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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Photo # NH 63077:  British battleship Barham, photographed during the mid-1930s

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- SHIPS of the BRITISH NAVY --

HMS Barham (Battleship, 1915-1941)

HMS Barham, a 27,500-ton Queen Elizabeth class battleship built at Clydebank, Scotland, was completed in October 1915. During the First World War, she served in the North Sea with the Grand Fleet and after the end of that conflict was an active member of the British battle fleet. The battleship was modernized in 1931-34, emerging with a single smokestack, enhanced protection against long-range gunfire, bombs and torpedoes, an improved anti-aircraft gun battery and an aircraft catapult.

Barham operated in the Atlantic and Mediterranean during World War II. She was damaged by a German submarine torpedo in December 1939, while at sea north of the British Isles. In September 1940, she engaged the French battleship Richelieu at Dakar, Senegal. Barham was in the Mediterranean in 1941, taking part in the Battle of Cape Matapan in March and receiving bomb damage in May. On 25 November 1941, while steaming to cover an attack on Italian convoys, HMS Barham was hit by three torpedoes from the German submarine U-331. As she rolled over to port, her after magazines exploded and the ship quickly sank with the loss of over two-thirds of her crew.

This page features virtually all our views of the British battleship Barham.

If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 50155

HMS Barham
(British battleship, 1915)

At Scapa Flow, 1917, with other battleships and cruisers of the Grand Fleet.
Note triangular fabric pieces fitted to her masts and funnels as anti-rangefinding camouflage.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 465 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 61776

HMS Barham
(British battleship, 1915)

In heavy seas, while participating in exercises of the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets near the Balearic Islands, circa the later 1920s, as seen from HMS Rodney.
Barham is followed by the battleship Malaya and the aircraft carrier Argus.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 590 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 61775

British Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleet exercises


Battleships Barham and Malaya and aircraft carrier Argus at sea during exercises near the Balearic Islands, circa the later 1920s. Photographed from HMS Rodney, whose "White Ensign" is in the foreground.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 113KB; 740 x 590 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 63077

HMS Barham
(British battleship, 1915)

Photographed during the mid-1930s, folloowing her 1931-34 reconstruction.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 560 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 28 January 2001
Coding updated 15 April 2001