Editing Queen Elizabeth-class battleship (section)

===Second World War===
[[File:F4F over HMS Warspite off Salerno 1943.jpg|thumb|right|HMS ''Warspite'' off Salerno, 1943]]

By the [[World War II|Second World War]], the class were showing their age. ''Barham'' and ''Malaya'', the least-modernized of the class, were at a disadvantage compared to modern battleships.  In spite of this, ''Malaya'' prevented an attack on a transatlantic convoy by the modern German [[battlecruiser]]s {{ship|German battleship|Scharnhorst||2}} and {{ship|German battleship|Gneisenau||2}} by her presence.<ref>[http://www.scharnhorst-class.dk/scharnhorst/history/scharnberlin.html www.scharnhorst-class.dk]</ref> ''Queen Elizabeth'', ''Warspite'', and ''Valiant'', the more modernised of the class, fared better. With her modern fire control equipment, ''Warspite'' scored a hit on an Italian battleship during the [[Battle of Calabria]] at a range of more than 26,000 yards, one of the longest range naval artillery hits in history.{{efn-lr|The German warship {{ship|German battleship|Scharnhorst||2}} scored a hit on the British aircraft carrier {{HMS|Glorious}} at approximately the same range, a month earlier, during the evacuation of Norway.}}

Modern [[torpedo]]es outclassed their torpedo belt protection: in November 1941, ''Barham'' was torpedoed by a U-boat and sank in five minutes, with the loss of over 800 of her crew, when her magazines detonated. ''Warspite'' survived a direct hit and two near-misses by German glider bombs, while ''Queen Elizabeth'' and ''Valiant'' were repaired and returned to service after being badly damaged by limpet mines<ref>{{cite book| last = Winton| first = John| title = Cunningham| publisher = John Murray Publishers, 1998| isbn = 0-7195-5765-8| year = 1998| url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/cunningham0000wint}}</ref> placed by Italian frogmen during a [[Raid on Alexandria (1941)|raid at Alexandria Harbour]] in 1941.