HMS Valiant (1914)

Gibraltar - circa 1930: Battleship Valiant, taken after her late 20s large refit. The fitting of a catapult and crane on her quarterdeck made her unique among the 'QE' class. On the left,  inside the South Mole, we have the battlecruiser Tiger flanked by two  'Renown' class battlecruisers:

HMS Valiant was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. She participated in the Battle of Jutland during the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet. Other than that battle, and the inconclusive Action of 19 August, her service during the war generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. She saw further action during the Second World War in the Mediterranean and the Far East.

The Queen Elizabeth-class ships were designed to form a fast squadron for the fleet that was intended to operate against the leading ships of the opposing battleline. This required maximum offensive power and speed several knots faster than any other battleship to allow them to defeat any type of ship.

Valiant had a length overall of 643 feet 9 inches (196.2 m), a beam of 90 feet 7 inches (27.6 m) and a deep draught of 33 feet (10.1 m). She had a normal displacement of 32,590 long tons (33,110 t) and displaced 33,260 long tons (33,794 t) at deep load. She was powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam from 24 Yarrow boilers. The turbines were rated at 75,000 shp (56,000 kW) and intended to reach a maximum speed of 24 knots (44.4 km/h; 27.6 mph). Valiant had a range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,260 km; 5,754 mi) at a cruising speed of 12 knots (22.2 km/h; 13.8 mph). Her crew numbered 919 officers and ratings in 1916 and 1,218 in 1919.

The Queen Elizabeth class was equipped with eight breech-loading (BL) 15-inch (381 mm) Mk I guns in four twin gun turrets, in two superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. Twelve of the fourteen BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk XII guns were mounted in casemates along the broadside of the vessel amidships; the remaining pair were mounted on the forecastle deck near the aft funnel and were protected by gun shields. Their anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of two quick-firing (QF) 3-inch (76 mm) 20 cwt Mk I[Note 1] guns. The ships were fitted with four submerged 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside.

Valiant was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with 15-foot (4.6 m) rangefinders. One was mounted above the conning tower, protected by an armoured hood, and the other was in the spotting top above the tripod foremast. Each turret was also fitted with a 15-foot rangefinder. The main armament could be controlled by 'B' turret as well. The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the compass platform on the foremast once they were fitted in April 1917.

The waterline belt of the Queen Elizabeth class consisted of Krupp cemented armour (KC) that was 13 inches (330 mm) thick over the ships' vitals. The gun turrets were protected by 11 to 13 inches (279 to 330 mm) of KC armour and were supported by barbettes 7–10 inches (178–254 mm) thick. The ships had multiple armoured decks that ranged from 1 to 3 inches (25 to 76 mm) in thickness. The main conning tower was protected by 13 inches of armour. After the Battle of Jutland, 1 inch of high-tensile steel was added to the main deck over the magazines and additional anti-flash equipment was added in the magazines.

The contract for the construction of the Valiant was given to The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited. She was laid down in the same berth where the battlecruiser HMS Indomitable had been built. She was laid down at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan on 31 January 1913 and launched on 4 November 1914. She was completed in February 1916. On the construction of Valiant by Admiralty contract, Fairfields lost £78,836. Her turbines were manufactured by Fairfields, and her armour plate was provided by William Beardmore and Company. Upon completion on 19 February 1916 under Captain Maurice Woollcombe, she joined the recently formed Fifth Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. At the Battle of Jutland, she fired 288 15-inch shells at the German High Seas Fleet. Despite the severity of damage suffered by her sister ships (bar HMS Queen Elizabeth which did not take part in the battle), she suffered no damage. One of her 15-inch guns, which had been in Valiant at Jutland, was later removed and became one of the three guns of the Johore Battery at Singapore. On 24 August 1916, she collided with HMS Warspite and was under repair until 18 September.

From 1919 to the end of 1924 she was part of the 1st Battle Squadron, Atlantic Fleet after which she was with the 1st Battle Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet until March 1929.

