Warspite: The Greatest Battleship Ever Built

Naval History in the twentieth century was filled with powerful battleships, that operated all over the world and did remarkable things, from the first world war all the way through to the Gulf War in 1991. But for me, there’s one battleship whose story stands above the others. A battleship that served for more than 30 years, and survived some of the deadliest theatres of two world wars to become Britain’s most highly decorated warship. This is the story of the fearsome HMS Warspite.

Main Sources:
Iain Ballantyne, Warspite: From Jutland Hero to Cold War Warrior
Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought
Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel
R.A. Burt, British Battleships of World War 1

Credits:

Artwork by:

Animation by Josh Bassett

Written, Directed and Produced by Josh Bassett

Music Credits:

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Other music and SFX from Epidemic Sound

[christerprestberg]

The fact that both HMS Warspite and USS Enterprise was scrapped is a crime against history.

[martijn]

Its a historical shame that she was scrapped.

[nemosis]

My dad served on Warspite for two years 41-43 as a gunner/torpedoman and he said he was very proud to have been a member of her crew as i was proud of him.

[QualPapel]

This one should never have been scrapped. Warspite did it all and more than many museum battleships, and yet she was scrapped.

[journeyman_philosopher]

Some other fun Warspite facts:
- She had a hilarious habit of crashing into things. Other ships, docks, rocks, you name it. Somehow she always came out pretty much undamaged while whatever she hit... not so much.
- She was the first battleship to fire on D-day (and second ship overall, after HMS Belfast).
- Warspite was hit by two German Fritz-X bombs, the same as Roma (the flagship of the Italian Fleet). Warspite survived, while the much newer Roma sank.
- Her 15 battle honours would translate to something like 32 American battle stars (the systems used by the RN and USN are VERY different), making her easily the most decorated ship of either war.

[emisat]

This ship is the biggest argument I've heard that machine spirits from 40k exist. It fits too well. Deciding to spin in place back toward the Germans at Jutland rather than run away, shrugging off nearly every single method of sinking ships (shells, bombs from planes, mines, torpoedos etc) to fight another day, had the Italian Fleet which she'd bullied for years at this point surrender to her at Malta, wore her guns out firing at D-Day, and after it was decided she'd be scrapped, resisted her crew and marooned herself on the coast rather than go to the breakers.

[gavinmclaren]

Clement Attlee was PM at the time Warspite was scrapped. No one would consider that Attlee was anything but a fierce British Patriot; he had served at Gallipoli in WW1 and, although a Labour PM, he was not friendly to the Soviet Union as the Cold War started. However, he had won a landslide in 1945, with many servicemen votes, by promising a welfare state with broad nationalization of key industries, housing reform, publically-funded healthcare, and many other features of a social democracy. This found wide favor with a British population that had suffered two world wars in two successive generations. At the same time, Britian was heavily in debt, and Attlee's promises could only be fulfilled by more debt or more taxes on an already-heavily taxed public.

IIRC there were a couple of attempts to raise the funds needed to preserve Warspite, but in the end it could not be done without a substantial contribution from the British Government, and Attlee, right or wrong, decided that the state could not afford it. I think he faced substantial opposition from the more radical left in his caucus, who viewed that money spent on Warspite would be preserving a symbol of the class diffferences that permeated British society, and they would have none of it. At the same time the public's memories of the war were horrific, and few had the perspective of pride and nostalga that they had in later generations.

So, while we all think now that it was a shame that Warspite wasn't preserved, I think it is at least possible to understand the context in which the decision was taken. This is also history.

For me, it is more difficult to understand the scrapping of USS Enterprise. The American government had few, if any, of the economic or political constraints that the UK did in the postwar period, and Enterprise had a phenominal war record, especially early in the Pacific war when it went mostly the Japanese way. Enterprise was the one ship that sustained the USN through Midway, Guadalcanal, and held the fort until the Essex class arrived. She should have been saved.

[BioHunter]

That she broke tow and grounded herself says “I won’t go. I will remain on these Isles I lived to defend.”

[laszlokaestner]

A full history of Warspite would take hours to narrate, but I would like to add a couple of things that were not mentioned, or only partly. During Narvik her spotter plane found one of the U-Boats in a side estuary and accurately bombed and sank it. It was the first time that a Battleship had sunk another ship using aircraft. Then there was her re-barrelling after D-Day. To do this she had to head north, the quickest route being via the Straits of Dover. In taking this route she became the first British Battleship to go through the straights since the war began. Her final battle honours are for Walcheren. This was the last amphibious landing in the European theatre of the war which secured control of the port of Antwerp for the Allies, one of the final nails in Germany's coffin. Again, to do this she sailed right up the river to attack the defences, much like she had sailed up the fjord at Narvik. I have also heard that she was the first to open fire on D-Day not just one of the first, and that the hit at Calabria was also the longest, not second longest range, although that was maybe just for actual Battleships. Also at Calabria the reason she took on two of the newest and most powerful Battleships in the world (as the Italian pair were) at the same time was because Malaya who was supposed to be with her had suffered engine trouble enroute. Warspite did not know that Malaya had fixed her problems and was steaming at full speed to assist so Warspite decided to have a go anyway. By the time Malaya arrived it was all over in part due to that long range hit from Warspite which seriously worried the Italians causing them to withdraw to preserve their irreplaceable ships. On the steering problem when she started circling at Jutland there happened to be a seriously damaged Cruiser in the middle and they thought Warspite was creating a diversion to save them! Regardless, it almost certainly did save them. She literally fought from the beginning of WW1 to the end of WW2 in just about every major engagement and in every theatre the British took part in. And she won. If we owed the victory in the skies over Southern England to "The Few" then we owed victory in the seas to "The Grand Old Lady". Frankly the Germans must have been sick of the sight of her.

