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1909 HMS Indefatigable Battlecruiser 566 viewsHMS Indefatigable was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy, the lead ship of her class, and served in the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean and in August 1914 took part in the chase of the Goeben and Breslau. In 1915 she joined the Grand Fleet based at Scapa Flow. At the battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916 she was hit by 11-inch shells from Von der Tann. The official report states that she was hit by two shells in the "X" magazine causing her to fall out of formation sinking by the stern.
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HMS Norfolk 1928740 viewsHMS Norfolk was a County-class heavy cruiser, which displaced 10,035 tons. She was laid down in July 1927 at Govan by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd and launched on 12th December 1928. She was commissioned on 30th April 1930.
In September 1931, Norfolk was part of a mutiny that later became known as the Invergordon Mutiny. 700 sailors from warships of the Atlantic Fleet, which had converged on Invergordon for fleet manoeuvres, launched a two-day strike. The mutiny came about due to a recommendation by the Commission on National Expenditure, that said that pay cuts upto 10% should be implemented on the Royal Navy. The anger increased when a number of newspapers published widely exaggerated and inaccurate reports on the cuts, some claiming that they would be as high as 25%.
She later served with the Home Fleet until she re-commissioned for service in the East Indies Station in 1937. At the outbreak of war in 1939, Norfolk deployed with the Home Fleet, and was involved in the chase for the German pocket battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, along with the Admiral Scheer. She was soon receiving numerous repairs for damage that she had received, not to mention vital modifications to the ship. Her first repairs were carried out in Belfast, after a near-miss by a torpedo from the German submarine U-47, the submarine responsible for sinking the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak.
In 1949, Norfolk returned to the UK and was placed in Reserve. On 14th February 1950, she proceeded to Newport to be broken up after a long and proud service of 22 years, in which she gained the Norfolk lineage the majority of its battle honours, including it's last.
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IJN Ibuki 1904704 viewsThe Japanese cruiser Ibuki was a late-generation that was almost a Dreadnought-type battleship in stature, it was the lead ship in the Ibuki class of 1st class heavy cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
The Ibuki had one sister ship, the IJN Kurama. The Ibuki is named after Mount Ibuki located between Gifu prefecture and Shiga prefecture in Honshu. The class was planned during the Russo-Japanese War and was authorized under the 1904 Supplemental Naval Budget, at the same time has the IJN Tsukuba, but with heavier guns and with the new geared turbine engines which promised more power and hence, more speed. However, problems with the turbine engines delayed the construction of the Ibuki, and in the end, construction began almost two years later than her sister ship, the Kurama, which used standard reciprocating engines.
Shortly after commissioning, the Ibuki was sent on a voyage to Thailand for the coronation ceremony of the Thai king Rama VI.
On 28 August 1912, the Tsukuba was re-classified as a battlecruiser by the Japanese navy.
It subsequently played an important role in World War I, in protecting British merchant shipping in the South Pacific and in the Indian Ocean, and participating in the hunt for the German East Asiatic Squadron and the SMS Emden. After the war, it felt victim to the Washington Naval Treaty and was scrapped after a short service life of only 15 years.
Afterwards, its guns were salvaged, and used in the shore batteries at Hakodate in Hokkaido and along the Tsugaru Strait separating Honshu and Hokkaido..
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HMS Invincible 1907606 viewsThe fifth Invincible was a battlecruiser, the lead ship of her class of three, and the first ship of her type to be built in the world.
The ship was built at Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd on Tyneside. She was laid down in April 1906, and launched a year later on April 13th 1907, before being commissioned into the fleet on March 20th 1908.
The ship's primary armament consisted of eight 12in guns in four twin turrets, with, in addition, sixteen 4in guns also fitted.
Invincible initially served with the 1st Cruiser Squadron until 1913, when she was assigned to the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron. At the beginning of the First World War, she took part in the action at Heligoland Bight, before being sent along with her sister Inflexible to the South Atlantic where she fought in the Battle of the Falkland Islands. At the Battle of Jutland, she was the flagship of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron. She was hit in her 'Q' turret and blew up, breaking in two and sinking with the loss of all but five of her crew.
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1912 HMS Iron Duke616 viewsHMS Iron Duke was a battleship of the Royal Navy, the lead ship of her class, named in honour of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. She served as the flagship of the Grand Fleet during World War I. She was the flagship of the Grand Fleet at the battle of Jutland. For the majority of the Great War she was based with the rest of the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow.
Iron Duke was launched on 12 October 1912 at Portsmouth, England, the first of her class. After commissioning, she joined the Home Fleet as the flagship of Admiral Sir George Callaghan. Shortly before the beginning of hostilities, Callaghan was relieved by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, who made Iron Duke the flagship of the newly organized Grand Fleet. Her only major combat service during World War I came in the battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916, where she served in the 2nd Battle Squadron. She later became the flagship of Admiral Sir David Beatty when he assumed command of the Grand Fleet in late 1916.
