[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. On her return I teamed up with P-W again when he shifted his flag back to the, Battleships. 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. 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. Kapitaenleutnant Freiherr von Tiesenhausen, who did a radio broadcast on this attack in December 1941. [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. [54] Reinforced by the battleship Resolution and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal from Force H, Barham departed Gibraltar for Freetown, Sierra Leone, four days later. [22], Barham joined the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow the next day and participated in a fleet training operation west of Orkney during 25 November. The battleship and the other ships of Force F were tasked to ferry troops to Malta, before continuing on to Alexandria. HMS Barham was one of five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. [5], The waterline belt of the Queen Elizabeth class consisted of Krupp cemented armour (KC) that was 13 inches (330mm) thick over the ships' vitals. 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. Chamberlain's famous "this country is at war with Germany" broadcast was delivered shortly after 11 in the morning. At the going down of the SUN, AND in the MORNING; WE WILL REMEMBER THEM, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM!! 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. No. Merlin Burrows have found and pin-pointed the exact location of the wreck of HMS Barham - a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship built for the Royal Navy in February 1913. 1. It is the first wreck in his consultancy career "which I've identified from my armchair, so to speak". The latter was succeeded by Captain Richard Horne on 1 October. 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. [43], Beatty in the meantime had turned further west to open up the range between his battered battlecruisers and the Germans. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. The wrecks sites upside down on the sea floor. 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. !, YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN, Casualties of MEN/HEROES-SERVING IN H.M.S. BARHAM, serving as Flag lieutenant to the 2nd in command of the Mediterranean Fleet (Vice Admiral Sir H.D. 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. Earlier in the day there had been a couple of Air Raid warnings, and reports of enemy aircraft Shadowers, but nothing of particular consequence. last updated: andrew gillespie This is my first written account of the fateful day, and of my recollections of some of the circumstances before and after the catastrophe since I prepared a Report on the sinking shortly after the event for the Royal Naval Authorities at Alexandria, Egypt. 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. Huge palls of smoke rising from the stricken ship. Her main guns targeted the port and the battleship Richelieu. Within four minutes, the battleship had listed over to Port and the. [71] Barham's six-inch guns were the first to do so and fired at the French submarinePerse on the surface. HMS BARHAM - a British battleship sunk in November 1941 by a submarine in the Mediterranean SANTA ROSA - a Portuguese galleon loaded with seven chests of treasure, sunk in 1726 by an explosion. 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. 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. Our own inner-world is largely unexplored," Mr Mearns told BBC News. The resulting shockwave pushed the bulge inwards for a length of 7 feet (2.1m) and it started to slowly flood. 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). Barham's signallers were unable to read the signal and her officer of the watch presumed that it was the expected point zigzag to the left of the base course and signalled that course change to the rest of the squadron. Barham was not hit during this time and she and Valiant, later joined by their sister Warspite, continued to fire at Hipper's 1st Scouting Group until 18:02 when Valiant lost sight of the Germans. Shipwreck H.M.S. Required fields are marked *. This meant that they were some 4,000 yards (3,700m) closer to the rapidly advancing High Sea Fleet. The enemy struck at 4.25pm as Richard was on a tea break and talking with a friend. [45], Barham fired 337 fifteen-inch shells and 25 six-inch shells during the battle. 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. 862 men went down with her, and her end was filmed by a war correspondent on board one of the escorting destroyers. HMS Barham was one of five Queen Elizabeth -class battleships built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. 2 six-inch gun. 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. HMS Barham underway off Devonport in WW2. 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). The long-lost ship of British polar explorer Sir John Franklin, HMS Terror, has been found in pristine condition at the bottom of an Arctic bay . Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. Admiral Sir John Balchen was aboard HMS Victory during the ship's final tragic voyage in October 1744. The 5th Battle Squadron concentrated their fire on the German battleships after losing sight of the battlecruisers, with Barham opening fire at 18:14. The shell struck just below the waterline and burst on impact with the belt armour. 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. Admiral Angelo Iachino, commander of the Italian fleet, ordered the two other heavy cruisers of the 1st Division to render assistance to Pola in the darkness. Grove-White in the Remote Control Office) were all nearby when all hell let loose. Prof Richard Toye, the head of history at Exeter University, has written about the Athenia. "I dived in headfirst, but as I did, the ship rolled again and I smashed my head on the hull and was knocked unconscious.". 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. It was something Donaldson had made when the ship was built," she told BBC News. In the end, the TV idea was dropped, but Mr Mearns still hopes an expedition can be mounted by someone. Battleship sunk on 25 of November 1941. In 19211922, 30-foot (9.1m) rangefinders replaced the smaller ones in 'B' and 'X' turrets. The British had recently broken the Italian codes and sailed after dark on the 27th to intercept the Italians. The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. flag changed on a number of occasions. The battleships were providing distant cover to the light cruisers of Force B[1], engaged in searching for the German merchantsMaritzaandProcida (see also this link and this link). 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. Hamilton. Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in December 1939, Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in November 1941. "We had no idea there were U-boats in the area.". On 21 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a demonstration off Horns Reef to distract the Germans while the Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the Baltic Sea. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. [54] At that time, Captain Norman Wodehouse relieved Scott. HMAS Sydney II and the HSK Kormoran Shipwreck Sites, Admiralty House, Garden and Fortifications, Royal Australian Naval Transmitting Station ACT, 81st. 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 British and the German fleets returned home; the British lost two cruisers to submarine attacks, and one German dreadnought had been torpedoed. None of the men were ever found alive, and the expedition is considered one of the worst disasters in the history of polar exploration. HMS Barham (04) [+1941] Details general nationality: british purpose: war type: battleship subtype/class: Queen Elisabeth class battleship class propulsion: steam turbine date built: 1913 status: dead (not found) The S.G.O (Cdr. Germany initially denied involvement fearing the US would join the war. All footage can be viewed on the British Path website. ] at that time, Captain Norman Wodehouse relieved Scott [ 43 ], Beatty in top! 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