Warspite

by Iain Ballantyne

  The surviving veterans of battleship Warspite can talk openly of their dangerous moments, but those that served on the nuclear submarine remain tight-lipped.

  Only hints of their dangerous cat-and-mouse game with the Soviets can be gleaned. There is, however, enough fascinating detail to compose an outline sketch of what Warspite got up to.

  It is widely known British attack boats stalked likely Soviet submarine operating areas in the North Norwegian and Barents Seas and also ventured under the polar ice cap. Passive listening equipment provided the primary method of finding and tracking the opposition rather than active pinging on sonar which might have masked an adversary’s noise.

  The eighth HMS Warspite arrives at Devonport Dockyard flying her paying off pennant, ready for a refit in 1990. DML

  One of Warspite’s submariners said of his Cold War:

  There were plenty of tasks to keep you busy but a fair proportion of it was just routine business. Obviously Warspite was involved in the trailing and tracking of Russian submarines, attack boats and ballistic missile vessels. Much of it was really boring. Thirty days out there in the grey Atlantic in bad weather really lacked glamour.

  Shadowing a Russian missile-carrying submarine too closely was not really on as it would have been too provocative but some close attack boat-to-attack boat stuff happened. Certainly Royal Navy submarine skippers and their crews were, and still are, regarded as very good. In the Royal Navy we were all trained to a high standard. In the US Navy and Russian fleet during the Cold War there was more variety in skill because there were so many of them. The Russians would put all their key resources and best people into the latest boats while the older boats and crews were second division, as we found out when we encountered them in Warspite.

  HMS Warspite under-going her final refit at Devonport. It was cancelled mid-way and she remains in a moth-balled condition. DML.

  With the Cold War over, the Royal Navy faced the immediate ‘peace dividend’ cut-backs of 1990-91 which included Warspite being retired from service mid-way through a refit at Devonport Dockyard. And that is where she is today, discarded like her illustrious immediate predecessor in the wake of a war. The hulk of submarine Warspite is moth-balled and tied up alongside sister vessels HMS Conqueror, which sank the Belgrano during the Falklands conflict, HMS Valiant and HMS Courageous.

  These relics of the Cold War have not yet been scrapped like the redundant capital ships of the Second World War because of their residual radio activity.

  However their end is nigh. In 2000 the UK Government announced it was hoping to finally rid itself of Warspite and other decommissioned nuclear submarines by cutting them up and storing them on land – provided safe procedures could be devised.

  There are no current plans to revive the name Warspite in Royal Navy service. New Type 45 air defence destroyers will be D Class vessels, including names such as HMS Dauntless and HMS Daring, and a trio of next generation nuclear-powered attack submarines are to be called Astute, Artful and Ambush. But Britain is hoping to build revolutionary trimaran surface warships which may enter service about 2012, a century on from the seventh Warspite taking shape on the slipway at Devonport.

  Bearing in mind the cutting edge nature of Warspites of the past, it might be appropriate to reserve one of those vessels as a future bearer of the name.

  Appendix

  Other vessels of the

  QUEEN ELIZABETH CLASS

  HMS Queen Elizabeth

  Built by Portsmouth Dockyard and launched in October 1913, the lead ship of the Queen Elizabeth Class first saw action in the Dardanelles during the First World War.

  At the time of Jutland she was in refit at Rosyth but was Admiral Sir David Beatty’s flagship at the surrender of the German High Sea Fleet in 1918.

  HMS Queen Elizabeth was undergoing a substantial rebuild when the Second World War started, including improved main guns, new secondary armament, a reconstructed bridge structure and increased armour. She emerged from this in February 1941, coming out to the Mediterranean that May on escort duty. After seeing action during the bloody evacuation of Crete, Queen Elizabeth became Admiral Cunningham’s flagship, as Warspite had gone to the USA for bomb damage repairs and a refit. In December 1941, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant were badly damaged by Italian frogmen while at anchor in Alexandria Harbour. The frogmen came from the submarine Scirce, rode through the harbour on modified torpedoes and then dropped charges under the battleships. Both battleships settled on the bottom of the harbour. The fact that they would be out of action for many months was kept secret. By May 1942 Queen Elizabeth had been restored enough to sail for an American dockyard for substantial repairs.

  A stern view of HMS Queen Elizabeth in the summer of 1943. Goodman Collection.

  Another view of HMS Queen Elizabeth in 1943. Goodman Collection.

