italians continued to sniff around Illustrious which regularly reported to Warspite ‘shadower spotted’ followed by ‘shadower shot down’.6 A reconnaissance flight on 11 November confirmed all six Italian battleships –Duilio, Cesare, Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, Doria and the Cavour – were safely tucked up in Taranto. Cunningham remarked with some relish: ‘So all the pheasants had gone home to roost.’7 Warspite and the main fleet stayed in a covering position to the south, while HMS Illustrious, with four cruisers and protective destroyers, steamed to a flying off position near Cephalonia. At 8.40p.m. twelve Swordfish aircraft took off followed sixty minutes later by another flight of nine. Meanwhile a diversionary bombardment of the Straits of Otranto was carried out by a separate cruiser force. In Warspite Manley Power thought it a perfect evening for a raid: ‘A beautiful calm night, bright moon, as still as it could be... No sound except the wash of the bow wave...’

  The silence was broken only by,

  ...orders as the guns train to new lookout bearing to keep the crews alive. All night wondering how things are going with the forces we’ve detached. We drop off for a bit of sleep in turns in various corners. Then the morning. The carrier turns up...two aircraft missing. Aircraft report three enemy battleships torpedoed and some small craft damaged seen burning.8

  Cunningham sent his congratulations to Illustrious by signal flag: ‘Manoeuvre well executed. Resume station previously ordered.’

  The Littorio had been hit with three torpedoes and sank at her moorings, as had the Conte di Cavour after one torpedo strike. The Duilio received one torpedo hit and went down by her bows. The Swordfish also managed to inflict damage on a cruiser and two destroyers. Littorio and Duilio were refloated six months later and repaired but the Cavour was taken out of the war for good. Cunningham later observed that the Fleet Air Arm had proved itself beyond a doubt:

  ...twenty aircraft had inflicted more damage upon the Italian fleet than was inflicted upon the German High Sea Fleet in the daylight action at the Battle of Jutland.9

  Aside from the three battleships put out of action, the rest of the Italian fleet moved to Naples, further away from danger but less able to threaten British convoy routes. As a result of the decreased threat, Malaya and Ramillies sailed for home waters where they were used to help escort Atlantic convoys.

  Even with the success at Taranto this was still Britain’s darkest hour, standing alone against fascism and facing seemingly insuperable odds. Luckily more and more people were answering the call to colours without waiting for call-up papers, including twenty-year-old Charles ‘Jock’ Pearson who would eventually end up serving in the Warspite.

  I had always wanted to be in the Navy. My own dad was a Petty Officer stoker during the First World War and my uncle Percy was a Petty Officer stoker on the Warspite prior to the 1934 refit. I had tried to join when I was seventeen but my father wouldn’t sign the paperwork. Perhaps he didn’t want me going through what he did in the First World War. I had a job with an engineering firm in Epsom. One day, after Dunkirk and Norway and all that, I decided it was time I joined the Navy. I slung my job in and they said ‘You can’t you’re in a Reserved Occupation’. I ignored them and went up to Croydon, the nearest place you could join up. A week later I got my papers and joining instructions. So I got on the train down to Portsmouth, off at the Harbour Station and on the ferry over to Gosport. After a short bus ride I arrived at the basic training place at Collingwood. A load of Chief Petty Officers were there to greet everybody. This old Chief comes up to me and says: ‘Wait here.’ He gets a crowd of us together and takes us over to the mess hall and says: ‘Sit down there’.

  Next he says to us: ‘Would you like something to eat?’ ‘Sure,’ I says. So this Chief Petty Officer brings dinner over to me. So we have dinner and then he takes us down to our hut. Inside are the usual bunks. He says: ‘Alright lads, I’ll see you in the morning.’ And we say goodnight to him and turn to each other commenting: ‘What a nice old boy, really looked after us. Suddenly it is 5.00a.m. the next morning and all the bugles and trumpets are going. Then our hut door bangs open. In springs our Chief Petty Officer from the night before, all guts and garters shouting: ‘Get up! Get up! Get dressed!’ We are in a state of shock – Can this be the same gentle old Chief Petty Officer?

