HMS Barham

The Royal Navy planned to build four fast battleships of the Queen Elizabeth Class but a fifth was added , the Malaya, as a gift of the
Malay States. The last of the original four to be laid down was HMS Barham, which was laid down 24th February 24, 1913 on Clyde side, launched 31st October , 1914 and commissioned on 25th August 1915. With a weight of 27,500 tons.  HMS Barham was a battleship of the Queen Elizabeth class built 1913-15. She served at  the Battle of Jutland. Between the wars she was partially modernised.
Before serving in the Mediterranean during World War II she had already been hit off the west coast of Scotland by U30. In the Mediterranean she was the second ship in the line at the Battle of Cape Mattapan  on 28th March 1941. In the following month Churchill wanted to sink the Barham in the entrance to Tripoli harbour in an attempt to stop supplies reaching the Axis forces in North Africa. But  a month later Barham was hit by two 500lb bombs in the battle for Crete. The damage  took two months to repair in Durban.  Putting out to sea with the fleet from Alexandria on 24th November 1941 she was hit  the following day by three torpedoes from U331. The ship began to capsize and within
four minutes her arsenal exploded. It was this that caused the high casualty of 862  men lost out of a crew of 1260 officers and men - one of the highest casualty rates of the war.