The ship was sent to Liverpool in response to a police strike when rioting broke out in the city.

Between 1929 and 1930 she underwent a major refit. anti-torpedo bulges were added, increasing the beam to 31.70 m. The two funnels were trunked into one and a single octuple 2-pounder mounting was added. Two of the torpedo tubes were removed, and the aircraft platforms were replaced by a single catapult. These modifications brought the maximum displacement up to 35,970 tons.

On 2 December 1930, she was recommissioned for service in the Atlantic wherein 1931 her crew participated in the Invergordon Mutiny. March 1932 saw her transferred to the Home Fleet until in July 1935 she was once again in the Mediterranean.

Valiant in 1939, showing original casemates plated over and new 4.5-inch guns mounted a deck higher

Between March 1937 and November 1939, she underwent a complete rebuild at Devonport. The machinery was changed to eight Admiralty 3 drum boilers with four Parsons steam turbines producing a total of 80,000 shp (60,000 kW). Fuel load was 3,393 tons oil, and maximum speed was reduced to 23.5 knots (43.5 km/h; 27.0 mph) despite the increase in power, due to the increase in displacement and draught. Deck armour was increased to 5 inches (130 mm) over the magazines, 2.5 inches over the machinery while the new 4.5" guns had between 1 and 2 inches (51 mm) of armour. The secondary armament was changed to 20 × 4.5 inch Mk I dual-purpose guns in 10 twin mountings and the close-range anti-aircraft armament consisted of four octuple 2 pdr "pom-pom" mountings. The ship's fire control was modernized to include the HACS MkIV AA fire control system and the Admiralty Fire Control Table Mk VII for surface fire control of the main armament. These modifications increased draught to 10 m and maximum displacement to 36,513 tons.

In June 1940, Valiant was assigned to Force H at Gibraltar, under the command of Admiral James Somerville. She took part in Operation Catapult. the attack on French ships at Mers-el-Kébir.

Later she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet at Alexandria, under Admiral Cunningham.

Valiant saw action at the Battle of Cape Matapan on 27–29 March 1941, and in the bombardment of Tripoli harbour on 21 April 1941 (accompanied by her sisters Barham and Warspite, the cruiser Gloucester and various destroyers). In May 1941, she operated off Crete and was struck by two bombs.

On 19 December 1941, Valiant was seriously damaged by limpet mines placed by Italian frogmen of Decima Flottiglia MAS, who entered Alexandria harbour riding two-man "human torpedoes" ("maiali"). Her sister ship Queen Elizabeth was also damaged. Lieutenant Durand de la Penne placed the mines on Valiant. The other two teams attached their mines and escaped, but de la Penne's maiale broke down. De la Penne pushed the maiale under Valiant and left it on the bottom. Then he and his companion Corporal Emilio Bianchi emerged and were captured. They were interrogated by Captain Charles Morgan, but told him nothing, despite being locked in a compartment below the waterline. A few minutes before detonation, when it was too late to find and deactivate the mines, he informed Captain Morgan to allow the British to evacuate. They were returned to the locked compartment, which was just above where the mine would explode. De la Penne and Bianchi were injured by the explosion but survived. After the war, no action was taken against Captain Morgan for this patent violation of the Geneva Convention.

The mine attached to Valiant was not actually in contact with her hull, so the damage was far less severe than to Queen Elizabeth. Despite having a heavy trim forward, her decks were above water, and she remained clear of the harbour bottom. Although nearly immobilised she was able, although only for a few days, to give the impression of full battle readiness. This appearance was exploited by the Royal Navy. They allowed photographs of the seemingly undamaged ship to appear in the British press. Valiant was repaired in Durban, South Africa, and returned to the Mediterranean in 1943.

She supported the landings in Sicily (Operation Husky in July) and at Salerno (Operation Avalanche in September).

Valiant (left) and Richelieu (right) from HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Bay of Bengal during the action against the Japanese at Sabang.

