Warship Pictures.

I believe she had run aground here

 

Some of the crew

 

Infact click below mate and scroll down for some crew pictures

HMS Warpite

 

Sadsac,
Painting by John Pettitt of HMS H49. She was hit by a German anti-submarine craft on 18 October 1940 around the Dutch coast, and met a sad fate with just one survivor.

Info on different classes of Submarines http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/miscclass.html History of the World's Navy's

HMS Diana was involved in secret atomic experiments (Operation “Mosaic”) but the crew were deceived and betrayed by the Ministry of Defence. HMS Diana: the ship that went nuclear - Telegraph
She was sold to Peru in 1969


HMS Elfin 1935

 

Thanks I have a few of those pics already the picture below I showed to my mum a few years back and she is convinced the chap on the left is Cyril......

I do know that he was a boxing champ in the navy is there a listing of crew etc somewhere or champions of ships I know the ships had inter ship boxing matches within their fleets.........he had hands like shovels he had left school at 14 and went straight down the mines in Ogmore Vale in south wales and then made his way to London looking for work with his mates and they all signed up together. He was very proud of having served on the Warspite and the only time I saw him in tears was when he told me the story of a bomb going off in his boiler room and mates of his getting killed....he had all his clothes blown off with out a scratch and him and another mate sewed up the bodies pi**ed up on their shipmates rum singing abide with me!!!

This was the song he had chose for his funeral which we sang.....

Lee F

 

Lee one of these chaps may have fought him. It says on the HMS Hood site they beat the Boxing Team from HMS Warspite

 

Hi Lee here are a few different pictures of Warspite.

If you particularly want to see some others I have around 30 different ones which I can send you if you PM me with your e-mail address

 

Thats the sort of picture I was hoping to find somewhere mate,

Andy obviously Cyril was one of the wins when they lost 9-4 to Hood.....:icon_smile_blackeye:icon_smile_blackeye

Cally my email address is cash_13@yahoo.com

thanks for all the help from everyone!

 

A pleasure Lee.

An e-mail has been sent.

 

I have got the pictures and they are amazing.......many thanks again

Lee

 

Andy obviously Cyril was one of the wins when they lost 9-4 to Hood.....:icon_smile_blackeye:icon_smile_blackeye



Thats exactly what I thought too Lee

 

I have this poem which I am sure I have already posted but I am sure you would all like to read it again and for those that have not read it...

The following is a poem which was found in the possessions of Thomas Samuel Austin by his son Ianthe Exall:

Have you ever heard of the “Warspite” and how she made her name,
How she smashed the German Army near the wide Catania Plain,
The Herman Goering Regiment was badly mauled that day,
When the “Warspite” used her 15”, for the Eight she cleared the way.
Then came the day of invasion, the 5th.on Italy’s soil,
Battled with desperation, their object nearly foiled,
By “Tiger Tanks” and Pancers, who were waiting, so it seemed,
When into the Bay of Salerno, the “Warspite” slowly steamed.
She swung around and waited until she got in range,
Then with a noise like thunder, her 15” spoke again.
We had our own observer, a captain of Royal Marines,
And he shouted with glee, only he could see
How the tide of the battle had changed.
There were tanks and troops together smashed up like they never had been,
More terrible wreckage and carnage never before had been seen.
General Clark of the gallant 5th. Army, there on the field
Thanked the ”Old Lady” in a signal, for the lives of his men she’d redeemed.
Then she did another bombardment at a standstill, to make her aim sure,
And the fall of the shell was perfect, no guns aim had ever been truer.
It must have been ‘hell’ for the Germans, as the shrapnel just blew them away,
Then a bomb came down from the heavens, it was 2000lbs. maybe more
And smashed right down by the funnel, we were only two miles from the shore.
Right down through her decks it travelled, a rocket bomb was its name,
We lost some good chums, all good shipmates, Hard luck, it was War it’s no game.
She shuddered and lurched as it struck her, for a minute she couldn’t be seen
As the debris shot up towards heaven, closely followed by white scalding steam.
We all thought the “Old Lady” was finished, a true blood, she proved it that day,
As the tugs raced out to her rescue, she lurched up again, to her keel.
Under tow she set out for Malta, for six days and nights at 4 knots,
And the lads did plenty of thinking, especially the wounded in cots,
T’was a nerve wracking strain for the lads there, true Britons they stuck to their guns,
And the engine room branch worked like Trojans, all spattered in oil, twas no fun.
Down thro the Straits of Messina, the “Old Lady” made her way,
We were all sure then that she’d make it,
That she’d live to fight on another day.
It’s all over now, we’re not sorry, to our homes we’re now on our way,
But I’ll always be proud of the “Warspite” , God Bless her, she once won the day.
Author Unknown

 

Great offer - this is a bit of a long shot but...HMS Widgeon, Yangtze River gunboat ? This is related to project I am working on about someone who commanded this vessel in 1911.

Equally, any other Yangtze gunboats would be interesting (and yes, I know of the very useful HMS Falcon site already !).

 

China hand - the ships you have mentioned are some of the hardest possible to obtain decent photo`s of.
The site you mentioned HMS Falcon has probably the best available that I have seen.
I do have some pictures of most of them somewhere, but I an not sure about how good or large they will be.
In the meantime just for something to go on - here are two pictures of the Yangtse gunboats - Woodcock and Woodlark.
I will come back to you if I have any luck with the others!

 

HMS Widgeon alongside HMS Suffolk

And another according to my searcg engine however they do look different



Cheers

 

Hi,
Heres another view;-


Torpedo Gunboats

Regards
Verrieres

 

Hi Everyone,
Can anybody ID this ship for me?
Ken

 

Looking at the Masts and Funnel she's definately American

Update:

Just saved the picture and tried zooming in. It looks like she's flying a White Ensign but the picture quality deteriates as you zoom in.

 

Andy,
have no idea when or where it was taken, it's in my Dads photo collection, so it could be anytime between 1934 to 1945.
Ken.

 

Hi Cally, Drew, Verrieres, excuse lack of response I forgot to turn on the email notification duh

Yeah, I know they are difficult but I had not seen any of the three Widgeons posted here or indeed the other two from Cally...(that first one is early BTW, I can tell by lack of buildings on the Shanghai Bund...maybe c. turn of century ?)...this IS a good forum

Many many thanks reps duly added !