Wreck of the Battleship HMS Vanguard, (WW I Ship)

From the January 19, 2017, North-West Evening Mail  "Wreckage of Barrow-built First World War battleship HMS Vanguard seen for the first time."

Almost 100 years after it sank.  Launched February 1909, St. Vincent-class dreadnought battleship served in the Grand Fleet under Captain J.D. Dick.

Fired its guns at the Battle of Jutland May 1916 for the first and only time and helped sink the German light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden.

But, while at Scapa Flow had catastrophic internal explosion at 11:20 pm on July 19, 1917 with a force so great it threw a 400-ton 12-inch gun to an island almost a mile away.

Eight hundred and forty-three killed instantly with only two survivors.  Fewer than fifty bodies recovered.

A section of it was raised in 1926.

It is thought that this was the result of an accidental magazine explosion.

The ship mounted ten 12-inch guns  and twelve 4-inch.  Could go 21.7 knots and was the 8th Royal Navy ship named the Vanguard.

--Cooter

Battle of Jutland May 31-June 1, 1916: Battle of the Battleships

Today marks the conclusion of one of the last major clashes between battleships, the Battle of Jutland, between the German and British fleets.off Denmark.

The British had 151 combat ships, including 28 battleships and 9 battle cruisers fought the Germans who had 99 combat ships, including 16 battleships and 5 battle cruisers.  British losses included 3 battle cruisers and 6.094 killed and 624 wounded.  German losses were one battle cruiser and 2,551 killed.

--DaCoot

Irish First World War Sailors Sought-- Part 2

Three hundred and fifty Irish sailors were killed at the Battle of Jutland, 91 at the Battle of Coronel and 62 on the HMS Hawke.

Others lost their lives when the MFA Whitehead, a steamship, was torpedoed in 1917, the submarine HMS K-17 which sank in an accidental collision in 1918 and the HMS Bayono, a converted merchant ship, torpedoed off Ireland which caused bodies to wash up on the Ard Peninsula.

At least 14 Irishmen lost their lives on the first warship lost to enemy action in the war, the HMS Amphion in 1914.

Overall, some 1,500 Irish sailors were killed in action during the war.

--Cooter

Sunken Vessels of Epic World War I Naval Battle Revealed

From the June 16, 2015, Yahoo! News/Sky News.

3D scans have revealed the wrecks of several of the 25 warships (14 British) sunk during the huge naval action at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916.One is of the HMS Invincible in which 1,000 sailors lost their lives.  The other two are the HMS Defence and HMS Queen Mary.  All three have been scanned.

The HMS had been described at the time as being "reduced to atoms" when it sank, but has been found to be complete and sitting upright.

The HMS Echo used information from previous expeditions as well as eyewitness accounts to visit 21 of the 25 shipwreck sites where they are expected to be.

In the battle, the British Navy had 6,094 killed and the Germans lost 2,551.  Both sides claimed victory.

--Cooter

HMS Caroline to Become Floating Tourist Attraction in 2012

From the October 16, 2012, Mail Online.

The First World War warship is set to become a tourist attraction in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  It will be restored and reopened to celebrate its 1200th anniversary.  The hope is that it will become as popular as the World War II cruiser HMS Belfast in the Thames River, London.

The HMS Caroline is the second most important historical ship in the British Navy after the HMS Victory.  The 3,750 ton light cruiser is the last surviving ship of the important Battle of Jutland during World War I.

Lottery money will be used in the restoration.

The "C" Class cruiser has been moored at the Alexander Dock since 1924 and most recently was used as a training ship before being decommissioned last March.  Its weaponry and boilers were removed in 1924.

--Cooter

World War I British Naval Deaths Go Online-- Part 2

Another victim that was 16-year-old Jack Cornwell who became a hero for staying at his post beside the top foredeck gun on the HMS Chester, despite being mortally wounded with the rest of his gun crew lying dead around him.  His commanding officer wrote, "He remained standing alone at a most exposed post, quietly awaiting orders until the end of the action."

It was found that the British ships had flaws that made them very vulnerable to internal explosions as happened on the Invincible.  In the case of young Cornwell on the Chester, the gun had inadequate armor.  He died two days later after just a month at sea and was awarded the Victoria Cross.  A fund was raised for him to support his mother, but she died destitute three years later.

One survivor of the Battle of Jutland was Britain's future King George VI, the stuttering king.  His ship, the HMS Collingwood lost 229 men in the fight.

The battle was a strategic success for the German Grand Fleet which returned to its home port and never ventured out again.

Always Stories in Those Statistics.

World War I British Navy Deaths Go Online-- Part 1

From the April 5, 2011, Guardian.co.uk.

Most historians studying the war dwell on the land action and those huge casualties, but some 44,000 British sailors also lost their lives.  About half of their bodies were never recovered and one-fifth died of disease.

George Blackwell, 24, a laundry worker from Winbledon, southwest of London was one of them, meeting his end at the Battle of Jutland, May 31-June 1.  The Royal Navy lost over 6,000 men, six cruisers and eight destroyers.

Admiral David Beatty, watching the second cruiser explode and sink within a half hour of the first one, remarked, "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today."

Stroker First Class Blackwell was deep within his ship, the cruiser HMS Invincible, when it was hit by a German shell, exploded, split in half and sank in ninety seconds, killing all but six.  He never had a chance.  His body was never recovered, one of 1,026 dying that day.

The only thing his family has to remember him is a black-edged memorial card with words of sympathy and a photo.

More to Come.

Some Older News: New National Monument-- Europe's Oldest Man and WW I Veteran

I found some old items while looking through my archives and found them of interest, so will write about them now.

NEW NATIONAL MONUMENT-- President Bush has asked the secretaries of Defense and the Interior to look into making Pearl Harbor and other Pacific sites into a national monument: "These objects of historic and scientific interest may tell the broader story of the war, the sacrifices made by America and its allies, and the heroism and determination that laid the groundwork for victory in the Pacific and triumph in World War II."

EUROPE'S OLDEST MAN AND WORLD WAR I VETERAN-- From the Guardian.co.uk "RAF flypast for Europe's oldest man." A Hurricane and a Spitfire will do a flypast in honor of Henry Allingham who turned 112 this week.

He was born in 1896, the same year the first Modern Olympics were held and Queen Victoria became the longest reigning monarch in British history.

Henry Allingham is also one of Britain and the world's last remaining veterans of World War I. He was at the Battle of Jutland, the greatest naval clash of the war. In 1917, he was posted to France to service and rescue aircraft that had crashed behind trenches at Ypres and the Somme.

While there, Allingham fell into a shell hole full of legs, arms, ears, rotten flesh in no-man's land and has never forgotten the stench of death.

He was guest of honor at RAF College Cranwell near Sleaford, Lincolnshire.

For eighty years, he did not speak of his wartime service.

Allingham remains in good health and lives in St. Dunstan's home for blind veterans in Brighton.

In November, he will join two other surviving British World War veterans, Henry Patch, 109, and Bill Stone, 107 at the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day at the Cenotaph in London.

Unfortunately, all three of these men died this year.

As We Are Now Down to One US World War I veteran Still Living.