warspite1
Posts: 41353
Joined: 2/2/2008 From: England Status: offline
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Beating South Dakota to my personal no. 1 in the warship dept. is of course the most famous, the most incredible, and - as per the point of this thread - the most beautiful battleship of all time. HMS Warspite. In her original two-funnel guise she was Audrey Hepburn, an impossibly pretty, elegant and statuesque beauty - particularly so for the WWI era. But after her last re-build in the late thirties she became a bewitching, intoxicating mix of WWI (hull) meets WWII (superstructure) – she was Wonder Woman long before Gal Gadot assumed the role, and was equally as beautiful. But regardless of which facade she was sporting, the fact was that underneath, she was a mean, hard-as-nails bruiser who could handle herself in a dark alley on a Saturday night; The entire German High Seas Fleet? “No problem”, 29 hits and she was merely warming up…. torpedoes, bombs, mines, glider bombs, “is that the best you can do, losers”? Where had she been? Where hadn’t she been? Woof. Quite simply, if there was trouble to be had, then she would be at the centre of it – HMS Warspite was everywhere – Jutland, North Atlantic, Norway, the Mediterranean, the English Channel, the Indian Ocean, and her battle honours are testament to the fact that she just couldn’t help but put herself in harm’s way. Most warships, if not sunk, end up in the breakers yard. But not the Grand Old Lady. In one final act of defiance, shorn of her weaponry, she still made a break for freedom so she could bow out on her terms. “If you want to break me up you’ll have to come and get me”. Imagine looking like Jenna Coleman while being as brave as Sophie Scholl, but also being able to punch like Nicola Adams… or in other words, imagine being HMS Warspite. Belli Dura Despicio
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England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805
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