She later became the flagship of Force M's commander, Vice-Admiral John Cunningham. [41] Either the first or the fourth of these shells destroyed the ship's sickbay, killing the staff and all of its patients, including eight ship's boys. [89] The following morning, the German submarineU-331, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Diedrich von Tiesenhausen, detected the faint engine noises of the British ships and moved to intercept. HMS Barham was at the time engaged in an operation to engage potential enemy convoys, together with the other two battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet, HMS Queen Elizabeth (flag) and HMS Valiant, escorted by nine destroyers. Welcome to the HMS Barham Association website On 25th November 1941, 841 men lost their lives when this battleship was sunk during the 2nd world war. The reaction to the loss had echoes in the debates we have today about the reporting of news events, he told BBC News. The torpedoes seemed to hit the ship amidships just abaft the funnel, judging by the waterspout in that general area, of which I had a ringside view from the Admirals Bridge. A pair of octuple mounts for 2-pounder (40mm (1.6in)) Mk VIII "pom-pom" anti-aircraft guns were added abreast the funnel and two positions for their directors were added on new platforms abreast and below the spotting top. 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. To control these guns a temporary High-Angle Control Position was mounted above the torpedo-control tower aft. BARHAM was torpedoed by U.331 and lost off the Western Desert of Egypt - off Sollum and Sidi Barrani. During the 1920s and 1930s, the ship was assigned to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Home Fleets. The latter was only struck by a single shell splinter before the Allies broke off the bombardment at 10:07, although she had hit Barham once with a 155mm (6.1in) shell[74] that blew a hole 4 feet (1.2m) in diameter in the bulge. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. "The Moon and Mars are mapped to a greater degree of accuracy than our seabed. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. Life on the Line Podcasts "We climbed over the guard rail and started running down the side of the ship. [46], Following Jutland, Barham was under repair until 5 July 1916. Her complete service history can be found. The resulting shockwave pushed the bulge inwards for a length of 7 feet (2.1m) and it started to slowly flood. 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. [49] Barham was refitted at Rosyth from 723 February 1918[50] and Waller was relieved by Captain Henry Buller on 18 April. [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 shell struck just below the waterline and burst on impact with the belt armour. 377, 386, Admiralty Historical Section, pp. 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. [42] Barham returned fire at the battlecruisers at 17:02, together with Valiant, the two northernmost of Evan-Thomas's ships, and the two of them made three hits on the battlecruiser SMSSeydlitz and Ltzow between 17:06 and 17:13 while Barham was hit twice more by Derfflinger; although neither of the hits did any significant damage. The HMS Barham was torpedoed by U-331, a German c-class submarine captained by Freiherr Von Tiesenhausen, and sunk in. last updated: andrew gillespie The loss of HMS Barham contributed to the very high number of losses at sea suffered by the Royal Navy in the period of Operation CRUSADER, about which I have written at this link. U-boat commander Fritz Julius Lemp had mistaken the liner for an armed cruiser and the German naval authorities tried to cover up the sub's actions. In the end, the TV idea was dropped, but Mr Mearns still hopes an expedition can be mounted by someone. The loss of the crew was sensational news in the mid-19th . On her return I teamed up with P-W again when he shifted his flag back to the, Battleships. [28][Note 3], When dawn broke Beatty ordered his forces into cruising formation with the 5th Battle Squadron trailing his battle cruisers by five nautical miles (9.3km; 5.8mi). 1. Shortly after her return to the Mediterranean, Barham again became flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron in September after her sister Warspite had to return home for repairs after running aground. Despite the majority of the wreck lying some 75m below the . Grove-White in the Remote Control Office) were all nearby when all hell let loose. The Board of Enquiry into the sinking ascribed the final explosion to a fire in the 4-inch magazines outboard of the main 15-inch magazines, which would have then spread to and detonated the contents of the main magazines. On 24 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea. [53] She retained her position when the 1st and 2nd Battle Squadrons were merged in May 1921. Pridham-Wippell), and Squadron Signal Officer of the 1st Battle Squadron. 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. Other fragments from the second hit caused damage that allowed the water to spread even further. 862 men went down with her, and her end was filmed by a war correspondent on board one of the escorting The Germans said he had ordered a British submarine to fire on the Athenia as part of a plot to force Washington's hand. Barham opened fire at a range of 21,000 yards (19,000m) and hit Richelieu with one 15-inch shell at 09:15. The wreck of a Royal Navy warship which sank in 1682 while carrying the future king James Stuart has been identified off the coast of Norfolk. None of the men were ever found alive, and the expedition is considered one of the worst disasters in the history of polar exploration. Beatty then ordered Evan-Thomas to turn his ships in succession to follow the battlecruisers three minutes later. Barham was sunk off the Egyptian coast the following November by the German submarineU-331 with the loss of 862 crewmen, approximately two thirds of her crew. Multiple air strikes by Formidable's Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers damaged the battleship Vittorio Veneto and crippled the heavy cruiser Pola later that evening. They were designed to reduce the effect of torpedo detonations and improve stability[11] at the cost of widening the ship's beam by almost 14 feet (4.3m) to 104 feet (31.7m),[12] and reduced her draught to 32feet 6inches (9.9m). The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in July 1917. The main conning tower was protected by 13 inches (330mm) of armour. How surprising were the M3 Grant tanks to the Germans? 