Read about our approach to external linking. Within four minutes, the battleship had listed over to Port and the ships magazines had exploded, sinking the battleship and killing 863 men. The turbines were rated at 75,000 shaft horsepower (56,000kW) and intended to reach a maximum speed of 25 knots (46.3km/h; 28.8mph). [26], In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the High Seas Fleet, composed of 16 dreadnoughts, 6 pre-dreadnoughts, 6 light cruisers, and 31 torpedo boats, departed the Jade early on the morning of 31 May. [102], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}3234N 2624E / 32.567N 26.400E / 32.567; 26.400. 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 Laland is one of only two survivors from the doomed battleship HMS Barham still alive today. After Free French emissaries were either captured or driven off by the Vichy French, Cunningham ordered his ships to open fire. 2. HMS Barham was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship of the Royal Navy.On 25 November 1941, while steaming to cover an attack on Italian convoys, Barham was hit by three torpedoes from the German submarine U-331, commanded by Lieutenant Hans-Dietrich von Tiesenhausen.As she rolled over to port, her magazines exploded and the ship quickly sank with the loss of over two thirds of her crew. 862 men went down with her, and her end was filmed by a war correspondent on board one of the escorting 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. She was powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving two shafts using steam from 24 Yarrow boilers. I assumed that this had happened because the submarine Captain had fired all his bow tubes at once, and had not compensated quickly enough with seawater to keep the conning tower below the surface. The . [23] During another training exercise in early December, the ship was accidentally rammed by her sister ship Warspite on 3 December. The only contact came in the evening when Tyrwhitt sighted the High Seas Fleet but was unable to achieve an advantageous attack position before dark, and broke off contact. [25] On 21 May, the 5th Battle Squadron was attached to Beatty while his 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron was detached for gunnery training and arrived at Rosyth the following day. The Queen Elizabeth class warship was the only British battleship to be sunk at sea by a U-boat during the conflict. 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 damage allowed over 1,000 long tons (1,016t) of water to flood the stern and nearly knocked out the ship's steering gear. "I was disorientated but reached out and felt the ship. She was slow to go down, disappearing beneath the waves, stern first, at 11 the next morning. She was present when the High Seas Fleet surrendered for internment on 21 November. https://www.britishpathe.com/ She became a private ship on 1 December and departed Alexandria to join the Home Fleet that same day. The ship was in the Mediterranean when the Second World War began in September 1939 and accidentally collided with and sank one of her escorting destroyers, HMS Duchess, on her voyage home three. Her crew numbered 1,016 officers and ratings in 1916. [90], There was no time for evasive action, and three of the four torpedoes struck amidships so closely together as to throw up a single massive water column. In 19211922, 30-foot (9.1m) rangefinders replaced the smaller ones in 'B' and 'X' turrets. During this time BARHAM was bombed and severely damaged by the Luftwaffe and had to go to Capetown for extensive repairs. Tiesenhausen ordered all four bow torpedo tubes fired at a range of 375 metres (410yd) at 16:25. Life on the Line tracks down Australian war veterans and records their stories. She had a normal displacement of 32,590 long tons (33,110t) and displaced 33,260 long tons (33,794t) at deep load. [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. U-331 was not attacked by the escorting destroyers and reached port on 3 December. His expertise means he has been appointed as a judge on the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, a $7m incentive to get engineering groups to develop innovative seafloor mapping technologies and strategies. They even attempted to blame the sinking on Winston Churchill, who on that very day - 3 September, 1939 - was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. [70], Force M departed Freetown for Dakar on 21 September and had arrived Dakar before dawn two days later. (Mute & Track Negs.) 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. [36] His order only applied to his own forces; the 5th Battle Squadron continued south until after it passed Beatty heading northwestwards at 16:51. Tiesenhausen was not certain of the results of his attack and radioed that he had hit a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship with one torpedo. After temporary repairs at Scapa, Barham was sent to Cromarty Firth for more permanent repairs in the floating dry dock there that lasted until 23 December. 