Talk:HMS Warspite (03)

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Contents

[edit] Dreadnought class?

I understood the Warspite to be a Dreadnought class battleship

She was a super-dreadnought, but she was part of a particular class of super-dreadnoughts, the Queen Elizabeth-class. The name Dreadnough inspired from the first such all big gun battleship, HMS Dreadnought. And thus, irrespective of a specific class, all ships after her were became known as dreadnoughts, and ships before her were known as pre-dreadnoughts. SoLando 22:05, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Med

Should there not be a section for her early action in the Mediterranean fighting the Italians, there are references about it later on and it is a little confusing?say1988 01:33, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

Yes indeed. It was lacking some rather critical information... I have added it, although I think more could be said. I have also added a picture and switched some of the others around so that the formatting of the page is neater. Wiki-Ed 18:06, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

My grandfather was on the Warspite during the second world war. He told me that after the German bombing by Fritz X (FX-1400)'s on 16 September 1943, the American tugs initially refused to help. The captain of the Warspite ordered the 15 inch guns to be aimed at the tugs, which seemed to change their minds.

He also told me that after D-day some Canadian soldiers on shore leave, learning that my grandfather had been on the warspite, were suddenly very friendly and bought him a drink. They told him that on D-day they had been making their way up from the beach, and crested a ridge to see a couple of German Tiger tanks bearing down on them. There was a sudden explosion, and the tanks disappeared, leaving a large crater - the 'shells as big as Volkswagons' that destroyed them had been fired by the Warspite. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.174.152.2 (talk • contribs)

This article is pretty good, but a lot more could be said. I'm sure there are still many tales to be told here, but we need to have written sources to cite. Wiki-Ed 13:42, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Peace Shattered

"Warspite's Fairey Swordfish, a bi-plane fragile in appearance, attacked and sunk the German U-boat U-64, to become the first aircraft to sink a U-boat in World War II." - should that not have been a Supermarine Walrus or such? IIRC, the Swordfish was never used as a catapult aircraft aboard battleships. Dysmorodrepanis 05:12, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

u-boat.com (usually reliable) has this for U-64: "Sunk 13 April, 1940 in the Herjangsfjord near Narvik, Norway, in approximate position 68.29N, 17.30E, by a bomb from a Swordfish aircraft L 9767 carried on the British battleship HMS Warspite. 8 dead and 38 survivors."
From [1]: "Two days later, on 13 April, a Swordfish launched by catapult off the HMS WARSPITE flew up Ofot Fjord, which led to Narvik, and spotted seven German destroyers for the WARSPITE's guns. All the destroyers were sunk or so badly damaged that they had to be scuttled. There were no casualties on the British side. The Swordfish in question also discovered a German submarine, the U-64, and sank it in a dive-bombing attack. It was the first U-boat sunk by an FAA aircraft in the war."
From [2] "One day later, on 13 April, a Swordfish launched by catapult from HMS Warspite flew up Ofot Fjord towards Narvik, and spotted seven German destroyers for the Warspite's guns; all the destroyers were sunk or so badly damaged that they were scuttled. The same aircraft, L9767, flown by PO FC Rice, Lt Cdr WLM Brown and L/A MG Pacey later that day again flying from HMS Warspite discovered a German submarine, U-64, and sank it in a dive-bombing attack at Herjangs Fjord."
and "At the outbreak of war, the Fleet Air Arm had 13 squadrons equipped with Swordfishes, most of them based on the six fleet carriers, and three flights of Swordfishes with floats, that operated from catapult-equipped warships."
However, I agree that it should be checked again. Folks at 137 08:28, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WP:MILHIST Assessment

The introduction to this article needs work - it should summarize the main points of the entire article, in particular touching upon the significance of the ship and its ultimate fate. However, this article appears, upon cursory examination, to be surely long enough, detailed enough, and with enough pictures, infoboxes, etc to be far beyond the class of a good "Start". But before it gets nominated to go any further, the intro needs work, and where are the references!? There are no sources listed here, let alone in-line citations. LordAmeth 16:30, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

I have reassessed the article and it still needs some references, any references and then inline citations for it to be above even Start Class. Woodym555 20:10, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox problems

The "general characteristics" are anything but general. Rather than trying to summarize it goes into excruciating detail. Please summarize this in the main article space rather than bloating the template.

Peter Isotalo 21:45, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Move to HMS Warspite (1913)

Back at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (ships) and Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (ships), I have suggested to move back to launch dates for older (e.g. pre-1945) British ships, as the pennant numbers are not necessarily unique, and certainly not well known. Since there was no opposition, I've modified the policy accordingly. It's now been up for 6 days with no comments. I would like to move the QE's back to a consistent disambig by launch date, in particular to comply with WP:COMMONNAME. Is there any strong opposition? --Stephan Schulz 02:58, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

I suggested doing that some days ago on another page but I did get some objections. On reflection, I think pennant numbers may be the best way of listing ships so long as it's made clear in the text what the numbers actually refer to. I'm undecided about it though, and I don't think you should go making changes to policy without adequate discussion. Gatoclass 16:01, 15 September 2007 (UTC)