HMS Barham Explodes and Sinks (1941)

[Rico]

Dramatic Newsreel footage captured the sinking of the Queen Elizabeth Battleship. A salvo of torpedoes from a German submarine struck from close range on HMS Barham on November 25, 1941 in the Mediterranean. Within four minutes, the battleship had listed over to Port and the ships magazines had exploded, sinking the battleship and killing 863 men. The terrifying explosion was caught on film by Pathe cameraman

 

[Louis]

yeah, it's shocking

 

[Das Morbo]

I always wonder what it is that is "noble" about such incidents: you are at station, your ship gets hit, you try to rescue your life, you die miserably without a chance of doing anything about it.

Rather depressing.

 

[Hedgehog]

Death must have instant....Nasty

 

[Das Morbo]

Death must have instant....Nasty

Instant death is a mercy.

In this case it was not instant for many men. Because the ship went down that fast you can be sure there were many sections still filled with air and with men inside. These sections would survive quite some time under water while the ship went down until crushed by water pressure. Imagine you and your fellows being trapped in a pitch-black room (lights went out when main machinery stopped working) which is severly angled because of the attitude of the ship sinking to the ground, hearing the shrilly creaking metal all around you. Knowing that you are lost, you only wait until the ship implodes when it reaches crush-depth...

Happened on a regular basis when ship went down quickly or when submarines got hit under water.

Modern warfare is ghastly.