"The Moon and Mars are mapped to a greater degree of accuracy than our seabed. 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. Her complete service history can be found. But barring a photograph I can say in my expert opinion there's a very, very high probability that that's Athenia. [81] Barham was loaded with 600 troops, including the men of 12 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery,[82] Force F departed Gibraltar on 7 November, escorted by Force H, rendezvoused with the main body of the Mediterranean Fleet three days later and unloaded their cargo at Malta later that day. The fore funnel was trunked into the aft funnel to reduce smoke in the spotting top. I was in H.M.S. Goebbels has a reputation as a skilful propagandist but on this occasion he was ineffective, at least as far as international opinion was concerned. One 250-kilogram (550lb) bomb struck 'Y' turret and started a fire inside the turret that took 20 minutes to quench. 11/25/2022, @ 13:16-Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, a humble and a contrite heart; Lord God of Hosts be with us yet, LEST WE FORGET, LEST WE FORGET!! Spiritualism: A Critical Survey. They set several merchant ships on fire, but again failed to hit the latter at a range of 17,000 yards (15,500m) before breaking off fire at 13:20. Barham quickly capsized to port and was lying on her side when a massive magazine explosion occurred about four minutes after she was torpedoed and sank her. Pictures - Barham HMS (04) [+1941] - WRECK WRAK EPAVE WRACK PECIO EN home; wrecks. While sailing eastwards, the aircraft carrier Illustrious was detached from the main body to attack Taranto on the night of 11/12 November, damaging three Italian battleships. She sailed south through the Suez Canal to Mombasa, Kenya, where her damage was inspected. Barham was able to dodge them, but Resolution was struck by one torpedo amidships that caused a heavy list, and she fell out of line. Strange, if you think the ship was destroyed in 1941! A German submarine torpedoed the ship hours after Britain declared war on Hitler in 1939 - more than 100 people, including many Americans, were killed. Underwater protection was improved by the addition of torpedo bulges. Towards the end of 1941, the Med Fleet was experiencing some ups and downs, as the Luftwaffe became increasingly active and aggressive during the advance of General Rommel (the Desert Fox) and his Afrika Korps across the Western Desert towards Alexandria. The Germans said he had ordered a British submarine to fire on the Athenia as part of a plot to force Washington's hand. While covering the evacuation of Crete the following day, the ship was attacked by Junkers Ju 88 bombers from II./LG (Demonstration Wing) 1 and Heinkel He 111 bombers of II./KG (Bomber Wing) 26. This required maximum offensive power and a speed several knots faster than any other battleship to allow them to defeat any type of ship. Rawlings took over temporarily from P-W who became Vice Admiral Light Forces. [75], After a conference aboard Barham later that day, the Allied commanders resolved to continue the attack. The full truth only emerged at the Nuremberg Trials. Hamilton. On the other hand, the British knew exactly where the Italians were, thanks to their radar-equipped ships. 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.. During the third week in November, 1941, there was evidence that two convoys were being despatched from Italy to Benghazi to reinforce the Africa Korps. The ships were fitted with four submerged 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside. The detonation blew a 7-by-7-foot (2.1 by 2.1m) hole in the main deck, sent fragments through the middle and lower decks and burned out the casemate for starboard No. 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. Produced by the Naval Studies Group in conjunction with the Submarine Institute of Australia, the Australian Naval Institute, Naval Historical Society and the RAN Seapower Centre. 2023 BBC. She was the flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron and of the Second in Command of the Mediterranean Fleet, 1941. "We've got several items on display including the watch from the ship's cook. "It always takes me back to that day in November 1941," he said. Searching the seafloor for sunken ships in this way is usually a wasted pursuit because of the dearth of high-resolution sonar data. Hindered by poor visibility, no significant damage was inflicted and Richelieu was not hit before the bombardment was called off after 20 minutes. BARHAM was torpedoed by U.331 and lost off the Western Desert of Egypt - off Sollum and Sidi Barrani. VALIANT and WARSPITE in background. The following day, 1 October, Rear-Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomas, commander of the 5th Battle Squadron, hoisted his flag aboard his new flagship. [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. [8] Two years later, her anti-aircraft defences were upgraded when the original three-inch AA guns were replaced with a pair of QF four-inch (102mm) Mk V AA guns between November 1924 and January 1925 and another pair of four-inch AA guns were added from October to November later that year. How surprising were the M3 Grant tanks to the Germans? Fritz Julius Lemp commanded submarines for another two years. The hits on Seydlitz mostly opened up more holes that facilitated the flooding. Full title reads: "HMS BARHAM 1914 - 1941". [67] Barham played no role in the Norwegian Campaign although some of her crew and marines participated. The number of hits cannot be confirmed, but it is believed that she and Valiant made 23 or 24 hits between them, making them two of the most accurate warships in the British fleet. David Mearns: "My research rules out all other shipwrecks in this area". 