HMS
Valiant was laid down at the
Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan on 31 January 1913, launched on 4 November 1914 and commissioned on 19 February 1916 under the command of Captain Maurice Woollcombe. By 15:05, the 5th Battle Squadron had had the German light cruisers within range. By 15:08, the 5th Battle Squadron had reached the rear of the German battlecruisers and
Valiant opened fire on the SMS
Moltke, which received one hit. The situation changed when the German battleships came into view at 15:40. Since Beatty had failed to sufficiently signal his intentions when he turned north, the battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron were on an opposite course past the battlecruisers and headed directly for the approaching main body of the High Seas Fleet. At 15:48, Scheer opened fire on the British battleships.
Valiant managed to avoid hits and in turn fired on the
SMS Moltke between 16:15 and 16:30. At 16:46,
Valiant was severely shaken by a salvo, but emerged unscathed.
Valiant continued to participate in the battle until the enemy came out of sight at a distance of 17 kilometers at about 17:02. A hit on
Valiant was incorrectly claimed by the
SMS Grosser Kurfürst at 17:09, but poor visibility hampered most of
Valiants actions for the next hour. She reopened fire on the German ships at 18:15 but scored no hits.
Valiant was the only British ship in the Battle of Jutland to sustain no damage. Following a night-shooting exercise on 24 August 1916,
HMS Warspite collided with
Valiant, necessitating repairs which were completed by 18 September of that same year.
Inter-war period From 1919 to the end of 1924
Valiant was part of the 1st Battle Squadron,
Atlantic Fleet after which she was with the 1st Battle Squadron of the
Mediterranean Fleet until March 1929. On 2 December 1930 she was recommissioned for service in the Atlantic where in 1931 her crew participated in the
Invergordon Mutiny. March 1932 saw her transferred to the
Home Fleet until in July 1935 she was once again in the Mediterranean.
World War II On 30 November 1939,
Valiant was commissioned at Devonport and assigned to the America and West Indies Station. Returning to Britain in December 1939, she escorted Canadian troops across the Atlantic and joined the Home Fleet on 7 January 1940.
Valiant engaged in escort duty for troop transports and in May 1940 supported the British landing forces in the Norwegian campaign. While there, the battleship narrowly escaped a torpedo fired by
U-38. In September,
Valiant joined the carrier
HMS Illustrious with the squadron at
Alexandria. For the remainder of the year, she sailed security duties in the
Mediterranean, primarily on fleet advances. On the night of 18–19 December, together with the
Warspite, she shelled the Albanian port of
Valona. They opened fire at
point-blank range and sank the and . During the battle, Midshipman
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who had been assigned to
Valiant two months earlier, controlled the battleship's
searchlights. For his identification of an Italian cruiser during the battle, he was
mentioned in dispatches.
Battle of Crete In May 1941,
Valiant was stationed at Alexandria, and was sent to operate west of Crete as part of Force A1 under Rear Admiral
H B Rawlings on 18 May. On 20 May, the German attack on the island began; for the next two days, Force A1 was repeatedly attacked from the air.
Valiant was struck by two bombs at 16:45 on 22 May but was not seriously damaged. Force A1 was ordered to return to Alexandria and did so on 23 May.
Mining at Alexandria On 19 December 1941,
Valiant was
seriously damaged by
limpet mines placed by Italian frogmen of
Decima Flottiglia MAS, who entered Alexandria harbour riding two-man "
human torpedoes" (
"maiali"). Her sister ship was also damaged.
Lieutenant Durand de la Penne placed the mines on
Valiant. The other two teams attached their mines and escaped, but de la Penne's
maiale broke down. De la Penne pushed the
maiale under
Valiant and left it on the bottom. Then he and his companion
Corporal emerged and were captured and interrogated by Captain
Charles Morgan but told him nothing. A few minutes before the mines were scheduled to detonate, when it was too late to find and deactivate them, he informed Morgan of their existence (but not their location) to allow the crew on board to evacuate. The frogmen were held in the locked compartment, which was (unbeknownst to them or Morgan) just above where the mine would explode. Both were injured by the explosion but survived. The mine attached to
Valiant was not actually in contact with her hull, so the damage was far less severe than to
Queen Elizabeth. Despite having a heavy trim forward, her decks were above water, and she remained clear of the harbour bottom. Although nearly immobilised, she was able, although only for a few days, to give the impression of full battle readiness, at least until she could be repaired.
Valiant was repaired in
Durban,
South Africa, carrying out post-refit trials in July 1942, and took part in exercises with the
Eastern Fleet the following month. At the end of August,
Valiant took part in Operation Touchstone, an exercise to test East Africa's defences against a seaborne invasion and to conduct a dress rehearsal for
Operation Ironclad, the invasion of French
Madagascar. She remained in African waters until the end of the year, and returned to
Devonport for a refit in January 1943.
Sicily and Italy On 17 June,
Valiant departed Scapa Flow for Gibraltar along with the
Nelson,
Rodney and
Warspite, joining Force H on arrival. Between 2 and 3 September,
Valiant and
Warspite covered the attack across the
Strait of Messina and bombed the Italian coastal batteries at
Reggio. She returned home for overhaul in October 1943. Upon completion on 1 December,
Valiant was detached to the
Eastern Fleet. After the incident, the responsible
Naval Constructor was disciplined.
Fate Due to the incident in Ceylon,
Valiant was planned to be sent to Alexandria, where there were suitable docking facilities for repairs; however, she could not steer a straight course and was unable to travel faster than . Lieutenant Commander Peter Keeble, who was an experienced diver and salvage expert, supervised the removal of ''Valiant's'' inner-screw shafts. The A-brackets holding the shafts and screws were also cut, dropping both screws and shafts to the bottom. To accomplish this, Keeble combined British and Italian underwater cutting torch technology.
Valiant returned to the UK and was decommissioned in July 1945. For the rest of her career,
Valiant formed part of the
Imperieuse stoker mechanics' training establishment at
Devonport. She was sold for scrap on 19 March 1948, and left Devonport for the
breakers of Arnott Young at
Cairnryan on 11 August of that year. ==Notes==