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HMS Warspite was a dreadnought battleship, built at Devonport Royal Dockyard and was launched on 26 November 1913. She saw action during the Great War.
At the outbreak ofthe Second World War, HMS Warspite left the Mediterranean to join the Home Fleet and the hunt for German capital ships which were menacing the waters. In April 1940, Warspite served in the Norwegian campaign, being the flagship during the Second Battle of Narvik, one of her Fairey Swordfish bi-planes attacked and sank the German U-boat U-64, becoming the first aircraft to sink a U-boat in World War Two. In the summer of 1940, Warspite return to the Mediterranean and took part in the Battle of Cape Matapan, the Battle of Calabria and the Battle of Crete, where she was badly damaged by German bombers.
In July 1941, Warspite sailed to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton in the USA for repairs which were completed in December. HMS Warspite then joined the Eastern Fleet as the flagship of Admiral Sir James Somerville, based in Ceylon and then Addu Atoll in the the Maldives.
In June 1943, Warspite joined Force H, in Gibraltar, and took part in the invasion of Sicily, in July and the landings at Salerno in September. On the 16th of September she was attacked by a squadron of German aircraft and was hit three times, one of them striking near her funnel, ripping through her decks and causing immense damage, making a large hole in the bottom of her hull. Only 9 of the crew were killed and 14 wounded. She was towed by United States Navy (USN) tugs to Malta, a difficult journey. Emergency repairs were made and she was towed to Gibraltar for further repairs and then returned to Rosyth, in March 1944.
On 6 June 1944, HMS Warspite took part in the Normandy Landings with the Eastern Task Force, firing on German positions during the landing at Sword Beach and later Gold Beach. She was sent to Rosyth to be regunned but was heavily damaged by a magnetic mine, she limped back to Rosyth and was partially repaired so that she could return to bombardment duties at Brest, Le Havre and Walcheren On the 1st of February 1945 HMS Warspite was placed in Category C Reserve. At the end of the war there were pleas to retain Warspite as a museum ship but the ship was sold for scrap in 1947. On the way to the breakers she broke free of her anchor and ran aground in Prussia Cove, she was towed to St. Michael's Mount, where she had to be scrapped in situ, the work being completed in 1950.
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Henry John "Dicky" Bird HMS Warspite My step-father Henry Bird, joined the Royal Navy in 1939 at sixteen years of age. He eventually served as a stoker. I remember him talking of Salerno and D-Day. Later he served out East and met former prisoners of the Japanese.
He was a good story teller, certainly the pride of being part of Britain's armed forces came across. Yet he did not glamorise anything. He included the tears, the prayers and the terror. He told it in the style of the rough working man that he was and polished it with the wisdom of having survived to grow older.
My step-father was a very tough man. Raised in the east-end, he did his share of boxing as well as war service. The fact that thirty years later he could still cry out in his sleep taught me much about people and war. Henry "Harry" Bird died in 1972. |
Leading Stoker. Cyril Claude Phillips HMS Warpsite My step father Cyril Claude Phillip was a leading stoker on HMS Warspite. I do know that he was a boxing champ in the Navy, he had hands like shovels, is there a listing of crew, somewhere or champions of ships? I know the ships had inter ship boxing matches within their fleets. He had left school at 14 and went straight down the mines in Ogmore Vale in South Wales and then made his way to London, looking for work with his mates and they all signed up together. He was very proud of having served on the Warspite and the only time I saw him in tears was when he told me the story of a bomb going off in his boiler room and mates of his getting killed. He had all his clothes blown off, with out a scratch and him and another mate sewed up the bodies and then got drunk on their shipmates rum, singing abide with me! This was the song he had chosen for his funeral which we sang. |
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