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. Your email address will not be published. [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 ships had multiple armoured decks that ranged from 1 to 3 inches (25 to 76mm) in thickness. This was initially a Fairey IIIF until it was replaced by a Fairey Swordfish in 1938. Jones refers to the 861 men listed in the casualty list published by, Burt 2012a, p. 85; Raven & Roberts, pp. [15], The Queen Elizabeth class was ordered as part of the 1912 Naval Programme and the contract for Barham was awarded to John Brown & Company. [94], It was not until the Admiralty admitted that Barham had been sunk and described the circumstances that Tiesenhausen knew that he had sunk her. 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. "The Moon and Mars are mapped to a greater degree of accuracy than our seabed. "I remember so many faces of my friends and shipmates who weren't as fortunate as me.". The BdU (Commander Submarines) noted in his war diary the rather jubilant: U331 1 battleship torpedoed in the Mediterranean. [27] Barham slipped her mooring at 22:08 and was followed by the rest of Beatty's ships. [53] The ship was relieved as flagship by Revenge in June[54] and she was ordered to Palestine in August where her crew helped to suppress rioting in Haifa and also operated the Haifa-Jerusalem railroad. All footage can be viewed on the British Path website. The enemy struck at 4.25pm as Richard was on a tea break and talking with a friend. The third shell detonated on the face of the starboard wing turret, although some fragments entered the turret and caused minor damage. She was sunk during the Second World War on 25 November 1941 by the German submarine U-331 . 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. Barham. At 14:15, Beatty ordered a turn north by east to rendezvous with the Grand Fleet. [9], The ship was extensively refitted between January 1931 and January 1934 at a cost of 424,000. HMAS Sydney II and the HSK Kormoran Shipwreck Sites, Admiralty House, Garden and Fortifications, Royal Australian Naval Transmitting Station ACT, 81st. The relatively shallow water on Rockall Bank, an area of raised seabed a few hundred km from the Irish coastline, means it should be reasonably straightforward to send down a remotely operated vehicle to investigate the sonar contact. Sinking of Royal Navy Battleship HMS Barham.A legendary battleship with a history at Jutland, during World War 2 HMS Barham was stationed with the Royal Navy's Eastern Mediterranean fleet in Egypt.. On the afternoon of the 24th November of 1941, HMS Barham, sailed to provide cover for the 7th and 15th Royal Navy Cruiser Squadrons. When Richard came round, he was underwater. Clinging to a piece of wreckage, Richard was picked up by an Australian destroyer, along with other survivors. This took some time and his ships had to slow down to 1218 knots (2233km/h; 1421mph) to avoid overrunning the 6th Division and blocking its fire. 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. The torpedo from U-30 struck the Athenia at 7:38 that evening. Print This Page. "There was my friend Ted Clow, from Oadby, but he died last December, aged 93.". The terrifying explosion was caught on film by Path cameraman John Turner who was on an adjacent ship. "We've got several items on display including the watch from the ship's cook. The marine scientist first got involved in the search for the wreck in a commission from the BBC. After returning to port, Jellicoe issued an order that prohibited risking the fleet in the southern half of the North Sea due to the overwhelming risk from mines and U-boats unless the odds of defeating the High Seas Fleet in a decisive engagement were favourable. It is split in the aft section where the torpedo hit, but otherwise is sitting proud of the sediment and looks to be in reasonable shape. A member of the Wigston branch of the Royal Naval Association, he is a member of the HMS Barham Association. David Mearns: "My research rules out all other shipwrecks in this area". The wrecks sites upside down on the sea floor. Experience the HMS Barham explosion after being struck by torpedo in 4K resolution at 50 fps and in color! petrol. [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). Throughout the next day, Jellicoe and Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, commander of the High Seas Fleet, received conflicting intelligence; after reaching the location in the North Sea where they expected to encounter the High Seas Fleet, the British turned north in the erroneous belief that they had entered a minefield. 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. 203, 205, Jellicoe, pp. With this turn, Hipper was falling back on the High Seas Fleet, 60 miles (97km) behind him. I was trying to push myself away when I got blown away by this massive explosion as the magazine went up. [54] Now under the command of Captain Hubert Monroe[53] and accompanied by the battleship Ramillies, she cruised along the coast of West Africa from December 1927 to February 1928. During a port visit to Corfu in July, the ship was visited by King George II of Greece. [33] About three minutes later, the ship opened fire on the battlecruiser SMSvon der Tann at a range of about 23,000 yards (21,000m). 