Check out our video on the first Battle of Narvik, a dawn ambush that preceded this battle by a couple of days: th-cam.com/video/XSvn4uD8tjc/w-d-xo.html
fist torpedo attack of the war, first night carrier landings in combat, first kill of a submarine by aircraft, crippling the french battleship Dunquerke and the attack on taranto, sinking italian ships and, quoting " On 22 August, the three aircraft destroyed two U-boats, one destroyer and a replenishment ship in the Gulf of Bomba, Libya, using only three torpedoes" the swordfish were really not joking around. despite considered obsolete at the start of ww2
@@thecursed01excellent snippets, thanks. I've seen photo of that Swordfish, in if's actual dive, and it looks hilarious and sedately reassuring. If I were gazing up at it from an hostile conning tower, I'd be anticipating a checkered cloth full of warm pumpkin scones rather than a 100kg bomb.
I saw one flying earlier this year and imagine it would have been a different story if there had been a slightly stronger wind; very manoeuvrable but very slow.
As an ex Member of the RN and even as a Child I've always wanted someone to name a new warship Thunder Child from War of the World's I'm also disappointed that one of the new carriers wasn't named Ark Royal it just doesn't seem right the RN not having an Ark Royal.
A couple of thoughts come to mind: 1) Destroyer crews have balls of steel, irrespective of which flag they serve under. 2) But the biggest balls of all must belong to a task force commander who says "I'm taking the battleship in with me. Might come in handy, wot, Ol' Chap" 3) Warspite's crew owed that Swordfish pilot and navigator all their Rum Rations for a week. 4) As did the destroyer crews.
Warpsite went on a few rampages in her time. They had to fit a whole new super structure to fit all the battle honours. Utterly tragic she was sent off to be scrapped. But even then, was stubborn and hard to kill to the end, breaking from her tow lines and beaching herself. She would have made an awesome museum ship.
Unfortunately 03 never had a battle honour board on, it was S103 who first received it (not sure how they fit it through the hatch), and luckily S103 never had to add to that list (she did try once), and hopefully the new Number 3 of the Royal Navy never gets an honour as well (as it would be the last ever honour in human history).
I see it all the time on forums & facebook pages that Warspite should have been saved from the breakers yard after WW2....She WAS one of the last to be scrapped but that was solely down to her metallurgical value....She was 1/5 concrete at that time due to the concrete plugs in her hull from the 'Fritz-x' attacks.
Same with the Enterprise, there were times she was the only carrier facing the Japanese Navy. She was also the only survivor, of her class, she should have been a museum.
Wasn't she totally wrecked by 1945 though? Its sad, but one can understand a country being smashed up and bankrupted by a long war, not prioritizing keeping a ship around as a museum piece.
It was a tall ask, by the end of WW2 she was absolutely ruined after being run absolutely ragged with distinction. She nearly got smashed in two by a Fritz X bomb and had to fill the hole with concrete. It likely would have cost as much as a ship in service to maintain.
Maybe, but the problem with Warspite as a museum ship is that too much of it would have been off-limits. Can't have the little-uns falling into all those holes the Germans poked in her.... Mind you, she was always still afloat when the smoke cleared, which is more than can be said for many of her opponents.
They needed the cash. The UK was worse than broke - there's a reason that rationing continued after the war until 1948 for most things and until 1952 for a few things. Without the Marshall Plan post war the UK would have collapsed.
You can read the story of U-64’s sinking in the book “Grey Wolf, Grey Sea”, most the crew survived being rescued by German Alpine troops and went on to form the crew of U124 which had the Alpine troops emblem (the Edelweiss) painted on the conning tower in thanks. Warspite was only one of 2 battleships to ever sink a submarine.
First one was HMS Dreadnought, right? By ramming? Can't remember properly and Google stopped giving results a long time ago, all you get is advertising. Cheers.
@@CommodoreRayne.IMP.C-1824 Very successful, 2 commanders got their knights cross for sinking 100,000 tonnes with the whole of their career (effectively - barring Schultz short stint on U64) aboard her.
My uncle, James (Jim) Dry. at the tender age of 17 was on HMS Foxhound at Narvik, He would tell a story that the Foxhound was to be used as bait to the German destroyers to entice the enemy out of the fjord - this would have been in the best traditions of the Royal Navy but, arguably, almost suicidal for the Foxhound and its crew. Happily for my uncle the Warspite became the chosen weapon to kill off the German destroyers, so my uncle lived to tell the tale. My uncle had previously been a boy sailor on the 'Warspittage', as he called it. The very sad part of my uncle's reminiscences of the battle was the end piece were Foxhound, and not doubt other destroyers, had the task of rescuing German sailors from the waters of the fjord - all young men like my uncle. Heartbreakingly, any sailors too badly injured or having lost limbs were left - some were thrown back in the water - to die, as there was very limited accommodation and medical facilities onboard the Foxhound - this all, despite the cries for help from the wounded seamen. At seventeen this greatly impinged on my uncle and he became a strong advocate against warfare. He survived the war, including the arctic convoys physically uninjured, but took to drinking heavily for the rest of his life. So much for the glory of warfare - 'Our glorious dead', indeed. My uncle Jim's words....
A float-equipped Swordfish trying to dive bomb must've been the slowest dive bombing in history. Damn thing probably just hovered in the air like a helicopter.
@@iansmith7929I had the opportunity to sneak into a hangar and sit inside the cockpit of a restored Swordfish. You are surrounded by nothing but some aluminum tubing and canvas, and stuck high up, incredibly vulnerable. Those pilots were more than brave.
@@iansmith7929 Those carried by the Battleships most certainly WERE float equipped. How else do you think they operated? The Walrus didn't replace them until 1942. And yes, they must have been ACHINGLY slow with floats on!
Never going to happen because as we all know keyboard warriors are only interested in the Bismarck, U-boats, and the american and japanese fleets in the Pacific. The massive contribution made by the British and Canadian navies barely gets a mention.
The Royal Navy has the most glorious and storied history of any navy on Earth, you could fill entire libraries with stories of exploration, innovation, battles won and lost, wars, disasters and whatever else you could think of. As an American it’s pretty awesome to have the Royal Navy as our closest ally 💯😊
@@chrisk_nfl4120 Greetings from North Carolina to our awesome cousins across the pond. I only wish _HMS Warspite_ were still afloat as a war museum. She certainly earned the right to be preserved!! I've toured the USS North Carolina BB-55 in Wilmington many times and it's a great experience to walk her decks, and man her 20mm Oerlikons, and climb into the turrets of her big 16" guns. 🇺🇸🤝🇬🇧
My grandfather's memoirs mention Warspite shelling the beaches on d day in front of him. He had very few positive things to say about that day, his friends unloading fully equipped into water that was too deep and drowning stands out (the landing craft didn't go far enough in). His only positive was how comforting it was to hear Warspites guns firing behind him as he went up the beach.
Spike Milligan mentions Warspite in his memoirs when she was similarly pounding Sicily before that invasion. Milligan was in the artillery and well used to the sound of large guns going off but he said Warspite's guns were a whole other level, as each shot rang the shock waves from the firing went through them all even though they weren't even on the ship itself.
German flotilla leader: No battleship commander would be crazy enough to pursue destroyers into such confined waters! Captain of Warspite: Hold my tea and watch this, chaps.
Seriously, if Warspite hit a mine or was to be heavily damaged by torpedoes in those treacherously confined waters, admiral Witworth was bound to be labeled suicidal. Instead, as often happens (not always), audaces fortuna iuvat, and he came out a hero.
I've literally just come back from Narvik, and to say that the second and third battles of Narvik were nothing short of a turkey shoot is an understatement. Beautiful wrecks as a result though.
Can we acknowledge how *baller* driving a battleship into a fjord is? Like, not only is it dangerous for you, but it’s dangerous for everyone else too- especially your opponents!