  Somewhat different in demeanour, he troops us out into the freezing morning and marches us off to various places. We are marched here there and everywhere and he’s taking no nonsense as we get processed into His Majesty’s Royal Navy.

  Screaming Death

  On 28 October 1940, Italy had declared war on Greece and invaded via Albania, a campaign which brought no glory to Mussolini’s army which soon found itself beset with problems. The widening of the war did, however, provide the British Mediterranean Fleet with a new base, at Suda Bay on the island of Crete, which became a useful staging post.

  The view from HMS Warspite as HMS Illustrious disappears behind a forest of bomb splashes. Goodman Collection.

  To help the Greeks out, Warspite and Valiant bombarded Valona, the main Italian supply port in Albania in mid-December. This venture into the Adriatic was made possible by the elimination of the enemy battleships during the Taranto raid. Warspite then went down to Malta for the first time in a year and received a rousing welcome from the people of the battered island. At this time, although Malta was under constant air attack, the enemy’s impact on convoys was negligible. There was a regular run once a month, from either Gibraltar or Alexandria and, with the armoured carrier Illustrious on the scene carrying radar-directed Fulmar fighters, the Italians were having little luck.

  ‘By the end of 1940, it was almost the expected thing for convoys to run without any interruption whatsoever,’ said Lieutenant Commander Lamb. But the easy time was coming to an end, as the Germans were about to make their debut in the Mediterranean.

  During convoy escort duty in mid-January the Mediterranean Fleet was introduced to the rather more aggressive bombing style of the Luftwaffe. Flying from airfields in Sicily on 10 January, Stukas plunged eagerly on Warspite, Valiant, Illustrious and their escorts. Meanwhile Italian high-level bombers also made a contribution. From his position in Warspite’s starboard 6-inch battery Marine Arthur Jones got a good view of attacks on Illustrious.

  They gave her a real pasting. I could see it though the sighting ports on my gun. The Stukas made this terrible shriek and came in really low, unlike the Italians.

  Hit by six 1,000lb bombs, leaving her badly on fire, with heavy casualties and her aircraft lifts out of action, Illustrious was surely done for. But somehow she managed to make seventeen knots and head for Malta. Warspite and the rest of the fleet stayed close to her, trying to distract the enemy, but the Luftwaffe knew the value of bagging a brand new aircraft carrier. Still ablaze in the late afternoon, Illustrious was subjected to a further Stuka onslaught.

  Near miss during Malta convoy. K. Smith Collection.

  Throughout all this, the Warspite’s luck held. She was struck only once – a glancing blow on a stern anchor by a 1,000lb bomb which ricocheted right over the ship, watched, mouths hanging open, by sailors on the battleship’s bridge. Other ships were not so lucky – the cruiser Southampton was lost while the Gloucester suffered another hit. Illustrious
was attacked repeatedly in dock at Malta but, by the end of January, she had been repaired well enough to sail to Alexandria and from there went to America for more work. Warspite ended January with a collision involving the destroyer Greyhound which luckily caused only slight damage to the battleship. Greyhound survived to be sunk off Crete four months later.

  The depredations of the German and Italian bombers might not have inflicted heavy ship losses as yet, but it was beginning to get on everybody’s nerves. Marine Arthur Jones recalled:

  There were plenty of near misses and somehow we were lucky, but it was very wearing. You looked at what happened to the Illustrious and wondered how long it might be until it happened to you. Everybody became a bit bomb happy. In fact we were getting so ragged on Warspite it became a punishable offence to slam a hatch because it jarred the nerves so much.

  Slaughter at Matapan

  Luck is a most precious commodity in any game of chance. War is no exception.

