Warspite

From SN Guides

Intoduction

Warspite, the very name is evocative of tales of daring do and Royal Navy grandeur there have been eight ships called Warspite in the Royal navy but to most the name is associated with the 7th ship, the Queen Elizabeth class battleship HMS Warspite, arguably the best battleship in the Royal Navy.


This picture scanned from an old postcard of my fathers shows Warspite as she was built and is dated 1915

The Name Warspite

The name Warspite’s origins are cloudy and unsure it may well have been War (spight) itself a contraction of despight meaning contemptuous defiance, another explanation is that it was originally Woodspite, a woodpecker, a bird which punched holes in wood with it’s beak much as a wooden warship would punch holes in the wooden sides of the opposition with it’s cannon , the woodpecker was part of Warspite’s unofficial crest.
The first Warspite was launched in March 1596 ( or thereabouts) and was of some 650 tons with 36 guns with a crew of 12 in harbour but 300 at sea, in June of 1596 she took part in the attack on Cadiz by 150 of Elizabeth the firsts ships, her captain was Sir Walter Raleigh. The first Warspite appears in a very early ‘navy list’ dated 1603, her last action was in March 1627 when along with 83 other ships they embarked 10,000 men and sailed from Stokes Bay to support the Huguenots in Western France, this poorly trained for expedition was a failure, in 1634 Warspite had been cut down to a hulk for harbour use.
The second Warspite, In 1666 the name was revived with a new ship launched at Blackwall she was of 64 guns and was commanded by Robert Robinson as a new ship in 1666 she played a part in the capture of the French ship Rubis ( 900 tons 54 guns) , In May 1672 she was seen in action against the Dutch off Southwold in the Sole Bay battle. In 1678 peace once more returned and the navy declines as a result Warspite Took part in the siege of cork in September 1690, 1692 saw her at Bar fleur and the Hogue battles these victories over France secured the throne for William and a pleasant outcome for sailors was that the palace at Greenwich was given over as a hospital for sick and injured seafarers. In 1701-2 Warspite was rebuilt at Rotherhithe and reappeared as a ship of 952 tons and 70 guns whence she joined Sir Cloudsiley-Shovell’s squadron in the war against Spain. In August 1712 Warspite was apid off in Woolich and went into reserve and was sold in 1715 when she was renamed Edinburgh under which name she survived until being scrapped in 1771 at the ripe old age of 105.
The third Warspite was launched in 1758 of 1,580 tons and 74 guns and a third rate ship costing £9,440 12s 11d a new type of ‘line of battle’ ship she was commanded by Captain John Bentley, in these days a ‘74’ was the backbone of the fleet, rather like a modern cruiser, in 1778 she was turned over to become a hospital ship and in 1783 she became a receiving ship and in 1800 she was sold out of the navy becoming the Arundel but only survived one year before being scrapped.
The fourth Warspite was also a 74 gun ship but was far larger at 1,890 tons, she also cost a lot more £59,725 At her commissioning in 1807 she was commanded by the Honourable Henry Blackwood, Blackwood had been aboard the Victory with Nelson in action against the French and Spanish in October 1805 and a man greatly respected by Nelson. In 1846 the fourth Warspite was paid off into reserve and was loaned to the marine Society in May 1862 as a training ship for boys, she was still serving as a training ship in 1876 when she was destroyed by fire.
The fifth Warspite was originally named Conqueror a second rate ship of 2,845 tons built in 1833 and renamed Warspite in 1876 and lent to the marine Society to carry on their good work. The fifth Warspite was the first on the name to have steam engines developing 500 IHP sail was however her main means of propulsion. Her armament was still much the same as ships that fought at Trafalgar being armed with smooth bore muzzle loaders. In 1918 she followed her predecessor into a fiery grave.
The sixth Warspite an Imperieuse First class armoured cruiser was launched at Chatham on the 29th January 1884 and commissioned in 1886 she was an armoured cruiser of 8,400 tons and was originally a fully rigged ship but was cut down to military masts , of 8,000 IHP she could attain 17 knots, she was 315 feet long with a beam of 62 feet She was armed with four 9.2 inch breech loaders, one forward, one aft and one of either beam and a secondary battery of ten 6 inch guns all mounted singly on the broadside. Initially she took part in naval manoeuvres in home waters for the first two years of her life, from 1890 to 93 she as flagship of the Pacific Station during this commission the ships mascot, a Llama, approached the Admiral from behind during a church service and took a bite out of his left epaulette, apparently dignity was only maintained with great difficulty. On her return from this command Warspite was flagship at Queenstown until 1899 when she returned to the Pacific station. In 1904 she was put up for sale and on the 4th April 1905 she was sold for scrap to TW Wards of Preston and was broken up at Preston stating in the October of that year.
The Seventh Warspite us the Queen Elizabeth class battleship and the subject of this article.
The eight Warspite was the Valiant Class Nuclear Submarine HMS Warspite launched in 1965, she was the second and final boat in the class,

Class Information

The decision to build Queen Elizabeth class of six battleships stems from rumours that the Germans were planning an increase of gun calibre in their next class of ships, in 1912 it had been intended to build three battleships of an improved iron Duke class and a single battle cruiser, but worries over Germany and the certainty that both the American and Japanese navies were building ships with 14” guns prompted Britain to go one better with the 15” gun, Elswick’s, the gun manufacturers had assured the admiralty that the 15” gun with a 1920 lb shell was perfectly feasible. With this confidence plans for a new class of ship were rushed forwards, this was initially a modified ‘Iron Duke’ with five twin 15” turrets, however this proved to be a much larger, heavier and more costly vessel, it was then accepted that an eight gun ship with four turrets firing a 1,920 lb shell had a broadside weight of 15,360 lbs whereas ten 13.5” guns firing a 1,400 lb shell had a broadside weight of 14,000 lbs less than the eight 15” so the four turret design was accepted. Another advantage of the four turret ship was that the space occupied by Q turret amidships could be used for more powerful engines and the necessary boilers to power them. Although the navy had fast battle-cruisers it was now thought that fast battleships would be safer, not only would they have the speed to run down an enemy they would have the armour to protect them in battle – unlike a battle-cruiser. To gain the speed 25 knots coal-firing would no longer be able to provide the power without taking up to much of the internal space with the large number of boilers needed so the greater thermal efficiency of oil firing was accepted, the only drawback to this was that whilst Britain had plentiful stocks of good steam coal she had little oil of her own. To get round this lack of oil Churchill then the First Lord of the Admiralty but a large number of shares in the Iranian Oil Company this assuring a plentiful supply of oil. One failure with the oil firing of these ships was the decision to stay with large tube boilers, small tube boilers would have delivered the power they really needed and saved weight. The 1912 order-books now consisted of four fast battleships, the battle-cruiser being replaced with the fourth battleship, the Federated Malay states then offered to pay for another ship so the four became five, their names were in future build order : Queen Elizabeth, Warspite, Barham, Valiant & Malaya – named in honour of the Malay States who paid for her construction. The Sixth ship was to be the Agincourt, she was to have been built by Portsmouth dockyard but she was cancelled 0n the 26th August 1914 before she was laid down.

Although a highly successful design and a great step forward from previous designs too much had been attempted on too small a ship so that a number of compromises had to be made, horizontal protection against plunging fire and bombs although improved was still lacking and the design was rather badly overweight making achieving the design speed difficult if not impossible.