In 1944, she was sent to the Far East to join the Eastern Fleet. There she took part in raids against Japanese bases in Indonesia. On 8 August 1944, she was severely damaged in an accident with the floating drydock at Trincomalee, Ceylon. The drydock was being raised with Valiant in it by pumping water from ballast tanks. The tanks were emptied in the wrong sequence for Valiant's weight distribution, which was exacerbated by her full munitions load. As a result, the drydock was over-stressed at its ends, broke its back and sank. Valiant's two inner screws were jammed as well as one of her rudders. Valiant had remained in steam and was able to avoid worse damage or sinking. After the incident, the responsible Naval Constructor was disciplined.

It was decided to sail her to Alexandria, where there were suitable docking facilities, However, she could not steer a straight course, and could not make more than 8 knots (15 km/h). She got as far as Suez Bay, but could not attempt the Suez Canal in that condition. Lt Cmdr Peter Keeble, an experienced diver and salvage expert, personally supervised the removal of her two inner screw shafts near the gland. The A-brackets holding the shafts and screws were also cut, dropping both screws and shafts to the bottom. Keeble had perfected available underwater cutting torches by combining British and Italian technology to cut away the thick propeller shafts. She returned to the UK and was decommissioned in July 1945.

Valiant formed part of the Imperieuse stoker mechanics' training establishment at Devonport for the rest of her career. She was sold for scrapping on 19 March 1948 and left Devonport for the breakers of Arnott Young at Cairnryan on 11 August of that year.

Turkish Torpedo Destroyer Muavenet-i Milliye

German-built Turkish Torpedo Destroyer Muavenet-i Milliye ( Support of the Nation). This Gallant ship and its crew hit British battleship  HMS Goliath with three torpedoes and the ship sank immediately during Dardanelles Campaign in 1915. The ship was under Lieutenant Commander Saffet Bey' s command.

Muavenet-i Milliye or Muâvenet-i Millîye was a destroyer built for the Ottoman Navy prior to World War I. The ship is most notable for sinking the British pre-dreadnought battleship Goliath during the Dardanelles Campaign in World War I.

"Muâvenet" means support in Ottoman Turkish, and the full name of this first ship of that name, "Muâvenet-i Millîye", signifies national support. Her name was given in honour of the Ottoman Navy National Support Association (Donanma-i Osmânî Muâvenet-i Millîye Cemiyeti, in short, Navy Association / Donanma Cemiyeti). This association was founded on the initiative of a merchant named Yağcızade Şefik Bey in July 1909, followed shortly afterwards by wider participation including the more modest layers of the society. It collected funds through voluntary participation from among the Ottoman public to finance her purchase. Muâvenet-i Millîye was the first ship purchased, in Germany, through the financing made available thanks to the efforts of the association.

Three other Turkish Navy ships of different periods, the last being presently in service, were later named in memory of Muâvenet-i Millîye to recall her achievement. One of the first aircraft of the Ottoman air squadrons, contemporaneous to the ship, was given the same name.

Muavenet-i Milliye and her sister ships, Yadigar-i Millet, Numune-i Hamiyet, and Gayret-i Vataniye, were originally laid down as the German torpedo boats S165-S168. Upon completion, they were sold to the Ottoman Navy in September 1910. (Schichau-Werft built the second group of torpedo boats named S165-S168 as replacements, completing them in 1911.)
As of 1912, the command of Muâvenet-i Millîye was assumed by the Kıdemli Yüzbaşı (senior lieutenant, see Naval officer ranks) Ayasofyali Ahmed Saffed (after the Surname Law of 1934: Ahmet Saffet Ohkay), member of a new generation of officers who were specially trained in view of the more modern ships the Ottoman Navy acquired. In the first months of the Ottoman entry into World War I, the ship was assigned to missions in the Black Sea, from where she was re-directed towards Çanakkale with the start of the Dardanelles Campaign.

