Admiral Graf Spee in 1936703 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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Japanese battleship Hatsuse675 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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1906 HMS Dreadnought663 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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Bismarck in 1940661 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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Japanese Battleship HIJMS Kirishima654 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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1912 HMS Iron Duke642 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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HMS Invincible 1907630 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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Gneisenau in 1939613 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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SMS Westfalen 1908609 viewsSMS Westfalen, launched 1908 at AG Weser in Bremen was one of the first dreadnought battleships (ship of the line) built for the Imperial German Navy. There were three other ships in her class: SMS Nassau (launched in 1908 at the Imperial shipyards in Wilhelmshaven), SMS Posen (launched in 1908 at Germania shipyards in Kiel) and SMS Rheinland (launched 1908 at Vulcan in Stettin). The ships were armed with twelve 28 cm guns in double turrets -- one forward, one aft, and two on each side. In addition, they carried twelve 15 cm guns, sixteen 8.8 cm guns and six torpedo tubes. SMS Nassau was 146 m long, displaced 18,873 tons, carried a crew of 1008, and had a top speed of 20 knots. All four ships took part in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May–1 June 1916.
Following the end of World War I, the ships were surrendered to the victorious powers as war booty. Westfalen was surrendered in 1920 to Great Britain and scrapped in 1924. The other three ships were surrendered to Japan, which sold them to a British wrecking firm which then scrapped them in Dordrecht (Netherlands).
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SMS Blucher 1909605 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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1909 HMS Indefatigable Battlecruiser 591 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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Viribus Unitis in 1912570 viewsSMS Viribus Unitis was an Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleship of the Viribus Unitis class.
Viribus Unitis was built at Stabilmento Tecnico Tristino yard, Trieste.
After Austria-Hungary was defeated in World War I, and it became apparent that the coastal areas will be controlled by the newly-formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, the Austrian government decided to give the ship, along with much of the fleet, to the Croatians.
Viribus Unitis and the rest of the former Austrian fleet was soon targetted by the Italians. She was sunk at anchor at Pola on 1 November 1918 by a mignatta carried by an Italian human torpedo.
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