Construction

Little information remains on the construction of Warspite due to the destruction of the records office at Devonport by a WW2 bomb and no records exist at all of her sea-trials. Warspite’s keel was laid at HM’s Devonport Dockyard on the 31st October 1912 by Mrs. Stokes the wife of the Dockyard Superintendent whilst the hull was under construction at Devonport the Machinery was built by Hawthorn Leslie at Newcastle on Tyne, the gun mountings by Vickers at their Elswick shops and the guns themselves were constructed four at Vickers river Don works in Sheffield and the other four at William Beardmore’s Parkhead works outside of Glasgow. Her launch date arrived on the 26th November 1913 and was conducted by the Construction manager Mr A.E. Richards, the ceremony itself was performed by Mrs Austen Chamberlain and Winston Churchill, the crowd of onlookers was estimated at 30,000, apart from her weight of 12,000 tons at launch, Warspite was of a new design more powerful than any other at the time and the class were the first wholly oil-fired battleships in the world, in fact this was the first oil-fired ship built by Devonport. The launch went perfectly even though the great weight of the ship was of concern and she was brought up, using her own anchors, in the Hamoaze prior to tugs moving her to the North yard for completion. Lord Fisher at this time was doing everything he could to reduce the weight of the ship by the removal of what he termed luxuries so that she could make a better speed, he wanted Warspite and her sisters to be able to keep up with the battlecruisers, his efforts were in vain Warspite never bettered (or actually equalled) her design speed of 25 knots, on trials she reached 24.5 knots. On the 08th March 1915 Warspite was commissioned into the Royal Navy with Gunnery specialist Captain E.M. Philpotts in command, her Executive officer was Commander H.T. Walwyn (latterly Vice-Admiral Sir Humphrey Walwyn KCSI, KCMG, CB, DSO). Her crew boarded on the 05th April 1915 and she arrived at Scapa Flow on the 13th April 1915 to join the 2nd battle Squadron of the Grand fleet, Warspite was the second ship of the five Queen Elizabeth class and when they were all complete they formed the 5th battle squadron which had been formed specially for them.

Dimensions

Length 644’07” Beam 90’06” Draft 34’02.5” at full load. Disp 27,500 tons standard and 33,410 tons full load ( these are as built). In the 1924/5 refit anti-torpedo bulges were added to the ship these covered a large proportion of the length of the ship starting approximately 90 feet from the bow and stern, they increased her beam to 104 feet, at this time her two funnels were trunked into a single larger funnel.

Machinery

Machinery ( as built)  : Quadruple screws driven by Parsons direct drive steam turbines developing a maximum of 75,000 SHP at 300 rpm. These were supplied with steam at 285 psi from 24 Yarrow large tube boilers split into four separate groups of six boilers each. Fuel capacity was 3,300 tons of oil and 100 tons of coal, her range was about 8,500 miles at 10 knots and 4,000 miles at 21 knots Electrical power was from two 450 Kw and two 200 Kw alternators and an emergency diesel alternator of 200 Kw. The original layout of the turbines was very similar to that of the preceding Iron Duke class with the HP turbines driving the wing propeller shafts and the low pressure turbines driving the inner shafts. Cruising turbines were fitted by way of a gear drive to forward end of the of the HP turbines.

During the 1934-7 rebuild her boilers and main engines were replaced with six admiralty three drum boilers with super-heaters, the four propellers now driven by single reduction Parsons geared turbines of 80,000 SHP, due to additional weight gained during the refit her speed was now 23.5 knots and the modified bunker capacity of 3,500 tons of oil gave her a range of 7,400 miles at 12 knots

Main Battery Armament

Main battery : eight 15” C42 Mk1 guns in four twin Mk1 turrets, these guns fired an AP shell weighing 1,920 lbs out to approximately 23,400 yards at 20 degrees elevation and using 428 lbs of MD45 propellant in four quarter charges contained in 'Shallon’ silk bags. Post the 1937 refit the guns were given a 30 degree elevation and were designated Mk2 guns with a new shell weighing 1,938lbs and using a charge of 432 lbs of propellant they now had a range of 32,500 yards, a shell covering this distance would take slightly over a minute to arrive. The 15 inch gun was without a doubt the finest gun ever produced by the UK, it was first test fired for the Queen Elizabeth class in 1912 and it’s last firing was the Vanguard in 1954, ( Vanguard was fitted with the 15” turrets and guns originally intended for the 1916 Glorious class battlecruisers – it was often said that she was the best battleship but was fitted with her Great Aunts teeth!). The Queen Elizabeth class were built at great risk, the normal proving of a new gun was surpassed to allow the guns to be made in time for them to be fitted, if this had not been done then they would have had to have been fitted with the 13.5” weapon fitted to the preceding Iron Duke class, the man responsible for this great rush was Winston Churchill, he wanted the ships built quickly and to be armed with the 15” gun and the man that made it happen was Rear Admiral Moore the Director of Naval Ordnance. The 15” gun was very powerful but had a very good wear rate and could fire 330 to 340 rounds with a full charge before needing relining, they were constructed of a steel liner inside a steel inner or A tube over this to reinforce the gun 185 miles of thin flat wire was wound at a set tension , over the wire windings a steel jacket was shrunk on, the entire gun was 54 feet long and weighed about a hundred tons and the entire two gun turret a total of 770 tons.

This excellent shot shows the 15" X and Y turret's guns of Warspite, the built up nature of the barrels can be clearly seen.from the NH website

How to load and fire a 15" gun

You cannot leave these guns without describing how the 70 man crew for each turret operated them. The request to load would come down from the director officer to the guns giving the shell type : Armour Piercing Capped (APC) Common Percussion Capped (CPC or Semi AP) or High Explosive (HE) these shells would be picked from their stowage in the shell room located above the treble bottom – British warships stowed them horizontally and the USN vertically – by a pair of hydraulic grabs and transported by overhead rails to a pair of bogeys. These bogeys could be either locked to the rotating turret trunk or locked to the ship, the shells would be placed into them whilst locked to the ship, the bogies were then unlocked and rotated so that the shell aligned up with the flash proof access doors to the trunk and the bogies relocked to the rotating turret trunk. The shells were then, rammed through flash tight doors into the lower sections of a pair of three tiered hoists to take them up to the shell handling room located below the guns themselves. At the same time in the magazines located above the shell rooms the magazine crew would remove eight quarter charges from their storage canisters and pass them through flash tight doors into the turret trunk were they would be hoisted in the upper sections of the hoists to the shell handling room. In the shell handling room the shells and charges would appear through another set of flash tight doors in the floor , they were then rammed from the shell hoist into the gun loading cage and the hoists sent back down to reload. The shells were rammed into the top level of three in the gun loading cages, and the quarter charges were loaded two to the second and two to the third level of the cage and the loading cage would then be sent up through another set of flash proof doors into the gun house itself. The gun would have it’s breach open and the breech would be locked ( something like a huge door bolt) to stop the gun moving during the loading process, the loading tray which connected from the loading cage to the gun breech would be down . The upper level of the loading cage would be stopped at the tray and the shell rammed home into the gun barrel by a chain rammer , the rammer would then withdraw and the cage move up to the second level where the rammer would ram home the two quarter charges (108lbs each) the process would be repeated for the next two quarter charges and the loading cage would be sent down to the handling room for the next round, the loading tray would retract and the breech would slam shut. The breech lock would release and the gun layers would , if in director control, align the gun to match the director pointers, or aim the gun at the target if in local control, as soon as the gun is ‘On’ the electric circuits would be closed and the gun ready light would come on in the director tower. Guns were then usually fired in salvoes, normally all four left guns would fire followed by all four right guns, this allowed for adjusting the guns by the fall of shot from the previous salvo, range correction was faster than firing eight guns together and waiting for the reload. This was the normal daylight method of firing, at night it was usual to fire eight gun broadsides as the fall of shot could not be seen. When all four ( or eight) gun ready lights were on the directing officer would sound the warning bell and fire the guns. If this seems complex imagine repeating it every 45 seconds, the guns were supposed to fire two rounds a minute but in reality it was just under a minute per round.

Secondary battery

Warspite was fitted with fourteen 6” C45 Mk12 guns arranged singly in casemates, six a side under the foc'sle deck and another two similar guns in shields above the casemate battery aft end on the foc'sle deck, these were also of wire wound construction similar to the main battery. They fired a 100 to 112 lb shell out to around 13,500 yards using a separate single bagged charge of 27lbs the rate of fire was around 6 rounds per minute, the low range was due to the guns only having a maximum elevation of 14 degrees. These were not a successful weapon on counts, case mate mounts were low in the hull and thus were very wet, in fact they could not be used in rough weather, they could not be used against anything other than a surface target and even if they could have been used against aircraft they were too slow in rate of fire and training to be of much use any way. The anti aircraft outfit was just two 3” guns, these were the later model Mk1 12 pounder gun the first such gun designed as an AA weapon but only two would not be of much use. In the 1924/5 refit the four boat deck six inch and the two 3 inch AA guns were replaced with four single 4 inch Mk5 guns an improvement but not much. In the 1934/7 refit the 6” battery was reduced to 8 guns in the forward casemates and four twin 4” HA guns were fitted in place of the single 4” on the boat decks. The AA outfit was further increased by the fitting of four Mk6 eight barrelled 2 pounder PomPoms. Also fitted at this time were four of the useless quad 0.5” mgs two each on B & X turret tops. In a 1939 a single 3.7” howitzer was added for reasons I cannot understand , later in 1941 the quad 0.5” MG’s were replaced with thirteen single 20mm guns and in 1942 this outfit was increased again to 29 guns. In June 1944 the final eight six inch were removed and the light AA outfit was altered to four twin and 27 single 2Omm. Due to the start of WW2 and lack of time only the QE and the Valiant were given the major refit that Warspite had, in these refits the threat of air attack was at last given serious recognition and all the 6 inch guns were landed and the hulls plated over allowing room for twenty 4” HA guns in 10 twin mounts a far more satisfactory arrangement.

