John Hoggarth - World War II casualty

HMS Barham was a battleship of the Queen Elizabeth class built
1913-15. She served at the Battle of Jutland. Between the wars she was partially modernised.

Before serving in the Mediterranean during World War II she had already been hit off the west coast of Scotland by U30.

In the Mediterranean she was the second ship in the line at the Battle of Cape Matapan on 28th March 1941.

In the following month Churchill wanted to sink the Barham in the entrance to Tripoli harbour in an attempt to stop supplies reaching the Axis forces in North Africa. But a month later Barham was hit by two 500lb bombs in the battle for Crete. The damage took two months to repair in Durban.

Putting out to sea with the fleet from Alexandria on 24th November 1941 she was hit the following day by three torpedoes from U331. The ship began to capsize and within four minutes her arsenal exploded. It was this that caused the high casualty of 862 men lost out of a crew of 1260 officers and men - one of the highest casualty rates of the war. 1st Class Stoker John Hoggarth was among those who died. Incredibly the whole incident was caught on camera. Photographs can be seen on the Uboat.net website

The U boat got away but in November 1942 was crippled by bombing. The Commander von Tiesenhausen was among the prisoners. He survived the war and lived to the age of 85.

John Hoggarth is listed in the Debt of Honour register on the
War Graves Commission website