HMS Warspite is an absolute legendary battleship, the greatest Dreadnought ever built, and greatest Royal Navy warship ever built. One of the greatest crimes in history was allowing her to be scrapped, which I say allowing, she ended up breaking free and slammed into the shallow waters of Prussia Cove, which the skeleton crew onboard thought she did it herself as a means of stopping her from being scrapped, or her own way of fighting back against her fate. Either way, she was scrapped on the spot which took several years, not the ending of a ship like her deserved. There is a reason she was given the honour to be the first ship of the hundreds of other ships that took part in Operation: Overlord (D-Day) to open fire on the beaches, to mark the start of the invasion, among the American, Canadian, and other nations that took part, all allowed her to be the first. A pre-WW1 Dreadnought among somewhat larger and faster battleships, and more modern, able to do so much more, proved herself to be the most capable battleship on the seas, a battleship that fought all 3 major axis powers in WW2 from the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Oceans, and the Mediterranean. If there was the possibility of taking part in an engagement, she was there, not only because she was Admiral Andrew Cunningham's flag ship, soon to be Sea Lord, but she was just so capable that you want her to be in those engagements. Even with her number 3 turret disabled after being hit by a bomb, it didn't stop her from throwing 15inch shells at things and just generally being the most badass ships you could face.
Used to help an elderly retired RN Luitenent Commander who was on various ships in WWII (I think more in the Philippines area). Who has passed now as lots now have. One thing he said to me which really has stuck with me. He simply said he could never have been in the Army as they have to walk through all the death and devestation they themselves did, whereas as a member of the Navy, by the time you "get there" where the ship was its all under the water and its just people in lifejackets and much less in the way of death. I just thought that was a very poignant and sobering statement.
My grandad said a similar thing - he was an infantry officer in world war 2, he thought the Navy was probably a good choice - "you either have a bed, or you're swiming and if you're swiming you're probably dead."
Spike Milligan was in the artillery. It was only when they were in Italy that they advanced and saw the carnage they had wrought upon the enemy, it affected him greatly, and was a contribution to him having to end the war in a unit for those who had suffered severe mental trauma.
Id argue that this battle meant that sealion would be completely impossible to launch. losing 1/2 of your destroyer force in less than a week is crippling, especially since the Germans could never recuperate losses like the British.
@arthurfisher1857 it was impossible to succeed but I do wonder if they have tried. I mean they did plan to beat the Soviets in about 3 months so they were definitely idiotic at OKW
And I'd argue that sealion was impossible due to the lack of political will. Hitler's main goal was securing lebensraum in the east, i.e a war against Soviet Union. He believed, erroneously, that Britain and France would not react to his attack on Poland, as they didn't react many times before (Rhineland, Anschluss, Sudeten crisys, etc.); and that he would be in possition to attack Russia with no enemy in the west. He is known to say "the fall of British empire would be used by powers that are in the best possition to use it, namely Japan and United States. I don't see why German soldier should die for American interests."
Little fun story my dad (whom is from Narvik) told me. After the germans abandoned ships, several of them ended up with wet clothes after having jumped in the waters. When they came ashore they were naturally freezing, so they stole whatever clothes and garments the local population had hanging outside, and there was supposedly germans running around in dresses etc. I haven't been able to confirm this story from more reliable sources than relatives tho.
Makes sense though. Narvik wasn't exactly a giant metropolis-- it had probably only about 5000 residents at the time. The Germans would have suddenly doubled, or more, the whole population of the area when they invaded, so they'd have been scrounging for whatever supplies they could find.
it's such a tragedy that Warspite was scrapped and not turned into a museum ship when it took part in so many battles and achieved so much. RIP Warspite
My Dad (90 now) has made a 13 foot sailing model of Warspite, and one of a Cossack class destroyer . Impressive at 1/4 inch to the foot, awesome at full size!
Been there aboard ship for NATO exercises in the fiord. I still cannot believe that they had a running battle complete with a battle ship and aircraft is such a small space. It seemed as if you could just reach out with your arms and touch each side of the channel
My Dads brother Tommy as a young man served on the Warspite during the war. Not sure if it was before or after he served on the Repulse. He went into the water when the Repulse was sunk by the Japanese in 41. He was saved as he was drowning, by the ships cook, who dragged him back to the surface by his hair..Tommy survived the war, garnered three daughters and ended up as a coal miner in the Stone area of England
Always been a ww2 buff but the naval warfare was never as interesting to me the other fronts the war was fought on, until i started watching your videos. Super interesting and even gripping videos that perfectly sum up these battles. Thank you for educating me!
I'm the exact opposite, the escapades of the Royal Navy are pretty much the only part of ww2 that interest me. There's something about the antics of leaky old WWI battleships, innumerable feisty destroyers, and all the wacky obsolete FAA aircraft like something out of Stop the Pigeon, trying to hold down the Atlantic, Med and the east until the US finally gets itself out of bed, that have a certain charm and romance that nothing else in the war can match.
Bad planning. They didn't think to send the army on board the ships and had no plan to follow up, so all they could do was Warspite renovating the mountains a bit and leaving.
My favourite Warship of all time. HMS Warspite. So cool, so many action, OP in Azur Lane, everything is there want is needed. Scrapping her is the second saddest event of 20th century UK history just after the Great Smog of '52.
@@goldenfiberwheat238 Nothing sad about the Battle of Britain, the cream of the Luftwaffe learnt they weren't as good as they thought they were, or spent the rest of the war in POW camps or fertilising crops in South East England.
Marvellous. And Warspite looks great on Red, too. The German Navy really does like to scuttle it’s ships. Not being jingoistic but the Andrew would have attempted to ram the opposition. Nothing the RN like more than a good ramming! Link to your Glowworm vid should really go here!
Beaching the ships and preserving your manpower was the right choice. The crews could go on to fight on land as they had always intended. There was no hope of winning against Britain on the sea but taking Norway was still possible.
@@Barwasser Yes, that’s true. But I’m thinking more a long the lines of Cunningham’s quote “It takes two years to build a ship. It takes two hundred to build a tradition!.” The RN were able to impose a moral superiority on their adversaries. They did this by being very aggressive, looking for fights, and, if outnumbered and outgunned fighting anyway and creating the occasional pyrrhic victory for the opponents and always sending a signal that it won’t ever be easy when you fight us! It worked against the French and Spanish. It worked against the IGN who ended up demoralised and mutinous after being boxed in. The most heroic painting of the German First World War navy was a sailor on a sinking bit of battle cruiser waving a flag. And at the end of it all the IGNs only aggressive act was the passive aggressive one of sinking their own ships. Again, in WW2, the RM in the Mediterranean wouldn’t engage the ‘Andrew’ unless they had massive advantage and Royal Navy aggression had them nervous and timid at least in the senior ranks. It must really affect you if you’re told we can’t take theses guys on in a fair fight. The Kreigsmarine I think were the same. They made a bigger noise but the KM surface fleet where just as worried. Standing orders where always ‘stay away from a fight with the RN” Yes, the RN could absorb loses more but that’s not the real reason. Commerce raiding doesn’t give you a great sense of moral superiority. That’s why Langsdorf got into a fight. He was sick of sinking defenceless merchant ships. He was embarrassed. Ashamed even. The KM surface fleet where just depressed as the Second World War progressed culminating in the Barents Sea. I think the KM had a deep feeling of inadequacy re the RN and frequently scuttled their ships in a passive aggressive rage quit. It’s like the Bismarck. Saying that they scuttled her and that the RN didn’t sink her. Right. That’s all you have left when facing off against the RN? Sinking your own ships! (I’m not some jingoistic Brit btw. I just really like naval history).