After the war, she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she again served as flagship, this time for Admiral Sir John de Robeck. She served with the Mediterranean and Atlantic Fleets until she was paid off in 1929. In the remainder of the inter-war years she served as a training vessel. During World War II she was used as a base ship at Scapa Flow, where she was forced to beach during an air attack in 1939. She was refloated and saw continued service until the conclusion of hostilities. She was sold in 1946 as scrap, and broken up in Glasgow in 1948.
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Japanese battleship Nagato1056 viewsNagato was the Imperial Japanese Navy's first Nagato class battleship, laid down at the Kure Naval Arsenal on August 28, 1917, launched on November 9, 1919, and completed on November 15, 1920. She was the flagship of Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku during the Battle of Pearl Harbor.
After the war, Nagato was used as a target ship by the United States in the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, and sank during the second (BAKER) test. Despised by the sailors at Bikini for its role as flagship of the Pearl Harbor attack force, mines had been strapped to her sides to facilitate her sinking. Both blasts damaged, but did not immediately sink the battleship, although BAKER caused a slow but continuous flooding.
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Japanese battleship Nagato 1919860 viewsNagato was the Imperial Japanese Navy's first Nagato class battleship, laid down at the Kure Naval Arsenal on August 28, 1917, launched on November 9, 1919, and completed on November 15, 1920. After the war, Nagato was used as a target ship by the United States in the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, and sank during the second (BAKER) test. Despised by the sailors at Bikini for its role as flagship of the Pearl Harbor attack force, mines had been strapped to her sides to facilitate her sinking. Both blasts damaged, but did not immediately sink the battleship, although BAKER caused the slow but continuous flooding that produced a list.
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Jaureguiberry416 viewsCompleted for the French navy in the late 1950s, the five destroyers of the 'Duperre or'T53' class were produced to a standard evolved from that of the 12 destroyers of the 'Surcouf' or T47' class and are epitomised here by the jaureguiberry.Tbe details of this important multi-role type included a full-load displacement of 3,740 tons, length of 422ft Oin (128.6m), armament of six 5in (127mm) dual-purpose guns in three twin turrets, six 57mm anti-aircraft guns in three twin mountings, two or four 20mm cannon in single mountings, one I4.75in (375mm) anti-submarine rocket launcher and six 21 Jin (550mm) torpedo tubes in two triple mountings, propulsion in the form of geared steam turbines delivering 63,000hp (46,975kW) to two shafts for a speed of 34 knots, and complement of 345.
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Japanese Battleship HIJMS Kirishima632 viewsKirishima was the Imperial Japanese Navy's fourth Kongo class battlecruiser, and was laid down by Mitsubishi in Nagasaki on March 17, 1912, launched on December 1, 1913 and commissioned on April 19, 1915. From 1933 to 1934, she was reconstructed at Kure, Japan, emerging from her reconstruction as a "fast battleship," 4,000 tons heavier than her original incarnation.
On November 15, 1942, Kirishima engaged American vessels in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and while inflicting some damage on USS South Dako
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German Battlecruiser Scharnhorst842 viewsScharnhorst was a 31,100-ton Gneisenau-class battleship of the German Kriegsmarine, named to commemorate the World War I armoured cruiser SMS Scharnhorst, which was in turn named after the Prussian general Gerhard von Scharnhorst
The ship was built at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, launched in October 1936 under the Hitler regime's massive rearmament program, and commissioned in January 1939.
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SMS Seydlitz 1912722 viewsSMS Seydlitz was a 25,000 ton battlecruiser of the Imperial German Navy, built at Hamburg, Germany, and commissioned in May 1913.
At the battle of Dogger Bank, 24 January 1915, in World War I she was the flagship of Admiral Franz von Hipper. In heavy fighting two gun turrets were destroyed and 160 sailors were killed.
At the battle of Jutland she fought in Hipper's battlecruiser squadron where she destroyed HMS Queen Mary with her accurate shellfire. In the battle she was heavily damaged, being hit by twenty-one heavy shells and one torpedo, and suffering 98 men killed and 55 injured. Four turrets were destroyed and she shipped 5,000 tons of water, reducing her freeboard almost to nothing. She made it back to port with great difficulty. After the armistice she was escorted to Scapa Flow where she was scuttled with the rest of the High Seas Fleet on 21 June 1919. She was salvaged in 1928 and scrapped.
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SMS Baden 1915803 viewsSMS Baden was a Bayern-class battleship launched in 1915. She was saved from scuttling in Scapa Flow by beaching and later sunk in extensive gunnery testing by the Royal Navy in 1921. The Baden was one of four planned Bayern battleships, the other three were the Bayern, Wurttemberg and Sachsen.
The Baden was not originally intended to be surrended under the terms of the Armistice, but was substitued for the Mackensen which could not put to sea.
After the scuttling of the fleet at Scapa Flow, the Bayern was raised and scrapped, but the Baden was carefully examined by the British. It was exensively measured stripped and compared to existing British ships. The effects of various guns were tested on her. First of all the British 15" guns of the Erebus and Terror, two monitors, were fired into selected parts of the hull and superstructure. Various bombs were detonated on her decks and finally the battleships of the Atlantic fleet used their main guns on her and she sank southwest of Portsmouth on the 16th August 1921.
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