  In the Mediterranean during the Second World War Admiral Cunningham’s winning streak lasted for a long time – from July 1940 to March 1941 – and, while he was aboard Warspite, fortune seemed to especially favour her. During a fleet action, countless air attacks, coastal bombardments and the raid on Taranto, Cunningham’s flagship had escaped serious injury but the Warspite’s luck would soon run out and she would suffer great harm. But, before disaster struck, she enjoyed a moment of glory which was Cunningham’s most crushing victory at sea.

  Having bitten off more than they could chew in Greece and Yugoslavia, the Italians had to be extracted from the mire by the Germans. On the brink of launching its massive assault on the Soviet Union, in early April 1941 Hitler’s army found itself required to conquer the Balkans to secure its flanks. It set about the task with its usual brutal efficiency, delivering another stunning Blitzkrieg blow to the Allies. To help pave the way for this lightning move towards the shores of the Mediterranean, German high command put pressure on the Italian Navy to cut supply routes between Egypt and Greece. A sortie towards Crete by the battleship Vittorio Veneto, together with eight cruisers and more than a dozen destroyers, was therefore planned for late March. German air cover was promised to the Italians who were worried about finding themselves at the mercy of British carrier-borne torpedo bombers.

  On 27 March a Sunderland flying boat from Malta spotted three Italian cruisers and a destroyer to the south-east of Sicily, headed towards Crete. Aboard Warspite in Alexandria, Cunningham told his staff officers he felt certain the cruisers were part of a screening force for Italian major units. He decided the fleet should go to sea after dark and aim to place itself between Crete and the enemy. Hopefully, under cover of the night, its departure would not be noticed and by daylight the following day the Italian reconnaissance aircraft would discover the truth too late to save their fleet from being brought to action. But, even though his gut instinct told him he was on to a winner, Cunningham still had his doubts:

  ...I bet Commander Power, the Staff Officer, Operations, the sum of ten shillings that we should see nothing of the enemy.10

  One person the British were particularly keen to deceive was the Japanese consul in Alexandria who regularly reported British fleet movements to the Germans and Italians. Cunningham treated the Japanese diplomat’s rather obvious spying activities seriously enough to play a charade. The Admiral went ashore from Warspite with an overnight bag and his golf kit as if he had no intention of leading the fleet to sea that evening.

  This little plot worked as intended. Retrieving my suit-case, I returned to the Warspite after dark and the fleet sailed at 7.00p.m. What the Japanese consul thought and did when he saw the empty harbour next morning was no affair of mine.11

  Warspite led out Valiant and Barham, together with HMS Formidable which had replaced Illustrious, and nine destroyers in escort. Unfortunately, as Warspite left she managed to clog up her condensers, reducing her speed to twenty knots.

  Meanwhile four 6-inch gun cruisers were in the Aegean where they could give advance warning of enemy moves. Just before 7.30a.m. the following morning, 28 March, they spotted enemy cruisers. Cunningham took this to be confirmation the Italian fleet was at sea. He put his hand in his pocket for Commander Power and handed over the ten shillings. In the meantime, the enemy vessels had been recognized as heavy cruisers with 8-inch guns. Despite being out-gunned Cunningham hoped his cruisers could lure them within range of his battleships. At 8.12a.m. the Italians opened fire from a range of thirteen miles, concentrating on HMS Gloucester which zig-zagged vigorously to avoid being hit. The enemy warships soon caught up and, just over a quarter of an hour later, were only a mile astern of her. Gloucester opened up with her 6-inch guns, scoring no hits, but the Italians withdrew so the three British ships, Gloucester, Ajax and Orion, and one Australian, Perth, turned around and gave chase.