Torpedo Tubes

Originally Warspite was fitted with four beam firing submerged 21” torpedoes with 20 torpedoes they were located one pair abreast A turret and the other abreast Y. In 1930/1 the after pair were removed and the forward pair went in the 1934-7 refit.

service history 1915 to 1918

The new Warspite had arrived in Scapa Flow on the 13th April 1915 and she spent the whole of that month and May working up both at sea and in port her first sortie with the Grand Fleet was between the 11th and 14th June 1915,m that first summer was busy with sweeps of the North Sea, the 16th September brought her first misfortune, on approaching Rosyth from Scapa in misty weather she sighted land on an unexpected bearing and promptly ran aground at 14 knots off Dunbar, speed was high because of the possibility of submarines damage was substantial but not severe, on the 22nd September she entered Smiths Docks floating dock on the Tyne for repairs, these took until the 20th November 1915 to complete her repairs. On the 02nd November the 5th Battle squadron had been formed under Rear-Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomas, on the second of December Warspite joined up with the Queen Elizabeth and the Barham ( Malaya and Valiant where still to complete) On the 3rd of December Warspite misread a signal for eight knots as eighteen and collided with the stern of the Barham luckily without much damage being done to either ship and on the 09th December Warspite found herself on the way to her home port of Devonport – Guzz for repairs and leave, sadly for her crew Jellicoe was not going to be deprived of one of his most important assets and repairs were rushed through and on the 25th of December Warspite was back on duty at Scapa Flow.

On the 18th February Malaya and then on the 03rd March 1916 Valiant joined up and the 5th BS was at full strength a formidable force of forty 15” and eighty 6” guns on modern fast hulls. Warspite managed to keep herself out of trouble during these times, if it seems that Warspite was a troublesome black sheep and not liked by her crew , then this was not the case one of Warspite’s greatest attributes was the wonderful morale of her crew, thro-ought her life Warspite was a precocious and troublesome command but never did this dampen the spirit on board.

Life remained relatively quiet for the 5th BS until the 31st May 1916 when four ( Queen Elizabeth was in Drydock for repairs) were involved in the Battle of Jutland. Admiral David Beatty’s six battle-cruisers ( 1st and 2nd battle Cruiser squadrons) were supported by RA Evan-Thomas’s 5th BS, initially Beatty in his lets get at them attitude with his greater speed left Evan- Thomas’s ships behind and was taking a severe mauling from the Admiral Hippers five battle-cruisers. The tables were turned somewhat when Evan-Thomas arrived and the immense fire power and speed of fire of the four Queen Elizabeth’s caused heavy damage on the German ships, it was in this action that Beatty lost the two battle cruisers Queen Mary and Indefatigable and about which he made the famous comment 2there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today”, Hipper’s comment on the involvement of the 5th BS was : The new enemy fired with extraordinary rapidity and accuracy and only the poor quality of the British ammunition saved us from disaster – sadly British ammunition at this time was of very poor quality especially the bursting charges which were Lyddite, shells were breaking up on the German armour rather than penetrating . Although things were now going better for the British ships Evan-Thomas’s 5th BS came under heavy fire whilst making a turn to starboard to join Jellicoe ‘s main fleet, Warspite’s troublesome-ness now made a re-appearance, to avoid a collision with the Malaya Warspite used counter rudder to port, the steering now jammed and she turned out of control in front of the entire German High Seas fleet who did not miss an opportunity, Warspite only regained control after two complete turns and at that was steering straight for the enemy when she regained control, she was hit by at least 15 heavy and 14 medium calibre shells, at one point she was just 8,000 yards from her assailants, damage was substantial and with a maximum speed of only 16 knots ( any more may have caused extensive flooding) Warspite was released to steam to Rosyth. On her way back to Rosyth Warspite had patched up some of the holes and was now steaming at nearly full speed which ensured that two torpedoes fired at her missed, Warspite tried to ram the submarine but with her steering not properly working she narrowly missed the Sub, she also opened fired with her 6” batteries but the submarine escaped again. On arrival Warspite’s draft was found to be 35’06” four feet deeper than normal. Considering the damaged she received Warspite’s structure protected her men well, only 14 were killed and 17 injured. she remained under repair until the 04th July 1916, holes and damage were plated over but it was not until her refit in 1934-6 that full repair of the damage was completed, even then some of the damage remained with her for the rest of her life, men passing through her after compartments near the steering gear may not have realised that the unevenness of the decks were caused as a result of the Jutland and her steering troubles were to rear their heads again and again much to her future Captains anxiety.
Post Jutland things were now fairly quiet for the 5th BS and Warspite in February 1917 Beatty succeeded Jellicoe as Admiral of the Grand Fleet and his flag was hoisted in the Queen Elizabeth as Flagship, this started a tradition of either the QE or the Warspite flying the white flag with St Georges Cross of a full Admiral being CIC of either the Home or Mediterranean Fleets which lasted until 1941. On the 18th August 1917 one month after rejoining the 5th BS Warspite was at sea for a night exercise when her rudder jammed again, fortunately control was soon resumed but in the dark and at close stations with her 5th BS sisters it caused a lot of worry, then a few days later when returning to her berth in Scapa Flow her steering once more jammed and she hit the Valiant ,which was underway for exercises, hard. Damage was serious, by courts martial both ships were held to blame and reprimanded. Captain Philpotts reprimand was later annulled. She sailed immediately for repairs which lasted until the 29th September 1917, On the 19th December Philpotts was relieved by Captain C.M. de Bartolome. In 1918 Warspite along with 30 other battleships, four battle-cruisers, twenty-six cruisers and eighty-four destroyers put to sea to attack Scheer’s fleet which had put to sea to attack a convoy, fortunately for Scheer’s his fleet had cancelled the operation and was even then returning to base so no action took place, the rest of the war was spent with Warspite and her sisters carrying out sweeps and operations from Scapa Flow. On the 21st November 1918 the German High Seas fleet steamed to Rosyth to surrender at 0230 in the Morning Warspite, now under the command of Captain Hubert Lynes had left Rosyth with the rest of the fleet and formed up into two giant columns of 30 to forty capital ships and at 0900 went to action stations with their guns trained out onto their former enemy, the Light cruiser Cardiff made initial contact and at 0930 led the German fleet between the two British lines and by noon the High sea’s fleet was anchor off Rosyth, the war was over.

This picture shows Warspite in her final Form arriving at Malta, 'B' gun is carrying the national flag markings and these were painted on during the Spanish Civil war (1936-9) this is a scan of one of my fathers photographs of Warspite.