@@geordiedog1749 By the same point, it takes 2 years to build a ship, so you dont want to give those 2 years to the enemy! A rammed ship in fjords could easily be raised and put back into service as an allied ship. Look at the American Civil War - the Union side burnt to the waterline then sank one of their own ships to stop it falling into enemy hands, but even that wasnt enough, the Confederates raised it and made it into perhaps their most famous warship the Virginia (of Monitor vs Virgiana/ex Merrimack fame). The majority of the ships 'sank' at the Pearl Harbor attack were 'unsank' and went back into service. 'Unsinking' ships that sank in shallow waters was pretty easy even back in the 1940s. If you are in deep ocean though its a different matter. Ships in these waters can and did ram when fatally wounded.
@@Debbiebabe69 You’re quite right. That’s all very ‘sensible’. But knowing that you’re fighting madmen who won’t give in makes an enemy think about engagements. Neither the KM or the RM allowed their fleets to engage the Andrew on equal terms. There has to be. Reason for that. And that reason was a they were basically a death cult whose reputation struck fear onto its enemies!
IIRC, there were 8 German destroyers and 2 U-Boats in the fjord at the time, and together they masses ~28,000 tons. Warspite alone massed 32,000 tons. Very big boot.
@@toddkes5890 Not really, as being in the bay would limit Warspites movement , all it would of took was 1 of the destroyers getting close enough to Warspite and firing its torps and well bye bye Warspite It was not a ant meet boot situation it was a very very ballsy move
Not only was the sinking of U-64 by Warspite's Swordfish very useful in the terms of this engagement it was also the first ever sinking of a submarine by a ship launched plane. I swear this was the Grand Old Lady's way of throwing shade on every single Aircraft Carrier ever.
Loved the video @Historigraph! Can't wait for the next video man! Things couldn't have gotten any worse for the Kreigsmarine at Narvik. You usually hear about HMS Warspite and the Destroyers with her going into the Fjords and Unleashing absolute Hell on the German Destroyers but you don't ever hear about HMS Furious Launching about a Dozen of her Fairey Swordfish Torpedo Bombers for the Attack as well! I did remember seeing a Picture of Tribal-class Destroyer HMS Eskimo after her Bow had been blown off in this particular Battle of Narvik and the fact that she made it back to England for 5 Months of Proper Repairs still leaves me Impressed with how much of an Icon in Naval History she and her Sisters became to the World. Shame that the Atlee Cabinet went on to sell Warspite for Scrap, She and her Sisters were Great Ships and Served the Crown and Realm well and Should've been made into Museum Ships in or nearby to Scapa Flow along with HMS Ramillies and her Sisters and Possibly even HMS Vanguard and that's just the Larger Caliber Gun Armed Battleships and Battlecruisers. It's been a while since you've done a video on the Ground Warfare, Maybe see if you haven't covered the Fighting in Norway yet and if not, then you might have another video idea to have a look at. Let me know what you think about this and I'll catch you in your next video man!
A channel called WWII History Hunter recently visited Hermann Künne's hull, it's still beached, upside down, host went inside, really interesting. And needless to say, thanks a lot for another great vid!
I read about this story but never in too much details, I thought Warspite had done much more with its actual guns. From what you said, its main contribution by far was this Swordfish that sank a sub and provided crucial intel
It was firing throughout really - it was tricky to show it on screen much because it was further away (10k yards or so) from hostile ships, but obviously still firing with its massive guns
the destroyer kulner at the beginning was out of the fight but warspite finished it off from afar. the only problem was the SAP ricocheted up the mountain kulners crew were evacuating on killing a lot of them
Americans are taught that they won the war singlehandedly. As a Yank and coming from a family of long Naval service, with the exception of myself, it is inspiring to see what the British Navy accomplished, and most important to remember, the sacrifices of British officer and Sailors. The Free World, shrinking as it is, owes an incredible debt to their sacrifices.
When you watch these stories, even just animated, it makes you vivid vision, how daring and brave were all those men, thousands tons of steel, but also fuel and ammo around them in vast cold waters, to hit or be hit, kill or be killed, pretty much no other choise than to fight to the end. Thank for bit of history.
Hats off for another wonderful video! Warspite was such a badass ship, going in guns blazing and effectively handcuffing the Kreigsmarine by sinking 50% of their available destroyers is so awesome. I wonder what the larger effect of those destroyer sinks had on the Kreigsmarine
These kriegsmarine ships would have played a central role in any attempt by German forces to cross the channel so their destruction in Norway reinforced the fact that Germany's surface fleet simply couldn't go toe to toe with the Royal navy and any invasion of Great Britain would almost certainly fail.
@@a2falcone Ah, so the Kriegsmarine bravely sank it's own ships to save the Royal Navy its ammunition expenditure. Let me guess, the Royal Navy didn't sink the Bismark, rather it valiantly sank it self to, once again, save the Royal Navy expending expensive ammunition. Face it, the Kriegsmarine lost the second battle of Narvik, big style.
Thats because, apart from the few well publicised operations, Swordfish were known as death traps and 'flying coffins'. Very few Swordfish fliers survived the war. The things were hated by widows associations for making so many women into, well, widows. Most of the Bismarck operation survivors for example ended the war in a watery grave in the Med or Atlantic in various other operations, when I was brought up I was always told, despite my interest in WW2 history, to 'never mention the S word' at my grandparents and uncles houses. They would happily talk about knowing someone or other who was lost on the Hood or other major warships, but Swordfish were different, it was a kind of 'every single friend or family member assigned to them things never came back'
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214 yes they sank a lot... but that dosnt change the fact that the vast majority of people who flew in them never survived the war, and the resulting hate piled on them by widows associations. and parents/brothers of those lost flying them. This is why it is only recently people have been venerating the plane, as its only now most of the family members of those who served in them have passed away, along with their memories.
They should have just sent the Warspite to intercept Prinz Eugen and Bismarck. That ship had unusual luck and would have somehow managed to sink both of them.
On paper Bismarck would have made mincemeat of her. In reality, not so much. Warspite had the uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time, she was able to take fearsome amounts of punishment but could still fight and was also able to hit any type of enemy at any range with unnerving accuracy. Bismarck was newer and better armed and armoured so should have destroyed the WW1 relic but you just know that Warspite would have pulled off a Death Star manoeuvre and somehow put a 15" shell through the window of the Captain's personal bidet, the resulting hit somehow sending a shard of shrapnel 50 yards through Bismarck to explode an otherwise impervious ammunition store. Warspite may have had a wayward rudder but they left reverse gear out completely.
@@laszlokaestner5766Not really, Warspites disadvantage was its low speed but it had good armour. And a super human ability to hit stuff at long range, the Italians thought they was under bomb attack by aircraft.
That swordfish was I believe the first allied aircraft to sink a uboat by dive bombing in the war. It must have been such a slow dive seeing as it was not only a swordfish but also had floats attached lol. Warspite should have been kept as a museum after the war as the ship with the most battle honours in the RN.
@@jamesfletcher9032 Nah. Destroyers are small, lively ships, moving at great speed and often making violent turns, which are nightmarish conditions for gun crews trying to load and lay heavy guns. The British had worked this out during WW1 when churning out light cruisers which saw action in the North Sea; the Kriegsmarine was still experimenting in the 30s and their destroyer crews paid a heavy price as a result.
@@largebluecat The Zerstorers were definitely massive ships (2270t vs 1854t of Tribals). However, the Tribals were designed to be destroyer killers, basically what a light cruiser is.
Warspites gunnery in WW2 was always a good measure of slick and lucky... unless you were on the recieving end.. And she also had a fearsome damage control .. to go with the courage of her command and crew.
@@DarklordZagarna Warspites reputation goes back to the battle of Jutland WW1 probably THE most Honorary, wayward, fighting ship in the history of The Royal Navy. Never ever quit getting into trouble and away from the scrappers even at the end she made them come to Prussian cove . Really should have been dry docked next to HMS Victory and Warrior. Mind you Belfast had a few close calls in her brief service life. 🇬🇧
American warship names: USS Quincy, USS Franklin, USS Iowa, USS Pee Wee Herman British warship names: HMS Warspite! HMS Dreadnought! HMS Killmonger! HMS Steel Bastard!