  Around 11.00a.m. they spotted an Italian battleship – it was the Vittorio Veneto, armed with nine 15-inch guns, and just sixteen miles to the north. She opened fire, quickly straddling the British cruisers, which turned away making smoke. In response, HMS Valiant was ordered ahead at full speed to assist while Warspite was still grappling with her condenser problem. Cunningham also ordered the Formidable to launch a wave of Albacore torpedo bombers. He did this against his instincts – his preferred tactic was to hold the air attack back until his main battle fleet was close enough to take full advantage of any slowing down caused by torpedo hits. ‘But in this emergency my hand was forced.’12 True enough, the Formidable’s torpedo bombers saved the cruisers but ‘had the unfortunate effect of causing the enemy battleship to turn away and make off while some eighty miles distant.’13 Now the chase was really on, to run the Vittorio Veneto down before she could reach home waters.

  Warspite’s target at the Battle of Matapan: The Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto. M. Welsford Collection.

  Cunningham was increasingly annoyed by Warspite’s reduced speed. The ship’s engineering officer was sick ashore and so he ordered the Fleet Engineering Officer on his staff to go and help the Warspite’s Deputy Marine Engineering Officer sort out the problem.

  He went below, and in a short time I was gratified to see that the Valiant, which had been coming up at full speed from astern, was no longer gaining. We pressed on together.’14

  But Cunningham now found his chase hampered by the fact that the wind was coming from the east. It meant every time HMS Formidable wanted to launch aircraft the fleet had to reverse course, as she needed to be sailing into the wind. This got to be so much of a handicap that about midday Formidable was detached to fly off. As she dropped astern of the battle fleet a sailor serving in the carrier watched the battleships steam away.

  With Warspite in close attendance HMS Formidable launches Albacore torpedo bombers. Goodman Collection.

  The sun was now shining and accentuated the black, white and grey camouflage of the great forms of Warspite, Barham and Valiant, steaming at speed in line ahead away from us, each with a magnificent white bow wave and a glistening wake, each with eight powerful 15-inch guns trained fore and aft. The question in all our minds was whether these guns would be in action before the end of the day, firing shells which weighed approximately a ton each. Their white ensigns contrasted with the cobalt of the sky and the ultramarine of the sea.15

  The Albacores returned to Formidable claiming a hit on the Vittorio Veneto and this was followed by more sightings of enemy forces – all of them moving west as quickly as possible. Cunningham ordered in a second air strike hoping to slow up the fleeing Italian battleship. The Warspite and Valiant were now being held back by the Barham which, with her malfunctioning boilers, was struggling to keep pace. Time was also being lost in waiting for Formidable to catch up. Luckily the wind dropped and changed direction, meaning she could operate aircraft without needing to turn away, so the battleships waited for her because it was better to have her with the fleet if at all possible. She had already been subjected to air attack during her detachment and
would be vulnerable to more on her own.

  The second strike force of Albacores returned to the carrier claiming three hits on the Italian battleship. In fact during both attacks on the Vittorio Veneto, one hit had been caused by the only British aircraft to be shot down during the battle. The torpedo which caused the harm was dropped from 1,000 yards ahead, just as the Italian battleship turned slowly to starboard, presenting her stern. It hit fifteen feet below the waterline just above a propeller. Over a thousand tons of water gushed into the Vittorio Veneto which stopped down by the stern. After some frantic work, the Italian flagship got underway again but with her speed reduced to fifteen knots.

  Pilot Petty Officer Frederick ‘Ben’ Rice needed a steady hand when his Swordfish landed and was picked up on the move by Warspite during the Battle of Matapan. Specially commissioned painting by Dennis C. Andrews.

  By now one of Warspite’s Swordfish, carrying Fleet Observer Lieutenant Commander Bolt, had been aloft for nearly five hours. Its pilot was ‘Ben’ Rice and, after scouting in vain, he reported to Warspite that he only had fifteen minutes of fuel left. This was not enough to reach Suda Bay where the ship’s other aircraft had already gone. The Swordfish therefore had to be recovered by Warspite on the move – a challenging operation accomplished faultlessly. The Warspite lost only one mile and never slowed below 18 knots.