Service history 1918 to 1939

Post war major changes in the fleets occurred, In April 1919 Beattie’s flag came down for the last time on the Queen Elizabeth’s mast and the Grand fleet ceased to be the ships being dispersed to peaceful flag showing missions around the world, With the demise of the Grand Fleet two principal fleets were the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets, Warspite served with the Atlantic fleet from 1919 to 1926 and 1931 to 1933. The Royal Navy went through large changes in these years economy was now needed which hastened the demise of many old ships this scrapping of ships was increased by the 1921 Washington conference in which Britain accepted parity of naval strength with the United States in the numbers of her Capital ships but knowing her needs to protect her Empire Britain kept her cruiser strength , these negotiations were mainly the responsibility of Admiral Beattie who became First Sea Lord on the 01st November 1919. In 1918 Warspite was fitted with flying off platforms these were simply a short take off runway fitted to the superfiring B & X turrets, take off was achieved by simply pointing the gun into the wind and hoping the low flying speed of the aircraft then used – Sopwith strutter or similar – would be attained in the 75 feet available, the planes were intended to be used as observation craft for spotting the fall of shot and would land ashore after use. In 1919 and the following two years Warspite the Atlantic fleet participated in a spring cruise to the Mediterranean to conduct manoeuvres with the Med fleet before returning to Northern waters, 1921 and the national coal and rail strikes saw Warspite in the Clyde as a show of force, however the crew spent a lot of time tactfully playing football with the strikers. !924’s spring cruise to the Med saw Warspite’s first visit to Malta, a port to which she would be well acquainted in the future years, she returned home in July 1924 for the Spithead review were approximately 200 Royal Navy ships took part- - including most of the Queen Elizabeth class – the ships were arranged in ten columns with the two battleship columns lead by the Queen Elizabeth and the Barham, Warspite was third in line astern of Barham, following this Warspite was Guardship at Cowes week yachting regatta and was then paid off at Portsmouth for a major refit. During the 1924-6 refit to counter the increased threat of torpedo attack the ship was fitted with anti-torpedo bulges, these ran for virtually the length of the hull from just short of the keel to six feet above the water line, these water tight compartments were meant to explode the torpedo away from the main hull and as well as being split into many fore and aft compartments they were split in two horizontally to restrict flooding, the bulges further reduce her speed to 23.5 knots. The rather useless aircraft platforms were removed and as AA defence the four boat deck 6” guns were changed for four single 4” HA AA guns, she was also fitted with 2 two pounder PomPom’s her displacement rose from 27,500 to 31,300 tons. Warspite recommissioned into the Mediterranean fleet at Portsmouth on the 06th April 1926 with 54 officers and 871 crew under Rear Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, she joined the Med fleet with all four of her sisters and formed the newly re-instated 1st Battle Squadron, before sailing for the Med Warspite once again found herself involved in a strike, the general strike broke out on the 3rd May and she sailed for Greenock were her crew guarded Princes Dock on the 12th May the strike ended and she sailed for the Med. Warspite spent the next eighteen months as flagship of the Med fleet before handing over to the Queen Elizabeth and became a private ship with Captain J.F. Somerville in command, times were now much quieter for her but on the 12th July 1928 she hit an uncharted rock in the Aegean off Skiathos and she returned home for repairs. An enquiry acquitted her officers of any blame as the charts in use were ‘imperfect’ being based on an 1887 survey .

On the 22nd January 1929 she recommissioned into the Med fleet again but Although due to assume the flag once more engine problems delayed this until the 18th November when Admiral Sir Frederick Field hoisted his flag, this turned out to be short-lived and the Queen Elizabeth took over again in May 1930, Warspite, Valiant and Barham now joined the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Atlantic fleet , spring and summers were routinely passed on fleet manoeuvres in the Med for a number of years until the 21st. march 1933 When Warspite with the Valiant astern was returning home to Portsmouth from Gibraltar , steaming through dense fog off the River Tagus Warspite was rammed on the starboard side by the Rumanian Steamer Peles , the damage was mainly above water and a cofferdam was built around the damage to allow her to continue to Portsmouth. In May 1933 she returned to service with the 2nd. BS but in just six months she reduced to reserve, major funds had been allocated to update the major units of the Royal Navy, Under the treaties of the early 1920’s the RN was permitted to have 15 capital ships, The Nelson and Rodney were the only new ships built and only the five ships of the Queen Elizabeth and Revenge Classes remained along with the three Battlecruisers – Hood, Renown and Repulse, rather than build new ships it was decided to save money and rebuild the existing ships and Warspite and Renown were to be the first ships to undergo this rebuild.

Now nearly 20 years old Warspite had virtually all structures, apart from the gun houses, above the upper deck removed , next all boilers and main machinery were removed , the engine rooms were now subdivided into eight separate spaces and the boiler rooms divided longitudinally into six spaces, the inner bottoms were also completely re-built – another first for Warspite and the Admiralty. The 24 yarrow boilers were replaced with just six new Admiralty type boilers, new Parsons geared turbines replaced the old, the original two funnels were replaced with a single large funnel to give more room for AA weapons. Armour plating was improved the decks now being 51/2 inches thick over the machinery and magazines, whilst all this was going on the guns were modernised by Vickers Armstrong, to permit removal of the guns the turret roofs were removed and guns lifted out, to increase the elevation and thus the range of the guns the trunnions were raised permitting an elevation of 30 degrees and a new maximum range of 32,000 yards, new shells were also designed to overcome earlier deficiencies and these were more streamlined to help increase their range.

The secondary batteries were also greatly modified, half the 6” casemate mounted guns were removed leaving just the midships four each side, the four inch AA guns were also removed but replaced with four twin 4” AA mounts, two each side above the 6” batteries. To further increase the AA capabilities two platforms were built each side of the funnel and a total of four eight barrelled two-pounder PomPom’s installed, these guns were nicknamed Chicago piano’s by the seamen who manned them. On the roofs of B and X turrets were mounted two quadruple 0.5” machine guns. New fire control equipment was installed, Elliots of Lewisham made the equipment for the 15 and 6 inch batteries and Vickers Armstrong’s at Barrow that for the Anti-Aircraft batteries, the immense amount of new electrical equipment resulted in the entire ship being re-wired. Aft of the new funnel two hangers were built along with a single cross ship catapult for two swordfish spotter aircraft, to recover the planes two deck cranes were installed, the planes were manned by the Fleet Air Arm. A new impressive tower-type bridge structure, this entirely altered the look of the ship and provided space for the needs of a flagship and provided space for the new weapons system controls.

On the 08th March 1937 Warspite left the shipyard to begin an exhausting series of trials just four days later steaming at full speed during engine trials her helm jammed hard a starboard again, although a new steering system had been installed her capriciousness was unchanged, her trials produced just over 80,000 shaft horse power and 23.84 knots . On the 18th March her wicked fairy re-appeared, she was conducting main battery trials, these were initially at maximum depression followed by maximum elevation to test both the gun mountings and the ships structure. During the maximum elevation shoot two of the eight 15” rounds weighing close to a ton each landed virtually alongside a Royal Mail Liner, she was 16 miles away but remained unseen in the misty weather, the liners Captain reported that this event caused alarm amongst her 800 passengers.

On the 29th June she re-commissioned her original crew number of 993 men was now 1,183 , the roominess that the class were renowned for somewhat diminished, war was to see this number rise still further to 1,218 men. Captain V.A.C. Crutchley was now in command and his predecessor, Captain F.H.W. Goolden had advised of Warspite’s steering problems so Crutchley carried out his own tests at full speed and the helm jammed yet again, however the wicked fairy was not satisfied with this and on return to port grinding noises were heard from a set of turbine gearing, further repairs and tests took until January 1938. The crew of Warspite were drawn from Chatham but the ship was based at Portsmouth , this along with the prolonged hard work of the extended trials added to the hardships of the ship being in port (Portsmouth) but not the home port of the crew thus making home leave difficult gave fuel to a small minority of the crew to stir up trouble and although this was sorted out on board details were leaked to the press, once this occurred the Admiralty had to act and Admiral Max Horton conducted an enquiry. The enquiry was quite far reaching and as a consequence the Commander, 1st. Lieutenant and the Captain of the marines were relieved also 3 ratings were discharged and ten other men sent to other ships. Additional pressure had been placed on the ship as she was due to take over as flagship on arrival in the Med thus giving the crew a tremendous task of cleaning and painting a ship that in reality was in a serious mess due to the extended repair and rebuilding, the pressure here was from Admiral Dudley Pound who wanted his recalcitrant flagship on station. Her new crew now numbered 1,248 crew, there were 260 in the engineering branch, 480 in the seaman’s branch who along with 143 in the Royal Marines were responsible for the manning of the guns. The remainder belonged to diverse departs such as catering, Torpedo men who bizarrely looked after the electrical equipment – Warspite carried no torpedoes, Signalmen, Telegraphists, Fleet Air Arm, Paymasters staff etc. On the 5th January 1938 Warspite finally left Portsmouth for Malta with only a brief two hour pause at Gibraltar arriving on the 14th January she then commenced a two week working up period, in-spite of the shortness of time she acquitted herself very well and it became obvious to all that she was not only a very smart but very efficient ship however her wicked fairy made another appearance, at the end of a series of anti-aircraft firing tests she was returning to port when the plane towing the target flew past the ship still towing the target, a very green Midshipman on one of the Multiple PomPom’s opened fire on his own accord, unfortunately the plane was between the ship and Malta luckily the shells missed Valetta but did nothing for inter navy and army cordiality as they peppered a platoon of the Green Howard’s on a rifle range luckily no injuries or damage resulted and a visit of apology closed the matter. On the 6th February 1938 Pound boarded his flagship for the first time and in his speech was plain angry but this did not dismay the Warspite’s it just made them more determined to prove him wrong . In March Warspite sailed as flagship with the Med fleet on exercised and a cruise of the Mediterranean and whilst at Gibraltar the men of Warspite provided the entertainment in the form of a review title “ what’s the delay” a satire on her turbulent arrival in the Med, this went down very well and amused the whole audience greatly although it was a little harsh on the dockyard. Over this period of enjoyment hung the storm clouds of the future Hitler had Invaded Austria on the 11th March and the fleet continued with almost continuous exercises over the next weeks and months. In August Warspite took part in a fleet gunnery exercise she launched her spotter plane and sighted the target and opened fire at 21,000 yards, reports from the plane indicated just over, Warspite corrected then fired 40 salvoes shredding both targets, during this she successfully engaged towed targets with her AA armament, Pound was delighted with his flagship and the good gunnery of Warspite was established. In September cruises to Greece were cancelled and the fleet assembled at it’s war base of Alexandria. The Munich agreement was signed on the 30th September 1938 and the fleet relaxed a little, in June 1939 due to the illness of Sir Roger Backhouse Pound returned to the UK to take over as First Sea Lord and the next day Admiral Sir Andrew Browne Cunningham ( or ABC as he was known) Hoisted his flag in Warspite cruises of the Med continued but on a wary footing . On the 1st September the fleet held it’s annual pulling regatta, it ended on the day war broke out, Warspite’s log gives details of the regatta but does not mention the war. Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham - ABC

