Sorry if this sounds like a silly question, but what is the Barham refered to around page 5 of the "Bismarck" thread? The only references I've been able to Google have come up with HMS Barham, a Battleship sank in 1941, have I missed something in the thread that will make this more obvious (Probably! ), or is there another Barham?
Nope thats the one The pictures of it blowing up are quite often used by documentaries when they talk of a German or Japanese ship blowing up but thats documentaries for you. Her loss was kept secret for a while so the government were a little surprised when a 'medium' declared she had seen her sink.... :smok:
The battleship Barham was the fourth RN vessel of that name, the previous one being a third class cruiser from 1889 that was sold for breakup in 1914.
Admiral Cunningham said he would prefer to take the whole battlefleet to bombard Tripoli and accept the risk, rather than waste a battleship as a blockship. Given that this is what he successfully did for three quarters on an hour with Barham and her sisters Warspite and Valiant along with the cruiser Gloucester and get back to Alexandria without any enemy action (though only sinking a destroyer and two merchant ships) does this suggest that using one or two merchant vessels or older C and D class cruisers would have been succesful or would they have been sunk long before they reached the right place? Anyone know what the gun defences of Tripli were at this time? Did the entrance to Triploi harbour lend itself to blockship operations?
