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Admiral Graf Spee in 19361023 viewsThe most famous of the three 'Deutschland' class 'pocket battleships', the Admiral Graf Spee was launched in June 1934 and completed in January 1936, and was scuttled off Montevideo in December 1939 after suffering only modest damage in the Battle of the River Plate, against a force of three British cruisers, at the end of a commerce-raiding cruise in which the German ship had sunk or captured nine British merchant ships.
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Bismarck in 1940986 viewsThe Bismarck was the lead ship of the two-strong class whose other unit was the Tirpitz, and these were the only German battleships completed in the lifetime of the Third Reich. The ships were visually impressive and exercised a horrid fascination on the minds of the British Admiralty despite the fact that they had an unfortunate propulsion arrangement, possessed a considerable weight of armour that was not particularly well disposed, and had a cluttered deck arrangement in its combination of secondary and tertiary gun batteries (due to the German navy's lack of dual-purpose guns and fire-control systems).The specification for the Bismarck included a full-load displacement 50,900 tons, length of 81 3ft 8in (248.0m), armament of eight I5in (380mm) guns in four twin turrets, twelve 5.9in (150mm) guns in six twin turrets, eight 4.1 in (105mm) anti-aircraft guns in four twin mountings and sixteen 37mm anti-aircraft guns in single mountings, protection in the form of a I2.6in (320mm) belt, I4.2in (360mm) turrets, I 3,8in (350mm) conning tower and 4.7in (120mm) deck, propulsion in the form of geared steam turbines delivering I38,000hp (I02,895IkW) to three shafts for a speed of 29 knots, and complement of 2,400.
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SMS Blucher 1909803 viewsSMS Blücher was the last armoured cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine and was considered an intermediate stage toward the future German battlecruiser.
This ship was constructed in the Kiel dockyard, between 1907 and 1909, being completed in October of that year.
During World War I, on January 24, 1915, the obsolete SMS Blücher was sunk during the Battle of Dogger Bank (1915) by more modern British battlecruisers.
The World War II German heavy cruiser Blucher was named after her.
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Deutschland or Lützow1280 viewsDeutschland, later re-named Lützow, was the first German large armoured ship built after World War I.
Its keel was laid down in February 1929, at the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel, and launched in May 1931. It completed fitting out in late 1932 and took its maiden voyage in May 1932.
Its size and characteristics where severely limited by the Treaty of Versailles, which limited Germany to ships of no more than 10,000 tons displacement. A number of technical innovations (including large scale use of welding to make the hull lighter) used by the Germans to build a formidable warship within this restricted weight. Even so, the Deutschland was 600 tons overweight, although for political reasons its announced displacement was always given as the 10,000 tons of the treaty limit.
Two other very similar (but not identical) ships were built in its class, the Admiral Graf Spee and the Admiral Scheer. The class was termed Panzerschiff ("armoured ship"); they were designated "pocket battleships" by the British because of their characteristics: their guns (6 x 28 cm in two turrets) were substantially bigger than those of the heavy cruisers of her time, but they were much smaller (and much less armoured), but faster than the standard battleships.
After the start of World War II, she was renamed Lützow in November 1939 because Adolf Hitler feared that the loss a ship with the name "Germany" would have a significant negative psychological and propaganda effect.
In February 1940 she and her sisterships were re-classified as heavy cruisers, and in April of that year she participated in the invasion of Norway. Lützow was then to return to Germany to refit for an extended raiding cruise into the Atlantic, but was torpedoed by the British submarine Spearfish in the Skagerrak north of Jutland. The hit nearly tore off the entire stern of the ship and repairs were not finished until late 1941.
She participated in various minor events during the next years, but her only other significant service came starting in September 1944 in the Baltic Sea when she fired on land targets in support of the retreating German army, a service she would continue to provide in the subsequent months.
The ship was badly damaged by three 6-ton Tallboy bombs dropped by the Royal Air Force in April 1945 as it lay off Swinemünde, and it came to rest on the bottom. It was repaired, and then did further support of the army; it was finally scuttled by its crew on 4 May 1945.
After the war, the Sovie
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1906 HMS Dreadnought877 viewsThis was the sixth HMS Dreadnought of the British Royal Navy and was the first battleship to have a uniform main battery, rather than having secondary smaller guns. She was also the first large warship to be powered by steam turbines, making her the fastest warship of her size. So advanced was Dreadnought that her name became a generic term for modern battleships; whilst the ships she made obsolete were known as "pre-dreadnoughts".
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Ferre Peru728 viewsThe Ferre is a British Daring' class destroyer of the Peruvian navy, which received two such ships in 1969. Manned and operated almost as light cruisers, the class numbered eight ships completed in the early 1950s with a full-load displacement of 3,580 tons, length of 390ft Oin (I 18.8m), armament of six 4.5in (I 14mm) dual-purpose guns in three twin turrets, up to six 40mm anti¬aircraft guns in up to three twin mountings and one 'Squid' anti-submarine projector; propulsion in the form of geared steam turbines delivering 54,000hp (40,260kW) to two shafts for a speed of 34.75 knots, and complement of 330.