Service history 1939 to scrapping

Warspite’s motto "I despise the hardships of war". Was to be sorely tested over the next years of her life , 1939 and the opening of world war two saw her in the Mediterranean, with Captain Crutchley in command, as Admiral Cunningham’s flagship with the 1st Battle Squadron comprising the Queen Elizabeth class battleships Warspite, Barham and Malaya along with the Air craft carrier Glorious 3 heavy and 3 light cruisers and 3 destroyer flotilla’s at this time Italy was still sitting on the fence but greatly overshadowed the British fleet especially in the numbers of cruisers and destroyers. Although the Mediterranean fleet was out numbered events with the home fleet had left if severely overstretched, so in Early November 1939 Cunningham lost his only modern battleship, First Sea Lord Admiral Pound apologised for taking his flagship to which Cunningham replied “losing her is a blow but not un-expected” , and via a dry-docking in Malta Warspite set off to join the Home fleet, her first task was to escort a convoy across the Atlantic, this was a time when the risk of German commerce raiders was at it’s height and several attacks on convoys were prevented by the presence of a battleship. On the return journey with convoy HX9 from Halifax to the UK the Rawalpindid was attacked on the evening of the 23rd November 1939 by what she thought was a n armoured cruiser of the Deutschland class but was actually the two sister battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, on the 24th Warspite was ordered to leave the Convoy and search for the enemy forces. On this occasion better intelligence allowed the battle-cruisers to evade the British patrols, Warspite then sailed for Portsmouth but enroute on the 04th December Admiral Forbes flagship of the Home fleet, HMS Nelson, set off a magnetic mine in the entrance to Loch Ewe and was put out of action, thus Warspite was diverted to Greenock were Forbes hoisted his flag in Warspite so in the space of 3 months she had been flagship to both major fleets. On the 07th April Warspite was on her way back to the Med when she was diverted back north, the Germans had invaded Norway and she was ordered back to take part in the counter attack On the 09th April the first battle of Narvik took place between 5 British destroyers and ten of the larger more heavily armed German destroyers, this battle was equal in ships lost, two German destroyers were sunk and two damaged but the Hardy and Hunter were lost, in addition six enemy cargo vessels were also sunk.

After a failed air attack Warspite with nine destroyers with Vice Admiral W.J. Whitworth in charge went into OfotFjord with the objective of finishing off the remaining eight destroyers, , the date was Saturday the 12th April 1940, normally a cleaning day and famously the order ‘clean up mess-decks and flats’ was amended to “ clean up mess-decks and Fjords”. Once well in the Fjord Warspite catapulted off her Swordfish aircraft to act as a spotter plane, this turned out probably to be the best use of a spotter plane in any fleet action, an enemy destroyer was hidden up a side creek of the Fjord ready to use her torpedoes as the fleet passed by but the aircraft signalled this back to the flagship and the unfortunate destroyer ended up on the receiving end of the end of the entire fleets guns, this was the first time Warspite’s guns had fired in anger since the battle of Jutland back in 1916. The aircraft also spotted submarine, U64,. and sank her with a bomb, the first Uboat to be sunk by air attack. The attack was a typical destroyer action fast and furious with Warspite steaming around in the smoke of battle engaging whenever a target appeared , all eight destroyers were sunk or destroyed with Warspite firing 64 salvo’s ( 32 rounds each gun) only two British ships the Eskimo and Cossack were damaged, the German navy lost the Georg Thiele, Hans Ludemann, Hermann Kunne, Diether Von Roder, Wolfgang Zenker, Erich Giese, Erich Koellner and Bernd Von Arnim. One of Warpsite’s gun crew reported the only difficulty in the battle was that every time their turret fired the tea kettle kept hot on the electric radiator in the turret had to be lifted off to prevent it spilling.

On the 27th April 1940 Captain D.B. Fisher took over from Crutchley and she sailed from Scapa flow to Greenock were she took on stores and sailed for the Mediterranean and on the 10th May after a worrying passage through the Med she arrived at Alexandria, on the 11th ABC re-hoisted his flag in his beloved Warspite, Pound wrote “ You must be glad to find yourself back in Warspite again, I have not envied your position for the last eight months but I do now”. Although pleased to have his flagship and a modernised battleship back under his command Warspite badly needed docking and immediately went into dry-dock and was ready for service on the 24th May, on the 11th June Italy declared war on the UK.

Warspite’s next major action took place in early July 1940, Cunningham had sailed from Alexandria with virtually his entire fleet to cover two convoys from Malta to Alexandria, the fleet was split into three parts, Cunningham in Warspite with 5 destroyers, Vice Admiral J.C. Tovey with five six inch cruisers and a single destroyer and finally Rear admiral Pridham-Wippell with the Malaya, Royal Sovereign, Aircraft carrier Eagle and ten destroyers. It soon became apparent from British submarine reports that the Italian fleet of two Cavour class 12” gunned battleships, six Eight inch and ten six inch cruisers plus 32 destroyers were going to attempt to interfere with these convoys. Although Britain had three battleships to the Italian two the Malaya and Royal Sovereign had never been modernised and were considerably slower, especially the RS, than Warspite and their gun range was only 23,500 yards compared to Warspite’s 32,000, the carrier eagle was also sadly lacking having only a handful of torpedo bombers and just two Gladiator fighters with which to defend the fleet. The fleet was attacked by Italian land based bombers who gleefully broadcast that they had heavily hit and set on fire a British battleships, this caused great amusement in the British fleet as the ship on fire was in fact the Royal Sovereign doing her best to keep up and producing huge volumes of smoke into the bargain. First contact between the fleets on the British side was the Cruiser Neptune’s signal “ Enemy battle fleet in sight” the first time since Southampton at Jutland in 1916 that this signal had been made by a British ship and the last time this signal had been made in the med was in Nelson’s days. Toveys was now in a very difficult situation with the entire horizon covered with Italian ships all concentrating on the five light cruisers at 1526 Warspite now well ahead of Pridham-Wippell in Malaya & the Royal Sovereign opened fire on the lead Italian battleship, Warspite’s 15” salvos caused the Italian Cruisers to turn away under smoke and undoubtedly saved Toveys cruisers from damage. For a while firing ceased due to the smoke then at 1550 Warspite re-opened on an Italian battleship at 29,000 yards and a few minutes late hit the Giulio Cesare at the range of 26,000 yards, this hit remains, I think, as the longest range to a moving target achieved without the use of radar. The effect on the Cesare was substantial, the shell caused severe damage to her AA armaments on the upper-decks and penetrated several decks to a boiler room were it put out of action 4 boilers reducing the battleship to 18 knots. At once the enemy turned away under smoke, at this time Britain could read the Italian navy code and understood this manoeuvre was to lure the British ships into the smoke and a submarine led torpedo attack, Cunningham did therefore not fall for this ruse and apart from a few small skirmishes between the Italian light forces as they appeared through the smoke-screen and the British fleet, during this period the Malaya had finally caught up with Warspite and joined in but with little effect. On the way back to their respective bases the British and Italian fleets were attacked with impartiality by the Italian Air-force and the angry signals from the Italian Admiral greatly cheered the British ships, Warspite alone counted 300 misses by bombs but the fleet and the convoys arrived at Alexandria safely.

