Queen Elizabeth-class battleship (2f/2m). L/B/D: 645.8 × 90.4 × 30.7 (196.8m × 27.6m × 9.3m). Tons: 33,000 disp. Comp.: 925-1,297. Arm.: 8 × 15 (4 × 2), 14 × 6, 2 × 3, 4 × 3pdr; 4 × 21TT. Hull: steel. Armor: 13 belt, 3 deck. Mach.: geared turbines, 75,000 shp, 4 shafts; 24 kts. Built: Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth, Eng.; 1915.
One of a class of fast battleships that were the first to mount fifteen guns, HMS Warspite was one of Britain's most decorated ships in the twentieth century. Her first action was as part of the Grand Fleet's Fifth Battle Squadron at Jutland on May 31, 1916. Damaged by thirteen heavy shell hits, she was on the verge of annihilation when her jammed steering gear reengaged—possibly thanks to another hit. After the war, Warspite served with the Atlantic Fleet from 1919 to 1924. Following the Washington Naval Treaty prohibiting construction of new capital ships, she was the first of her class to be modernized. She next served in the Mediterranean (1926-30), Atlantic (1930-32), and Home Fleets (1932-34). She emerged from a second refit (1934-37) with a single funnel, remodeled tower, and two observation planes; her torpedo tubes were also removed.
The outbreak of World War II found Warspite at Alexandria, Egypt. After escorting a Canadian troop convoy across the Atlantic, she flew Vice Admiral Jock Whitworth's flag at the battles for Narvik, on April 10-13, 1940. Redeployed to the Mediterranean, she flew the flag of Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham, revered as the Royal Navy's most aggressive admiral and known affectionately as "ABC." At the Battle of Cape Matapan, on March 28-29, 1941, Warspite helped sink the Italian cruiser Fiume, but she was herself damaged by German fighter-bombers during the evacuation of Crete on May 22. Under her own power she sailed via Singapore and Pearl Harbor to Bremerton, Washington, for repairs. By September 1943 she was back in the Mediterranean in support of the Allied landings at Salerno, Italy. There, radio-controlled bombs blew out her bottom. Again the aptly named Warspite made it home for repairs. Reassigned to the Home Fleet in 1944, she was mined just after the Normandy invasion in June, but returned to the coast of France by August. With fourteen battle honors to her credit, HMS Warspite was sold out of the Navy in 1946; but on April 23, 1947, she defiantly went aground in Mounts Bay, Cornwall, while en route to the breakers.
