No warship name in British naval history has more battle honours than
Warspite. While this book looks at the lives of all eight vessels to
bear the name (between 1596 and the 1990s), it concentrates on the truly
epic story of the seventh vessel, a super-dreadnought battleship,
conceived as the ultimate answer to German naval power, during the arms
race that helped cause WW1. Warspite fought off the entire German fleet
at Jutland, survived a mutiny between the wars and then covered herself
in glory in action from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean during WW2. She
was the flagship of Admiral Sir John Cunningham when he mastered the
Italian Navy in the Mediterranean, her guns inflicting devastating
damage on the enemy at Calabria in 1940 and Matapan in 1941. She
narrowly avoided destruction by the Japanese carrier force that
devastated Pearl Harbor. She provided crucial fire support for Allied
landings in Sicily, Italy, Normandy and Walcheren. A lucky ship in
battle, she survived dive-bombers off Crete and glider bomb hits off
Salerno.The 'Spite' had a reputation for being obtuse at unexpected
moments, running aground and losing her steering several times; she
broke free from her towropes on the way to the breakers and ending up
beached at St Michael's Mount where it took a decade to dismantle her.
She had fought to the end.But this is not just the story of a warship.
Wherever possible the voices of those men who fought aboard her speak
directly to the reader about their experiences. The Warspite is also the
story of a great naval nation which constructed her as the ultimate
symbol of its imperial power and then scrapped her when the sun set on
that empire.Iain Ballantyne is a much published naval author. His books
for Pen and Sword include Warspite, London and Victory in the Famous
Ships of the British Navy series as well as Strike From the Sea. He is
editor of Warships International.