Those destroyer crews and officers were a rare breed. And Warspite is something special to - known as the Grand Old Lady and her motto was ‘I despise the hardships of war’, something from a different age.
Vice Adm Whitworth: "PeeWo?" "Aye, sir." "See those destroyers over there?" "Aye, sir." "I dont want to." "Aye, sir." *3 x 15" pimpslap broadsides later* "Excellent work!"
Stellar video! I read a book on Warspite that mentioned this battle, but I never knew the finer details. Also, have you even considered an armed merchant raiders series? The 10 German ones sunk over 800,000 tons of shipping, plus a modern light cruiser and an armed merchant liner, and there are some great battles, for example: 1: Kormoran vs light cruiser HMAS Sydney (both lost, Sydney being the largest ship in WW2 to be lost with all hands) 2: Thor vs. 3 different AMCs, Alcantara, Carnarvon Castle, and Voltaire (the latter sunk, the others forced to retreat) 3: Raider Stier vs. a single 4-inch gun on the liberty ship Stephen Hopkins, which was manned by heroic crew-member Cadet Stephen O'Hara after it's gun-crew was killed, who managed to mortally wound the raider before the ship sank I feel like German auxiliary surface raiders are almost completely unknown, but there are a ton of stories of heroism, danger, and conspicuous gallantry on both sides... I feel like each of the raiders honestly deserve a full video, though (lol) so it might be way too much.
Oh so true! The Chiyoda (seaplane tender converted to a light carrier) apparently was also lost with all hands, and had more crew. I did not know that, thanks! @@UthurRytan
Norway proved that the overwhelming British superiority in ships of all classes helped doom Nazi expansion. Hitler went into a world war with a navy that was woefully inadequate in most regards and they paid for that lack of foresight.
So in this case the Warspite acted as a way of preventing the destroyers from engaging more seriously, rather than charging in and doing damage itself, it sat back and just shelled from enormous range.
Hum... Isn't that the third battle of Narvik? The first was the Norway defenders getting massacred, the second was the British destroyers vs German destroyers and now the third is the one with Warspite.
Great job 👏🏻 I didn’t even know about this particular battle and I’m a serious ww2 aficionado my father served in Samoa with the navy and my father in law was in the marine corps in the Philippines
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Check out our video on the first Battle of Narvik, a dawn ambush that preceded this battle by a couple of days: th-cam.com/video/XSvn4uD8tjc/w-d-xo.html
очень понравился перевод, очень качественно у вас выполнен
Your work is among the very best. Truly.
Early Naval battles of WWII are often not talked about. So please keep up these video's.
Great video, can you do the battle of Tsushima?
Props to that first Swordfish pilot: sank a U-boat and stopped an ambush!
Definitively MVP of that battle
fist torpedo attack of the war, first night carrier landings in combat, first kill of a submarine by aircraft, crippling the french battleship Dunquerke and the attack on taranto, sinking italian ships and, quoting " On 22 August, the three aircraft destroyed two U-boats, one destroyer and a replenishment ship in the Gulf of Bomba, Libya, using only three torpedoes"
the swordfish were really not joking around. despite considered obsolete at the start of ww2
@@thecursed01excellent snippets, thanks. I've seen photo of that Swordfish, in if's actual dive, and it looks hilarious and sedately reassuring. If I were gazing up at it from an hostile conning tower, I'd be anticipating a checkered cloth full of warm pumpkin scones rather than a 100kg bomb.
I saw one flying earlier this year and imagine it would have been a different story if there had been a slightly stronger wind; very manoeuvrable but very slow.
I can only imagine how the Swordfish's crew felt when they got a direct hit on it
Man that swordfish out on recon just casually taking out a U-boat with one precise hit. "oh what do we have here?! GOTCHABITCH!"
That Swordfish crew earned their pay for the entire war in one sortie
also that was the first u-boat sunk by a aircraft during WW2 ;) so double gotcha
And is credited to Warspites long, loooong list of military achievements!
@@petergreen9322 Its also the only ship lauched aircraft not originating from a carrier to sink a submarine
@@sgtplopThat's a real baseball sort of record. 😂
Warspite is hands-down the coolest name for a battleship
Much better than Invincible
'Destruction', 'Devastation', 'Conqueror' and 'Thunderer' are all up there too
Thunderchild. Dreadnought. All good. But I do like ‘Warspite’. Makes me always think of ABC.
I always thought Indefatigable was good too. British ship names are badass.
As an ex Member of the RN and even as a Child I've always wanted someone to name a new warship Thunder Child from War of the World's I'm also disappointed that one of the new carriers wasn't named Ark Royal it just doesn't seem right the RN not having an Ark Royal.
A couple of thoughts come to mind:
1) Destroyer crews have balls of steel, irrespective of which flag they serve under.
2) But the biggest balls of all must belong to a task force commander who says "I'm taking the battleship in with me. Might come in handy, wot, Ol' Chap"
3) Warspite's crew owed that Swordfish pilot and navigator all their Rum Rations for a week.
4) As did the destroyer crews.
I am sure that the destroyers were thoroughly screening for the battleship.
The role of a Destroyer is to put itself in harms way.
Laffey, Johnston, Glowworm and many more
Warpsite went on a few rampages in her time. They had to fit a whole new super structure to fit all the battle honours. Utterly tragic she was sent off to be scrapped. But even then, was stubborn and hard to kill to the end, breaking from her tow lines and beaching herself. She would have made an awesome museum ship.
Unfortunately 03 never had a battle honour board on, it was S103 who first received it (not sure how they fit it through the hatch), and luckily S103 never had to add to that list (she did try once), and hopefully the new Number 3 of the Royal Navy never gets an honour as well (as it would be the last ever honour in human history).
@@SennaAugustus I was talking metaphorically :)
I see it all the time on forums & facebook pages that Warspite should have been saved from the breakers yard after WW2....She WAS one of the last to be scrapped but that was solely down to her metallurgical value....She was 1/5 concrete at that time due to the concrete plugs in her hull from the 'Fritz-x' attacks.
Same with the Enterprise, there were times she was the only carrier facing the Japanese Navy. She was also the only survivor, of her class, she should have been a museum.
Such a shame she wasn't preserved. Even when on the way to the breakers Warspite would not let herself be scrapped
Yes if ever a warship had a soul it would have been Warspite. Some of the things that occurred in her history border on the supernatural.
Wasn't she totally wrecked by 1945 though?
Its sad, but one can understand a country being smashed up and bankrupted by a long war, not prioritizing keeping a ship around as a museum piece.
It was a tall ask, by the end of WW2 she was absolutely ruined after being run absolutely ragged with distinction. She nearly got smashed in two by a Fritz X bomb and had to fill the hole with concrete. It likely would have cost as much as a ship in service to maintain.
What happened when they were trying to scrap it?
@@goldenfiberwheat238She broke her tow and drifted aground, took several years to get her loose and scrapped if I remember correctly.
It saddens me that the UK government scrapped HMS Warspite. What a museum piece she would have been! The battle honours list goes on 💪
Maybe, but the problem with Warspite as a museum ship is that too much of it would have been off-limits.
Can't have the little-uns falling into all those holes the Germans poked in her....
Mind you, she was always still afloat when the smoke cleared, which is more than can be said for many of her opponents.
They needed the cash. The UK was worse than broke - there's a reason that rationing continued after the war until 1948 for most things and until 1952 for a few things. Without the Marshall Plan post war the UK would have collapsed.
They did NOT scrap the Warspite! They tried and failed. :)
@@iatsd Thats really a fallacy. What impact on the economy did scrapping the Warspite have?
@@iatsdwell at least Europe paid us the cash it cost us for choosing to liberate them.
You can read the story of U-64’s sinking in the book “Grey Wolf, Grey Sea”, most the crew survived being rescued by German Alpine troops and went on to form the crew of U124 which had the Alpine troops emblem (the Edelweiss) painted on the conning tower in thanks.