The French had asked the assistance of the battleships against the Ottoman counterattacks targeting to recapture Kerevizdere. Thus, every night two battleships began to bombard the Ottoman positions. The Ottoman side, to eliminate damages caused by these battleships, assigned Muâvenet-i-Millîye. During the day, the German captain lieutenant Rudolph Firle[2][3] and two other officers, who had carried out a reconnaissance mission near Morto Bay earlier, had embarked on Muâvenet-i Millîye to manage the torpedo operations. An On 10 May, at 13:30, Muâvenet-i-Millîye arrived at the strait and the preparations for its new assignment had begun. It was on 12 May, at 18:40, Muâvenet-i-Millîye went into action. Between 19:00 and 19:30, she passed the mines and on 19:40 she anchored in Soğanlıdere and waited until midnight. The projectors of the Allied battleships were closed down at 23:30.

HMS Goliath

Muâvenet-i-Millîye weighed anchor at 00:30 and slipped through the European side of the strait. The Allied destroyers failed to notice her advance. At 01:00 on the line astern of Muâvenet-i-Millîye, two destroyers were seen, on the forehead was Goliath. Goliath asked the password and Muâvenet-i-Millîye, without losing time, responded with three torpedoes. The first torpedo hit the bridge, the second hit the funnel and the third the stern. The battleship capsized almost immediately taking 570 of the 700 crew to the bottom, including her captain.

Commander of the Muavenet-i Milliye, major Ahmed Saffet Bey

The sinking of Goliath led to direct and drastic upheaval for the British Navy top command and strategy. Two days after the loss of their ship, on 15 May 1915, the First Sea Lord Admiral Fisher resigned amidst bitter arguments with the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, causing, on 17 May, Churchill's resignation too. General Hamilton noted in his diary, "The Turks deserve a medal." The Allies had failed to achieve their expectations with the landings. Thus, the British began to make plans for the resumption of the naval attack. However, the torpedoing of Goliath had proven that it would be prohibitively expensive to open the straits by a purely naval attack. The valuable modern battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth was recalled from the Dardanelles. The subsequent loss of battleships Triumph at Anzac and Majestic at Cape Helles, both torpedoed by U-21, resulted in a further reduction in naval support for the Allied land troops.

The ship captain, Kıdemli Yüzbaşı Ayasofyali Ahmed Saffed, the German lieutenant Rudolph Firle and his two deputies and the over 90 Ottoman crew were greeted as heroes in Istanbul, all lights along the Bosphorus having been lit especially to their honour, and were rewarded with medals and decorations.

At the Battle of Imbros on 20 January 1918, Muavenet-i Milliye and three other Ottoman destroyers sortied from the Dardenelles and engaged the British destroyers Lizard and Tigress which were chasing the crippled Ottoman battlecruiser Yavûz Sultân Selîm. These were driven off, and Yavûz returned to Constantinople.[4]

With the collapse of the Ottoman war effort, Muavenet-i Milliye was decommissioned in October 1918. Discarded by the postwar Turkish Navy in 1924, the ship was used as an accommodation hulk at the Taşkızak shipyard. She was finally scrapped in 1953.

TCG Nusrat

TCG Nusrat.  Built by Germaniawerft Kiel in 1911, and joined Turkish ( Ottoman Navy) in 1913. The mines laid by Nusrat caused sinking of  HMS Irresistible, HMS Ocean and the French battleship Bouvet, and left the British battlecruiser HMS Inflexible badly damaged.

Nusret (Eng. 'the help of God') was a naval ship of the Ottoman Navy, which served as a minelayer during the Gallipoli Campaign, and later fulfilled various roles in the Turkish Navy; as minelayer (1927–1937), diver vessel (1937–1939) and tender (1939–1955). She was laid down in 1911 and launched from Schiff & Maschinenbau AG 'Germania' at Kiel, Germany on 4 December of that year.

Nusret was commissioned into the Ottoman Navy in 1913, captained by Lieutenant Tophaneli Hakki (Güverte Kıdemli Yüzbaşı Tophaneli İbrahim oğlu Hakkı) under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Geehl.[citation needed] Nusret played a pivotal role in the Dardanelles Campaign, laying 26 mines in an unexpected position in February 1915 just prior to the ill-fated invasion which sank HMS Irresistible, HMS Ocean and the French battleship Bouvet, and left the British battlecruiser HMS Inflexible badly damaged.

