HMS Barham (04) - Aftermath

Aftermath

The British Admiralty was immediately notified of the sinking on 25 November 1941. Within a few hours they also learned that the German High Command did not know the Barham had been sunk. Tiesenhausen had not reported the sinking, as he had been forced to dive to evade the escorting ships before Barham exploded, and only heard the detonation of the torpedo. He could not be sure whether he had sunk Barham, or if she had merely been damaged and left the scene before he resurfaced. It was not until the Admiralty's admission on 27 January 1942 that Barham had been sunk and described the circumstances, that Tiesenhausen was able to confirm that he had sunk his target. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross that day.

In an effort to conceal the sinking from the Germans, and to protect British morale, the Admiralty censored all news of Barham’s destruction and the loss of 862 British seamen.

After a delay of several weeks, the War Office decided to notify the next of kin of Barham’s dead, but they added a special request for secrecy. The notification letters included a warning not to discuss the loss of the ship with anyone but close relatives, stating it was "most essential that information of the event which led to the loss of your husband's life should not find its way to the enemy until such time as it is announced officially..."

By late January 1942, the German High Command had realized Barham had been lost. The British Admiralty informed the press on 27 January 1942 and explained the rationale for withholding the news.

A Royal Navy Court of Enquiry into the sinking ascribed the ship's final magazine explosion to the detonation en masse of 4-inch anti-aircraft ammunition stored in wing passages adjacent to the main magazines, which would have detonated the contents of the main magazines. Experience of prolonged air attacks in earlier operations had shown that the stowage capacity of the AA magazines was inadequate, hence extra ammunition was shipped in any convenient void spaces.