#9: HMS Warspite: The Grand Old Lady With 15 Battle Honors
HMS Warspite earned more battle honors than any other ship in the Royal Navy's history, 15 in total, spanning both World Wars. At the Battle of Jutland in 1916, she drew fire from the entire German High Seas Fleet while executing a full-circle turn with a jammed rudder, absorbing 150 hits and still making it home. No other capital ship has survived comparable punishment.
At Calabria in 1940, Warspite scored one of the longest-range naval gunfire hits in history, striking the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare at approximately 26,000 yards (nearly 15 miles). She bombarded the beaches at Normandy on D-Day at the age of 29. She supported landings in the Mediterranean, fought off air attacks at Crete, and was hit by a Fritz X guided bomb off Salerno, one of the first warships ever struck by a precision-guided weapon. When the Admiralty tried to send her to the breakers in 1947, she broke her tow line and ran aground in Cornwall, defiant to the very end. Warspite embodied a fighting spirit that transcends military history.
