HMS Howe (32)

HMS Howe (pennant number 32) was the last of the five British King George V-class battleships of the Royal Navy. Built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Glasgow she was laid down on 1 June 1937 and launched 9 April 1940. She was originally to have been named Beatty but this was changed to Howe, after Admiral Richard Howe. Howe was completed on 29 August 1942 after her building time was extended, as supplies were diverted to work of a higher priority such as the construction and repair of merchant ships and escort ships. Like her sister-ship HMS Anson, Howe spent most of her career in the Arctic Ocean providing cover for Russian convoys. In 1943, Howe took part in Operation Husky and bombarded Trapani naval base and Favignana in support of the Allied landings. Along with King George V, Howe escorted two surrendered Italian battleships to Alexandria. Howe was also sent to the Pacific Ocean and attached to the British Pacific Fleet (Task Force 113), where she provided naval bombardments for the Allied landings at Okinawa on 1 April 1945. After the war, Howe spent four years as flagship of the Training Squadron at Portland, before she was placed in reserve in 1950. The battleship was sold for scrap in 1958 and broken up by 1961.