In August 1940 Warspite was at sea with newly rebuilt sister-ship Valiant and the carrier Illustrious when a flight of planes was sighted, Warspite’s Air Defence officer reported Aircraft on red 30 are friendly when one of her air lookouts reported : Friendly air craft red 30 – friendly bombs released, in-spite of the serious situation this caused great amusement to all on board.

The following months were spent on convoy escort duties with occasional shore bombardments, the next fleet action took place on the 28/29th March 1941 south west of Crete off the island of Gavdo and Cape Matapan, Greece" In this action called the battle of Matapan Warspite, Barham and the Valiant under Cunningham along with light forces again Under Pridham-Wippell attempted to bring the Italian fleet under Admiral Iachino to battle whilst this did not come to pass during a brilliant night manoeuvre Valliant’s new radar set was used to full advantage and the three Battleships crossed ahead of two Italian heavy cruisers and four destroyers ( called crossing the ‘T’} in the space of just a few minutes three of the Italian ships were reduced to sinking wrecks The two cruisers, Zara and Fiume sank quickly and the destroyer Alfieri was finished off by torpedo from the destroyer Stuart. This action was confused on both sides, innitially the Pola another heavy cruiser had been damaged and stopped and Iachino had sent the Zara, Fiume (her sister-ships) plus the destroyers back to assist the Italian ships had not the slightest idea that Cunningham was anywhere in the area., the Italians had not contemplated a night action and their guns were not manned Cunningham however was intending a night time action and was searching for the stopped ship believing it might have been the Italian flagship Vittorio Veneto, a modern battleship, damaged earlier by aircraft from Illustrious unfortunately for the Italians they did not see the british battle-squadron until they opened fire. Warpite's action report is both amazing and shocking in the speed and severity of the attack. The Italian ships were sighted at 2225 &30 secs fine on the starboard bow, and the course was altered to port to cross ahead of the Italian ships steaming in line ahead. At 2227 & 15 secs all guns, 15" & 6" plus searchlights were trained on the targets, 30 secs later the destroyer greyhound illuminated the hapless Italian ships. 2227 & 55 secs Order given - open fire 2228 warspite opens with a six gun salvo at 2,900 yards and scores either 5 or 6 hit, the lead enemy cruiser bursts into flame from the bridge to the after gun turret. 2228 & 10 secs first 6" gun salvo - Valiant continued to fire on first ship 2228 & 40 secs Warspite fires second broaside of eight 15" AP - most of these hit - target destroyed and on fire - shifts to second cruiser 1029 & 18 secs fired eight gun AP broadside at second cruiser - range 3,500 yards most of these hit and target bursts into flame general melee of firing at the following destroyers followed, in all Warspite fired 40 rounds of AP 15" and 44 rounds of 6" HE Two Italian destroyers were finished off by the British destroyers as was the damaged heavy cruiser Pola, whilst Cunnigham broke off the action to resume his search for the Vittorio Veneto, unfortunately she had returned to port so Cunningham retired to Alexandria being innefectually bombed by the Luftewaffe on the way.

Post Matapan Cunningham’s fleet including Warspite carried out several shore bombardments, these carried a grave risk of damage or loss due to the proximity of enemy air forces. An example of such a bombardment was Tripoli, between 0503 and 0524 on the 21st April 1942 Cunningham’s force unloaded 530 tons of explosives onto the port, Warspite alone fired 135 rounds of 15” and 106 rounds of 6” shells, the targets were shipping in the port and the ports facilities, and although much damage was done in the town just a single ship was sunk, the effect on morale is unknown but a bombardment of that ferocity in just 21 minutes must have been terrifying.

In early May 1941 whilst running a convoy through the Med the opportunity was taken to reinforce the Med fleet and Warspite’s newly re-constructed sister-ship Queen Elizabeth helped fight one of the convoy’s through, a great addition as she was as fast as Warspite and with the same 32,000 yard gun range. Cunningham shifted his flag to the QE at this time The increase in strength of the Mediterranean fleet was not to last long, on the 20th May Germany commenced it’s invasion of Crete, German air forces now attacked the fleet whenever possible and on the 22nd may after two virtually continuous days of air attack 3 ME109 fighter bombers were sighted 2000 yards ahead of Warspite at an altitude of 800 feet, due to the smoke from gunfire and previous attacks they had manage to close the ship without being seen, Warspite turned hard to port and two bombs narrowly missed her but the third hit the forward starboard twin four inch AA gun on the foc’sle deck ( abreast the funnel) , this 500lb. Semi-armour piercing bomb did a great deal of damage, the entire 4” mount was blown over the side, the resulting explosion , probably made worse by exploding ammunition , blew a large hole in the battery deck and pierced the deck below into the communications ratings mess-deck. A dangerous fire was started in the 6” battery which put out of action all four of the 6” guns, the blast further distorted the deck around the after starboard twin 4” AA gun placing that out of action and smoke temporarily shut down one boiler room. Fire parties swiftly controlled the blaze but 137 men had been killed and another 31 wounded, the casualty figure was high partially due to off-duty ratings in the Communications Mess had, against regulations, removed their anti-flash gear due to the heat. Although badly damaged Warspite stayed with fleet which then lost the destroyer Greyhound, and the cruisers Gloucester and Fiji and on the 23rd The famous Kelly and her sister Kashmir.

On the 24th May Warspite reached Alexandria and landed her wounded and carried out temporary repairs, at this time Cunningham re-hoisted his flag in his battered flagship, it was at this time Warspite’s final nickname was contrived Daniel Reardon a CPO and a veteran of Narvik lost a leg in the bombing added that his last look at the Famous Old Lady was from a stretcher, Warspite now became the ‘ Old lady’. Whilst receiving temporary repairs at Alexandria Warspite was again attacked by air on the night of the 23/4th. June and a near miss destroyed a motor boat lying alongside her starboard side, with typical stoicism a sailor remarked – “well that’s one less to hoist anyhow”

On the 26th June Warspite left Alexandria and passed through the Suez Canal calling at Colombo, Singapore, Manila, Honolulu and Esquimalt before arriving at the USN repair yard at Bremerton Seattle on the 11th Of August 1941, wherever she went immense interest was shown in her and great kindness was shown to the crew by their new American friends. Warspite refit needed great co-ordination , most of her 15” guns needed replacing due to barrel wear so these great guns weighing 100 tons each had to specially crated and shipped singly to the USA – the risk of loosing them was too great to ship them together. Once in the USA they were carried by rail to Seattle. The opportunity was taken to give Warspite as thorough a refit as possible and also to rest her crew 600 of whom were sent home from Seattle, thus she did not return to service until January 1942.

After re-commissioning on the 21st December – three weeks after Pearl Harbour Warspite worked up in Canadian waters before sailing for Sydney on the 22nd January 1942, for once she was a lucky ship she crossed the International Date Line on Friday the 13th February so officially that day did not exist, a good omen for the sailors on board. Arriving in Sydney on the 22nd February Warspite carried out further exercises and training before sailing for Trincolmalee arriving on the 22nd March, on the 27th Captain Fisher was relieved by Captain F.E.P. Hutton and Admiral Sir James Somerville hoisted his flag in her, Warspite now being 27 years old became the flag ship of the Eastern Fleet. The fleet looked large on paper – Five Battleships, Two heavy Cruisers ( Dorsetshire & Cornwall), Five light cruisers and a mixed bag of sixteen destroyers plus two large and one small aircraft carriers. However four of the battleships were the four remaining R class ships, slow and un-modernised and quite unsuitable for modern warfare. Against them the Japanese Navy ranged 5 large fleet carriers with ample heavy and light support forces. On the fifth of April 1942 the fleets base, Colombo, was attached by the Japanese Carrier force damage was small but the two heavy Cruisers Dorsetshire & Cornwall were caught and sunk. At this time Somerville was using the secret base of Addu Atoll and so the main fleet escaped, The Japanese carrier fleet then struck Trincolmalee catching the light carrier Hermes sinking her and badly damaging the port, although Somerville had carried out air searches for the Japanese fleet to carry out a night attack it is thankful our weak eastern fleet did not find it’s target as these were the very last ships Britain had to spare and we must surely have lost them. The British fleet did not return to Colombo until the Americans eradicated the Japanese carrier force at Midway on the 4th to the 07th June 1942.