Warspite was only one of 2 battleships to ever sink a submarine.
First one was HMS Dreadnought, right? By ramming? Can't remember properly and Google stopped giving results a long time ago, all you get is advertising. Cheers.
@@hansvonmannschaft9062 Yep Dreadnought was the only other, and yes by ramming.
@@simonrook5743 Thanks both for the reminding reply, and the book recomendation mate. History channels' community's among the best, hands down. 👍🏼👍🏼
U-124 Seemingly had a fairly successful career since it "sunk 4 in 2 approaches" during the attack on convoy ON-92
@@CommodoreRayne.IMP.C-1824 Very successful, 2 commanders got their knights cross for sinking 100,000 tonnes with the whole of their career (effectively - barring Schultz short stint on U64) aboard her.
My uncle, James (Jim) Dry. at the tender age of 17 was on HMS Foxhound at Narvik, He would tell a story that the Foxhound was to be used as bait to the German destroyers to entice the enemy out of the fjord - this would have been in the best traditions of the Royal Navy but, arguably, almost suicidal for the Foxhound and its crew. Happily for my uncle the Warspite became the chosen weapon to kill off the German destroyers, so my uncle lived to tell the tale. My uncle had previously been a boy sailor on the 'Warspittage', as he called it. The very sad part of my uncle's reminiscences of the battle was the end piece were Foxhound, and not doubt other destroyers, had the task of rescuing German sailors from the waters of the fjord - all young men like my uncle. Heartbreakingly, any sailors too badly injured or having lost limbs were left - some were thrown back in the water - to die, as there was very limited accommodation and medical facilities onboard the Foxhound - this all, despite the cries for help from the wounded seamen. At seventeen this greatly impinged on my uncle and he became a strong advocate against warfare. He survived the war, including the arctic convoys physically uninjured, but took to drinking heavily for the rest of his life. So much for the glory of warfare - 'Our glorious dead', indeed. My uncle Jim's words....
A float-equipped Swordfish trying to dive bomb must've been the slowest dive bombing in history. Damn thing probably just hovered in the air like a helicopter.
They weren't float-equipped, but the Swordfish pilots were very brave, nonetheless.
@@iansmith7929the catapult launched one from the Warspite was I think, the ones from the carrier definitely weren’t though
@@iansmith7929 Warspites was, do not know how many she carried but there are paintings, pictures of her and her Swordfish on the net :)
@@iansmith7929I had the opportunity to sneak into a hangar and sit inside the cockpit of a restored Swordfish. You are surrounded by nothing but some aluminum tubing and canvas, and stuck high up, incredibly vulnerable. Those pilots were more than brave.
@@iansmith7929 Those carried by the Battleships most certainly WERE float equipped. How else do you think they operated? The Walrus didn't replace them until 1942. And yes, they must have been ACHINGLY slow with floats on!
Warspite deserves it’s own miniserie.
Yes!
Never going to happen because as we all know keyboard warriors are only interested in the Bismarck, U-boats, and the american and japanese fleets in the Pacific.
The massive contribution made by the British and Canadian navies barely gets a mention.
At least one of the new UK nuclear bomber subs will be called Warspite. The other three will be Valiant, Dreadnought and King George VI
The Royal Navy has the most glorious and storied history of any navy on Earth, you could fill entire libraries with stories of exploration, innovation, battles won and lost, wars, disasters and whatever else you could think of. As an American it’s pretty awesome to have the Royal Navy as our closest ally 💯😊
Our American cousins are not without their own battle honours too - USS Johnston at Samar springs to mind :salute:
@@dallassukerkin6878and I hope I speak for others, we massively respect USS Enterprise's achievements in WW2
@@chrisk_nfl4120 Greetings from North Carolina to our awesome cousins across the pond. I only wish _HMS Warspite_ were still afloat as a war museum. She certainly earned the right to be preserved!!
I've toured the USS North Carolina BB-55 in Wilmington many times and it's a great experience to walk her decks, and man her 20mm Oerlikons, and climb into the turrets of her big 16" guns.
🇺🇸🤝🇬🇧
My grandfather's memoirs mention Warspite shelling the beaches on d day in front of him. He had very few positive things to say about that day, his friends unloading fully equipped into water that was too deep and drowning stands out (the landing craft didn't go far enough in). His only positive was how comforting it was to hear Warspites guns firing behind him as he went up the beach.
Spike Milligan mentions Warspite in his memoirs when she was similarly pounding Sicily before that invasion. Milligan was in the artillery and well used to the sound of large guns going off but he said Warspite's guns were a whole other level, as each shot rang the shock waves from the firing went through them all even though they weren't even on the ship itself.
(Couldn't resist!)
HMS Warspite: So anyways, I started blasting.
"... I started Spite'n!"
@@TrollOfReason Nice!
Did Warspite's main battery rangefinders come with a "ridiculously close" setting ?
@@agwhitaker Yes. It was the next twist of the dial from the 'ridiculously long' setting (Giulio Cesare, 24km during the Battle of Calabria).
5:29 Thankfully the captain of the Punjabi had his best Eurobeat mixtape with him.
Apparently you haven't heard Punjabi rap
@@outofturn331 cringe khalistanis
They got btfo by Indians
German flotilla leader: No battleship commander would be crazy enough to pursue destroyers into such confined waters! Captain of Warspite: Hold my tea and watch this, chaps.
German flotilla leader: "That's a fucking big destroyer."
Seriously, if Warspite hit a mine or was to be heavily damaged by torpedoes in those treacherously confined waters, admiral Witworth was bound to be labeled suicidal. Instead, as often happens (not always), audaces fortuna iuvat, and he came out a hero.
Ayo, what’s he on about?
Tally Ho Lads!
*Barrage Intensifies*
The benefit of employing such insane tactics is that your enemy will always be taken by surprise
No one expects the -Spanish inquisition- Battleship up narrow Fjord!
I've literally just come back from Narvik, and to say that the second and third battles of Narvik were nothing short of a turkey shoot is an understatement. Beautiful wrecks as a result though.
HMS Punjabi with Neo levels of torpedo dodging there.
never seen a ship do an E Turn
@@davidrentona handbrake turn 😂
Incredible skills from the swordfish crew to get a direct hit on a uboat with only a 100lb bomb. They saved many lives stopping that uboat
now they enjoy pakistani grooming gangs from their war mongering actions against Germany
Churchill in his WWII memoirs memorably spoke of Warspite's 15" guns blasting the German destroyers as ' the voice of doom'.
"Thats a big destroyer"
Some German Destroyer Commander
3:41 - Everybody's got a plan until they are straddled by 15-inch shells
"We're going to need a bigger boat. Much bigger!"
Can we acknowledge how *baller* driving a battleship into a fjord is? Like, not only is it dangerous for you, but it’s dangerous for everyone else too- especially your opponents!
HMS Warspite is an absolute legendary battleship, the greatest Dreadnought ever built, and greatest Royal Navy warship ever built. One of the greatest crimes in history was allowing her to be scrapped, which I say allowing, she ended up breaking free and slammed into the shallow waters of Prussia Cove, which the skeleton crew onboard thought she did it herself as a means of stopping her from being scrapped, or her own way of fighting back against her fate. Either way, she was scrapped on the spot which took several years, not the ending of a ship like her deserved. There is a reason she was given the honour to be the first ship of the hundreds of other ships that took part in Operation: Overlord (D-Day) to open fire on the beaches, to mark the start of the invasion, among the American, Canadian, and other nations that took part, all allowed her to be the first. A pre-WW1 Dreadnought among somewhat larger and faster battleships, and more modern, able to do so much more, proved herself to be the most capable battleship on the seas, a battleship that fought all 3 major axis powers in WW2 from the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Oceans, and the Mediterranean. If there was the possibility of taking part in an engagement, she was there, not only because she was Admiral Andrew Cunningham's flag ship, soon to be Sea Lord, but she was just so capable that you want her to be in those engagements. Even with her number 3 turret disabled after being hit by a bomb, it didn't stop her from throwing 15inch shells at things and just generally being the most badass ships you could face.
