[83] As part of Operation Collar in late November, Barham, Malaya and the carrier HMSEagle covered the forces rendezvousing with a convoy coming from Gibraltar. Jan Lettens 02/08/2012. The latter was only struck by a single shell splinter before the Allies broke off the bombardment at 10:07, although she had hit Barham once with a 155mm (6.1in) shell[74] that blew a hole 4 feet (1.2m) in diameter in the bulge. The only contact came in the evening when Tyrwhitt sighted the High Seas Fleet but was unable to achieve an advantageous attack position before dark, and broke off contact. On 24 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea. Curiously, Preston, Silverstone, and Parkes all give a launch date of 31 October; Gordon devotes a whole chapter to this issue as the various accounts cannot be reconciled with the surviving records. In response the Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, totalling some 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. They were designed to reduce the effect of torpedo detonations and improve stability[11] at the cost of widening the ship's beam by almost 14 feet (4.3m) to 104 feet (31.7m),[12] and reduced her draught to 32feet 6inches (9.9m). This was replaced by a torpedo rangefinder in early 1928 when the permanent position was installed in the remodelled spotting top. The wrecks sites upside down on the sea floor. [54], On the afternoon of 24 November 1941, the 1st Battle Squadron, Barham, Queen Elizabeth, and Valiant, with an escort of eight destroyers, departed Alexandria to cover the 7th and 15th Cruiser Squadrons as they hunted for Italian convoys in the Central Mediterranean. The following day, 1 October, Rear-Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomas, commander of the 5th Battle Squadron, hoisted his flag aboard his new flagship. How surprising were the M3 Grant tanks to the Germans? Barham was then transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she covered multiple Malta convoys. During the next eighteen months or so, the 1st B.S. This required maximum offensive power and a speed several knots faster than any other battleship to allow them to defeat any type of ship. In contrast, the hit on Ltzow flooded a 15-centimetre (5.9in) magazine and the hits on Seydlitz blew a 10-by-13-foot (3.0 by 4.0m) hole in the side of her bow. These recordings can be accessed through Apple iTunes or for Android users, Stitcher. Wikipedia. On 25 November 1941 one of the heaviest losses of life, and the only loss of a Royal Navy battleship to a submarine at sea, occurred off Bardia, when HMS Barham was torpedoed at extremely short range by U-331, and sank within four minutes. On 26 March, the Italian fleet sortied in an attempt to intercept British convoys to Greece. [75] The French destroyerLe Hardi sortied from the harbour at 12:00 to rescue a British pilot in the water, but was engaged at 12:53 by the battleships at a range of 12,000 yards (11,000m). [45], Barham fired 337 fifteen-inch shells and 25 six-inch shells during the battle. She was powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving two shafts using steam from 24 Yarrow boilers. The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in July 1917. [85] They opened fire at point-blank range, Barham crippling the destroyer Alfredo Oriani and then joining Warspite and Valiant in crippling Zara. It was steaming at about twenty knots at the time, and immediately began to list to port at an alarming rate. [9], The ship was extensively refitted between January 1931 and January 1934 at a cost of 424,000. The full truth only emerged at the Nuremberg Trials. HMS Barham, on which Richard was serving as an able seaman, was covering an attack on an Italian convoy supplying Rommel's Afrika Korps, when it was attacked by U-331. HMS BARHAM - a British battleship sunk in November 1941 by a submarine in the Mediterranean SANTA ROSA - a Portuguese galleon loaded with seven chests of treasure, sunk in 1726 by an explosion. This increased her metacentric height to about 7 feet (2.1m) at deep load, despite the increase in her deep displacement to 35,970 long tons (36,550t). Her main guns targeted the port and the battleship Richelieu. Lemp fired four torpedoes at the two capital ships,[64] and one struck Barham on her port side, adjacent to the shell rooms for 'A' and 'B' turrets. If it happened, British Path filmed it. !, YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN, Casualties of MEN/HEROES-SERVING IN H.M.S. The impacts drove in the plates and fragments caused much flooding by damaging the surrounding structure. The loss of HMS Barham contributed to the very high number of losses at sea suffered by the Royal Navy in the period of Operation CRUSADER, about which I have written at this link. 219220; Raven & Roberts, p. 359; Shores, Cull & Malizia, pp. Website with searchable ship database about warships, passenger liners, merchant ships, photo galleries, technical details, stories, news and much more. Experience the HMS Barham explosion after being struck by torpedo in 4K resolution at 50 fps and in color! In addition, the rear of the six-inch gun casemates was enclosed by a 1.5-inch (38mm) bulkhead. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. 201202, Edmunds, Simeon. On the night of 25 March, Barham and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow to support Beatty's battlecruisers and other light forces raiding the German Zeppelin base at Tondern. What is more, the coordinates are very close to those sent out by the Athenia's radio officer in his distress call, and recorded in the logbooks of the vessels that came to the rescue. [26], In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the High Seas Fleet, composed of 16 dreadnoughts, 6 pre-dreadnoughts, 6 light cruisers, and 31 torpedo boats, departed the Jade early on the morning of 31 May. I assumed that this had happened because the submarine Captain had fired all his bow tubes at once, and had not compensated quickly enough with seawater to keep the conning tower below the surface. (1966). [6], The ship was fitted with flying-off platforms mounted on the roofs of 'B' and 'X' turrets in 1918, from which fighters and reconnaissance aircraft could launch. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. search wreck . Chamberlain's famous "this country is at war with Germany" broadcast was delivered shortly after 11 in the morning. The translated detailed report of the attack by U-331 can be found at this link. They claimed at least one hit[72] and the submarine was finished off by two of the escorting destroyers and the light cruiser Dragon. https://www.britishpathe.com/ To the untrained eye, sonar imagery can be difficult to interpret, but Mr Mearns says the dimensions of the target match exactly what would be expected of a 160m-long, 13,500-tonne passenger liner. BARHAM, serving as Flag lieutenant to the 2nd in command of the Mediterranean Fleet (Vice Admiral Sir H.D. VALIANT and WARSPITE in background. She was sunk during the Second World War on 25 November 1941 by the German submarine U-331 . The hits on Seydlitz mostly opened up more holes that facilitated the flooding. Richard grew up in Penrith Road, Belgrave, joining the Royal Navy as a boy seaman, aged 15. [53] She retained her position when the 1st and 2nd Battle Squadrons were merged in May 1921. At 17:45 he turned eastwards to take his position in front of the Grand Fleet and re-engage Hipper's ships. That's the ultimate goal, anyway," said Mr Mearns. During her early-1930s refit, the platforms were removed from the turrets and a retractable catapult was installed on the roof of 'X' turret, along with a crane to recover a floatplane. These two hits were ultimately responsible for the massive flooding that nearly sank the ship after the battle. Ltzow was only slightly damaged by these hits, which essentially only knocked out the primary and back-up wireless rooms while the shells that hit Derfflinger hit the side of the ship's bow, knocking off several armour plates, while fragments opened holes that ultimately allowed roughly 2,000 tonnes (1,968 long tons) of water to enter the bow. [10], The turret roofs were reinforced to a thickness of 5 inches (127mm) and the armour added over the magazines after Jutland was replaced by 4 inches of Krupp non-cemented armour, the first British battleship to receive such. The shell struck just below the waterline and burst on impact with the belt armour. She was hit six times during the battle, five times by 30.5cm shells and once by a 28.3cm shell, suffering casualties of 26 killed and 46 wounded. The British and the German fleets returned home; the British lost two cruisers to submarine attacks, and one German dreadnought had been torpedoed. LOVE YOU ALL: Yours Aye-Brian CANUCK Murza, W.W.II Naval Researcher-Published Author, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. "I shot to the surface," he said. U-331 was not attacked by the escorting destroyers and reached port on 3 December. It is the first wreck in his consultancy career "which I've identified from my armchair, so to speak". [88] Repairs were completed six weeks later on 30 July and the ship returned to Alexandria in August where she resumed her role as flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron. Scheer turned south again, then steered south-eastward to pursue a lone British battle squadron sighted by an airship, which was in fact the Harwich Force of cruisers and destroyers under Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt. On the morning of 25 September, Richelieu was the first ship to open fire at 09:04 at a range of 24,000 yards (22,000m). The start date is universally agreed to be 17 November 1941, while the end date is 15 January for the British (thus excluding the Axis counter-offensive of late January), while it is 6 February for the Axis, including the counteroffensive. He replied, 'it's gone'.". The Queen Elizabeth class warship was the only British battleship to be sunk at sea by a U-boat during the conflict. Neilson Larry 05/01/2011. 