Dark Seas | The WW2 Battleship That Struck a Target From an Impossible Distance @DarkDocsSeas | Uploaded February 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 day ago.
Outnumbered and outgunned during the fierce naval skirmish off Calabria, HMS Warspite’s crew targeted the Italian flagship Giulio Cesare from a distance of over 15 miles, leaving a gaping wound in the enemy vessel and instilling terror in her crew.
Warspite, despite its flaws, became an emblem of hope and resilience. From the Battle of Jutland in World War 1 to the pursuit of German destroyers in Narvik and the amphibious landings at Normandy in World War 2, this iconic battleship made decisive interventions and reshaped the dynamics of naval warfare.
German sailors of the Third Reich came to dread Warspite’s silhouette, echoing the same fear their fathers felt during World War 1. But it was the ship’s crews, throughout her service, that raised her to mythic stature, giving her the reputation as one of the most precise and devastating battleships in the Royal Navy. Those she fiercely defended lovingly dubbed her the “Grand Old Lady.”
To her foes, she was an ever-looming terror.
Admiral Cunningham, Warspite’s commander during her encounter with the flagship Giulio Cesare, later remarked: (QUOTE) “Never again would the Italian Navy willingly confront the fire of British battleships.”
Outnumbered and outgunned during the fierce naval skirmish off Calabria, HMS Warspite’s crew targeted the Italian flagship Giulio Cesare from a distance of over 15 miles, leaving a gaping wound in the enemy vessel and instilling terror in her crew.
Warspite, despite its flaws, became an emblem of hope and resilience. From the Battle of Jutland in World War 1 to the pursuit of German destroyers in Narvik and the amphibious landings at Normandy in World War 2, this iconic battleship made decisive interventions and reshaped the dynamics of naval warfare.
German sailors of the Third Reich came to dread Warspite’s silhouette, echoing the same fear their fathers felt during World War 1. But it was the ship’s crews, throughout her service, that raised her to mythic stature, giving her the reputation as one of the most precise and devastating battleships in the Royal Navy. Those she fiercely defended lovingly dubbed her the “Grand Old Lady.”
To her foes, she was an ever-looming terror.
Admiral Cunningham, Warspite’s commander during her encounter with the flagship Giulio Cesare, later remarked: (QUOTE) “Never again would the Italian Navy willingly confront the fire of British battleships.”
