WARSPITE HMS 1915.

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aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

WARSPITE HMS 1915.

Post by aukepalmhof » Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:58 pm

Built as a battleship by the Devonport Dockyard for the Royal Navy.
31 October 1912 keel laid down.
26 November 1913 launched under the name HMS WARSPITE.
Displacement 31,327 ton standard, 36.450 ton full load. Dim. 195.0 x 31.7 x 9.37m. (draught)
Powered by Parsons steam turbines manufactured by Hawtorn Leslie & Co. Ltd., Newcastle on Tyne, 80,000 shp,24 boilers, four shafts, speed 24 knots.
Bunker capacity about 2,400 tons of fuel-oil.
Armament 8 – 15 inch., 14 – 6 inch, 2 – 3 inch AA, 4 – 3pdr. guns and 4 – 21 inch torpedo tubes.
Crew 950.
05 April 1915 commissioned under command of Capt. E.M.Philpotts.

She was the second ship of the Queen Elizabeth class, the class was designed by Sir Eustace Tennyson d’Eyncourt.
Building cost 2.5 million British Pounds.
After commissioned, joined the 5th Battle Squadron in the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow on 13 April 1915.
17 September 1915 ran over the Dumbarton Reefs with a speed of 14 knots, and her outer bottom was damaged, repaired at the Smith Docks at Shields until 20 November 1915.
03 December 1915 in collision with her sister HMS BARHAM, she sailed to Devonport where a new stem piece was fitted.

31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland her rudder jammed, and she came under fire of seven German navy vessels. She was so badly damaged by the enemy fire that she had to withdraw, returned to Rosyth for docking and repair. She was hit by 16 heavy shells. One officer and 13 rating were killed.

22 July 1916 after repair joined the Grand Fleet again.
August 1917 came in collision with HMS VALLANT, was holed and again docked at Rosyth.
1918 Fitted out with an aircraft launching platform on the B and X turrets, where after she got two Sopwith Strutter aircraft.

Between 1919 and 1924 in the First Battle Squadron in the Atlantic Fleet.
Between 1924 and 1926 she underwent the first of her two modernizations between the two World Wars.
She lost one funnel, and her bridge structure re-designed. Got more AA armament and her aircraft launching platform was removed.
There after flagship in the Mediterranean.

12 July 1928 struck upon an uncharted rock in the Aegean, she was repaired in the U.K.
There after again flagship in the Mediterranean.
21 March 1933 during heavy fog was she rammed by the Romanian steamer PELES off the mount of the Tagus River.

Between 1933 and 1936 underwent her second modernization at Portsmouth, her boilers were replaced by 6 boilers of a new design, and she got new Parsons turbines. Thicker deck armour fitted, and the bridge structure again re-designed.
A hangar built to accommodate two Fairey Swordfish floatplanes, a catapult fitted and a crane to hoist the planes again on board.
29 June 1937 re-commissioned as flagship in the Mediterranean.

When World War II broke out she was flagship of Admiral Cunningham.
October 1939, detached to Halifax, Nova Scotia to escort a convoy of Canadian troops to the U.K.
13 April 1940. The WARSPITE under command of Capt. Victor Crutchley, and together with nine destroyers entered the Ofot Fjord at Narvik, eight German destroyers were destroyed and a Walrus plane from the WARSPITE bombed and sank the German U-boat U-64.
Thereafter she returned as flagship of Admiral Cunningham to the Mediterranean.
July 1940 in action against the Italian battle fleet off Calabria.
March 1941 in the Battle of Matapan she damaged two Italian cruisers.

22 May 1941 damaged by a 500lbs. bomb by the defence of Crete, she sailed to Alexandria to put the wounded on shore and after some repair she sailed via the Suez Canal and Indian Ocean and Pacific to the Bremerton Navy Yard near Seattle U.S.A. for repairs.
January 1942 after repairs she sailed to Trincomalee to become the flagship of C in C in the eastern Fleet.
1943 Recalled to the Mediterranean for the invasion of Sicily and the landings in Italy. She bombarded Catania at Sicily and coast gun positions at Reggio.
In September 1943 she led the force which shepherded the surrendered Italian Fleet into Malta.
Later when bombarding Salerno she was hit by two radio-controlled FX 1400 bombs launched from a German Donier 217 airplane, the bombs penetrated to the bottom of the ship. Nine men killed and 14 wounded. Without power she became dead in the water. was towed by tugs via Malta to Gibraltar. After temporarily repairs sailed she to the U.K.
June 1944 before her repairs were completed she sailed from the Clyde on 02 June, and arrived on the 6th at 05.25 at the Normandy Beach, she bombarded the landing beach expended 219 rounds of main ammunition by 16.00 that day. Suffered superficial blast damage on the 7th and returned to the Solent where she the next day arrived at 03.10 a.m.
13 June 1944 at 07.47 hour on a voyage from Portsmouth to Rosyth damaged by a mine explosion on the port side aft off Harwich. Arrived at Rosyth on one engine. July that year returned to the French coast.

01 November 1944 supported the landing at Walcheren, Netherlands.
After the war in reserve at Portsmouth.
12 July 1946 Sold to Metal Industries Ltd. Her gun mountings and fire control installation were removed.
April 1947 she left under tow Portsmouth bound for the Clyde. On the 20th the towline parted and she drifted for three days before she ended up ashore in Prussia Cove on the Cornish coast.
28 August 1947 the WARSPITE was sold to a Bristol scrap iron merchant who commenced scrapping were she lay. The job to scrap her continued until 1956, and the task being finally completed by the Wolverhampton Metal Co. Ltd.

Ghana 1994 100c sg2002, scott1698.
Gibraltar 1994 25p sgMS724, scott660b.
Great Britain 1982 sg 1191, scott? And 1994 25p sg 1825, scott1563.
Isle of Man 1994 4p sg 607, scott601.
Tanzania 2007 sg200s, scott1274d
Liberia 2001 $20 sg?, scott?
Great Britain 2019 D-Day landings sg? scott?
Ascension 2019 D-Day landing sg?, scott?

Source: Devonport built Warships since 1860. The D-Day Ships by John de S. Winner. Wikipedia.
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D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen
Posts: 871
Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:46 pm

Re: WARSPITE HMS 1915.

Post by D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen » Tue Jul 02, 2019 6:39 pm

Isle of Man 2019, 1 st. StG.?
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