Bismarck in 1940624 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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HMS King George V 1941950 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 Hood 1918697 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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Tirpitz in c1941458 viewsThe Tirpitz was the sister-ship of the Bismarck, from which it differed only in details such as a full-load displacement of 52,600 tons, length of 823ft 6in (25 1,0m) and the addition of eight 21 in (533mm) torpedo tubes. The ship was launched in April 1939 and completed in February 1941, and its sole success in World War II (apart from tying down large numbers of British capital ships) was a bombardment of Spitsbergen in September 1943.The ship was damaged by British midget submarine attack later in that month, damaged by aircraft attack in April 1944 (with the loss of 122 men after being hit by 14 bombs), rendered unseaworthy by-further aircraft bombs in September I943 and finally sunk in November 1944 when the ship capsized with the loss of 902 men after being hit by ‘Tallboy’ bombs.
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