Hi Guys. One of the most disturbing images ever caught on film, ranking right up there with the explosion of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, has to be the sinking of the HMS.Barham, on 25 Nov. 1941 off Alexandria Harbor by the U-331, von Tiesenhausen's boat. The film footage shows her just after the impact of the torpedoes in a long, slow turn as she begins to heel over on her side. As she rolls, one can see hundreds of sea men clinging to her as her forward magazines erupt in a towering explosion that took 862 men to the bottom with her. For me, it is a very sobering, disturbing image of war at its worst.

Is there any place you can see or download this video?

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I don't have the video, but you can view a progression of still pics at the gallery at http://uboat.net/ Best wishes, John

Hi Guys. What disturbing film footage of the war affects you the way the sinking of the HMS Barham affects me? Imagine, a majestic battleship slammed by 4 torpedoes as she begins a long, slow turn. She continues to heel over on her beam ends before exploding, as her magazines erupt. Your thoughts Gentlemen?

John :

Just lazyin around today looking at more Kriegsmarine stuff or trying to find my files on different boats I have had over the years. Put on a couple of Deutsche Wochenschau videos which had S-boot footage and the Atlantis aux. cruiser as well as several u-boots doing what they were made to do. I don't think for me anything could be so effectual as seeing a ship go up in a big cloud whether by gun-fire or torpedos. Remember seeing film footage of the Hood getting racked over and then blowing sky high which was just plain ugly, awful........of course that's what war is..........yuk !

E

Hi Erich. It must have been an earth-shattering surprise. Imagine,if you were a crew member aboard the Barham. You're off the harbor of Alexandria in a van of several battleships. The destroyer screen is out hunting and all ships are zig-zagging.You would think that you are secure in such strong, company. Suddenly four torpedoes rip open your battleship like a can opener and the rest is self evident. A very disturbing event and one of millions in WW2, but for me even more so, in that, one can view it on film as it happened. Best wishes, John.

The worst image i have seen was captured on colour film by US Army War Correspondent Stephen Ambrose after the Normandy Invasion.
In a little French village, an alley is checked for boobytraps-suddenly an explosion tears apart a car and 2 men are killed and one is seriously wounded-he looks toward the camera, and coughs blood-screaming as best as his blood-chocked throat can do-"Help me, please"--the Medics are just trying to help him-but it looks hopeless-im not sure if that man survived or not.
Sorry for the long spiel gents but this is the most poignant image of the war-and one that brought tears to my eyes...

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Good site for old British news items, just point your browser at Pathe news...although very busy and have to register once you get used to navigation there are lots of good ww2 related articles to view, but again warning..can be very slow to load..

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On 25th of November 1941, out of Sollum in position 32.34N and 26.24E in the Mediterranean, Kptlt. Hans-Diedrich Freiherr von Tiesenhausen in his U-331 U-boat of Type VIIC came within torpedo range of the British 31,100 ton battleship HMS Barham which was out on a sortie from Alexandria. Kptlt. Von Tiesenhausen fired a spread of 4 torpedoes towards the group, 3 of which hit HMS Barham's port side causing it to list heavily and spread fire towards the ammunition storages.

Only 2 and a half minutes passed from the torpedo impact until the ship rolled onto its side and the aft magazine exploded killing 862 out of its roughly 1260 man complement. U-331 took a terrible beating from Barham's defending destroyers but managed to slip away and return safely on 21th of February 1942 to Salamis, Greece.

http://www.watersideweb.co.uk/Barham/Sunk.htm



Freiherr Hans-Diedrich von Tiesenhausen

UPDATE: The story of the sinking of the H.M.S. Barham has another strange twist. The U-boat 331, should have been destroyed that same date, but a remarkable story unfolded. On Jan 19, 1998, I interviewed Kptlt. Von Tiesenhausen by telephone, with the help of his wife.

