I didn’t think we had a hope of it missing us and it seemed about a thousand years before I saw the electric repeat from the rudderhead showing that the rudder was 35 degrees to port.4
Charlie Pearson was concentrating on his work and didn’t notice the danger his Ship was in.
I was maintaining one of the AA guns up for’ard. All of a sudden all our pom-poms and 4-inch guns start going and ack-ack guns on other ships start to send up the old blind barrage too. It was quite a well lit moonlit night and I didn’t take any notice what was going on really until I saw a German plane flash by out of nowhere.
I looked over the side and saw this torpedo going past the ship as she turned very hard a port. I remember saying calmly, much as you would refer to a passing rare breed of bird: ‘There goes a torpedo’.
Of the same incident, Midshipman Corbett later dryly observed in his journal:
The distance by which the torpedo missed us astern seems to be lessening each time people tell the story.
The following morning events took a really dramatic turn and Midshipman Corbett told his journal:
I was on the bridge at the time the great news came, Italy had surrendered unconditionally. We just stood amazed and then everyone from the Captain to the bridge messenger burst out laughing.
Able Seaman Finnigan was among those celebrating below decks:
At the announcement of the surrender there was a great excitement on the messdeck. The questions were: ‘How would the Italian fleet react to the surrender? Would they scuttle? Would they come over to us?’ The crew ran a sweepstake on it.
The news was not unexpected for some members of the crew, including Petty Officer Pearson:
In our mess we had all the Petty Officer Telegraphists and earlier they’d told us about this signal regarding an Italian aircraft coming from Italy to North Africa which was not to be fired upon. We got an inkling something was in the offing.
In fact the surrender of Italy had been agreed with the rebel Italian government on the day Allied forces landed at Reggio. As part of the Armistice the Italian fleet was to sail from its bases at Spezia and Genoa to surrender on the high seas before being escorted to internment at Malta. The furious Germans wasted no time in launching attacks on their former comrades in arms, hitting and sinking the battleship Roma with a glider bomb and causing severe damage to the Italia, as the Littorio was known after the fall of Mussolini. Aboard one of the surrendering Italian destroyers were six American airmen picked up after their bomber crashed off Sardinia.The US airmen were delighted to be going to Malta rather than into a prison cage.
From under Warspite’s 15-inch guns, the surrendering Italian fleet is seen on the horizon. C. Pearson Collection
At 8.00a.m. on 10 September the Italians arrived at their rendezvous and were soon steaming in line astern behind Valiant with Warspite leading. Midshipman Corbett wrote in his journal:
I think it was the biggest day for the British Navy since the surrender of the German Fleet in 1918. The Italians appeared under a great cloud of smoke, then formed up a long way astern and we set off for Malta. Shortly afterwards we passed a big convoy escorted by the cruiser HMS Delhi. It must have given them the shock of their lives to see the Italian fleet trailing along astern of the Warspite and the Valiant.
Vittorio Veneto passes Warspite as the Italian fleet sails into captivity at Malta. C. Pearson Collection
The Italia (formerly the Littorio) passes under Warspite’s gun as the Italian fleet enters Malta. Jack Hockley Collection
During the afternoon we took stock of what we had ‘in the bag’. It appeared the Roma was the battleship which the Germans had sunk. A brand new 35,000 ton battleship, she had been hit amidships by a bomb and sank in twenty minutes. The Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Fleet went down with her. The Germans did in twenty minutes what we couldn’t do in three years.
Some members of Warspite’s crew had been with the Grand Fleet in 1918 when it went out to take the surrender of the German High Sea Fleet. Now, as then, they felt a sense of pity rather than triumph. Pluto – the ship’s mongrel dog mascot – got excited and came up to the bridge and barked at the Italian warships.
General Eisenhower’s aide-de-camp, Commander Harry Butcher, was aboard the Warspite and later told a newspaper journalist:
They all flew a black pennant indicating their acceptance of the Armistice. This was flown from the foremast with the Italian ensign on the main mast. The British ships steamed parallel to the Italians and when we first met every gun was trained on the Italians and every man was at battle stations – the British were taking no chances at the moment of their first meeting.5
An Italian battleship sails past the Warspite and into internment at Malta. C. Pearson Collection
There were no messages of greeting between the two fleets – merely instructions and discussion about the mechanics of sailing to captivity.
It was in every way a calm meeting. There was no cheering, no shouting, and the British in the true fashion of sportsmanship made no celebrations over the fallen foe.6
As the formation passed Bizerta the destroyer HMS Hambledon came out to meet it, carrying Admiral Cunningham and General Eisenhower. Eight years later Cunningham wrote of this moment:
To me it was a most moving and thrilling sight. To see my wildest hopes of years back brought to fruition, and my former flagship the Warspite, which had struck the first blow against the Italians three years before, leading her erstwhile opponents into captivity, filled me with the deepest emotion and lives with me still. I can never forget it. I made a signal congratulating the Warspite on her proud and rightful position at the head of the line.7
Valiant (left) is directly astern in this shot taken from Warspite, with vanquished enemy vessels trailing behind. Jack Hockley Collection.