After World War I Nusret was laid up in Istanbul until 1926/7 when she was refitted at Gölcük. In 1937 she became the diving vessel Yardin and in 1939 reverted to Nusret as a tender. In 1955 she was decommissioned and again laid up, with the intention to convert her to a museum ship. However, in 1962 she was sold to commercial buyers who had her converted to a cargo motorship, unrecognisable as the former minelayer, entering service as Kaptan Nusret in 1966. In April 1989 she sank near Mersin Harbour and lay submerged for 10 years.

In 2002 the wreck of Nusret was acquired by the Municipality of Tarsus, Mersin Province for reconstruction ashore as a museum ship, opened in 2008.

Nusret minelayer rescued and repaired, now in Tarsus Çanakkale Park Museum

A replica Nusret has been built by the Gölcük Naval Shipyard to be displayed in Çanakkale by the shore of the Narrows of the Dardanelles along with the types of mines that it laid in World War I. In March 2011 this Nusret was commissioned into the Turkish Navy as the museum ship N-16.

HNLMS Friesland Class Destroyer

The Friesland-class destroyers were ships built for the Dutch Navy in the 1950s as part of the post-World War II effort to rebuild the fleet. They were essentially a larger and more powerful version of the earlier Holland-class destroyers. Eight of these destroyers were constructed.

Their design was influenced by initial, ambitious plans for a large number of submarine-hunting vessels. While those early ideas were scaled back, funding for new destroyers, including the predecessors to the Friesland class, was secured starting in 1947. The Friesland class itself emerged in 1949 as an improved design based on the Holland class, both designed by K. de Munter.

Key components of the Friesland class included main guns supplied by Bofors. Their engines were built under license by Werkspoor, using the same design as those found in the American Gearing-class destroyers. Radar systems were provided by a Dutch company, Hollandse Signaalapparaten.

The Friesland-class ships served the Royal Netherlands Navy until the early 1980s when they were replaced by the Kortenaer-class frigates. Most of the Friesland-class ships (seven out of eight) were then sold to the Peruvian Navy, where they remained in service until 1991.

Admiral Scheer & Lützow

Panzerschiffe Admiral Scheer (foreground) and Lützow (originally Deutschland) in 1939. Lützow, the first sister, lacked the tower bridge of Scheer.

"They were the first major warships to use welding and all-diesel propulsion. The ships' hulls were constructed with transverse steel frames; over 90 percent of the hulls used welding instead of the then standard riveting, which saved 15 percent of their total hull weight. This savings allowed the armament and armour to be increased. On 11 June 1927, the Reichsmarine had decided that the new ships would be armed with two triple turrets mounting 28 cm guns.

When the particulars of the design became known by the Allies, they attempted to prevent Germany from building them. The Reichsmarine offered to halt construction on the first ship in exchange for admittance to the Washington Treaty with a ratio of 125,000 long tons (127,000 t) to Britain's allotment of 525,000 long tons (533,000 t) of capital ship tonnage. In doing so, this would effectively abrogate the clauses in the Treaty of Versailles that limited Germany's naval power. Britain and the United States favoured making concessions to Germany, but France refused to allow any revisions to the Treaty of Versailles. Since the ships did not violate the terms of the Treaty, the Allies could not prevent Germany from building them after a negotiated settlement proved unattainable."

HMS Victorious (R38)

HMS Victorious in 1959

HMS Victorious, ordered under the 1936 Naval Programme, was the third Illustrious-class aircraft carrier after Illustrious and Formidable. She was laid down at the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1937 and launched two years later in 1939. Her commissioning was delayed until 1941 due to the greater need for escort vessels for service in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Her service in 1941 and 1942 included famous actions against the battleship Bismarck, several Arctic convoys, and the Pedestal convoy to Malta. She was loaned to the United States Navy in 1943 and served in the south-west Pacific as part of the Third Fleet. Victorious contributed to several attacks on the Tirpitz. The elimination of the German naval threat allowed her redeployment first to the Eastern Fleet at Colombo and then to the Pacific for the final actions of the war against Japan.

