HMS Warspite (03): The Grand Old Lady Who Refused to Go Quietly to the Scrapyard
Built at Devonport
HMS Warspite was laid down at Devonport Royal Dockyard on 21 October 1912, launched on 26 November 1913 and completed in April 1915, a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship built around revolutionary oil-fired propulsion and formidable 15-inch guns, joining the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet just as the First World War reached its height.
Circling Under Fire at Jutland
At the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, Warspite suffered steering damage that sent her circling uncontrollably within range of the German fleet, inadvertently drawing enemy fire away from other British ships. Struck fifteen times, she nonetheless made it back to port, and the episode, however accidental, helped cement her enduring reputation for extraordinary resilience under fire.
A Virtually New Warship
Between March 1934 and March 1937, Warspite underwent a major reconstruction that fitted new propulsion machinery, thicker armour, modernised guns and improved fire control, effectively producing a virtually new warship built around her original hull, and setting her up for an extraordinarily active Second World War.
Narvik and the First U-Boat Kill by Aircraft
In April 1940, Warspite led the Second Naval Battle of Narvik, destroying already-damaged German destroyers, while one of her own Fairey Swordfish aircraft sank the submarine U-64, the first U-boat kill by aircraft of the entire war, a genuinely notable first for naval aviation.
One of History's Longest Naval Gunnery Hits
At the Battle of Calabria in July 1940, Warspite struck the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare at approximately 26,000 yards, one of the longest-range hits ever achieved in naval gunnery history, before going on to help destroy Italian cruisers at close range during the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941.
Crippled by Bombs, Twice
Warspite was badly damaged by German aircraft during the Battle of Crete in May 1941, requiring extensive repairs at Bremerton in Washington State, after which she joined the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean. Returning to Europe in 1943, she was struck off Salerno on 16 September by a German Fritz X guided bomb that tore a twenty-foot hole in her hull, killing nine and wounding fourteen, a loss this account records with due respect for a crew who kept their ship afloat against very long odds.
The First Ship to Fire at D-Day
Despite incomplete repairs, Warspite took part in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, becoming the first ship to open fire at 0500 hours that morning, and went on to bombard German positions at Normandy, Brest, Le Havre and Walcheren Island, firing her guns for the very last time on 1 November 1944, a fitting final combat action for a ship that had now fought in two world wars.
Running Herself Aground Rather Than Going Quietly
The Admiralty approved Warspite's scrapping in July 1946, but on 19 April 1947, while under tow to the Faslane breakers, she broke free of her tow lines in a severe storm and drove aground on Mount Mopus Ledge near Cudden Point, refloating herself before grounding again just yards away in Prussia Cove, as though the Grand Old Lady simply refused to be quietly towed to her end. What followed was the largest salvage operation ever carried out in British waters, with her hull gradually broken up in situ on Marazion beach between 1951 and 1955, until she finally disappeared from view that summer, a fittingly dramatic final chapter for one of the most celebrated battleships in Royal Navy history.