On the same day Admiral Cunningham flew to Malta to give the Italians instructions regarding the disarmament of their surrendered fleet. Afterwards he signalled the Admiralty:
Be pleased to inform their Lordships that the Italian Battle Fleet now lies at anchor under the guns of the fortress of Malta.
The following day Warspite went out to escort in more surrendering Italian vessels, including the battleship Guilio Cesare which she had chased off with one hit at Calabria in 1940. In total the British fleet took the surrender of five battleships, nine cruisers, fourteen destroyers, nineteen torpedo boat destroyers and thirty-five submarines.
Victim of the Luftwaffe... Again
Although Italy had capitulated, the German forces in the country decided to fight on with all their might. At Salerno the situation was getting critical, with the Allied beachhead squashed by a determined enemy onslaught. Warspite and Valiant were ordered home on 14 September but found themselves diverted to help solve the crisis at Salerno with their firepower.
Making top speed, Warspite and Valiant were off the beaches by 15 September and facing intense air attacks. For a night and a day, Warspite’s anti-aircraft guns were in constant action. Her particular targets with the big guns were German artillery, tanks and troop formations in hills beyond the beachhead.
Loaned to the Allied forces ashore to lay the 15-inch guns on target was a Captain of the Royal Marines, along with a specially trained team of three ratings from the ship. The Germans made several attempts to jam his radio reports to the battleship but he switched frequencies swiftly enough to outwit them. Warspite’s gunnery from half-a-mile offshore was devastating. W.E. Heard, a soldier with the 7th Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was among those grateful for the Warspite’s intervention.
From our positions we could see the battleship patrolling just off the beaches. Many years later as a schoolmaster at the local high school one of my colleagues, who was on the Warspite at the time, told me she was firing over open sights.
Coldstream Guardsmen Dougie Weyhaup and Philip Gourd were almost as terrified of the Warspite’s gunnery as the Germans. Dougie was the Sergeant in a special intelli
gence section and Philip one of its three privates. Sergeant Weyhaup said:
The Warspite had good observers because every time we raised our heads she fired, but in reality she was after some German half-tracks trying to hide just beyond us.
Private Gould tried to burrow into the earth every time her shells came over: ‘They made a noise which I can only liken to a tube train coming down a tunnel.’
Of these bombardments Midshipman Corbett wrote in his journal:
During the last shoot of the day a formation of five Focke Wulf 190s worked around up into the sun on our port bow. A few moments after the last shot they dived on us. All the ships around joined in the barrage and three planes crashed on our starboard side. No hits were registered by us but it is impossible to say who destroyed the planes as so many were firing.
The Warspite pulled back and, all through the night, German bombers hunted up and down off the beaches trying to find and attack her. Petty Officer Pearson had spent all day closed up in A turret and now came out of Action Stations to get some fresh air in his lungs.
I looked towards the shore where I could see fires and explosions as we were only a couple of miles out. Although I didn’t know it at the time, my own brother was in one of the regiments fighting ashore.
Warspite’s bridge is crowded as the battleship prepares to fire a salvo at Salerno. Jack Hockley Collection.
The Warspite may have evaded the enemy close inshore but she was still being shadowed and that night beat off an attack by six aircraft. Midshipman Corbett noted:
About 04.30am they disappeared and a few minutes later a shadower came in and dropped a bomb at random before also disappearing. On Thursday 16th we returned to the bay to carry out the good work. The range was 24,000 yards and it took us a long time to find the target. We then fired six salvos which, according to our Royal Marine spotting officer, were excellent.
Warspite’s forward observer later told a Reuters reporter:
Below me on a plain I could see a tank battle going on. When our 15-inch shells rushed overhead it seemed like a sudden clap of thunder. Then I watched houses blown high into the sky and ammunition dumps going up with fearsome explosions, black smoke and debris flying into the air.
I couldn’t see the Germans themselves as they were in concentrations in a deep ravine, but the ship’s gunnery was extremely accurate and our shells were dropping clean on the target. The effect on the Germans’ morale must have been enormous. Even where I was, which was some distance from where the shells were bursting, the earth shook and rumbled as the shells found their mark.8
In reply the enemy decided to take Warspite out with a deadly new team – aircraft carrying radio-controlled glider bombs.
Junior rating Charlie McCarthy was at the time temporarily acting as the Gunnery Officer’s steward.
My action station was one of three on the starboard range finder alongside two Royal Marines, Ron Cave and Blossom Dorman. When the Warspite finished bombardment, I got a request to attend to the Gunnery Officer as he wanted a shave. ‘Could I leave my position, as things were quiet, and get some hot water to his cabin’. As he shaved, the Gunnery Officer said our bombardment had been a success. The Americans hadn’t believed Warspite could knock out given targets from a ten mile range. But we apparently did and, as ammo was still available to use, we were waiting for fresh targets.