  Returning to Britain in June 1943 she saw service with the Home Fleet before joining the newly reformed Eastern Fleet, alongside Valiant, in late 1943.

  After attempting to hunt down rogue Japanese warships in the spring of 1944, Queen Elizabeth became the flagship of Eastern Fleet Commander-in-Chief Admiral Sir James Somerville.

  Following a refit at Durban in late 1944 she was flagship of the 3rd Battle Squadron in the Eastern Fleet and in the New Year took part in bombardments of Sabang. Following further fire missions against Japanese facilities in the Andaman Islands, in the spring of 1945 she attempted to intercept enemy shipping off Malaya. In July 1945, with more modern battleships coming to the Far East following the end of the war in Europe, HMS Queen Elizabeth headed home to be put into reserve. She was sold off for scrap in 1948.

  HMS Barham

  Completed on the Clyde by J. Brown & Co. in October 1915, HMS Barham was the 5th Battle Squadron flagship at the Battle of Jutland, carrying Rear Admiral Sir Hugh Evan-Thomas. During the 1920s and 1930s she served with the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Home fleets and was at Alexandria when the Second World War started. Withdrawn from the Mediterranean, she carried out convoy escort work in the Atlantic and was torpedoed by a U-boat off the west coast of Scotland in December 1939. She went to Cammell Laird at Birkenhead for six months of repair work.

  In late August 1940 Barham was ordered on a mission to Dakar carrying Free French troops under the command of General Charles de Gaulle. During this ill-advised attempt to take the Vichy-controlled naval port, Barham was slightly damaged by shellfire from a shore battery.

  In March 1941 she took part in the crushing victory over the Italians at Matapan but was put out of action by German dive-bombers during the evacuation of Crete two months later. She ended up in Durban for repairs lasting eight weeks. Returning to the fray, Barham took part in several convoys.

  HMS Barham after her 1930-33 refit. Goodman Collection.

  HMS Barham in the 1930s Taylor Collection

  On 25 November 1941, she was hit by torpedoes from U-331 while sailing with the battle fleet, including sisters Valiant and Queen Elizabeth, off Sidi Barrani. She capsized and exploded.

  The Admiralty’s Summary of Circumstances of Loss says:

  From captured documents it is now known that the German Naval War Staff on 7 September had ordered six boats into the Mediterranean to operate from Salamis, where the first arrived on 10 October. U-331, the second of the six, arrived at Salamis on 11 October. At 16.25 on 25 November, when the Battle Fleet was in position 32 deg 29’ N, 26 deg 27’ E., the Barham (Captain Geoffrey Cooke) was hit by three torpedoes from U-331 and blew up within five minutes.

  The rapidity with which she sank caused heavy loss of life – 56 officers and 806 ratings. The destroyers Jervis and Jackal were immediately ordered to hunt the submarine and the Nizam and Hotspur to rescue survivors while the Fleet continued on its course. About 450 were rescued by the destroyers. Among them was Vice Admiral Pridham-Wippell. Captain Cooke was among those missing.

  The loss of Barham was kept secret until late January 1942. This was possible because the U-boat had been
forced to dive deep without seeing the results of the attack. In fact, such was the secrecy over Barham’s dreadful loss that special Christmas and New Year card greetings prepared for her crew were still printed.

  Barham could not avoid the German torpedoes. Goodman Collection.

  Mortally wounded, she capsized while the rest of the fleet looked on in horror. Goodman Collection.

  The veteran battleship exploded, with HMS Valiant luckily out of harm’s reach (on right) Goodman Collection.

  Hundreds of Barham’s sailors died, and the survivors clung to life under the massive cloud of black smoke as destroyers went in to try and rescue them. Goodman Collection.

  HMS Malaya

  Notable for being funded by the Federated Malay States – at a cost of £2,945,709 – Malaya was built on the Tyne by Armstrong Whitworth & Co. and commissioned into service at the end of January 1916.

  She was badly damaged during the Battle of Jutland, sustaining two officers and sixty-one ratings killed plus thirty-three wounded.

  Sometimes playing a diplomatic role between the wars, Malaya carried members of the Allied Naval Armistice Commission on an inspection of German ports in 1920 and in early 1921 made a visit to the Malay States before joining the Atlantic Fleet. During the final moments of the horrific Greek-Turkish War of 1922 Malaya sailed for Constantinople (Istanbul) to rescue British nationals and ended up taking the deposed Ottoman Sultan of Turkey to Malta.

