hms barham wreck found

That's the ultimate goal, anyway," said Mr Mearns. Experience the HMS Barham explosion after being struck by torpedo in 4K resolution at 50 fps and in color! In addition, she was joined by the battleships HMS Queen . "We looked at each other and said, 'right, let's get up top!'. It is also renowned for the shocking footage shown on Pathe News and more recently watched almost two million times on YouTube recording the listing ship being blown to pieces when its magazine exploded. 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. The impact was right on the joints between several armour plates and drove them inwards and destroyed part of the hull behind them. 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. The latter was succeeded by Captain Richard Horne on 1 October. During her early-1930s refit, the platforms were removed from the turrets and a retractable catapult was installed on the roof of 'X' turret, along with a crane to recover a floatplane. [54] Captain James Somerville relieved Monroe on 1 December and he was relieved in his turn on 16 March 1929 by Captain John C. Realising their mistake, the Germans changed course for home. [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. Chamberlain's famous "this country is at war with Germany" broadcast was delivered shortly after 11 in the morning. It was something Donaldson had made when the ship was built," she told BBC News. Shortly afterwards, she was deployed to Gibraltar for several months after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in July. However, as the ship plunged to the sea floor, a surge of water pushed Richard upwards. 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. She reached Alexandria later that day, but she was too large for the floating dock there and had to be sent elsewhere for repairs. 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. [54] Captain Henry Horan assumed command on 28 July 1937, although he only remained in command until 22 April 1938 when he was relieved by Captain Algernon Willis. 377, 386, Admiralty Historical Section, pp. [54] At that time, Captain Norman Wodehouse relieved Scott. [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. "We had no idea there were U-boats in the area.". On her arrival at Alexandria shortly afterwards, my Admiral (P-W) and I joined her when she took over from ROYAL SOVEREIGN as flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron. [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. 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. Underwater protection was improved by the addition of torpedo bulges. [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). While the other four ships of the Queen Elizabeth class were given a second, more extensive refit in the mid-to-late 1930s (which for Warspite, Valiant and Queen Elizabeth amounted to a complete reconstruction with new machinery and superstructures), changes to Barham were relatively minor. [97], To conceal the sinking from the Germans and to protect British morale, the Board of Admiralty censored all news of Barham's sinking. Richard Laland is one of only two survivors from the doomed battleship HMS Barham still alive today. She became a private ship on 1 December and departed Alexandria to join the Home Fleet that same day. 340, 346, 349, 354355, 358, Jones, pp. The enemy struck at 4.25pm as Richard was on a tea break and talking with a friend. Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. Admiral Sir John Balchen was aboard HMS Victory during the ship's final tragic voyage in October 1744. Other fragments from the second hit caused damage that allowed the water to spread even further. Multiple air strikes by Formidable's Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers damaged the battleship Vittorio Veneto and crippled the heavy cruiser Pola later that evening. 2023 BBC. 862 men went down with her, and her end was filmed by a war correspondent on board one of the escorting No hits were observed and the ships stopped firing after making their turn north, but Barham opened fire for a short time when they fell in line with the Grand Fleet a few minutes later, probably without making any hits. "Can I go into a court of law and say, '100%, that's Athenia?' British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared war on 3 September, 1939. The full truth only emerged at the Nuremberg Trials. Tiesenhausen was not certain of the results of his attack and radioed that he had hit a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship with one torpedo. The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a raid on Lowestoft. Lilly died in 2007, aged 86. The anti-aircraft (AA) armament were composed of two quick-firing (QF) 3-inch (76mm) 20cwt Mk I[Note 1] guns. last updated: andrew gillespie Richard Laland had a miracle escape when his ship was sunk off the coast of Egypt in 1941, Subscribe today to get the latest headlines straight to your inbox with our free email updates. 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. Rawlings took over temporarily from P-W who became Vice Admiral Light Forces. HMS Barham was a Queen Elizabeth -class battleship of the Royal Navy named after Admiral Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, built at the John Brown shipyards in Clydebank, Scotland, and launched in 1914. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. Casualties were five dead and six wounded. 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 first of these struck the ship's upper deck before detonating upon striking the main deck above the medical store compartment, which was completely burnt out. When Richard came round, he was underwater. 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. In addition, a pair of quadruple mounts for Vickers 0.5in (12.7mm) AA machine guns were added abreast the conning tower. 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. The wrecks sites upside down on the sea floor. 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". At 14:15, Beatty ordered a turn north by east to rendezvous with the Grand Fleet. [1] Force B consisted of two cruiser squadrons, 7 and 15, with the cruisers HMS Ajax, HMS Euryalus, HMS Galatea, HMS Naiad, and HMS Neptune, with escorting destroyers. Barham played a minor role in quelling the 1929 Palestine riots and the 19361939 Arab revolt in Palestine. Ltzow was only slightly damaged by these hits, which essentially only knocked out the primary and back-up wireless rooms while the shells that hit Derfflinger hit the side of the ship's bow, knocking off several armour plates, while fragments opened holes that ultimately allowed roughly 2,000 tonnes (1,968 long tons) of water to enter the bow. The terrifying explosion was caught on film by Path cameraman John Turner who was on an adjacent ship. Barham, now assigned to the 1st BS, and Malaya were detached to refuel at Souda Bay, Crete, before sailing for Alexandria, reaching there on 14 November. 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. 203, 205, Jellicoe, pp. 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). [59], Barham served as the flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron from November 1936 to May 1937 and participated in the Coronation Fleet Review for King George VI on 19 May at Spithead. The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. This meant that the 5th Battle Squadron and the light cruisers were the sole targets available for the German ships until after his turn, although the worsening visibility hampered both sides' shooting. 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. 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. The ships were fitted with four submerged 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside. [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. The . During the 1920s and 1930s, the ship was assigned to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Home Fleets. HMS Barham floating on side at sea. BARHAM was torpedoed by U.331 and lost off the Western Desert of Egypt - off Sollum and Sidi Barrani. [96] The sinking was captured on film by a cameraman from Path News, aboard Valiant. At 14:32, Beatty ordered a course change to south-southeast in response to the spot report. The British captured the submarine and took possession of its Enigma cipher machine. Life on the Line Podcasts 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 . [93][Note 6] Captain Geoffrey Cooke went down with his ship. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. [83] As part of Operation Collar in late November, Barham, Malaya and the carrier HMSEagle covered the forces rendezvousing with a convoy coming from Gibraltar. Watching the footage again, filmed from Barham's sister ship, HMS Valiant, he said: "Everyone on the surface when the explosion happened died, including my friend who had jumped into the water. [84] Barham became the flagship of the 1st BS in December. I was in H.M.S. Nov 24, 2021. ! Poem by Rudyard Kipling. Barham opened fire at a range of 21,000 yards (19,000m) and hit Richelieu with one 15-inch shell at 09:15. He replied, 'it's gone'.". 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The aim of this blog is to accompany the preparation of a complete history incorporating the Axis and Commonwealth perspectives of the Winterschlacht (Winter Battle) in North Africa, November 1941 to February 1942. Cipher machine the sinking was captured on film by Path cameraman John Turner who was an! Months after the beginning of the Spanish Civil war in July no idea there U-boats... Rawlings took over temporarily from P-W who became Vice Admiral Light Forces role in quelling 1929! Path News, aboard Valiant and took possession of its Enigma cipher machine from the doomed battleship HMS Barham alive... Off Sollum and Sidi Barrani battleships HMS Queen succeeded by Captain Richard Horne 1! 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