Special 1: HMS Warspite
History of the Second World War
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The Importance of the Queen Elizabeth Class Ships
The Queen Elizabeth Class ships would be the first battle cruisers to join the Royal Navy's fleet in 1915. The new design was seen as a huge technical and political win for Churchill, who had brought Fisher back to the Admiralty after he lost control of the navy during World War One. But there were also some serious problems with the warspite including an accident where it ran aground at Dunbar on foggy morning. In December 1914 Warspite collided with her sister ship Barham because officers misinterpreted signals which read eight knots instead of 18 Knots. This resulted in two ships coming together and crushing Barham's bow. Two months later bothWarspite and Barham returned to port but
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