2. [54] Dalglish was relieved in his turn by Captain Percy Noble on 18 October 1922. [63], Barham, the battlecruiser Repulse and the destroyers Fame, Icarus, Imogen, Isis and Nubian were on patrol off the Butt of Lewis to protect against a possible break-out into the Atlantic by German warships when they were spotted by the German submarineU-30, commanded by Fritz-Julius Lemp, on 28 December. It was something Donaldson had made when the ship was built," she told BBC News. [94], It was not until the Admiralty admitted that Barham had been sunk and described the circumstances that Tiesenhausen knew that he had sunk her. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The aim of this blog is to accompany the preparation of a complete history incorporating the Axis and Commonwealth perspectives of the Winterschlacht (Winter Battle) in North Africa, November 1941 to February 1942. 137144, 2-pounder (40mm (1.6in)) Mk VIII "pom-pom", https://www.navy.gov.au/media-room/publications/hm-ships-enemy-action-wwii, HMS Barham Explodes & Sinks: World War II (1941), List of dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HMS_Barham_(04)&oldid=1131403965, World War I battleships of the United Kingdom, World War II battleships of the United Kingdom, Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II, World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 5,000nmi (9,260km; 5,750mi) at 12 knots (22km/h; 14mph), This page was last edited on 4 January 2023, at 00:34. Richard will be reading the Royal British Legion epitaph, "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old", at Buckminster Road Baptist Church on Sunday, during the act of remembrance. [101], Helen Duncan, considered the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735, came to the attention of the authorities after claiming to have contacted the spirit of a sailor of Barham, at the time when the ship's sinking was being hidden from the general public. By this time the 5th Battle Squadron was about seven point five nautical miles (13.9km; 8.6mi) northwest of Beatty. [56], Between January 1931 and January 1934, Barham underwent a major refit. Barham's signallers were unable to read the signal and her officer of the watch presumed that it was the expected point zigzag to the left of the base course and signalled that course change to the rest of the squadron. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. It is just over 49 years since H.M.S. He went on to serve as a gun range finder aboard HMS Nelson, involved in bombarding German defences in Normandy on D-Day. [46], Following Jutland, Barham was under repair until 5 July 1916. Richard Laland is one of only two survivors from the doomed battleship HMS Barham still alive today. [84] Barham became the flagship of the 1st BS in December. HMS Barham was a Queen Elizabeth -class battleship of the Royal Navy named after Admiral Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, built at the John Brown shipyards in Clydebank, Scotland, and launched in 1914. [54], Captain Geoffrey Cooke assumed command on 25 March[53] and the Navy took the opportunity to augment her light anti-aircraft armament and upgrade its directors. [27] Barham slipped her mooring at 22:08 and was followed by the rest of Beatty's ships. Despite the majority of the wreck lying some 75m below the . [3], The Queen Elizabeth class was equipped with eight breech-loading (BL) 15-inch (381mm) Mk I guns in four twin-gun turrets, in two superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. You can see all the lifeboats. A member of the Wigston branch of the Royal Naval Association, he is a member of the HMS Barham Association. Introduction Hoping the wind is strong enough, http://sommecourt.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/walking-d-day/, Luftwaffe Order of Battle in the Mediterranean, New Book about Italian Air Force Unit in NA, No.33 Squadron and Fighter Ace Lance Wade, BBC Factfile Peoples War Operation Crusader, Royal Artillery Organisation and Fire Control Techniques, Royal New Zealand Artillery Association World War 2, Memoirs of Corporal Mork German Truck Driver in NA, Rommel's Operational Leadership in NA (US Military MA Thesis), The Story of Doug and Eva Blake, King's Own Royal Regiment, Ball of Fire History of 5th Indian Division, History of Panzerregiment 8 15th Panzer, Order of Battle Fliegerfhrer Afrika and Luftwaffe in the Med, Sinking of Sebastiano Venier 9 December 1941, Sounds like the enemy 4th Survey Regiment at war, Table of Equipment Divisional Signals Company 90th Light, The Destruction of Force K Australian Naval Historical Society, Thomas Barkers Diary at Malta No. Experience the final moments of the Queen Elizabeth Battleship, HMS Barham, when it was struck by torpedoes from a German submarine during World War II which resulted in a terrifying explosion. 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