The Italian cruisers turned away under a smoke screen while the battleships Giulio Cesare and Conte di Cavour closed on Warspite before Malaya and Royal Sovereign could catch up.[54]. [96], During her service career, Warspite had lived up to her motto, enduring shellfire, bombing, ramming, mines and a guided missile. Nicholson, RN) and HMS Hunter (Lt.Cdr. Further misfortune struck soon afterwards, when she collided with Valiant after a night-shooting exercise, necessitating more repair work at Rosyth. Australian and New Zealand troops were pulled back from Maleme to Suda Bay to protect the main supply point while regrouping for another counterattack. 1000 - Records of IMI [Imperial Metal Industries] PLC and subsidiary companies. [37] These delays and the work required to rectify them also affected the crew's leave arrangements and led to some sailors airing their views in national newspapers, angering Pound. RootsChat.com cannot be held responsible directly or indirectly for the messages or content posted by others. In 1939 he became Command Boatswain on HMS Pembroke and in 1940 joined HMS Warspite. ww2dbaseWW2 began for Britain on 3 Sep 1939, and Warspite was immediately set sail for the Atlantic from the Mediterranean. She was hit directly once; a second near-miss ripped open the torpedo bulges while the third missed altogether. Original framed ww2 picture - HMS Rodney May 1944. Completed during the First World War in 1915, she was assigned to the Grand Fleet and participated in the Battle of Jutland. 7.3 The distribution of the surviving lists. [17] When the squadron turned to join the Grand Fleet, the damage from a shell hitting the port-wing engine room caused Warspite's steering to jam as she attempted to avoid her sister ships Valiant and Malaya. This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. Records of HMS Warspite from other sources. Crew from HMS Valiant came in first, HMS Barham second and HMS Resolution third. HMS Valiant (M aritime Quest, click to enlarge) return to Contents List. On the advice of the salvage firm, all hopes of taking HMS Warspite to the breakers yard were abandoned. By June 1944 HMS Warspite had been deployed at Normandy and with only three functioning main turrets she took part in the bombardment of Brest, Le Havre and Walcheren Island. [100][101] According to the contractors, it remains the largest salvage operation ever carried out in British waters. She was diverted northwards in pursuit of the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau which had sunk the armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi north of the Faroe Islands, but failed to make contact. [46], In April 1940, Warspite had started her voyage back to the Mediterranean when the Germans invaded Denmark and Norway; she rejoined the Home Fleet on 10 April and proceeded towards Narvik. Meanwhile four destroyers from the 4th Destroyer Division, Mediterranean Fleet, the HMS Hotspur (Cdr. The firm previously employed had used 27 four tool compressors, WM had the advantage of being able to use 2 jet compressors, loaned by the Ministry of Supply, and had expert advice from Rolls Royce Ltd. On May 12th 1952, The Wolverhampton Metal Company Ltd succeeded in lifting HMS Warspite and managed to move her inshore by a quarter of a mile. Subsequent air attacks damaged the battleship and the cruiser Pola, slowing the former and crippling the latter. If so, please consider supporting us on Patreon. Your IP address will be tracked even if you remain anonymous. At 1515 hours, 50 miles south of Italy, heavily escorted Italian convoy for Benghazi, Libya ran into an equally powerful British convoy for Malta. British battleships HMS Barham, HMS Valiant, and HMS Warspite continued to shell the Italian fleet off Cape Matapan, Greece. [56] Warspite returned to Alexandria on 13 July. One of her 15-inch tompions and her chapel door are held by the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth. All Census Lookups are Crown Copyright, National Archives for academic and non-commercial research purposes only. [61] Vittorio Veneto escaped to the west as dusk fell but the British pursued through the night, first detecting Pola on radar and then two of her sister ships. The latest HMS Warspite was the third of Britain's nuclear-powered submarines, and the second (and final) of the Valiant class. HMS Warspite is the third planned Dreadnought -class ballistic missile submarine. There was insufficient depth of water to float her clear of the reef in a rising south westerly gale. She was powered by two sets of Parsons steam turbines, each driving two shafts using steam from 24 Yarrow boilers. Launched. [30] After the process finished in 1926, Warspite assumed the role of flagship of the Commander-in-Chief and Second-in-Command, Mediterranean Fleet. Crew List (Photographs) Directory of Names. In 1943 she was badly damaged by an early guided missile, demonstrated how far naval warfare had changed since she was laid down in 1912. . [20] The rangefinders and the transmission station were non-functional and only "A" turret could fire, albeit under local control with 12 salvos falling short of their target. Warned of the Italian intentions by intelligence from the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, Admiral Cunningham took his fleet to sea on 27 March 1941, flying his flag on Warspite. She was the sixth RN warship to bear this name which was introduced in 1759 for a . Engaged in the Mediterranean Sea, it participated in the Battle of Calabria during which it carried out one of the most important long-distance shots in history by touching the Italian Ciulio Cesare more than 23 kilometers away. Each turret was also fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. He served on the St Cyrus, a tug that was tender to the Repulse in the Atlantic fleet in 1930, on the Boyne in fishery protection and on St Issey in 1935 in the Mediterranean fleet, all based at Chatham and with him as Boatswain. [47] On 13 April, Vice-Admiral William Whitworth hoisted his flag in Warspite and led nine destroyers, three sweeping mines and six in an offensive role, into Ofotfjord to neutralise a force of eight German destroyers trapped near the port of Narvik. 