He has very clear memories of the incident*, however his hearing does not allow him to speak on the telephone. On November 25 Kptlt. Von Tiesenhausen, commanding the U-331 off the border of Egypt and Libya in the eastern Mediterranean, spotted a procession of three British battleships flanked by eight destroyers.

Displaying consummate nerve, Tiesenhausen eased his boat at periscope depth (less than 75 feet) between two destroyers and, from 1,200 yards, fired four torpedoes at the middle battleship in the line. He had no idea which ship it was that he had sunk, by fate or luck, it was the Barham. He was so busy trying to escape, he only heard the explosion. As usual, the submarine's bow shot upward after the weight was released.

Tiesenhausen could not get it down fast enough, and the conning tower erupted from the water barely 150 yards in front of the third battleship in line, the Valiant, whose captain immediately altered course in order to ram. The U-boat's engineers moved quickly to get their boat under again as the huge ship turned in a wide are and bore down on them. Agonizing seconds passed.

Then, at the last possible moment, the U-boat slid beneath the waves, and the battleship passed harmlessly overhead. Meanwhile, a fourth explosion, probably the magazine going up, disintegrated the Barham, killing 862 men. Aboard the U-331, something odd was happening to the depth gauge. As the boat continued its crash dive, the needle indicating depth inexplicably slowed, then stopped at 250 feet. The crew sensed that the boat was still diving, but the gauge said not. It was a dangerous situation, because the boat's maximum safe depth was judged to be 330 feet.

Tiesenhausen asked to have a second, forward depth gauge read. The report appalled the entire crew: They had reached the unprecedented depth of 820 feet. As they frantically halted the dive and began to ascend again, the hull, which should have been crushed at that depth, did not so much as spring a leak.

The U-boat had escaped from the enemy above and the lethal pressure below. "In such moments, you do not speak," wrote Tiesenhausen many years later. "You are glad to have been lucky and to be still alive."

http://www.watersideweb.co.uk/Barham/how.htm

The next site includes a painting by von Tiesenhausen what he saw through the periscope before firing torpedoes.

http://www.worldisround.com/articles/16107/

To my knowledge von Tiesenhausen was awarded the Knight´s Cross forTHIS action.

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Thanks for posting this info, Kai.

The first group of photos look to be 'stills' from the very famous film sequence taken of Barham's sinking.

The actual explosion is shown on TV probably hundreds of times as a 'dramatic image of WWII', usually without any explanation as to what it is we are actually seeing....

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Here are more examples of tragic sinkings:




HMS Audacious. October 27th 1914 after hitting a mine.




The Blücher sinking after the battle of Dogger Bank on January 24th 1915 (?)



HMS Queen Mary on May 31st 1916, Jutland.



HMS Invincible on the same date



The Szent Itsvan, Austro-Hungarian battleship, sunk by the Italians on June 18th 1918.



The Bayern sinks by the bows at Scapa Flow in 1919.



The battleship España sinks after hitting a mine on April 30th 1937.

[ 11. February 2004, 09:54 AM: Message edited by: General der Infanterie Friedrich H ]

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

The Italian battleship Conte di Cavour after Taranto raid on 13th November 1940.



HMS Ark Royal on November 13th 1941.



The Italian battleship Roma after being hit by a German tele-guided missile.



HMS Glorious on June 8th 1940, sunk by the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.



The Blücher, sunk at Oslo Bay on April 10th 1940.



Admiral Graf Spee on Montevideo Bay on September 17th 1939.



USS California, December 7th 1941.



USS Arizona, December 7th 1941.

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

USS Lexington at Coral Sea, May 7th 1942.



The Mikuma, Midway, June 6th 1942.



The mighty Musashi, October 24th 1944.




The Yamato, April 6th 1945.

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

I wanted to bump this one up as I found this new information of how Helen Duncan was convicted of witchcraft for talking about the sinking of the HMS Barham. I have never heard about the battleship before or someone in the 20th centery getting a witchcraft conviction. Very strange.
Can any UK members add more information ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Duncan

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