Britain simply did not have the money to keep Warspite as a museum ship
A shit ton goes into Belfast alone , now imagine a battleship
I'm a simple man.
I see a video with HMS warspite in the title, I watch it.
-Eskimo after having its bow smashed in by torpedo : I didn't hear no bell
Used to help an elderly retired RN Luitenent Commander who was on various ships in WWII (I think more in the Philippines area). Who has passed now as lots now have.
One thing he said to me which really has stuck with me.
He simply said he could never have been in the Army as they have to walk through all the death and devestation they themselves did, whereas as a member of the Navy, by the time you "get there" where the ship was its all under the water and its just people in lifejackets and much less in the way of death.
I just thought that was a very poignant and sobering statement.
My grandad said a similar thing - he was an infantry officer in world war 2, he thought the Navy was probably a good choice - "you either have a bed, or you're swiming and if you're swiming you're probably dead."
Spike Milligan was in the artillery. It was only when they were in Italy that they advanced and saw the carnage they had wrought upon the enemy, it affected him greatly, and was a contribution to him having to end the war in a unit for those who had suffered severe mental trauma.
Id argue that this battle meant that sealion would be completely impossible to launch. losing 1/2 of your destroyer force in less than a week is crippling, especially since the Germans could never recuperate losses like the British.
That is a good analysis
I'd argue that sealion was completely impossible regardless, however this battle should have made it obvious to the Germans at least
True. And also the other losses in capital ships sunk and damaged by Germany in April 1940.
@arthurfisher1857 it was impossible to succeed but I do wonder if they have tried. I mean they did plan to beat the Soviets in about 3 months so they were definitely idiotic at OKW
And I'd argue that sealion was impossible due to the lack of political will. Hitler's main goal was securing lebensraum in the east, i.e a war against Soviet Union. He believed, erroneously, that Britain and France would not react to his attack on Poland, as they didn't react many times before (Rhineland, Anschluss, Sudeten crisys, etc.); and that he would be in possition to attack Russia with no enemy in the west. He is known to say "the fall of British empire would be used by powers that are in the best possition to use it, namely Japan and United States. I don't see why German soldier should die for American interests."
Little fun story my dad (whom is from Narvik) told me. After the germans abandoned ships, several of them ended up with wet clothes after having jumped in the waters. When they came ashore they were naturally freezing, so they stole whatever clothes and garments the local population had hanging outside, and there was supposedly germans running around in dresses etc.
I haven't been able to confirm this story from more reliable sources than relatives tho.
Sounds likely to be true though and hilarious!
Makes sense though. Narvik wasn't exactly a giant metropolis-- it had probably only about 5000 residents at the time. The Germans would have suddenly doubled, or more, the whole population of the area when they invaded, so they'd have been scrounging for whatever supplies they could find.
it's such a tragedy that Warspite was scrapped and not turned into a museum ship when it took part in so many battles and achieved so much. RIP Warspite
i think she ended up beaching herself on the polish coast as she was going to the breaker yards, Drachinifel did a great video on her
Her last victory
@@natanmysli4825 you're forgetting her shenanigans in the Med
@@ironmanhowes8200 her last victory after the war - she escaped from scrapyard
@@natanmysli4825 the saddest part of the beaching story is that it was as if the ship didn't want to be scrapped ,but they did it anyway.
My Dad (90 now) has made a 13 foot sailing model of Warspite, and one of a Cossack class destroyer .
Impressive at 1/4 inch to the foot, awesome at full size!
That sounds awesome, could you make a video of it and post it up?
They should have kept this absolute beast of a ship as a museum.
Been there aboard ship for NATO exercises in the fiord. I still cannot believe that they had a running battle complete with a battle ship and aircraft is such a small space. It seemed as if you could just reach out with your arms and touch each side of the channel
one of my ancestors served on HMS Cossack during the war. Very bizarre battle considering we plonked a whole battleship in the fjord
Was this while Cossack was still captained by Sir Philip Vian, or afterward?
My Dads brother Tommy as a young man served on the Warspite during the war. Not sure if it was before or after he served on the Repulse. He went into the water when the Repulse was sunk by the Japanese in 41. He was saved as he was drowning, by the ships cook, who dragged him back to the surface by his hair..Tommy survived the war, garnered three daughters and ended up as a coal miner in the Stone area of England
Respects.
F
The ghost and legacy of Admiral Byng lived and lives long in the RN. Most other navies would have thought twice about entering that fjord!
That 100lb bomb drop from the Swordfish: Priceless!
Several U-boats fell victim to "stringbags" used on anti submarine duties a bit later in the war - flying off escort carriers.
What an incredible experience those sailors had. Great documentary!
Always been a ww2 buff but the naval warfare was never as interesting to me the other fronts the war was fought on, until i started watching your videos. Super interesting and even gripping videos that perfectly sum up these battles. Thank you for educating me!
I'm the exact opposite, the escapades of the Royal Navy are pretty much the only part of ww2 that interest me. There's something about the antics of leaky old WWI battleships, innumerable feisty destroyers, and all the wacky obsolete FAA aircraft like something out of Stop the Pigeon, trying to hold down the Atlantic, Med and the east until the US finally gets itself out of bed, that have a certain charm and romance that nothing else in the war can match.
After this one can hardly imagine how the germans still kept Narvik until the end of the war...
They lost it eventually at the end of May 1940, but the Allies then evacuated due to events in France
For the first six months of WW2 the RN did the heavy lifting
A still debatable decision that really depressed the norwegian allies@@historigraph
Nervously? (worrying Warspite will come back)
Bad planning. They didn't think to send the army on board the ships and had no plan to follow up, so all they could do was Warspite renovating the mountains a bit and leaving.
My favourite Warship of all time. HMS Warspite. So cool, so many action, OP in Azur Lane, everything is there want is needed. Scrapping her is the second saddest event of 20th century UK history just after the Great Smog of '52.
Are you forgetting the entire Battle of Britain?
@@goldenfiberwheat238 Nothing sad about the Battle of Britain, the cream of the Luftwaffe learnt they weren't as good as they thought they were, or spent the rest of the war in POW camps or fertilising crops in South East England.
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214 a lot of civilians died tho
@@goldenfiberwheat238 The British are proud of the battle, it showed their resilience.
@@SennaAugustus ah
U-64: Just chillin'
That Swordfish Pilot: "OY, MATE! YOU CAN'T PARK THERE!"
Marvellous. And Warspite looks great on Red, too.
The German Navy really does like to scuttle it’s ships. Not being jingoistic but the Andrew would have attempted to ram the opposition. Nothing the RN like more than a good ramming! Link to your Glowworm vid should really go here!
Beaching the ships and preserving your manpower was the right choice. The crews could go on to fight on land as they had always intended. There was no hope of winning against Britain on the sea but taking Norway was still possible.
@@Barwasser Yes, that’s true. But I’m thinking more a long the lines of Cunningham’s quote “It takes two years to build a ship. It takes two hundred to build a tradition!.” The RN were able to impose a moral superiority on their adversaries. They did this by being very aggressive, looking for fights, and, if outnumbered and outgunned fighting anyway and creating the occasional pyrrhic victory for the opponents and always sending a signal that it won’t ever be easy when you fight us! It worked against the French and Spanish. It worked against the IGN who ended up demoralised and mutinous after being boxed in. The most heroic painting of the German First World War navy was a sailor on a sinking bit of battle cruiser waving a flag. And at the end of it all the IGNs only aggressive act was the passive aggressive one of sinking their own ships.