Warspite remained in the Indian Ocean helping to Keep the Indian Ocean convoy routes open and in February 1943 she was part of the escort for the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth carrying the Australian Division home from the Middle East. In March 1943 with the Indian Ocean now quiet Warspite sailed for home stopping off at Durban, Captain Hutton was relieved by Captain H.A. Packer , Packer had been a subbie in Warspite’s gun room in 1915. In June 1943 Warspite was exercising from Scapa including a lot of bombardment training in readiness for the invasion of Sicily, and on the 17th of June she sailed for the assault on Sicily and was once more a part of the 01st Battle Squadron, she called at Gibraltar and hoisted the flag of Rear Admiral A.W. la T. Bissett who was second in command of force H, at the end of June Warspite shifted to Algiers, later she joined Valiant and Formidable at Alexandria on the 05th July ready for the attack on the 10th July,. Next the division of three ships moved to Malta and on the 17th July sailed for Catania to bombard the shore batteries there which were causing the eighth army problems, Valiant fouled the anti-torpedo netting and had to be left behind so running late Warspite worked up to her maximum speed, now 23.5 knots, and promptly suffered steering failure, narrowly missing an escorting destroyer. Warspite finally arrived off Catania 13 minutes late at 1843 and promptly commenced her bombardment, she maintained a salvo every minute until just after seven, although the battery responded it failed to hit Warspite before she silenced it, her bombardment completed she returned to Malta.

On the 02nd September Warspite and Valiant shelled shore batteries South of Reggio ready for the crossing of the Straits of Messina, the Canadians landed on the 03rd to find the battery out of action with seventeen shell craters around the battery, blast and splinters had destroyed the guns. The Italians had signed an Armistice on the 03rd of September but the announcement was not made until the 08th and on the 10th September Warspite, at the head of the British fleet, received a part of the Italian navy as they surrendered in Malta, on the 11th she sailed out from Malta to meet more of the Italian fleet – including the Gulio Cesare which she fought and hit off Calabria.

Proud in her achievements Warspite ( thats her guns in the fore-ground) and Valiant leads the Italian fleet into surrender at Malta. US NH image

On the 14th September Warspite, once more with Valiant and Illustrious, sailed for the Gulf of Salerno, heavy German reinforcements were giving the American 6th Corps a hard time, arriving in the middle of an air attack on the 15th and at 1752 Warspite commenced her bombardment, the US forces were very impressed with accuracy of this bombardment , all that night Warspite was at action stations under constant air attack and early on the 16th she moved close inshore again . Just after noon Warspite opened up on enemy traffic and ammunition dumps, she was now only half a mile from the shore, at 1400 she was leaving the area when she was attacked again by 12 ME109’s, these did no damage they did however distract her from another attack at 1430, these were three planes at 6,000 feet and thought to be high level bombers, what they were in fact were the first guided missiles, three FX1400 guided bombs which resembled small aircraft each weighing 3,000 lbs. Once directly overhead the three weapons then plummeted vertically at their target, the first bomb hit close to the funnel and entered No4 boiler room, it penetrated six decks, a total of nearly 7 inches of armour, before detonating on her inner bottom, No 4 boiler room was totally destroyed and flooded immediately through a 20 x 14 foot hole in the hull, with four of the remaining five boiler rooms flooding as a consequence. Of the other two bombs one near missed to starboard causing flooding of the anti-torpedo bulges, the third bomb was also a near miss on the starboard side aft. On board Warspite the shock of the bomb hit was massive which gave rise to thoughts that she had broken her back, all steam and power was lost yet amazingly only nine men were killed and fourteen injured, the Bosun recalled amusingly being in the heads when the bomb hit and being unable to escape , he told himself to calm down and unlock the door first. Five thousand tons of water had flooded into the ship and her draft was now around six feet deeper at 38 feet. The light cruiser Delhi stood by to protect the now defenceless battleship whilst preparations were made to tow her to safety, at 1615 the American tug Hopi was connected up and moving Warspite slowly out of Salerno Bay , soon two more tugs were helping and speed was up to 4 knots, conditions on board were dire, no lighting, no water, no food, and worse no ventilation, the heat below decks stifling. By next morning her diesel dynamos were providing power for lighting and guns, thankfully no further air attacks were made and Warspite arrived at Malta on the morning of the 19th September.

This scan of a clipping kept by my father shows Warspite arriving in Malta under tow on the morning of the 19th September 1943 - the degree of flooding is shown in her lack of freeboard

Some temporary patching-up was done at Malta and on the 01st November drawing nearly 40 feet and displacing nearly 40,000 tons she left under tow of the tugs Restive, Jaunty, Nimble and Orana for Gibraltar, initially Warspite tried to assist by steaming on one shaft at dead slow but soon lost all steam again and had to rely on the tugs, she arrived after a tow of 1,035 miles on the o8th November initially tying up on the outer mole, she spent the 12th,. of November until the 28th of December in the dry-dock but did not finally leave Gibraltar for Rosyth until the 09th March, she was part of a convoy who were grateful for her presence but with just the partial use of the two forward turrets and with her speed limited she was not what she seemed to the rest of the ships in the convoy.

Rosyth did what they could for the old lady but she was needed for further duties so she sailed out on just five boiler rooms, no.4 was never repaired and X turret remained out of action, Warspite remained a six gun ship throughout the rest of her life. Throughout April 1944 she carried out bombardment practices off the Firth of Forth and in early may returned to Scapa Flow ready for further duties, she managed on trials to reach 21 knots in this battered state.

Warspite under tow from Malta for Gibraltar early November 1943 - tugs Restive, Jaunty, Nimble and Orana - Warspite is powerless owing to the bomb damage received at the salerno landings

Normandy and Walcheren Bombardments-Warspites Swansong

To protect the landings on the beaches of Normandy silencing of the heavy gun emplacements protected by reinforced concrete was essential,, bombs were too inaccurate but directed naval gunnery with the high terminal velocity and the ability to correct the fall of shot could destroy the heavy fortifications. On the eastern side of the Normandy landings lay the batteries at Villerville, Benerville and Goneville, assigned to the destruction of these batteries were the 15” gunned monitor Lord Roberts, and the battleships Ramillies and Warspite along with five cruisers and 15 destroyers under Rear Admiral W.R. Patterson, part of Rear Admiral Sir Phillip Vian’s Eastern Task Force. On the evening of the 02nd June Warspite sailed from Greenock for the Channel and joined up with the rest of the Task Force, On the 05th June she was off the Eddystone light house . Allocated to Sword area Warspite picked up the buoy marking the start of the swept channel at 0120 in the morning of the 06th June were, preceded by forty minesweepers, the battleship approached the coast of France , at 0525 she was stopped in position eleven miles to seaward of Le Havre and opened fire almost immediately on the Benerville battery – Warspite’s prime target. At 0604 Warspite fought off an attack by torpedo boats and was narrowly missed by a torpedo, at 0612 she sank an attacking German patrol boat. For the rest of the day until just after 1800 she engaged all three shore batteries and at times, as directed , columns of enemy vehicles, although there were three enemy batteries they only once managed to straddle Warspite causing minor splinter damage but no casualties, of the 73 shells fired at the Villerville battery 9 were direct hits, at 2300 she anchored for the night. The 07th June was spent engaging targets of opportunity such as AA batteries and mobile guns brought up to replace the shattered shore batteries, In the afternoon the Benerville battery became active again and Warspite put eight 4 gun salvoes into it, silencing the battery again, following this she returned to Portsmouth to replenish her ammunition. On the 09th June she was back at the landing areas and as the American bombardment ships were running low on ammunition she was assigned to assist on the west side, here the German battery was on a narrow neck of land with a lagoon behind and a very difficult target, firing blind without air-spotting Warspite fired 96 rounds and silenced the enemy guns and earning a compliment on her shooting from the American forces. On the 11th June she was off Gold Beach and was requested to fire on a concentration of enemy troops in a wood, by now the enemy wise to these bombardments would scatter then reform when they were finished, to circumvent this Captain Kelsey of Warspite gave what must be a fairly unique order for a battleship, Fifty rounds rapid fire, the army ashore were exceedingly impressed by this trick.