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German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer 19331792 viewsAdmiral Scheer, a pocket battleship, was built in 1933 and named after Admiral Reinhard Scheer. Its designation as a "Pocket" battleship was by the British in 1939. In German it is called a Panzerschiff (Armoured Ship) or a Deutschland class battleship. Of the Kriegsmarine's Capital Ships, the Admiral Scheer, under Captain Theodor Krancke, was by far the most successful commerce raider of WW2. Her longest raid took her as far as the Indian Ocean. Bombed by the RAF while docked in Kiel in 1945 she capsized and sank. After the war her upturned hulk was partially scrapped, with what remained being buried under rubble as the dock was filled in to make a parking lot.
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Gneisenau in 1939913 viewsThe Gneisenau was the second of the two 'Scharnhorst' class battle-cruisers completed in Germany in the late 1930s as highly impressive ships with a full-load displacement of 34,900 tons, length of 754ft Oin (229.8m), armament of nine I I inch (280mm) guns in three triple turrets, twelve 5.6inch (150mm) guns in six twin turrets, fourteen 4.1 inch (105mm) anti-aircraft guns in seven twin mountings and sixteen 37mm anti-aircraft guns in eight twin mountings.
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Japanese battleship Hatsuse864 viewsThe Japanese battleship Hatsuse (14,967 tons) was built by Armstrong Whitworth at the Elswick Yard. It was launched on the River Tyne, north east England, on June 27 of 1899 and capsized May 15, 1904.
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HMS King George V 19411257 viewsKing George V, of the battleship class with the same name, was built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness and laid down on 1 January 1937, launched on 21 February 1937, and commissioned on 11 December 1940.
She was the flagship of the Home Fleet under the command of Admiral Sir John Tovey, and was involved in the chase for the German battleship Bismarck. On 27 May 1941, she and Rodney poured a large number of shells into to the hull of the ill-fated ship.
While escorting convoy PQ-15 to Murmansk on 1 May 1942, King George V collided with the destroyer HMS Punjabi, resulting in the sinking of the latter ship and minimal damage to the battleship.
In the Mediterranean, King George V covered the landings at Sicily, as well as having the honour of transporting Prime Minister Winston Churchill back to Britain from the Tehran Conference.
From 1944 to the surrender of Japan, King George V served with the British Pacific Fleet, and was present at Japan during the official surrender ceremony.
She was recommissioned as flagship of the Home Fleet in 1946. Just three years later, King George V decommissioned into the Reserve Fleet and subsequently scrapped at Dalmuir in 1957.
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HMS Agincourt 1913953 viewsHMS Agincourt was a Dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy.
She was a unique vessel, laid down by Armstrongs at Newcastle upon Tyne as the Brazilian Rio de Janeiro in September 1911. The chief designer of Armstrongs, Eustace d'Eyncourt, produced her outline design in his hotel bedroom in Brazil during the negotiations. Brazil cancelled the order in 1912, but sold the subsequently modified vessel to the Turkish navy for £2,750,000 in January 1914. Renamed the Sultan Osman I, she underwent trials in July 1914 and was completed in August, just as the First World War began.
Agincourt was an unusual ship in having seven main turrets. She had poor armour in comparison with her armament, having just 9 inches (229 mm) maximum belt thickness compared with the 12 inches (305 mm) or more appropriate for her armament. She would have ranked as a battlecruiser but for her low speed. By her completion, her 12-inch (305 mm) guns had started to become obsolete - most capital ships under construction having larger calibres.
The Royal Navy made modifications before commissioning its prize: in particular they removed a flying-off deck for seaplanes. HMS Agincourt formed part of the First Battle Squadron at the Battle of Jutland, which she survived unscathed. She was reallocated to the Second Battle Squadron in 1918 and decommissioned in 1919. After unsuccessful attempts to sell her to the Brazilian Government she was recommissioned as a depot ship before being decommissioned again in 1921 and scrapped in 1924.
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HMS Hood 1918957 viewsLaunched in August 1918, after being christened by the widow of Admiral Sir Horace Hood (a Jutland casualty and distant relative of the famous Lord Hood for whom the ship was named), and seen here about 1932, HMS Hood is reputed to be one of the most beautifully designed capital ship of its time. A battlecruiser of the Royal Navy. She was one of four Admiral-class ships ordered in mid-1916 under the Emergency War Programme, but her sisters were never completed, and Hood was to be Britain's last battlecruiser. Construction of Hood began at Clydebank, Scotland, in September 1916. Following the loss of three British battlecruisers at the Battle of Jutland, 5,000 tons of extra armour and bracing was added to Hood's design. Construction on her sister ships (Anson, Howe, and Rodney) was stopped in March 1917, but work continued on Hood.
During the Battle of Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941, she was hit by a shell fired by the Bismarck which caused the catastrophic explosion of her aft magazines. Of the 1,418 aboard, only three survived. The dramatic loss of such a well-known symbol of British naval power had a great effect on many people; some later remembered the news as the most shocking of World War II.
The wreck of Hood was discovered in 3,000 metres of water in July 2001. In 2002 the UK government designated the site a war grave.
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