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Admiral Graf Spee in 1936665 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.

Bismarck in 1940623 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.

Deutschland or LÃ¼tzow974 viewsDeutschland, later re-named LÃ¼tzow, 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 LÃ¼tzow 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. LÃ¼tzow 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 SwinemÃ¼nde, 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

1906 HMS Dreadnought635 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".

German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer 19331287 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.

Japanese battleship Hatsuse644 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.

HMS King George V 1941949 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.

HMS Agincourt 1913713 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 Â£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.

HMS Norfolk 1928743 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.

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..

1912 HMS Iron Duke619 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.

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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