HMS Barham was one of five s built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. Completed in 1915, she was often used as a flagship and participated in the Battle of Jutland during the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet. For the rest of the war, except for the inconclusive action of 19 August 1916, her service generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the ship was assigned to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Home Fleets. Barham played a minor role in quelling the 1929 Palestine riots and the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. The ship was in the Mediterranean when the Second World War began in September 1939, on her voyage home three months later, she accidentally collided with and sank one of her escorting destroyers, .
She participated in the Battle of Dakar in mid-1940, where she damaged a Vichy French battleship and was slightly damaged in return. Barham was then transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she covered multiple Malta convoys. She helped to sink an Italian heavy cruiser and a destroyer during the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941 and was damaged by German aircraft two months later during the evacuation of Crete. Barham was sunk off the Egyptian coast that November by the with the loss of 862 crewmen, approximately two thirds of her crew.
Design and description The Queen Elizabeth-class ships were designed to form a fast squadron for the fleet that was intended to operate against the leading ships of the opposing battleline. This required maximum offensive power and a speed several knots faster than any other battleship to allow them to defeat any type of ship.Burt 2012b, p. 277Parkes, pp. 560–561
Barham had a length overall of , a beam of and a deep draught of . She had a normal displacement of and displaced at deep load. She was powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving two shafts using steam from 24 Yarrow boilers. The turbines were rated at and intended to reach a maximum speed of . During her abbreviated sea trials on 6 July 1916, Barham only reached a mean top speed of . The ship had a range of at a cruising speed of . Her crew numbered 1,016 officers and ratings in 1916.Burt 2012b, pp. 284–285, 287
Armament and fire-control The Queen Elizabeth class was equipped with eight breech-loading (BL) Mk I guns in four twin-gun turrets, in two superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. Twelve of the fourteen BL Mk XII guns were mounted in casemates along the broadside of the vessel amidships; the remaining pair were mounted on the forecastle deck near the aft funnel and were protected by gun shields. The anti-aircraft (AA) armament was composed of two quick-firing (QF) 20 cwt Mk I"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 20 cwt referring to the weight of the gun. guns. The ships were fitted with four submerged 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside.Burt 2012b, pp. 284–285, 288–289
Barham was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with rangefinders. One was mounted above the conning tower, protected by an armoured hood, and the other was in the spotting top above the tripod mast. Each turret was also fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. The main armament could be controlled by 'B' turret as well. The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in July 1917.Raven & Roberts, pp. 20–21, 30
Protection and aircraft The waterline belt of the Queen Elizabeth class consisted of Krupp cemented armour (KC) that was thick over the ships' vitals. The gun turrets were protected by of KC armour and were supported by barbettes thick. The ships had multiple armoured decks that ranged from in thickness. The main conning tower was protected by of armour. After the Battle of Jutland, of high-tensile steel was added to the main deck over the magazines and additional anti-flash equipment was added in the magazines.Raven & Roberts, pp. 21, 26
The ship was fitted with flying-off platforms mounted on the roofs of 'B' and 'X' turrets in 1918, from which fighters and reconnaissance aircraft could launch. During her early-1930s refit, the platforms were removed from the turrets and a retractable catapult was installed on the roof of 'X' turret, along with a crane to recover a floatplane. This was initially a Fairey IIIF until it was replaced by a Fairey Swordfish in 1938.Raven & Roberts, pp. 30, 197, 203
Major alterations Barham received a series of minor refits during the 1920s. In 1921–1922, rangefinders replaced the smaller ones in 'B' and 'X' turrets.Burt 2012b, p. 290 Two years later, her anti-aircraft defences were upgraded when the original three-inch AA guns were replaced with a pair of QF Mk V AA guns between November 1924 and January 1925 and another pair of four-inch AA guns were added from October to November later that year. To control these guns a temporary High-Angle Control Position was mounted above the torpedo-control tower aft. This was replaced by a torpedo rangefinder in early 1928 when the permanent position was installed in the remodelled spotting top.Raven & Roberts, p. 137
The ship was extensively refitted between January 1931 and January 1934 at a cost of £424,000. During this refit, the aft superstructure was rebuilt and the torpedo-control tower and its rangefinder were removed, together with the aft set of torpedo tubes. The fore funnel was trunked into the aft funnel to reduce smoke in the spotting top. A High-Angle Control System (HACS) Mk I director were added to the roof of the spotting top and the mainmast was reconstructed as a tripod to support the weight of a second HACS director. A pair of octuple mounts for 2-pounder () Mk VIII "pom-pom" anti-aircraft guns were added abreast the funnel and two positions for their directors were added on new platforms abreast and below the spotting top. In addition, a pair of quadruple mounts for Vickers AA machine guns were added abreast the conning tower.Raven & Roberts, p. 197