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. [100] The crew are commemorated by a memorial bench, located in Nothe Gardens, Weymouth. Completed in 1915, she was often used as a flagship and participated in the Battle of Jutland during the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet. 340, 346, 349, 354355, 358, Jones, pp. "There was my friend Ted Clow, from Oadby, but he died last December, aged 93.". 2. Fragments from this hit caused flooding that spread throughout the bow, while the ship's speed caused water to enter directly through the hole in the side. [4], Barham was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with 15-foot (4.6m) rangefinders. During this refit, the aft superstructure was rebuilt and the torpedo-control tower and its rangefinder were removed, together with the aft set of torpedo tubes. [79] She was briefly assigned to Force H, before she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in November 1940. He replied, 'it's gone'.". Beatty continued south for another two minutes to confirm the sighting before ordering his force to turn north, towards the Grand Fleet in what came to be known as the "Run to the North". On December 12 1939, she collided with a destroyer, the HMS Duchess, sinking her in the mishap. No. Other fragments from the second hit caused damage that allowed the water to spread even further. The anti-torpedo bulge was essentially destroyed adjacent to the strike, with four men killed and two wounded. A salvo of torpedoes from a German submarine struck from close range on HMS Barham on November 25, 1941 in the Mediterranean. She was slow to go down, disappearing beneath the waves, stern first, at 11 the next morning. [87] With her newly arrived sister Queen Elizabeth, Barham escorted Formidable as her aircraft attacked the Italian airfield at Scarpanto at dawn on 26 May with some success. The gun turrets were protected by 11 to 13 inches (279 to 330mm) of KC armour and were supported by barbettes 710 inches (178254mm) thick. "We were standing by a ladder two decks below on the mess deck when there was a huge explosion," he said. flag changed on a number of occasions. [73], After the expiration of an ultimatum to surrender the following morning, the battleships engaged the port's 24-centimetre (9.4in) coast-defence guns and Richelieu at 09:30. [Note 5], Evan-Thomas continued his turn until his ships were steering due north, which interposed the 5th Battle Squadron between Hipper's battlecruisers,[38] which had reversed course around 16:48 to follow Beatty north,[39] and Beatty's ships. By the afternoon the submarine and the 1st Battle Squadron were on reciprocal courses and Tiesenhausen ordered his boat to battle stations around 16:00. Richard Laland is one of only two survivors from the doomed battleship HMS Barham still alive today. A near miss ruptured her portside bulge over an area 20 by 16 feet (6.1 by 4.9m) and caused a 1.5 degree list that was easily corrected by pumping oil. BARHAM, on November 25, 1941!!!. HMS Barham floating on side at sea. 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. Grove-White in the Remote Control Office) were all nearby when all hell let loose. !, YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN, Casualties of MEN/HEROES-SERVING IN H.M.S. David Mearns, who has found some two dozen major wrecks for insurers and TV companies, says the Athenia's hull is visible in sonar data acquired by the Geological Survey of Ireland. Of the 1,184 officers and men on board, 841 were killed. P.W and staff moved to MALAYA and QUEEN ELIZABETH, and Rear Admiral B.S. The ships had multiple armoured decks that ranged from 1 to 3 inches (25 to 76mm) in thickness. 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. The boat dived out of control after she broached, reaching an indicated depth of 265 metres (869ft), well below her design depth rating of 150 metres (490ft), before she stabilised without any damage. [7], Barham received a series of minor refits during the 1920s. This podcast series examines Australias Naval history, featuring a variety of naval history experts from the Naval Studies Group and elsewhere. It is just over 49 years since H.M.S. A new beautiful success. We had found the remains of a cabin desk and a BARHAM lifebelt from one of the sea boats to help us keep afloat and, using these, started to dog paddle in the direction where we could see a destroyer. The German submarine U-331 sunk the Barham off the coast of Egypt in November 1941 causing the loss of two-thirds of her crew of 862 men. [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 impact was right on the joints between several armour plates and drove them inwards and destroyed part of the hull behind them. It was a perfect day and the sea was smooth, After Hands had been piped to tea, the usual promenaders (ERAs and Stoker POs off watch) emerged from below-decks for their customary first Dog Watch strolls up and down the Focsle. [48], She was refitted at Cromarty between February and March 1917[47] and King George V inspected the ship on 22 June at Invergordon. It proved to be worse than expected and Barham had to be repaired at Durban, South Africa, as she was unfit to make the trans-Atlantic crossing for repair in the United States. "By the time we got on deck, the ship was listing at a 45 degree angle. Craske), the Admiral and S.W.O. 