Was HMS Warspite the greatest Dreadnought battleship to ever sail the seas?
Could the HMS Warspite lay historical claim to being the greatest Dreadnought battleship to ever sail the seas?
She wasn't the biggest, the most advanced nor the most powerful, but she served long past her theoretical obsolescence.
However, it is tough to think of another battleship that comes close to her war record.
Whether HMS Warspite was slugging it out on the High Seas Fleet at Jutland, heading up a fjord to sink a flotilla's worth of destroyers, showing the Italians a thing or two in the Mediterranean, to having a Fritz X blow a big hole in her bottom, or to pounding the beaches of Normandy.
HMS Warspite, HMS Illustrious, HMS Resolution & HMS Royal Sovereign
The HMS Warspite gave sterling service for over three decades. HMS Warspite possessed the same 15"/42 guns as the HMS Hood, HMS Repulse, HMS Renown, R-class ships and other Queen Elizabeth class boats.
This class of guns were an old medium velocity wire-wound design that was technically obsolete by the mid 1920s.
However, it was arguably the best capital ship gun ever to see action in terms of the great service they gave over three decades - HMS Vanguard, the last battleship ever built for the Royal Navy was armed with them.
HMS Warspite during the the D-Day landings
All four of HMS Warspite’s turrets and her guns were restored from the HMS Glorious and the HMS Courageous.
The Royal Navy modernized these guns extensively, including cutting the opening for the guns to extend higher, allowing them to elevate more and therefore have greater range.
HMS Warspite during the the D-Day landings
The 15/42 gun was older technology, built using the wire wound method, shorter barrel, a medium velocity gun firing a heavy shell.
The 14/45 gun used more modern construction where the gun tube was constructed from several pieces, called 'built up' construction, which meant the barrel was more rigid and allowed higher velocities and better accuracy as the gun tube was more rigid and thus suffered less droop.
Another advantage over the older wire wound guns was the ability to refurbish the guns by simply replacing the barrel liner.
The 14/45 was a very good gun too, but suffered from being built to treaty restrictions and while powerful, was overmatched by guns built without regard for the treaty such as the Italian 15/50 on the Littorios and the Japanese 18/46 on the Yamatos.
Britain did design and build a more powerful gun in the mkII 16 inch pieces intended for the Lions that were never built due to the war starting.
Of course, ‘'Best' is a moot point!
The HMS Warspite had the best service record, so if you are wondering which carrier had the best service record, you will have to do some digging. One would expect it would be a carrier that served throughout WW2 without getting sunk and participated in many battles.
HMS Warspite passing HMS Hood at port
HMS Illustrious also fought right through the war and survived, so it's probably a choice between USS Enterprise CV-6 and the HMS Illustrious for best war service record, bearing in mind that the HMS Illustrious fought for nearly two years before the US entered the war.
But, the HMS Illustrious had a lengthy repair in the middle after being hit with 2,200 lb bombs, so he actual time in active service during the war might be about the same as Enterprise.
HMS Warspite being scrapped (early 1950s).
Sadly, Britain was bankrupt after the war so almost everything that could be scrapped was. That's why there are so few wartime aircraft or ships left in preservation - they melted them all down for the aluminum.
Written by Ian Greenhalgh
Edited by Alexander Fleiss
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