HMS Howe (32): From Arctic Convoys to Bombarding Okinawa

The Last of Her Class

HMS Howe was laid down on 1 June 1937 by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Glasgow, the fifth and final King George V-class battleship, originally intended to be named HMS Beatty after Admiral David Beatty before being renamed to honour the eighteenth century admiral Richard Howe instead. She was launched on 9 April 1940, though her completion was significantly delayed as wartime shipyard priorities shifted heavily toward merchant and escort vessel construction, and she did not finally enter service until 29 August 1942, displacing 39,150 long tons as built and armed with ten 14-inch guns alongside sixteen 5.25-inch secondary guns and an extensive anti-aircraft battery.

Arctic Convoys and the Invasion of Sicily

HMS Howe joined the Home Fleet on 30 August 1942, and her early operational service saw her covering Arctic convoys to Russia alongside her sister ship HMS Anson, genuinely demanding and dangerous duty in some of the most hostile waters of the entire war. In 1943 she took part in Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, shelling the naval base at Trapani and the island of Favignana, before going on to escort the surrendered Italian battle fleet to Alexandria following Italy's armistice, a genuinely striking role reversal for a ship that had spent the earlier part of the war fighting against Axis forces in the Mediterranean.

Halfway Round the World to Okinawa

HMS Howe underwent an extensive refit at Devonport before deploying east, arriving at Trincomalee in Ceylon in August 1944 to join what would become the British Pacific Fleet, as part of Task Force 113, later redesignated TF.57. She provided naval bombardment support for the Allied landings at Okinawa on 1 April 1945, one of the largest and bloodiest amphibious operations of the entire Pacific War, and during Operation Iceberg her anti-aircraft gun crews successfully engaged Japanese aircraft attempting to strike the fleet, a genuinely demanding campaign fought under constant threat of kamikaze attack.

A Quiet Postwar Career and the End

HMS Howe served as flagship of the Training Squadron at Portland after the war, until 1950, a considerably quieter role than her wartime service across two oceans. She was towed to Inverkeithing on 27 May 1958 to be broken up by Thos W. Ward, closing out the career of a battleship whose active service had genuinely spanned the globe, from the icy waters of the Arctic convoys to the fierce fighting off Okinawa. Her ship's bell was presented to St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, and components from her gun turrets reportedly went on to find further use as equipment at the Dounreay nuclear laboratory, a genuinely unusual final destination for parts of a Second World War battleship.