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Lex Talionis -> RE: Which Ship.........(2) (9/1/2004 9:07:15 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Ron Saueracker
Who was Warspite's Capt during this Second Battle of Narvik? Very much a WITP question. What assignment did he blow chunks while serving in Pacific (most notable gaff)?
New Ally, New Enemy
Later that month, Warspite departed Alexandria, and began her journey to the USA where she would be repaired at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton. Repairs and modifications there began in August, which included the replacement of her worn out 15-in guns for new ones, and which ended in late December. By then, Warspite was now in a country that had entered the war on the Allies side earlier that month, after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour by the Jpaanese. After working-up around the coast of North America, Warspite departed the area to join the fight in the Indian Ocean.
In January 1942, Warspite joined the Eastern Fleet, becoming the flagship of Admiral Sir James Somerville, who had, in 1927, commanded the Warspite in far more peaceful times than his return to the old majestic battleship in 1942. As part of the Eastern Fleet, Warspite was based in Ceylon, and was part of the fast group of the Fleet, which also included the two carriers Formidable and Indomitable, while four slow Revenge-class battleships, and the old carrier Hermes, were included in the slower group.
Somerville soon decided to relocated his Fleet for its own protection. He chose the Addu Atoll, part of the Maldives, to be his new base. Despite the threat of Japanese attack, Somerville had sent two heavy cruisers, the Cornwall and Dorsetshire and the carrier Hermes back to Ceylon. In early April, two Japanese naval forces entered the Indian Ocean. One was led by a light fleet carrier, the Ryujo and included six cruisers, while the second group included five carriers which had launched the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, and four battleships. They were deployed to the Indian Ocean to search for Somerville's Eastern Fleet, at that time, the only significant Allied naval presence in the area. The first sighting of the Japanese occurred on the 4th April, and orders were soon given for the two detached cruisers to return to the Fleet. The Fast Group, including Warspite, set sail from their secret base with the objective of launching a strike against the Japanese forces within the next few days. All three ships that had been detached from the Fleet, the Cornwall, Dorsetshire and Hermes, were eventually sunk by Japanese forces with the loss of many lifes. An attack on the Japanese forces by Somerville's Fleet never occurred, and the Japanese soon left the region altogether, after failing to find and destroy the Eastern Fleet. The rest of Warspite's time in this theatre was largely uneventful, with only limited naval operations by the Royal Navy occurring in that theatre. Warspite departed the area in 1943, heading once more for the Mediterranean
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/HMS%20Warspite%20(1913)%20continued
Admiral Sir James Somerville. I take it this is the gaff you mean??
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