Again, in WW2, the RM in the Mediterranean wouldn’t engage the ‘Andrew’ unless they had massive advantage and Royal Navy aggression had them nervous and timid at least in the senior ranks. It must really affect you if you’re told we can’t take theses guys on in a fair fight. The Kreigsmarine I think were the same. They made a bigger noise but the KM surface fleet where just as worried. Standing orders where always ‘stay away from a fight with the RN” Yes, the RN could absorb loses more but that’s not the real reason. Commerce raiding doesn’t give you a great sense of moral superiority. That’s why Langsdorf got into a fight. He was sick of sinking defenceless merchant ships. He was embarrassed. Ashamed even. The KM surface fleet where just depressed as the Second World War progressed culminating in the Barents Sea.
I think the KM had a deep feeling of inadequacy re the RN and frequently scuttled their ships in a passive aggressive rage quit. It’s like the Bismarck. Saying that they scuttled her and that the RN didn’t sink her. Right. That’s all you have left when facing off against the RN? Sinking your own ships!
(I’m not some jingoistic Brit btw. I just really like naval history).
@@geordiedog1749 you make great points! Thanks for the explanation.
@@geordiedog1749 By the same point, it takes 2 years to build a ship, so you dont want to give those 2 years to the enemy! A rammed ship in fjords could easily be raised and put back into service as an allied ship. Look at the American Civil War - the Union side burnt to the waterline then sank one of their own ships to stop it falling into enemy hands, but even that wasnt enough, the Confederates raised it and made it into perhaps their most famous warship the Virginia (of Monitor vs Virgiana/ex Merrimack fame). The majority of the ships 'sank' at the Pearl Harbor attack were 'unsank' and went back into service. 'Unsinking' ships that sank in shallow waters was pretty easy even back in the 1940s.
If you are in deep ocean though its a different matter. Ships in these waters can and did ram when fatally wounded.
@@Debbiebabe69 You’re quite right. That’s all very ‘sensible’. But knowing that you’re fighting madmen who won’t give in makes an enemy think about engagements. Neither the KM or the RM allowed their fleets to engage the Andrew on equal terms. There has to be. Reason for that. And that reason was a they were basically a death cult whose reputation struck fear onto its enemies!
Sailing Warspite into that fjord always seemed like a real ant meet boot situation.
IIRC, there were 8 German destroyers and 2 U-Boats in the fjord at the time, and together they masses ~28,000 tons. Warspite alone massed 32,000 tons.
Very big boot.
@@toddkes5890 Not really, as being in the bay would limit Warspites movement , all it would of took was 1 of the destroyers getting close enough to Warspite and firing its torps and well bye bye Warspite
It was not a ant meet boot situation it was a very very ballsy move
Back to Norway with Historigraph! Classic!
Great job!
Putting a Capitol ship into the narrow confines of Norwegian fjords was incredibly risky.
Capital.
Following the Cunningham school of engagement range, I suppose
Similar to when Halsey sent Lee in off Guatlecanal with Washington and South Dakota
It takes his majesty's government 3 years to build a new ship. It will take 300 years to build a new tradition.
@CSSVirginia Lee was all he had left
Not only was the sinking of U-64 by Warspite's Swordfish very useful in the terms of this engagement it was also the first ever sinking of a submarine by a ship launched plane.
I swear this was the Grand Old Lady's way of throwing shade on every single Aircraft Carrier ever.
I get the feeling this sort of engagement is what naval architects and admirals _thought_ naval warfare would be like when they designed battleships.
Great job! Thank you for sharing this fascinating history with us!
Swordfish being the MVP as usual
German torpedo-design coming in as a close 2nd :D
Loved the video @Historigraph! Can't wait for the next video man! Things couldn't have gotten any worse for the Kreigsmarine at Narvik. You usually hear about HMS Warspite and the Destroyers with her going into the Fjords and Unleashing absolute Hell on the German Destroyers but you don't ever hear about HMS Furious Launching about a Dozen of her Fairey Swordfish Torpedo Bombers for the Attack as well! I did remember seeing a Picture of Tribal-class Destroyer HMS Eskimo after her Bow had been blown off in this particular Battle of Narvik and the fact that she made it back to England for 5 Months of Proper Repairs still leaves me Impressed with how much of an Icon in Naval History she and her Sisters became to the World. Shame that the Atlee Cabinet went on to sell Warspite for Scrap, She and her Sisters were Great Ships and Served the Crown and Realm well and Should've been made into Museum Ships in or nearby to Scapa Flow along with HMS Ramillies and her Sisters and Possibly even HMS Vanguard and that's just the Larger Caliber Gun Armed Battleships and Battlecruisers.
It's been a while since you've done a video on the Ground Warfare, Maybe see if you haven't covered the Fighting in Norway yet and if not, then you might have another video idea to have a look at.
Let me know what you think about this and I'll catch you in your next video man!
In my mind the Norwegian Campaign serves as a precursor to the sea battles for Guadalcanal. I can't even imagine what they would have been like.
A channel called WWII History Hunter recently visited Hermann Künne's hull, it's still beached, upside down, host went inside, really interesting.
And needless to say, thanks a lot for another great vid!
My first Airfix kit was Warspite, 65yrs ago.
Historigraph: Uploads
My day: Noticeably improves
Heinrich "is that big dark shape a battleship"? Gunter, "nah the fjord is too narrow and shallow for a battlesh! Shittttttt "
Fjords are not shallow!
I read about this story but never in too much details, I thought Warspite had done much more with its actual guns. From what you said, its main contribution by far was this Swordfish that sank a sub and provided crucial intel
It was firing throughout really - it was tricky to show it on screen much because it was further away (10k yards or so) from hostile ships, but obviously still firing with its massive guns
the destroyer kulner at the beginning was out of the fight but warspite finished it off from afar. the only problem was the SAP ricocheted up the mountain kulners crew were evacuating on killing a lot of them
Warspite should have been preserved as a museum ship, there were no others with such history and contribution to the nation's security in both wars.
"I'm not locked in here with you... YOU'RE LOCKED IN HERE WITH ME!!!"
-HMS Warspite battle of narvik
Lol!
Absolutely wild courage. What a story.
Let's go! Always a great day when Historiograph uploads!
Americans are taught that they won the war singlehandedly. As a Yank and coming from a family of long Naval service, with the exception of myself, it is inspiring to see what the British Navy accomplished, and most important to remember, the sacrifices of British officer and Sailors. The Free World, shrinking as it is, owes an incredible debt to their sacrifices.
The free world.. tell that to the india, guess they will not agree
No, we are not. What shit hole school did you go to?
When you watch these stories, even just animated, it makes you vivid vision, how daring and brave were all those men, thousands tons of steel, but also fuel and ammo around them in vast cold waters, to hit or be hit, kill or be killed, pretty much no other choise than to fight to the end.
Thank for bit of history.
Hats off for another wonderful video! Warspite was such a badass ship, going in guns blazing and effectively handcuffing the Kreigsmarine by sinking 50% of their available destroyers is so awesome.
I wonder what the larger effect of those destroyer sinks had on the Kreigsmarine
Except the destroyers and the German crews did most of the sinking.
These kriegsmarine ships would have played a central role in any attempt by German forces to cross the channel so their destruction in Norway reinforced the fact that Germany's surface fleet simply couldn't go toe to toe with the Royal navy and any invasion of Great Britain would almost certainly fail.
@@a2falconescuttling ships is a face saving measure. They would have been destroyed anyway
@@a2falcone The only reason the ships were left to scuttle is to save lives. They were no longer technically functional ships but hulks at that point.
@@a2falcone Ah, so the Kriegsmarine bravely sank it's own ships to save the Royal Navy its ammunition expenditure. Let me guess, the Royal Navy didn't sink the Bismark, rather it valiantly sank it self to, once again, save the Royal Navy expending expensive ammunition. Face it, the Kriegsmarine lost the second battle of Narvik, big style.
Another terrific video, great research and animations.
Man, the Swordfish doesn't get enough credit in the narrative of WWII.