After the war, her service was broken by periods in reserve and, between 1950 and 1958, the most complete reconstruction of any Royal Navy carrier. This involved the construction of new superstructure above the hangar deck level, a new angled flight deck,[1][page needed] new boilers and the fitting of Type 984 3D Air Warning (AW) and Air Defence (AD) radar and data links and heavy shipboard computers, able to track 50 targets and assess their priority for interrogation and interception. The reduction of Britain's naval commitment in 1967, the end of the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation, and a fire while under refit, prompted her final withdrawal from service, three to five years early, and she was scrapped in 1969.

USS Daniel A. Joy (DE-585)

USS Danial A Joy DE585. at Chicago, IL. Reserve Fleet, 9th Naval District 

USS Daniel A. Joy (DE-585) was a Rudderow-class destroyer escort in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1965. She was scrapped the following year.

Daniel A. Joy was named in honour of Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class Daniel Albert Joy, USNR. He was born on 11 October 1918 in Waltham, Massachusetts and enlisted in the Naval Reserve on 8 February 1937. Pharmacist’s Mate Joy was killed in action on 5 October 1942 while engaged in action with Japanese Forces on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. During the height of the battle, Joy braved the fire of the enemy, making his way through to the front lines to remove the wounded and carry them to safety. His devotion to the performance of a hazardous task continued until he was killed by Japanese gunfire. As a result of his courage, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

USS Daniel A. Joy (DE-585) Serving As Naval Reserve Training Ship, Chicago, Spring 1961. Courtesy of LT John B Hattendorf, USN. Naval Photographic Center # NH73925. BUMED Library and Archives 11-0014.

Daniel A. Joy was built by Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, in Hingham, Massachusetts It was launched on 15 January 1944, sponsored by Mrs D. A. Joy (widow of Petty Officer Joy), and commissioned on 28 April 1944. Lieutenant F. E. Lawton, USNR, as commanding officer.

Following a voyage on convoy escort duty to Bizerte, Tunisia between 2 August and 19 September 1944, Daniel A. Joy sailed from Boston 1 October and arrived at Humboldt Bay 20 November. Next day she got underway to screen reinforcements for the landings on Leyte. She remained on escort and patrol duty in the Philippines, convoying ships from New Guinea and Manus and covering the landings at Lingayen Gulf, Mandarin Bay, and Mindoro. From 23 April to 10 August 1945 she was in the Manila Bay area engaged in local escort and antisubmarine patrol duty. From 10 August to 21 September she made two voyages to Okinawa, returning to conduct mine disposal patrols in the waters of Mindoro and standing by during the minesweeping operations in Liange Bay.

Daniel A. Joy sailed from Samar 1 December 1945 for the west coast, arriving at San Pedro, California 22 December. On 12 August 1946, she was assigned to the 12th Naval District for duty as a Naval Reserve training vessel, and she sailed the next day for San Francisco, California. She remained on this duty until decommissioned 7 February 1949. Recommissioned 11 December of that year, she sailed from Mare Island Naval Shipyard 4 March 1950 for New Orleans, Louisiana where her screws were removed and her mast stepped down. Pontoons were secured to her sides and she was towed up the Mississippi, Illinois, and Chicago Rivers to Lake Michigan where her screws and mast were replaced. On 5 May 1950, she was placed in commission, in reserve to serve as the flagship for six patrol vessels of the 9th Naval District engaged in the training of naval reservists on the Great Lakes.

Daniel A. Joy was decommissioned on 1 May 1965 and sold for scrap to the North American Smelting Corporation in Wilmington, Delaware on 1 March 1966.