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. [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. Naval Historical Review, Biographies and personal histories, WWII operations Ship sinking, Survivor, HMS Barham, Australian Naval History Podcasts Aquarian Press, pp. Richard Laland is one of only two survivors from the doomed battleship HMS Barham still alive today. The translated detailed report of the attack by U-331 can be found at this link. British Path was at the forefront of cinematic journalism, blending information with entertainment to popular effect. Quora User Fritz Julius Lemp commanded submarines for another two years. The shell devastated a messdeck and dented the armoured deck by a depth of 8 centimetres (3.1in), but caused no casualties. BARHAM's explosion after being torpedoed. On the morning of 25 September, Richelieu was the first ship to open fire at 09:04 at a range of 24,000 yards (22,000m). 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. [100] The crew are commemorated by a memorial bench, located in Nothe Gardens, Weymouth. A salvo of torpedoes from a German submarine struck from close range on HMS Barham on November 25, 1941 in the Mediterranean. Barham played a minor role in quelling the 1929 Palestine riots and the 19361939 Arab revolt in Palestine. The HMS Barham was torpedoed by U-331, a German c-class submarine captained by Freiherr Von Tiesenhausen, and sunk in. 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. Introduction Hoping the wind is strong enough, http://sommecourt.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/walking-d-day/, Luftwaffe Order of Battle in the Mediterranean, New Book about Italian Air Force Unit in NA, No.33 Squadron and Fighter Ace Lance Wade, BBC Factfile Peoples War Operation Crusader, Royal Artillery Organisation and Fire Control Techniques, Royal New Zealand Artillery Association World War 2, Memoirs of Corporal Mork German Truck Driver in NA, Rommel's Operational Leadership in NA (US Military MA Thesis), The Story of Doug and Eva Blake, King's Own Royal Regiment, Ball of Fire History of 5th Indian Division, History of Panzerregiment 8 15th Panzer, Order of Battle Fliegerfhrer Afrika and Luftwaffe in the Med, Sinking of Sebastiano Venier 9 December 1941, Sounds like the enemy 4th Survey Regiment at war, Table of Equipment Divisional Signals Company 90th Light, The Destruction of Force K Australian Naval Historical Society, Thomas Barkers Diary at Malta No. [7], Barham received a series of minor refits during the 1920s. This increased her metacentric height to about 7 feet (2.1m) at deep load, despite the increase in her deep displacement to 35,970 long tons (36,550t). Wikipedia. First published on Mon 12 Sep 2016 11.41 EDT. 2 six-inch gun. Late in the afternoon of November 24, 1941 WARSPITE, (C. in C.), BARHAM and VALIANT and a screen of nine destroyers sailed from Alexandria to provide heavy gun cover for the Cruisers. The 5th Battle Squadron concentrated their fire on the German battleships after losing sight of the battlecruisers, with Barham opening fire at 18:14. We've also got a detailed model of the Athenia. 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. In addition, a pair of quadruple mounts for Vickers 0.5in (12.7mm) AA machine guns were added abreast the conning tower. Jan Lettens 02/08/2012. BARHAM was torpedoed by U.331 and lost off the Western Desert of Egypt off Sollum and Sidi Barrani. This was replaced by a torpedo rangefinder in early 1928 when the permanent position was installed in the remodelled spotting top. [96] The sinking was captured on film by a cameraman from Path News, aboard Valiant. 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. She participated in the Battle of Dakar in mid-1940, where she damaged a Vichy French battleship and was slightly damaged in return. In response the Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, totalling some 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. 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. Naval Historical Society of Australia Inc. During her abbreviated sea trials on 6 July 1916, Barham only reached a mean top speed of 23.91 knots (44.28km/h; 27.52mph). Underwater protection was improved by the addition of torpedo bulges. Within four minutes, the battleship had listed over to Port and the. "It always takes me back to that day in November 1941," he said. [35], At 16:30, the light cruiser Southampton, scouting in front of Beatty's ships, spotted the lead elements of the High Seas Fleet coming north at top speed. [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. He went on to serve as a gun range finder aboard HMS Nelson, involved in bombarding German defences in Normandy on D-Day. The latter was succeeded by Captain Richard Horne on 1 October. One was mounted above the conning tower, protected by an armoured hood, and the other was in the spotting top above the tripod mast. Beatty then altered course to the east, as he was still too far north to cut Hipper off. The reaction to the loss had echoes in the debates we have today about the reporting of news events, he told BBC News. She reached Alexandria later that day, but she was too large for the floating dock there and had to be sent elsewhere for repairs. [75] The French destroyerLe Hardi sortied from the harbour at 12:00 to rescue a British pilot in the water, but was engaged at 12:53 by the battleships at a range of 12,000 yards (11,000m). [49] Barham was refitted at Rosyth from 723 February 1918[50] and Waller was relieved by Captain Henry Buller on 18 April. 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