Thats because, apart from the few well publicised operations, Swordfish were known as death traps and 'flying coffins'. Very few Swordfish fliers survived the war. The things were hated by widows associations for making so many women into, well, widows. Most of the Bismarck operation survivors for example ended the war in a watery grave in the Med or Atlantic in various other operations, when I was brought up I was always told, despite my interest in WW2 history, to 'never mention the S word' at my grandparents and uncles houses. They would happily talk about knowing someone or other who was lost on the Hood or other major warships, but Swordfish were different, it was a kind of 'every single friend or family member assigned to them things never came back'
Supposedly had the greatest tonnage of enemy shipping sunk by any other Allied aircraft type in WWII. The Mediterranean campaign was a tough fight.
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214 yes they sank a lot... but that dosnt change the fact that the vast majority of people who flew in them never survived the war, and the resulting hate piled on them by widows associations. and parents/brothers of those lost flying them. This is why it is only recently people have been venerating the plane, as its only now most of the family members of those who served in them have passed away, along with their memories.
@@Debbiebabe69 I think we may have to agree to disagree.
@@Debbiebabe69 Since I can't find any other source AT ALL to corroborate this, I'm going to chalk this up as complete and utter bullshit.
Excellent video. You are truly in a class by yourself
They should have just sent the Warspite to intercept Prinz Eugen and Bismarck. That ship had unusual luck and would have somehow managed to sink both of them.
On paper Bismarck would have made mincemeat of her. In reality, not so much.
Warspite had the uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time, she was able to take fearsome amounts of punishment but could still fight and was also able to hit any type of enemy at any range with unnerving accuracy.
Bismarck was newer and better armed and armoured so should have destroyed the WW1 relic but you just know that Warspite would have pulled off a Death Star manoeuvre and somehow put a 15" shell through the window of the Captain's personal bidet, the resulting hit somehow sending a shard of shrapnel 50 yards through Bismarck to explode an otherwise impervious ammunition store.
Warspite may have had a wayward rudder but they left reverse gear out completely.
@@laszlokaestner5766Not really, Warspites disadvantage was its low speed but it had good armour.
And a super human ability to hit stuff at long range, the Italians thought they was under bomb attack by aircraft.
Thanks for yet another great historical video
Ahh, Royal Navy Destroyer Captains. Mad Dogs the lot of 'em.
That was a great documentary.....Thank you...
My grandad was on The Warspite in 1921.
Great job as always
*THE WRATH OF WARSPITE!*
Hard to believe this ship was scrapped😢. I play WoWs Legends and will definitely pursue a destroyer in Warspite. Great video, enjoyed watching👍
That swordfish was I believe the first allied aircraft to sink a uboat by dive bombing in the war. It must have been such a slow dive seeing as it was not only a swordfish but also had floats attached lol. Warspite should have been kept as a museum after the war as the ship with the most battle honours in the RN.
Also the first ever U-boat kill of the Fleet Air Arm.
Slow is accurate, perhaps?
Shouldn’t be that surprising yet it always surprises how far north fighting actually happened in WW2
You probably get this a lot but I really appreciate your pronunciation of things in their native tongue!
I really like these videos theyre very informative and well made :-D
The Grand Old Lady being maximum grand.
An incredible history to this remarkable battleship that was sadly sold for scrap
Its such a shame Warspite was scrapped. She was the pinnacle of Britains naval might.
My grandfather was a Stoker Second Class onboard Warspite at the battle of Jutland. Such an impressive history that few know about.
The Tribals were fleet destroyers that identified as a light cruiser.
Tirbals were big but german detroyers were mostly bigger and heavier with higher caliber guns
@@jamesfletcher9032 Nah. Destroyers are small, lively ships, moving at great speed and often making violent turns, which are nightmarish conditions for gun crews trying to load and lay heavy guns. The British had worked this out during WW1 when churning out light cruisers which saw action in the North Sea; the Kriegsmarine was still experimenting in the 30s and their destroyer crews paid a heavy price as a result.
@@largebluecat The Zerstorers were definitely massive ships (2270t vs 1854t of Tribals). However, the Tribals were designed to be destroyer killers, basically what a light cruiser is.
Warspites gunnery in WW2
was always a good measure of slick and lucky... unless you were on the recieving end..
And she also had a fearsome damage control .. to go with the courage of her command and crew.
I think just about all of the ships that survived the Battle of Crete must have had fearsome damage control. The ones that didn't, sank.
@@DarklordZagarna
Warspites reputation goes back to the battle of Jutland WW1 probably THE most Honorary, wayward, fighting ship in the history of The Royal Navy. Never ever quit getting into trouble and away from the scrappers even at the end she made them come to Prussian cove .
Really should have been dry docked next to HMS Victory and Warrior.
Mind you Belfast had a few close calls in her brief service life. 🇬🇧
American warship names: USS Quincy, USS Franklin, USS Iowa, USS Pee Wee Herman
British warship names: HMS Warspite! HMS Dreadnought! HMS Killmonger! HMS Steel Bastard!
Great explaination, now I finally have an idea of what happened! Thanks!
2:41 if you are a surface German U-boat you have a 50 percent chance of receiving free gifts from Santa... I never said the gifts were friendly
Those destroyer crews and officers were a rare breed. And Warspite is something special to - known as the Grand Old Lady and her motto was ‘I despise the hardships of war’, something from a different age.
Swordfish spotted that uboat and took its existence personally
I burst out laughing as soon as you mentioned the shallow waters of the fjiord
Waited so long for a new episode
Vice Adm Whitworth: "PeeWo?"
"Aye, sir."
"See those destroyers over there?"
"Aye, sir."
"I dont want to."
"Aye, sir."
*3 x 15" pimpslap broadsides later*
"Excellent work!"
Stellar video! I read a book on Warspite that mentioned this battle, but I never knew the finer details. Also, have you even considered an armed merchant raiders series? The 10 German ones sunk over 800,000 tons of shipping, plus a modern light cruiser and an armed merchant liner, and there are some great battles, for example:
1: Kormoran vs light cruiser HMAS Sydney (both lost, Sydney being the largest ship in WW2 to be lost with all hands)
2: Thor vs. 3 different AMCs, Alcantara, Carnarvon Castle, and Voltaire (the latter sunk, the others forced to retreat)
3: Raider Stier vs. a single 4-inch gun on the liberty ship Stephen Hopkins, which was manned by heroic crew-member Cadet Stephen O'Hara after it's gun-crew was killed, who managed to mortally wound the raider before the ship sank
I feel like German auxiliary surface raiders are almost completely unknown, but there are a ton of stories of heroism, danger, and conspicuous gallantry on both sides... I feel like each of the raiders honestly deserve a full video, though (lol) so it might be way too much.
As you've already begun to cover with the armed Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay's story, in fact!
Pretty sure one of the Japanese cruisers/carriers were bigger than Sydney and where lost with all hands
Oh so true! The Chiyoda (seaplane tender converted to a light carrier) apparently was also lost with all hands, and had more crew. I did not know that, thanks! @@UthurRytan
Norway proved that the overwhelming British superiority in ships of all classes helped doom Nazi expansion. Hitler went into a world war with a navy that was woefully inadequate in most regards and they paid for that lack of foresight.
Not at all. Hitlers empire was going to be in the east, you don't need ships for that just a very large army.
@@mikemines2931 If that's the case then why did he authorise the "Z-plan" navy that he hoped to have in place in the mid to late 1940s?
The world war part of the war started a few years earlier than expected.
Thank you for this video I love learning about the ship my grandad served on
So in this case the Warspite acted as a way of preventing the destroyers from engaging more seriously, rather than charging in and doing damage itself, it sat back and just shelled from enormous range.
It is difficult to attain 'enormous range' within the confines of a fjord.
checked this channel everyday for this upload
Hum... Isn't that the third battle of Narvik? The first was the Norway defenders getting massacred, the second was the British destroyers vs German destroyers and now the third is the one with Warspite.
Great job 👏🏻 I didn’t even know about this particular battle and I’m a serious ww2 aficionado my father served in Samoa with the navy and my father in law was in the marine corps in the Philippines