The turret roofs were reinforced to a thickness of and the armour added over the magazines after Jutland was replaced by 4 inches of Krupp non-cemented armour, the first British battleship to receive such. In addition, the rear of the six-inch gun casemates was enclosed by a bulkhead. Underwater protection was improved by the addition of torpedo bulges. They were designed to reduce the effect of torpedo detonations and improve stabilityRaven & Roberts, pp. 129, 197, 200 at the cost of widening the ship's beam by almost to ,Campbell 1980, p. 7 and reduced her draught to . This increased her metacentric height to about at deep load, despite the increase in her deep displacement to .Raven & Roberts, p. 203 When Barham conducted her sea trials on 20 November 1933, her speed was reduced to from .Burt 2012a, p. 75
Later alterations included replacing the single mounts of the AA guns with twin mounts for the QF 4-inch Mark XVI gun, removal of the forward submerged torpedo tubes and the high-angle rangefinder in March–May 1938. In addition the torpedo-control tower aft was replaced by an air-defence position during that same refit. While under repair in December 1939March 1940, a 20-barrel Unrotated projectile (UP) rocket launcher was installed on the roof of 'B' turret and her HACS Mk I directors were replaced with Mk III models. The following year the UP mount was replaced by a pair of quadruple Vickers 0.5-inch machine gun mounts and another pair of eight-barreled "pom-pom" mounts were added abreast her conning tower.Burt 2012a, p. 85; Raven & Roberts, pp. 203, 205
Construction and career The Queen Elizabeth class was ordered as part of the 1912 Naval Programme and the contract for Barham was awarded to John Brown & Company.Preston, p. 33 The ship, named after Admiral Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham,Silverstone, p. 216 was laid down at their Clydebank shipyard on 24 February 1913 and launched on 31 December 1914.Burt 2012b, p. 284Raven & Roberts, p. 17 Barham cost a total of £2,470,113.Burt 2012b, p. 285 She was completed for trials on 19 August 1915 which took until the end of September to finish under the command of Captain Arthur Craig Waller. The following day, 1 October, Rear-Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomas, commander of the 5th Battle Squadron, hoisted his flag aboard his new flagship.Jones, pp. 19, 21, 265
First World War Barham joined the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow the next day and participated in a fleet training operation west of Orkney during 2–5 November.Jellicoe, pp. 249, 253 During another training exercise in early December, the ship was accidentally rammed by her sister ship on 3 December. After temporary repairs at Scapa, Barham was sent to Cromarty Firth for more permanent repairs in the floating dry dock there that lasted until 23 December.Jellicoe, pp. 257–258; Jones, pp. 26–29
The Grand Fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February 1916; Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, commander of the Grand Fleet, had intended to use the Harwich Force to sweep the Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. Another sweep began on 6 March, but had to be abandoned the following day as the weather grew too severe for the escorting destroyers. On the night of 25 March, Barham and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow to support Vice-Admiral David Beatty's battlecruisers and other light forces raiding the German Zeppelin base at Tondern. By the time the Grand Fleet approached the area on 26 March, the British and German forces had already disengaged and a strong gale threatened the light craft, so the fleet was ordered to return to base. On 21 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a demonstration off Horns Reef to distract the Germans while the Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the Baltic Sea. The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a raid on Lowestoft. The 5th Battle Squadron preceded the rest of the Grand Fleet to reinforce Beatty's battlecruiser fleet, but the British arrived in the area after the Germans had withdrawn. On 2–4 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea.Jellicoe, pp. 271, 275, 279–80, 284, 286–290 On 21 May, the 5th Battle Squadron was attached to Beatty while his 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron was detached for gunnery training and arrived at Rosyth the following day.Gordon, pp. 48–49
Battle of Jutland
In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the High Seas Fleet, composed of 16 dreadnoughts, 6 pre-dreadnoughts, 6 light cruisers, and 31 torpedo boats, departed the Jade early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's five battlecruisers and supporting cruisers and torpedo boats. The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. In response the Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, totalling some 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet.Tarrant, pp. 54–55, 57–58 Barham slipped her mooring at 22:08 and was followed by the rest of Beatty's ships.Gordon, p. 64The times used in this section are in UT, one hour behind CET, which is often used in German works.