1941 explosion of HMS Barham battleship - GIF and photo

[Jon]

1941 explosion of HMS Barham battleship. Sunk by the German submarine U-331.

There was no time for evasive action, and three of the four torpedoes struck amidships so closely together as to throw up a single massive water column. Barham quickly capsized to port and was lying on her side when a massive magazine explosion occurred about four minutes after she was torpedoed and sank her. The Board of Enquiry into the sinking ascribed the final magazine explosion to a fire in the 4-inch magazines outboard of the main 15-inch magazines, which would have then spread to and detonated the contents of the main magazines. Due to the speed at which she sank, 862 officers and ratings were killed, including two who died of their wounds after being rescued. The destroyer Hotspur rescued some 337 survivors, including Vice-Admiral Henry Pridham-Wippell and the pair who later died of their wounds, while the Australian destroyer Nizam reportedly rescued some 150 men. Captain Geoffrey Cooke went down with his ship. The sinking was captured on film by a cameraman from Pathé News, aboard Valiant.

The Barham in the mid-1930s:



More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Barham_(04)#Sinking

Previously:

The H.L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink a warship
WWII hand-powered lathe from Liberty Ship - photo
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...215#post101010
NHRA Funny Car engine explosion
Steel mill wet charge explosion - video
Tanker truck explosion in Bologna, Italy - video
Grain bin collapses and explodes - video
Combustible wood dust explosion safety video

[Moby Duck]

Reminds me of a late 1960's training course I was once on, and we were discussing the correct ways to abandon ship. There was an old CPO on the course, and when it was his turn he said, "Climb over the guard rail, walk down the ships side as fast as possible until you are in the water, then swim away as fast as possible". The course instructor said that this was entirely the wrong way, and that the correct way was to make your way to the highest point before jumping off and swimming away. The old CPO replied, "Well my way may be wrong, but the last two times I had to do this, it worked for me, and I will seriously consider it if it happens again".

We don't know how lucky we are.

[hemmjo]

THAT is hard to watch!!!

[NeiljohnUK]

THAT is hard to watch!!!

Even harder for those of us with adult children now serving in the Royal Navy, who the sabre rattling fool's in Washington, and London, are very likely to put in harms way in the South China sea.

[Moby Duck]

Even harder for those of us with adult children now serving in the Royal Navy, who the sabre rattling fool's in Washington, and London, are very likely to put in harms way in the South China sea.

I couldn’t agree more, after all it is the South “China” Sea, and it’s a very long way from them both.

[mklotz]

Thanks for that, Jon. This image...



appears in almost every WWII documentary I've ever seen. I've always wondered which ship it was that exploded so violently and now I know.

[Isambard]

I knew a survivor of the sinking of the Barham, he went on to have the misfortune to have 2 more ships sunk beneath him during the war! :-(
In the end, the RN decided enough was enough, and posted him to Portsmouth,where he got promptly bombed in his billet!
He had many a yarn to tell...