HMS Warspite (03)
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The HMS Warspite ( dt. " War Despite ") was a battleship of the Royal Navy , which entered service in 1915 and both the First and the Second World War was used.
history
She was one next to the HMS Queen Elizabeth , HMS Barham , HMS Valiant and HMS Malaya to Queen Elizabeth class . These were the first fast battleships in the world, which combined the advantages of battlecruisers (high speed thanks to powerful machinery) with those of battleships (adequate armor protection and stronger armament) in one type of ship. It was equipped with an Admiralty Fire Control Table .
First World War
Together with her sister ships , she took part in the Battle of the Skagerrak on May 31, 1916 . They formed the 5th battleship squadron, which operated together with the battle cruiser fleet because of the superior speed of these ships. As a result, like the battle cruisers, they were particularly exposed to German gunfire. The Warspite suffered damage as a result, which led to a rudder failure. The ship swerved out of the keel line and made two full circles in the middle of the battle until the emergency helm brought the warspite back under control. It escaped destruction because the German ships changed targets to the armored cruiser HMS Warrior , which was so badly shot down as a result of the massive bombardment that it later had to be self- sunk . In total, the ship received 13 hits from heavy shells during the battle and then had to lie in the shipyard for over two months to restore.
Interwar period
The first conversion of the Warspite took place in the years 1924 to 1926 . Torpedo bulges were attached and the two funnels were combined into one. Between 1926 and 1934 she served as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, as well as in the Atlantic Fleet and in the Home Fleet .
Total renovation
In the years 1934 to 1937, the ship was extensively rebuilt based on knowledge of the threat to which large warships are exposed by air raids . The appearance of the Warspite was greatly changed and the defenses increased as much as possible.
During the renovations, the superstructures were removed and the hull opened from above. The previous machine system was replaced by a lighter and more modern one that produced around 5,000 hp more. The number of boilers was reduced to six, which supplied four Parson -type geared turbines instead of four direct-acting ones . The elimination of the armored command post and four guns of the medium artillery brought further weight savings.
The weight savings were mainly used to reinforce the deck armor. The armored deck was reinforced to 102 mm above the ammunition and turbine rooms and to 63 mm above the boiler rooms.
A new, tower-like bridge, which served as a model for all other new buildings and conversions within the Royal Navy, replaced the previous three-legged mast. Amidships came two hangars to the side of the funnel and a cross deck catapult on board.
The range of the heavy artillery was increased to approx. 29.5 km by increasing the maximum tube elevation to 30 ° and improved grenades. The heavy anti -aircraft armament was reinforced to eight 102-mm guns in double mounts. As light anti-aircraft guns, 32 40 mm guns in four octopus mounts and 16 12.7 mm Vickers machine guns in four quad mounts came on board.
Second World War
When war broke out in 1939, the Warspite was in the Mediterranean . But she was quickly ordered back to the Home Fleet . The Warspite was used in the British attack on the Norwegian ore port of Narvik and sank, among other things, a German destroyer in the Battle of Narvik . Several attacks by German submarines on the ship were unsuccessful due to defective torpedoes . Then the Warspite was relocated back to the Mediterranean and participated together with her sister ships Barham and Valiant on March 24, 1941 in the battle of Cape Matapan in the sinking of the Italian cruisers Zara , Pola and Fiume .
In May 1941, the ship was part of the rearguard of Admiral Andrew Cunningham and took part in the fighting for Crete. The battleship was hit by a 250-kilogram bomb in a German air raid on May 22nd, southeast of Kythera. The bomb penetrated the hull on the starboard side, exploded in the casemate deck and caused a serious fire, which in turn triggered subsequent explosions. All 152-mm guns of the middle artillery on the starboard side and the 102-mm anti-aircraft guns on this side were destroyed by the explosions and the fire. The crew counted 38 dead and 31 wounded.
The heavily damaged Warspite had to be pulled out of the fighting for Crete and moved to Alexandria for emergency repairs, where the ship arrived on May 24th. The final repair should be done in the United States . On June 23rd - the battleship was still in Alexandria - it was damaged again in a German air raid. A 500-kilogram bomb hit the dock near the stern and caused some minor water ingress. Nevertheless, the Warspite was able to leave Alexandria on June 25 and be relocated to the USA via Colombo and Sydney . From August 11, 1941, the battleship was docked in Bremerton and subjected to extensive repairs, which were not completed until the end of December 1941. It then served as the flagship of the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean until early 1943 .
In the second half of 1943 the battleship was involved in the landings in Sicily and Salerno . It was badly damaged by two German Fritz X guided bombs dropped by Kampfgeschwader 100 . A bomb hit directly behind the chimney and tore open the ship's bottom over an area of about 6 meters by 4 meters. The other bomb hit near boiler room number 5. As a result, five boiler rooms were flooded and all boilers were shut down. Without steam pressure, with almost 5,000 tons of water in the ship and a list of 5 °, she had to be brought to Malta by two US tugs. The damage caused was only temporarily repaired so that the ship was available again in time to take part in the landing in Normandy. With only three turrets ready for use, the Warspite participated in the bombardment of heavily bunkered land targets, including a. at the Graf Spee coastal naval battery , which was part of the so-called Atlantic Wall (→ naval warfare during Operation Overlord ).
After a long period of service in the fleet, she was decommissioned in March 1946. On the way to the demolition yard, the towing connections broke off Land's End , and she ran aground there. From 1950 she was then scrapped there.
literature
- Stephen W. Roskill: HMS Warspite. The story of a famous battleship. Collins, London 1957.
- Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. JF Lehmanns Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Munich 1970.
Web links
- The HMS Warspite on battleships-cruisers.co.uk (Engl.)
- Images of HMS Warspite on navyphotos.co.uk (Engl.)
Footnotes
- ↑ For the details of the conversion see: Mike J. Whitley: Battleships of World War Two. An international Encyclopedia. Cassel & Co, London 2001, ISBN 0-304-35957-2 , p. 96; Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. JF Lehmanns Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Munich 1970, p. 162 ff.
- ^ Description of the damage according to: Mike J. Whitley: Battleships of World War Two. An international Encyclopedia. Cassel & Co, London 2001, ISBN 0-304-35957-2 , p. 102.