  In early 1937 Malaya was in collision with a Dutch merchant ship off the Portuguese coast. Returning to Britain for major repairs it was decided she should receive a moderate modernization costing nearly a million pounds. Malaya was serving in the Mediterranean at the outbreak of war and in October 1939 was sent to the East Indies Station to form a hunting force with the battleship HMS Ramillies and the carrier HMS Glorious.

  After convoy escort work in the Atlantic, Malaya returned to the Mediterranean where she joined sisters Barham and Warspite under the command of Admiral Cunningham. After sailing into action alongside Warspite at the Battle of Calabria in July 1940, Malaya took part in the August 1940 bombardment of Bardia and was then engaged in convoy escort work before transferring to Force H at Gibraltar.

  In March 1941 HMS Malaya had an unsatisfying encounter with German capital ships off West Africa. The Admiralty history of HMS Malaya states:

  While escorting a convoy bound from West Africa to the United Kingdom, the Malaya sighted the German ships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst about 180 miles WNW of Cape Blanco, West Africa on 8 March 1941. The enemy vessels were shadowed for a short period but Malaya and the other escorts returned to the convoy when darkness fell. Earlier on the same day five vessels in the convoy had been sunk by U-boat attack.

  HMS Malaya in 1937 after her reconstruction. Goodman Collection.

  HMS Malaya at speed, January 1943. Goodman Collection.

  More convoy duty followed in late March 1941 and this time Malaya suffered a torpedo hit which caused considerable damage. She was repaired at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the first British naval vessel to receive repairs under the Lend-Lease Act.

  In July 1941, HMS Malaya re-entered service, escorting a troop convoy from Halifax to the UK.

  In October 1941 she became flagship of Gibraltar-based Force H and was engaged in convoy escort work until the end of 1943, when she was put into mothballs. She was recommissioned in late June 1944, after the D-Day landings, as a bombardment ship. In this role she pounded German strongpoints along the coast of northern France in September 1944, trying to persuade them to surrender.

  By May 1945 Malaya was a torpedo school accommodation ship at Portsmouth. In 1946 she was placed in reserve with the intention of scrapping her. Two years later she was handed over to the British Iron and Steel Corporation.

  HMS Valiant

  Constructed at Govan in Scotland by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Valiant was completed in February 1916. She saw action alongside Warspite, the Malaya and Barham at Jutland.

  Between the world wars HMS Valiant served with the Atlantic, Home and Mediterranean Fleets and, in March 1937, began an extensive refit at Devonport which involved new engines and radical structural modernization. HMS Valiant emerged in December 1939 and, after convoy escort work in the Atlantic, joined the Home Fleet. She took part in the Norwegian naval actions of April 1940 and two months later was in the same waters on convoy escort work when subjected to intensive attack by Luftwaffe Stukas. Valiant put up a good fight during this two hour battle, surviving some near misses and managing to shoot down at least one of her attackers. Joining Force H in early July 1940, Valiant took part in an attack on the French fleet at Oran to stop it being used by the Axis powers.

  Another picture of HMS Valiant taken in early 1943. Goodman Collection.

  Transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, HMS Valiant sailed with HMS Warspite to shell the Albanian port of Valona in December 1940, as it was the main entry and supply point for Italian forces waging war in the Balkans. The two battleships poured nearly 100 shells into the port. Valiant was in action with Warspite and Barham during the Battle of Matapan in March 1941 and was with them during operations off Crete that May when she was hit by two enemy bombs but suffered little damage.

  HMS Valiant in 1943, shortly after returning to service. Goodman Collection.

  Sustaining major damage during the December 1941 attack by Italian frogmen at Alexandria, after repairs she was assigned in the spring of 1942 to the Eastern Fleet where she served alongside Warspite again. The two ships saw service together in the Mediterranean the following year as part of Force H supporting invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy.

  After another refit Valiant went back to the Far East at the end of 1943 and the following April began a series of offensive operations against the Japanese. While Valiant was in a floating dock at Trincomalee, Ceylon, in August 1944, it collapsed and sank beneath her, causing considerable harm to the battleship.

  Map: John Pearce.

  Bad luck struck again in October of the same year when she grounded in the entrance to the Suez Canal on the way home. Refloated after six hours, she took the Cape route to Britain and was then put into refit for the rest of the war. Valiant was sold off for scrap in 1948.

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