'The Grand Old Lady' in 1:1200 Scale

This was a paint job from about 25 years ago when my close-up vision was a lot better. I couldn't do it now, which is why I currently buy most of my ships ready made and painted. Anyway, I'm not sure of the make, but I think it may have been a Skytrex. The whole ship was a one-piece casting in white metal except for the main gun turrets and cranes. It was pretty crude and I had to pick out what detail I could with the paint (I have a similar HMS Queen Elizabeth somewhere). The masts were just metal pins so detail also had to be added there and I also added a funnel grid.

Here, HMS Warspite leaves a brilliantly sunny Portsmouth in about 1943, having just hoisted International Code Flag 'India' indicating the intention to alter course to port.

So what of the real HMS Warspite? Commissioned in 1915 in time for the following year's Battle of Jutland, she was variously known as 'The Old Lady', 'The Grand Old Lady' or 'Stodger'. She had a propensity to jam her rudder and this happened at Jutland, sending her circling towards the German Fleet. She was hit over 150 times but survived.

Between the wars, the Old Lady was reconstructed twice, once in 1924-1926 (Funnels trunked and other alterations) and more comprehensively in 1934-1937 with new boilers and machinery, a big block bridge structure (of the type known to sarcastic matelots as 'Queen Anne's Mansions') and generally looking as in my photograph. During full power steering trials in 1937 the rudder jammed again. Warspite recommissioned in June 1937 and joined the Mediterranean Fleet.

When World War Two broke out, HMS Warspite suddenly became very busy. From convoy escort duty she was diverted to go after the German Scharnhorst and Gneisenau but these two battleships were capable of 31 knots as against Warspite's 24 and so the Old Lady never did catch them. She then went north to participate in the Second Battle of Narvik where she destroyed one enemy destroyer and damaged two others. She then returned to the Mediterranean where she was involved in the Battle of Calabria (July 1940) hitting the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare at the extreme range of 26,000 yards. In November 1940 she provided heavy cover for the air raid on Taranto harbour. In 1941 she received minor bomb damage during Operation Excess.

Her next major operation was the Battle of Matapan in March 1941 where Warspite formed part of Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham's Battle Fleet with her sisters Valiant and Barham. The Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto was damaged; three Italian cruisers and two destroyers were sunk.

The Old Lady then received severe damage and heavy casualties in the Battle for Crete to the extent that she was sent to the USA for repair and during this time the Pearl Harbor attack took place. On completion of repairs HMS Warspite joined the Eastern Fleet under Admiral Somerville at Trincomalee. In August 1942 she attacked the Andaman Islands to divert Japanese attention away from the US attack on Guadalcanal. Prior to refit in Durban she covered the Allied invasion of Madagascar. In May 1943 she returned to UK waters.

It was then back to the Mediterranean to support the landings at Salerno in September 1943. Here her luck ran out. She was badly hit by two radio-controlled glider bombs which caused serious flooding by up to 5,000 tons of water and heavy damage although actual casualties were relatively light. She was taken in tow and, after negotiating the Straits of Messina sideways, made it to Malta. From there she was towed to Gibraltar and dry-docked and patched up sufficiently to assist as a bombardment ship for the Normandy Landings on June 6, 1944. She had lost the use of no. 4 boiler room and 'X' 15" main turret and some glider bomb damage remained.

After the Normandy requirement ended she was ordered to Rosyth to have worn out guns replaced. On the way to Rosyth she hit a mine.  This jammed her rudder again and she turned to starboard with main engines out and a four and a half degree list. There was extensive flooding and shock damage but she eventually made it to Rosyth at 10 knots on the two starboard shafts only and after counter-flooding. Two months in the dockyard saw only partial repairs and the Old Lady, like an injured prizefighter, returned to battle only operational on three out of four propeller shafts, three out of four main 15" turrets and with a boiler room out. Her last operations were off Brest and Le Havre, and finally the assault on Walcheren in the Netherlands.

In February 1945, HMS Warspite was reduced to reserve.

Perhaps understandably there was considerable interest in saving this fine old ship for the Nation, given her war record from Jutland right through to the end of World War Two. Had she been a United States ship I feel sure she would be with us today. However, the usual dry response was received from the Admiralty: "Approved for HMS Warspite to be scrapped."

However, that was not to be the end of the story. The Old Lady was not to be killed off so easily! On her way to the shipbreakers at Faslane, she broke her tow rope and went aground at Prussia Cove, near the tip of Cornwall. Attempts to refloat her failed and scrapmen had to go out in boats to start the breaking process. Eventually just the hull and some of the superstructure remained, and she was now light enough to be towed around the headland and beached near St Michael's Mount where scrapping was completed by about 1957.

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I remember my father pointing out the sad sight as we journeyed to Penzance on the train.

So died 'The Grand Old Lady' - the battleship that served the Royal Navy better than any other.


References:     Ensign No.4 Queen Elizabeth Class Battleships by Alan Raven and John Roberts
                      Wikipedia