HMS Valiant (1914) - World War II

World War II

On 21 April 1941, under the command of Admiral Cunningham, Valiant along with battleships Barham and Warspite, as well as the cruiser Gloucester and various destroyers, attacked Tripoli harbour.

She was one of three capital ships to take part in the Destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, and saw action at the Battle of Cape Matapan; she participated in actions during the battle of Crete, and was struck by two bombs. Along with her sister ship Queen Elizabeth, Valiant was mined and seriously damaged by human torpedoes of Italian Decima Flottiglia MAS in Alexandria harbour in December 1941. Durand de la Penne was the frogman who placed the limpet mine on the Valiant. Being captured along with all other frogmen, he refused to inform the ship's captain of the mines until a few minutes of their detonation, to allow the British to evacuate. As one of the magnetic mines had detached prior to exploding, her condition was far less critical than Queen Elizabeth: despite having a heavy trim forward the decks were above water, and she remained clear of the harbour bottom. Although nearly immobilised she was able to give the impression of full battle readiness, a subterfuge exploited by the Royal Navy who allowed photographs of the seemingly undamaged ship to appear in the British press. She was repaired in Durban, South Africa, and then returned to the Mediterranean to support the landings in Sicily (Operation Husky) and at Salerno (Operation Avalanche) in 1943.

She was sent to the Far East in 1944 as part of the Eastern Fleet, taking part in raids against Japanese bases in Indonesia. On 8 August 1944 whilst in the floating drydock at Trincomalee, Ceylon, she was severely damaged when the dock collapsed. The two inner screws were jammed as well as one of her rudders. Floating drydocks and the ships that they hold are raised through increased buoyancy gained when sea-water ballast is pumped out of ballast tanks. In Valiant's case, the sequence in which tanks were being emptied was inappropriate for the ship's weight distribution which was exacerbated by a full munitions load. As a result, the drydock was over-stressed at its ends, broke its back and sank. Valiant had remained in steam and was able to avoid worse damage or sinking. After the incident, the responsible Naval Constructor was disciplined.

It was decided to sail her to Alexandria where there were suitable docking facilities, however she could not steer a straight course, and could not make more than 8 knots (15 km/h). She got as far as Suez Bay, but could not attempt the canal in that condition. Lt Cmdr Peter Keeble, the experienced diver and salvage expert personally supervised the removal of her two inner screw shafts near the gland. The A-brackets holding the shafts and screws were also cut, dropping both screws and shafts to the bottom. Keeble had perfected available underwater cutting torches by combining British and Italian technology to enable the thick propeller shafts to be cut away. She returned to the UK and was decommissioned in July 1945.