[sprintcog]

Imagine how amazing it would be if, hypothetically, HMS Warspite was in a permanent dry dock next to HMS Victory at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. What a sight that would be!

[Ao_Taisan]

Warspite, a name that will forever be remembered in Naval History as a Legendary Vessel.
The Most famous one maybe gone but its legend will live on.
The Grand Old Lady never fell to the enemy, and even fought its fate but ultimately lost.

[JuliGagarin]

You say you have no subject
And your brushes all have dried;
But come to Marazion
At the ebbing of the tide.
And look you out to seaward,
Where my Lady battle scarred
Hugs the rock that is more welcome,
Than the shameful breakers yard.
Paint her there upon the sunset
In her glory and despair,
With the diadem of victory
Still in flower upon her hair.
Let her whisper as she settles
Of her blooding long ago,
In the mist than mingles Jutland
With the might of Scapa Flow.
Let her tell you, too, of Narvick
With its snowy hills, and then
Of Matapan, Salerno
And the shoals of Walcheren;
And finally of Malta,
When along the purple street
Came in trail the Roman Navy
To surrender at her feet.
Of all these honours conscious,
How could she bear to be
Delivered to the spoiler
Or severed from the sea ?
So hasten then and paint her
In the last flush of her pride
On the rocks of Marazion,
At the ebbing of the tide.

[VultureSausage]

01:35 I'd imagine that news about the Kongō-class would've reached the Admiralty pretty fast, seeing as Kongō was built in the Vickers shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness...

[davidpope]

I believe it was Agincourt that arrived to help save Warspite at Jutland when her rudder had jammed. Again.
Agincourt fired broadside after broadside, 14 x 12” shells each time from her seven gun turrets which were each named after a day of the week instead of the usual A, B, X, Y for four turrets or A, B, Q, X, Y for five turrets.
Agincourt was described as lighting up with a huge flash from stem to stern with each broadside, putting to shame the many who’d said she would be unable to ever fire a full broadside.

At Normandy on 11th June, Warspite was positioned to support Allied troops inland of Gold beach. Here it was that Captain Kelsey issued a command unique in British naval gunnery:
‘Fifty rounds 15” rapid fire’
This was aimed at woodland where there was a growing concentration of enemy troops and armour. The fire opened up very accurately but, as the Captain knew it would, it became less accurate as the barrage continued. This suited Kelsey perfectly, since he was certain that as initial accuracy fell off it would provide the added benefit of chasing the enemy forces out of the woodland ~ which it did most successfully. Her gunners received the thanks of the General commanding the 50th Division for their invaluable contribution that day.

[Blly_]

So, The Grand Old Lady:
> Busted in front of Kaiser's HSF unintentionally saved fellow fleetmate Warrior and lived.
> Barged in Narvik Fjords and took out HALF of Kriegsmarine's entire destroyer fleet (plus 1 U-boat w/ its seaplane)
> Ran back and forth with the Mediterranean fleet, causing mayhem at both Regia Marina and Kriegsmarine.
> Tanked Luftwaffe strike after strike at her, even ate one Fritzx Glider Bomb.
> Bombarded Normandy to the point her guns were worn out, literally.
> Got sent to the scrapyard before throwing herself to the cliff.
The fact that this ship wasn't turned into a museum considering her 2 world wars service still makes me seethe.

[Spitfiresammons]

It’s such a shame and tragedy that HMS Warspite did not survived to become a historic museum ship now only HMS Belfast and HMS Cavalier are left in UK today.

[Caratacus]

Warspite's charge into confined waters to blast the German destroyer fleet at Narvik was one of the most decisive acts of the war. After losing half of their destroyer fleet in a single action the Kreigsmarine knew that the proposed Operation Sealion a few months later was a non-starter and were dead set against it. She literally saved Britain from an invasion, and all the global consequences that would have occurred had it been successful.

[Damorann]

I'm glad to see that in the far flung future, when Salerno is once again invaded in the year 19443, HMS Warspite will return from the dead to once again assist the British Empire in securing another victory over its enemies. (For those who don't understand, pause the video at 12:32).

[doodledangernoodle]

It’s fully understandable at the time why Warspite had to be scrapped. She was seen as outdated and held together by twine and prayers. The cost to renovate and repair her would’ve been astronomical when Britain needed funds directed elsewhere.

What isn’t understandable is that virtually NOTHING about her was preserved. No gun barrel, no propeller, no bell, and no anchor. Hardly anything is left of her.

Personally, I think the fact she beached herself should’ve opened the idea of her being scuttled rather than scrapped. It would’ve allowed people to visit her and allow her to patrol the sea for eternity.

[zadarthule]

6:41 in my school library was a book about the war at sea in the 2nd world war.
Warspite was everywhere. I was even thinking the british had multiple ships with that name.