RN Battlecruisers: Renown Class

[Brian James]

Lead Ship,Battlecruiser HMS Renown pictured at Sydney in 1927.

[timlewin]

for those wanting inside details I strongly recommend the book "A home on the rolling main" by Tony Ditcham, he served as a midshipman in Renown in the early part of the War; his book is quite possible the best account of life in destroyers during the war, in which he served post-Renown. which included a posting as gunnery officer of Scorpion when she was responsible for torpedoing Scharnhorst at North Cape, he actually managed to bang off 3 broadsides at a point-blank range of 1300 yards.

His book is copiously illustrated with his own photos.

Tony is still with us, 96, and sharp as a new razor, by one of life's quirks, he left the Navy post war and served in northern Nigeria pre-independence where his patch was adjacent to my father-in-law's patch, he had left the Army post-war and also joined the Colonial Service. They met several times out there in the 1950s.

tim

[Brian James]

Birth of a Battlecruiser,Renown Class Battlecruiser HMS Repulse pictured in the early stages of her construction at John Brown & Co Shipyards at Clydebank in 1915.

[Brian James]

Renown Class Battlecruiser HMS Repulse pictured at Haifa in 1938.

[Brian James]

The ill fated Renown Class Battlecruiser HMS Repulse pictured on convoy duty on December 3rd 1941,seven days later she would be sunk off Kuantan,South China Sea with the loss of 508 officers and men.

[Brian James]

The ill fated Renown Class Battlecruiser HMS Repulse at Haifa in 1938.

[Brian James]

The ill fated Renown Class Battlecruiser HMS Repulse pictured at Singapore just days prior to her tragic loss.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship,Battlecruiser HMS Renown pictured at Nelson,NZ in 1927.

[designeraccd]

Three views of RENOWN thru the years......... DFO

[Pelican]

RUSTY 8?
IS IT REPULSE?

"Westmoreland passing one of the “rusty eight” capital ships laying in the Medway near to Sheerness Dockyard during the Medway 1927–38 races. I believe that the grey funnel ship is HMS Repulse."
Note: since identified as HMS RENOWN