124.73 + 14.97 Postage. Meanwhile a search up and down the country was on-going for pumps, compressors, generators, cranes and steel air-lines and by April, 3 months after taking over, The Wolverhampton Metal Company Ltd were contemplating their first major attempt to refloat HMS Warspite. The origins of the name are unclear, although it is probably from the Elizabethan-era spelling of the word 'spite' 'spight' in part embodying contempt for the Navy's enemies, but which was also the common name for the green woodpecker, suggesting the 'Warspight' would poke holes in enemy ships' (wooden) hulls. In March, Somerville received intelligence indicating the Japanese Fast Carrier Strike Force was heading towards the Indian Ocean and he relocated his base to Addu Atoll in the Maldives. It was repaired in the United States and later deployed to the Indian Ocean before returning to the Mediterranean in June 1943 in order to participate in the H force in Operation Husky in Sicily and Operation Avalanche. [26], Upon the completion of her repairs, Warspite rejoined the 5th Battle Squadron. [19], The crew regained control of Warspite after two full circles. She was badly damaged by German radio-controlled glider bombs during the landings at Salerno and spent most of the next year under repair. [103] The stone was unveiled by Admiral Sir Charles Madden and prayers were read by a former crew member. [91] She reached Malta on 19 September and undertook emergency repairs before being towed to Gibraltar on 12 November. By Dec 1944, Royal Navy warship involvement in the Atlantic was reduced to very little, and she was decommissioned on 1 Feb 1945 before the European War had ended. All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB. photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. Is there anyway of finding a crew list to find him mentioned. Repairs to her propeller shafts and the replacement of the guns took until early August; she sailed to Scapa Flow to calibrate the new barrels with only three functional shafts, limiting her top speed to 15 knots,[83] although by now the Admiralty considered her main role was that of a bombardment vessel. Permission to beach her at a convenient site was refused and so demolition began where she was lying. One was mounted above the conning tower, protected by an armoured hood, and the other was in the spotting top above the tripod mast. [30] In 1924, she attended a Royal Fleet Review at Spithead, presided over by King George V.[30] Later in the year, Warspite underwent a partial modernisation that altered her superstructure by trunking her two funnels into one, enhanced her armour protection with torpedo bulges, swapped the high-angle 3-inch guns with new 4-inch anti-aircraft guns, and removed half her torpedo tubes. Layman, RN), HMS Havock (Lt.Cdr. To save his cruisers Cunningham ordered an air attack, prompting Iachino to retreat. [79] She was recommissioned on 28 December and undertook sea trials near Vancouver before sailing down the west coast of the U.S. and Mexico, crossing the equator and arriving in Sydney on 20 February 1942. [86] Assigned to Division 2 with Valiant and Formidable, she returned to Alexandria on 5 July in preparation for Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. [82], During May and June, Warspite continued to act as Somerville's flagship, carrying out exercises with other elements of the fleet and shore-based aircraft in Ceylon. Hi guys just wondering if any of you armed forces experts could point me in the right direction. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. [16], The 5th Battle Squadron then headed north, exchanging fire with both Hipper's battlecruiser force and the leading elements of Scheer's battleships, damaging Markgraf. In mid-August, she set out to bombard Bardia and on 6 November she sailed from Alexandria to provide cover for the Battle of Taranto, a torpedo-bomber attack on ships in Taranto harbour. At 2100 hours, when the Commander-in-Chief was in position . [53] The two fleets eventually met 30 miles from Punta Stilo at the Battle of Calabria on 9 July 1940. [83] On 12 June, she returned to Portsmouth to rearm, but her guns were worn out so she was ordered to sail to Rosyth via the Straits of Dover, the first British battleship to have done so since the war began. Italian cruiser Fiume, cruiser Zara, destroyer Alfieri, and destroyer Carducci were sunk, while destroyer Oriani was heavily damaged. Again, these bundles have been left in the order they were received and the order reflected by labels on their original wrapping. 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