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. Richard worked as a shop floor foreman at Ratby Engineering, in Leicester, until 1982. [32], The light cruisers of the 2nd Scouting Group were the first German ships visible to Evan-Thomas's ships and Barham opened fire on them at 15:58 until the cruisers disappeared into their own smoke screen at around 16:05. The 92-year-old, from Leicester, miraculously escaped death when the ship was sunk by a German U-boat torpedo off the coast of Egypt on November 25, 1941. Between them, Barham and Valiant hit Moltke four times from 16:16 to 16:26, but only one of those hits can be attributed to Valiant. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared war on 3 September, 1939. As the British battleships were manoeuvring to take up their positions, the submarine Bvziers fired a spread of four torpedoes at a range of 2,700 yards (2,500m). 2 six-inch gun. Barham played a minor role in quelling the 1929 Palestine riots and the 19361939 Arab revolt in Palestine. Within four minutes, the battleship had listed over to Port and the ships magazines had exploded, sinking the battleship and killing 863 men. A High-Angle Control System (HACS) Mk I director were added to the roof of the spotting top and the mainmast was reconstructed as a tripod to support the weight of a second HACS director. The list of men lost is at this link. 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. Reblogged this on battleoftheatlantic19391945 and commented: The last shell passed all the way through the ship without detonating; it struck and dislodged a 100-millimetre (3.9in) armour plate on the waterline on the other side of the ship that caused also some flooding. By the time the Grand Fleet approached the area on 26 March, the British and German forces had already disengaged and a strong gale threatened the light craft, so the fleet was ordered to return to base. 862 men went down with her, and her end was filmed by a war correspondent on board one of the escorting After several minutes it became apparent that the squadron was not conforming to Beatty's other ships, but Evan-Thomas refused to change course until clear instructions had been received despite entreaties from the Barham's captain. [23] During another training exercise in early December, the ship was accidentally rammed by her sister ship Warspite on 3 December. Egypt Mar Sidi Barrani. During the 1920s and 1930s, the ship was assigned to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Home Fleets. The battle was known as "Operation Crusader" to the British, the 2nd (British) Offensive to the Italians, and as the 'Winterschlacht' (winter battle) to the Germans. The reaction to the loss had echoes in the debates we have today about the reporting of news events, he told BBC News. Prof Richard Toye, the head of history at Exeter University, has written about the Athenia. 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. Casualties were five dead and six wounded. HMS Barham was one of five Queen Elizabeth -class battleships built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. Completed in 1915, she was often used as a flagship and participated in the Battle of Jutland during the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet. En route, Eagle's aircraft attacked Tripoli on 26 November. The main armament could be controlled by 'B' turret as well. Shortly after 4.00 pm I was on the Admirals Bridge. [70], Force M departed Freetown for Dakar on 21 September and had arrived Dakar before dawn two days later. The ship was not hit, but was forced to return to port under the cover of a heavy smoke screen. After the Battle of Jutland, 1 inch (25mm) of high-tensile steel was added to the main deck over the magazines and additional anti-flash equipment was added in the magazines. [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. IWM FL1472. The ship was in the Mediterranean when the Second World War began in September 1939, on her voyage home three months later, she accidentally collided with and sank one of her escorting destroyers, HMSDuchess. Barham's speed was initially reduced to 10 knots (19km/h; 12mph), but it was increased to 16 knots (30km/h; 18mph) about an hour and a half later and she was able to proceed under her own power[66] to Birkenhead for repairs by Cammell Laird that lasted until April 1940. Now considered to be the finest newsreel archive in the world, British Path is a treasure trove of 85,000 films unrivalled in their historical and cultural significance.British Path also represents the Reuters historical collection, which includes more than 136,000 items from the news agencies Gaumont Graphic (1910-1932), Empire News Bulletin (1926-1930), British Paramount (1931-1957), and Gaumont British (1934-1959), as well as Visnews content from 1957 to the end of 1984. Earlier in the day there had been a couple of Air Raid warnings, and reports of enemy aircraft Shadowers, but nothing of particular consequence. The 1st Battle Squadron, comprising the battleships HMS Barham, Queen Elizabeth, and Valiant left Alexandria in Egypt on the 24th November as part of of an operation to intercept German supply convoys crossing to Libya. The marine scientist first got involved in the search for the wreck in a commission from the BBC. In preparation for Operation Menace, a British naval attack on Dakar, Senegal, prior to a planned landing by the Free French, the ship was detached from the Home Fleet on 28 August and was assigned to Force M, the Royal Navy component of the operation. Everything fits," said Mr Mearns, who sets out the case in his book The Shipwreck Hunter. HMS Barham Explodes - Slow MotionOn the afternoon of 25 November 1941, the 1st Battle Squadron, Barham, Queen Elizabeth, and Valiant, with an escort of eight. Evan-Thomas turned northeast at around 18:06 and then made a slow turn to the southeast once he spotted the Grand Fleet. 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