219220; Raven & Roberts, p. 359; Shores, Cull & Malizia, pp. 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. In contrast, the hit on Ltzow flooded a 15-centimetre (5.9in) magazine and the hits on Seydlitz blew a 10-by-13-foot (3.0 by 4.0m) hole in the side of her bow. The ships had multiple armoured decks that ranged from 1 to 3 inches (25 to 76mm) in thickness. At 17:45 he turned eastwards to take his position in front of the Grand Fleet and re-engage Hipper's ships. On December 12 1939, she collided with a destroyer, the HMS Duchess, sinking her in the mishap. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. (Mute & Track Negs.) Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Fungus case forces Jack Daniels to halt construction, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, Dozens of girls treated after new Iran poisonings, Man survives 31 days in jungle by eating worms, How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists. [44], Hipper turned his ships southward around 18:05 to fall back upon Scheer's advancing battleships and then reversed course five minutes later. [54] At that time, Captain Norman Wodehouse relieved Scott. Beatty then altered course to the east, as he was still too far north to cut Hipper off. [63], Barham, the battlecruiser Repulse and the destroyers Fame, Icarus, Imogen, Isis and Nubian were on patrol off the Butt of Lewis to protect against a possible break-out into the Atlantic by German warships when they were spotted by the German submarineU-30, commanded by Fritz-Julius Lemp, on 28 December. He went on to serve as a gun range finder aboard HMS Nelson, involved in bombarding German defences in Normandy on D-Day. The . Last modified on Wed 15 Jun 2022 10.44 EDT. [67] Barham played no role in the Norwegian Campaign although some of her crew and marines participated. [55] The ship was transferred to the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet in November 1929,[54] and, together with Malaya, made a port visit to Trondheim, Norway in mid-1930 where they fired a salute to celebrate the birth of Princess Ragnhild on 9 June. Pictures - Barham HMS (04) [+1941] - WRECK WRAK EPAVE WRACK PECIO EN home; wrecks. [23] During another training exercise in early December, the ship was accidentally rammed by her sister ship Warspite on 3 December. The damage allowed over 1,000 long tons (1,016t) of water to flood the stern and nearly knocked out the ship's steering gear. 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. Your email address will not be published. This podcast series examines Australias Naval history, featuring a variety of naval history experts from the Naval Studies Group and elsewhere. [78] The severe damage to Resolution caused Operation Menace to be abandoned and Barham had to tow her to Freetown for temporary repairs, before escorting a convoy to Gibraltar where she arrived on 15 October where her own damage was repaired. Three minutes later, she sighted the topmasts of Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer's battleships, but did not report this for another five minutes. "By the time we got on deck, the ship was listing at a 45 degree angle. [7], Barham received a series of minor refits during the 1920s. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. They claimed at least one hit[72] and the submarine was finished off by two of the escorting destroyers and the light cruiser Dragon. [84] Barham became the flagship of the 1st BS in December. "If I hadn't dived headfirst and knocked myself out, I would be dead, too.". [24], The Grand Fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February 1916; Jellicoe had intended to use the Harwich Force to sweep the Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. 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. 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. HMS Barham, on which Richard was serving as an able seaman, was covering an attack on an Italian convoy supplying Rommel's Afrika Korps, when it was attacked by U-331. Richard will be reading the Royal British Legion epitaph, "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old", at Buckminster Road Baptist Church on Sunday, during the act of remembrance. search wreck . The following morning, they were spotted by an aircraft from the carrier Formidable and the Battle of Cape Matapan began. [57] Now under the command of Captain Richard Scott,[53] Barham was assigned to the Home Fleet as the flagship of the 2nd Battle Squadron,[54] and deployed to the West Indies in JanuaryFebruary 1935 for training. While under repair in December1939 March1940, a 20-barrel Unrotated projectile (UP) rocket launcher was installed on the roof of 'B' turret and her HACS Mk I directors were replaced with Mk III models. He is now involved in efforts to change this. Tiesenhausen ordered all four bow torpedo tubes fired at a range of 375 metres (410yd) at 16:25. The destroyer Hotspur rescued 337 survivors, including Vice-Admiral Henry Pridham-Wippell and the pair who later died of their wounds, while the Australian destroyer Nizam reportedly rescued 150 men. "We've got several items on display including the watch from the ship's cook. She was hit six times during the battle, five times by 30.5cm shells and once by a 28.3cm shell, suffering casualties of 26 killed and 46 wounded. Spiritualism: A Critical Survey. 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. Searching the seafloor for sunken ships in this way is usually a wasted pursuit because of the dearth of high-resolution sonar data. A new beautiful success.
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