At around 2.00p.m. Warspite was pulling back from her bombardment position when a dozen Focke Wulf 190 fighters plunged onto her, provoking an intense response from her AA guns. While the Warspite’s attention was fully focused in beating off this swarm, three glider bombs, each packed with almost 3,000lbs of explosive, were launched from 20,000ft.
Newly promoted Petty Officer H. Banks was looking at the approaching threat through high-powered lenses in the High Angle anti-aircraft weapon director position.
I had been tracking it for a few moments. It looked like a Heinkel bomber. It was too high for our High Angle guns and we decided to leave it to our fighter cover, unaware they had been diverted to carry out strafing in support of the troops ashore. It seemed like the plane might ignore us anyway but then suddenly I noticed what looked like a smaller plane flying directly beneath the bomber. When they were both directly overhead the smaller one tipped up, flames shot out its tail and it plummeted straight down.
In another AA director position Midshipman Corbett also watched death approach from on high:
...three white streaks overhead at a great height. They were too high for the guns and even as I watched the centre one flashed and it looked as if a plane was crashing.
The starboard 4-inch opened up with a barrage, believing it was a diving aircraft... There was a tremendous crash followed by a colossal ‘woof’ of air, the ship shuddered and lurched in every direction at once for a couple of seconds and then gave a final convulsive heave, then silence and stillness reigned.
I found myself crouching down with everyone else. Standing up I felt mentally and physically sick – to think that one bomb had, in a few brief seconds, crippled us. A few moments before, Warspite was the most deadly warship in the world. At first we did not realize the extent of the damage as we were stopped for bombardment and so did not notice the loss of steam.
Junior rating Charlie McCarthy was back at his action station:
Looking back and upwards to the funnel area, there was thick, dense smoke rising. Blossom Dorman looked at me and said: ‘Quick Charlie, put your earplugs back in there’s going to be a great big bang!’.
Captain Packer later noted in his private war diary: ‘For a moment I thought we were probably sunk and was quite prepared for the ship to break in two.’9
As usual Petty Officer Charlie Pearson was more relaxed about events, until it appeared the Warspite might keel over:
The 4-inch guns were still firing, the Oerlikons were as well. The loss of power would have been noticeable if the 15-inchers were firing but they weren’t. Then she started to list to port, you could feel it. That was when things started to happen.
One glider bomb had obviously hit the ship amidships by the funnel. A second missed amidships, but exploded in the water on the starboard side ripping open one of the battleship’s torpedo bulges. The third glider bomb missed aft. A fire in the hangar was quickly put out and Captain Packer was determined to carry on firing, saying to his Gunnery Officer: ‘If we can steam and shoot we’ll carry out our final bombardment.’10
Plan drawings of the Warspite by Midshipman John Corbett, taken from his wartime journal. J. Corbett.
The ship made her way up the swept channel at six knots but then things began to go badly wrong.
Then the ship would not steer. We were in the swept channel and we steered in a circle. I stopped engines. We were heading straight into the mines. A mine sweeper sent us violent signals to get out of it. I couldn’t for the helm was hard over, and finally the starboard engine room died out too. So there we were, once again, going round in circles...11
While others later asserted the bomb went right down through the ship and out through her bottom without exploding, Midshipmans Corbett’s journal, written a few days after the event, recorded it somewhat differently:
It cut through the boat deck, caused a small fire in the port hangar, left a neat round hole about two foot diameter in the hangar deck, went through the ward room galley and deck, through the stokers’ messdeck and finally pierced the armoured middle deck and entered Number 2 boiler room.
It is believed to have exploded in the boiler room itself and blew open the Warspite’s double bottom. All steam in the port unit failed instantly. The centre line bulkhead nudged dangerously into Number 3 boiler room which rapidly flooded. However the crew closed down before evacuating. Meanwhile Numbers 2 and 6 boiler rooms were unable to pump out for lack of steam so they had to be closed up and evacuated. It was hoped to use Number 1 boiler on reserve feed water but the tank was open to the sea and a neighbouring oil tank. A mixture of oil and water soon caused the Numb
er 1 boiler room to be evacuated. Number 5 boiler room was also flooded. The only machinery we could run was two diesel dynamos, even they had to have fuel carried to them in buckets. They undoubtedly saved the ship. We hauled over and took a five degree list to starboard and settled down about four feet into the water. At first we didn’t realize our position was, to say the least, desperate. We were three hundred miles from a base, unable to move, heavily flooded and in great danger from further attacks with glider bombs.
Midshipman Corbett estimated the bomb had been packed with 2,600 pounds of explosives, and he measured the hole ripped in the Warspite’s bottom as twenty feet by four feet. Fortunately steering was soon restored and the cruiser HMS Delhi was called in close to provide AA cover.
The Germans were, however, doing their best to find the Warspite and finish her off. Midshipman Corbett: ‘Delhi overheard the German transmissions giving orders for their pilots to get us.’
A Constructor Captain – an officer with a special knowledge of naval architecture – was put aboard the Warspite to carry out an inspection of the damage which did not yield good news. Midshipman Corbett told his journal:
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