The above picture shows Warspite in the opening days of the Invasion of Normandy ( 06/07th June 1944) shelling the batteries of Villerville, Benerville and Goneville, X turret is clearly shown out of action and still trained fore and aft. Her catapult is clearly empty so her aircraft is aloft, most likely spotting the fall of shot - a scan of a photo belonging to my late father.

On the evening of the 11th Warspite once again returned to Portsmouth to load more ammunition , but wearing of her gun barrels dictated that this be cancelled and she was sent to Rosyth for the barrels to be changed thus Warspite became the first battleship to traverse the Dover Straits since the ignominious ( for the British) passage of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau back in February 1942. Although the German batteries opposite Dover opened fire Warspite passed through unscathed however early in the morning on the 13th June she was in the swept channel 28 miles to the East of Harwich when she detonated what may have been a pressure mine which exploded under her stern. Her steering jammed she veered off to starboard and came to a stop with all four shafts out of action, thankfully none of her crew were killed. An hour later she was underway at just 7 knots, initially for the Tyne, but the River authorities feared she might sink in their river so denied entry she made for Rosyth arriving on the evening of the 14th and drawing 42 feet aft. At anchor were the new battleships Anson and Howe, they and all the other warships off Rosyth cleared the lower decks and cheered the ‘Old Lady’ in. Desperate to get her back in service the normal repair method for bent propeller shafts of withdrawing them to machine shops was ignored and instead the shafts were heated using a large number of blow-lamps and straightened with hydraulic jacks, a statement by captain Kelsey revealed her state on sailing, “we had one good shaft, one fairly good shaft, one wobbly shaft and one still seized solid” she could now manage just 15 knots, so the Old lady with just three guns and now three shafts returned to service. On the 25th August she was off Brest and at 32,000 yards across the Ushant Peninsula she fired 147 rounds of HE and 66 of AP shells at a gun battery giving the American army problems, although the battery returned fire she was only hit by splinters. On the 10th September she bombarded gun batteries off Havre, this contained three 6.7” guns and had been very troublesome, at a range of 32,000 yards using aircraft spotting the battery was silenced at last. With the fall of Paris on the 25th August and Brussels later on the 03rd September the allied supply lines were now very stretched and the port of Antwerp was now needed to shorten this line, blocking the approaches to the River Scheldt was the fortified Walcheren Island , At 0815 on the 01st November ,now 29 years old, Warspite along with two 15” gun monitors commenced firing at the fortifications on the island, late in the day Warspite ceased fire and returned back across the channel to anchor off Deal, during the Normandy and Walcheren campaigns she fired 1,500 rounds from her 15” guns and after Walcheren they fell silent for good.

Warspite was now desperately in need of a massive and long refit but with the war drawing to a close it was obvious to all that her life was drawing to it’s end , on the 01st February1945 a signal was received on board ordering her to pay off into reserve and around the 15th February she moored up to the reserve fleet buoy off the Mother Bank off Spithead were she lay until the last day of March 1945 –the day of the last entry in her logbook, Warspite spent the rest of 1945 in category ‘C’ reserve – the lowest of all, On the 27th September 1945 Admiral Andrew Cunningham was installed as Knight of the Thistle in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, at this time he handed over her ensign to the Cathedral for safe keeping, this was ABC’s final tribute to his beloved flagship and ensured at least one small reminder of the Grand Old Lady remained. “Approval to Scrap” the final stamp on Warspite’s log was made on the 31st July 1946, she was once more moved up Portsmouth harbour, but by tugs not her own power, to be stripped of her guns and anything useful, There was a public outcry but sadly not enough to save her and on the 12th march 1947 the tug Volatile which had helped damaged ships back from the battle of Jutland connected up to her equally elderly big sister and commenced the tow out of Portsmouth to Spithead to hand Warspite over to Metal Industries, for the tow to the scrap-yard she was insured for the princely sum of £150,000 – or about the costs of her original 15” guns. In April she left Spithead under tow for the Clyde with a towing crew of just eight men, down the English Channel the weather was quite severe and on the 20th April 1947 Warspite in what some see as her last act of capriciousness broke free from the tow and drifted northwards towards the Cornish coast, she anchored for a while but in the severe weather she dragged ashore in mounts bay on the 23rd April

I will now use the words of another member TREEVE, for Raymond describes Warspite’s end very well – for more details see his website ttp://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~treevecwll/visitorshw.htm (Hearts of Oak)

HMS WARSPITE On the 23rd April 1947, she went aground in Mounts Bay, Cornwall, en route to the breakers. Minus her guns, WARSPITE was under tow from tugs BUSTLER and METINDA III, heading from Portsmouth to the breakers yard on the Clyde.

A southwest gale swept up on the 21st April. BUSTLER’s hawser parted, just to the south and fifteen miles off Wolf Rock Lighthouse. The storm raged, and the three vessels ( battling for 20 hours already ) drifted closer in towards Mount’s Bay. At noon, METINDA III had to slip her hawser.

The crew on WARSPITE dropped anchor. It did not hold.

Fifty minutes later she was on Mountamopus Ledge, a mile to the southwest of Cudden Point. The 30,000 ton battleship had been driven about thirty miles by the raging sea and high winds. Penlee lifeboat attended and advised that the flood tide would refloat WARSPITE; the lifeboat returned to Newlyn harbour as the seas were too rough for a return to the lifeboat house.

Huge waves of thirty feet swept over the battleship, taking her closer to the shore, and driving her on to the rocks at Cudden Ledges, Prussia Cove. The lifeboat returned and managed to get into the narrow 40 yard channel to the landward port side of WARSPITE, and got two lines aboard, the lifeboat rising and falling twenty feet with the waves. It was impossible to stand on deck; the boat crew had to kneel. The lifeboat engines were continually being set full ahead and full astern, to keep the lines, and to prevent the lifeboat from being thrown on the rocks.

It took 35 minutes to get the eight man towing crew (including Captain Baxter) off WARSPITE; it was 8 o’clock when the arrived at Newlyn harbour. The storm had done more damage to WARSPITE than she had received in the two World Wars. It was decided to dismantle her where she lay.

However, after she had been partially dismantled and then lighter, she was eventually moved, towed by tugs ENGLISHMAN and BRAHMAN, and beached at Marazion, and it took ten more years to demolish her; some parts of her remain to this day.

But that is not the end of the story, for on 5th July 1950, the trawler BARNET (part of the salvage team of vessels) was holed overnight, whilst tied up alongside the WARSPITE. Admiraly tug FREEBOOTER came to assist, but could not stop the invasion of water.

Then on 11th November 1950, in a SW gale, Falmouth tug MASTERMAN, also involved with the salvage operation, struck Hogus Rocks, in heavy seas. Her sister tug TRADESMAN, towing MASTERMAN free, received damage, and she had to be towed back by tug SUPERMAN.

There are some excellent but very sad photographs of Warspite on Treeve’s website which are well worth looking at

'Warspite ready for the tow to the scrapyard - notice the lack of any armament The other Queen Elizabeth class behind Warspite looks like the QE herself and the ship behind her is a Revenge class battleship, although the picture is not clear she appears to lack her main armament indicating that this is the Revenge herself ( her guns had been removed in 1944 as spares for the ships bombarding Normandy).

Postscript :-

Warspite ,when built, cost £2,524,148, the cost of her re-building over the years is unknown but surely that two and a half million pound plus whatever the rebuilding costs were was the best spent money in all of Britain’s vast military expenditure for all time. Sadly all that history and hard work was not enough to save her for the nation which held her in great affection she would have been a fitting memorial to the great ship building skills that Britain possessed and the great traditions of the Royal navy. Even in a hard pressed Britain desparate for raw materials 32,000 tons of scrap were surely not that important.

Bibliography and photograph credits

Bibliography: IWM and Stephen Roskill - HMS Warspite
Photographs :- ABC - Wikipedia :-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cunningham,_1st_Viscount_Cunningham_of_Hyndhope

Warspites scrapping By Treeve : http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~treevecwll/visitorshw.htm

Completed by Steve Woodward 09th August 2007