Figure 1: HMS Barham at Scapa Flow, Scotland, in 1917, with other battleships and cruisers of the Grand Fleet. Note triangular fabric pieces fitted to her masts and funnels as anti range-finding camouflage. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: HMS Barham in heavy seas, while participating in exercises of the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets near the Balearic Islands, circa the later 1920s, as seen from HMS Rodney. Barham is followed by the battleship Malaya and the aircraft carrier Argus. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: British Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleet exercises with battleships Barham and Malaya and aircraft carrier Argus at sea near the Balearic Islands, circa the later 1920s. Photographed from HMS Rodney, whose "White Ensign" is in the foreground. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: HMS Barham photographed during the mid-1930s, following her 1931-34 reconstruction. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: HMS Barham at Valetta, Malta, in August 1936. Royal Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: HMS Barham sinking after being hit by three torpedoes from the German submarine U-331 on 25 November 1941. Royal Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: HMS Barham rolling over on her port side after being hit by three torpedoes from German submarine U-331 on 25 November 1941. Royal Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: HMS Barham now fully on her port side after being hit by three torpedoes from German submarine U-331 on 25 November 1941. Royal Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: The after magazines of HMS Barham explode as the ship capsizes after being hit by three torpedoes from German submarine U-331 on 25 November 1941. Royal Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: The after magazines of HMS Barham explode as the ship capsizes after being hit by three torpedoes from German submarine U-331 on 25 November 1941. Royal Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: What is left of HMS Barham disappears beneath the waves as smoke and steam covers the area on 25 November 1941. Royal Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: Survivors of HMS Barham being rescued after she was sunk on 25 November 1941. Over two-thirds of her crew was lost in the disaster. Royal Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
The 29,150-ton HMS Barham was a Queen Elizabeth class battleship of the Royal Navy that was built by John Brown & Company at Clydebank, Scotland. She was named after noted British naval officer and politician Admiral Charles Middleton, First Baron Barham, and was commissioned on 19 October 1915. Barham was approximately 643 feet long and 104 feet wide, had a top speed of 25 knots, and had a crew of 1,184 officers and men. The ship was armed initially with eight 15-inch guns, 14 6-inch guns, two 3-inch guns, and four 3-pounders. However, Barham underwent a major conversion and refit from 1931 to 1934, after which her armament consisted of eight 15-inch guns, eight 6-inch guns, and eight 4-inch anti-aircraft guns.
During World War I, Barham was Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomas’ flagship of the Fifth Battle Squadron and was temporarily attached to Admiral David Beatty’s Battlecruiser Fleet during the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Barham was hit five times during the battle but still managed to fire 337 shells at the oncoming German fleet. After the war ended, Barham was an active unit in the Royal Navy and sailed all over the world. From 1931 to 1934, the ship underwent a major modernization and conversion; her two smokestacks were combined into a single smokestack; additional armor was added to protect against long-range gunfire, bombs, and torpedoes; anti-aircraft guns were installed; and a floatplane and catapult were placed on board the ship.
After the start of World War II, Barham served in both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. On 28 December 1939, Barham was hit by a torpedo on her port side by the German submarine U-30 (commanded by U-boat ace Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp ) while on patrol north of the British Isles. Four men were killed in the blast, but the ship was able to steam under her own power to Liverpool for repairs. Barham was out of action for six months while the repairs were made at Birkenhead, England, by Cammel Laird Shipyards. Barham returned to active duty on 30 June 1940.
In September 1940, Barham participated in “Operation Menace,” the Royal Navy attack on Dakar, Senegal, prior to an attempted landing by Free French forces there. The French battleship Richelieu hit Barham with a single shell during the attack, causing some damage, but the ship remained in operation and the assault eventually was canceled by the Royal Navy. After the attack, Barham was attached to “Force H” at Gibraltar and took part in several convoys to reinforce the besieged British island of Malta. By the end of 1940, Barham was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and took part in the British naval victory at the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941. But the ship was attacked by German aircraft and damaged by a bomb hit off the island of Crete in May.
On 25 November 1941, Barham, now based at Alexandria, Egypt, was assigned to “Force A” of the Mediterranean fleet and was escorting British cruisers that were searching for Italian naval convoys heading for Libya. At 16:29 hours, Barham suddenly was hit on her port side by three torpedoes fired by the German submarine U-331 (commanded by Lieutenant Hans-Dietrich von Tiesenhausen ). The torpedoes were fired from a range of only 750 yards, so there was no time for the battleship to take any evasive action. As Barham rolled over to port, her after magazines exploded and what was left of the ship quickly sank. Out of a crew of approximately 1,184 officers and men, 841 were killed. The survivors were rescued by the other British ships that were sailing with Barham.
The loss of HMS Barham was a major blow to the Royal Navy. Barham was one of three British battleships lost during the war (the other two were HMS Royal Oak and HMS Prince of Wales) and all three of the ships sank with a heavy loss of life. Barham was unusual in that her loss was actually captured on film by the Royal Navy. The horrific footage of this large ship turning over onto her port side and then blowing up was so chilling that the Royal Navy decided to keep the film a secret until the war ended in 1945. The Royal Navy thought that releasing the film during the war would have had a terrible effect on public morale and would have been devastating to the families who lost loved ones on board the ship. But what also seemed clear was that the heyday of the battleship was coming quickly to an end. Submarines, torpedoes, and aircraft were all making battleships an endangered species and the event that occurred only a few days later on 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, seemed to reinforce the notion that the era of the big gun warship was almost over.
