Charles Louis Dixon

On the afternoon of 24 November, the 1st BS, Barham, Queen Elizabeth, and Valiant, with an escort of eight destroyers, departed Alexandria to cover the 7th and 15th Cruiser Squadrons as they hunted for Italian convoys in the Central Mediterranean. The following morning,
the German submarine U-331, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Diedrich von
Tiesenhausen, detected the faint engine noises of the British ships and moved to intercept. By theafternoon the submarine and the 1st BS were on reciprocal courses and von Tiesenhausen ordered his boat to battle stations around 16:00.

An ASDIC operator aboard one of the leading destroyers, Jervis, detected the submarine at 16:18 at an estimated range of 900–1,100 yards (820– 1,010 m), but the contact was disregarded as it subtended an angle between 40 and 60 degrees wide, far larger than a submarine. U-331 thus passed through the screen and was only in a position to fire her
torpedoes after the leading ship, Queen Elizabeth, had passed her by and the second ship, Barham, was closing rapidly. Von Tiesenhausen ordered all four bow torpedo tubes fired at a range of 375 meters (410 yd) at 16:25.

Possibly due to her closeness to Valiant's bow wave and discharging the torpedoes, the boat's conning tower broached the surface and was fruitlessly engaged by one of the battleship's "pom-pom"s at a range of about 30 yards (27 m). The U boat dived out of control after she broached, reaching an indicated depth of 265 meters (869 ft), and well below her design depth of 150 meters (490 ft), before she stabilized without any damage. U-331 was not attacked by the escorting destroyers and reached port on 3 December.

Von Tiesenhausen was not certain of the results of his attack and radioed that he had hit a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship with one torpedo.

On HMS Barham, there was no time for evasive action, and three of the four torpedoes struck amidships so closely together as to throw up a single massive water column. Barham quickly capsized to port and was lying on her side when a massive magazine explosion occurred aft about four minutes after she was torpedoed and sank her. The Court of Enquiry into the sinking ascribed the final magazine explosion to a fire in the 4- inch magazines outboard of the main 15-inch magazines, which would have then spread to and detonated the contents of the main magazines.

Due to the speed at which she sank, 862 officers and ratings were killed.

U-331 Sunk on 17 November 1942 in the Mediterranean Sea north-west of Algiers, in position 37.05N, 02.27E, by a torpedo from a British Albacore aircraft (820 Sqn FAA) and strafing by two British Martlet aircraft (893 Sqn FAA) from the British aircraft carrier HMS Formidable, after being badly damaged by depth charges and strafing from three British Hudson aircraft (500 Sqn RAF/C, L & Z). 32 dead and 17 survivors.