HMS Rodney

16" shells being lowered on to the Battleship's deck from the ammunition ship. Each one weighs a ton and will fire over ten miles. HMS Rodney 1940

Creator: Coote, R G G (Lt).

Source: © IWM (A 205)

HMS Porcupine (G93)

P Class Destroyer HMS Porcupine (G93)

HMS Porcupine was a P-class destroyer built by Vickers Armstrong on the River Tyne.[1] She was ordered on 20 October 1939, laid down on 26 December 1939 and launched on 10 June 1941. She was commissioned on 31 August 1942 but had a relatively short active career. She was torpedoed in 1942 but salvaged and not finally broken up until 1947.

On 11 November 1942, along with the Dutch destroyer Isaac Sweers, Porcupine helped rescue 241 men from the ship Nieuw Zeeland, a Dutch troop transport that had been torpedoed by the German submarine U-380 at 35°57′N 03°58′W – about 80 miles (130 km) east of Gibraltar, in the Mediterranean Sea.

Porcupine was under the command of Commander George Scott Stewart RAN when U-602 torpedoed her whilst she was escorting the depot ship Maidstone from Gibraltar to Algiers on 9 December 1942. U-602 fired four torpedoes at Maidstone, one of which hit Porcupine; the other three missed both British ships.

The attack killed seven men but left most of the ship intact – except for critical localised damage that nearly split the ship in two. The destroyer Vanoc rescued all of her crew except a skeleton contingent. After topweight was jettisoned in an attempt to reduce an increasing list, Exe took her in tow. The next day a French tug took over and delivered Porcupine to Arzew, Algeria.

In March 1943 she was towed to Oran, where she was declared a total loss. French dockworkers there cut the damaged ship into two halves before a decision was made to strip them of all guns, ammunition, mountings, stores, etc., and tow them to Britain. The two parts were ballasted and brought to Portsmouth in June.

The stern of Porcupine, later commissioned as HMS Pine, being towed into Portsmouth

Once the two pieces were back in Portsmouth, the forepart of the ship was known informally as HMS Pork and the rear part as HMS Pine. Reconfigured as accommodation hulks, the two halves were commissioned under those names on 14 January 1944 as Landing Craft Base Stokes Bay, in Portsmouth. They were eventually paid off on 1 March 1946, before being recommissioned for the Commander of Minesweepers on 1 April 1946. Porcupine then became a tender to HMS Victory III.

The forward section of the hulk of HMS Porcupine, known informally as HMS Pork

Porcupine was finally paid off on 31 August 1946. On 6 May 1946 she was listed as sold, and in 1947 broken up somewhere on the south coast of England – but reports differ as to whether or not this was at Plymouth, Portsmouth or Southampton.

HMS Nelson (28)

HMS Nelson. Passing through the Gaillard Cut, Panama Canal, on 23 February 1931. Catalog # NH 57850, Naval History and Heritage Command.

HMS Nelson (pennant number 28) was one of two Nelson-class battleships built for the Royal Navy between the two World Wars. She was named in honour of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson the victor at the Battle of Trafalgar. The Nelsons were unique in British battleship construction, being the only ships to carry a main armament of 16 inch (406mm) guns and the only ones to carry all the main armament forward of the superstructure. These were a result of the limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty. Commissioned in 1927, Nelson served extensively in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian oceans during the Second World War. She was decommissioned soon after the end of the war and scrapped in 1949. She was nicknamed "Nels-ol" from the resemblance in her outline to RN oilers, whose names ended in "-ol".

Nelson in Mers-el-Kebir during Operation Torch, November 20, 1942

HMS Ramillies (07)

Revenge class battleship HMS Ramillies. The Ramillies was scrapped in 1948.

HMS Ramillies (pennant number: 07) was one of five Revenge-class super-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. They were developments of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, with reductions in size and speed to offset increases in the armour protection whilst retaining the same main battery of eight 15-inch (381 mm) guns. Completed in late 1917, Ramillies saw no combat during the war as both the British and the German fleets had adopted a more cautious strategy by this time owing to the increasing threat of naval mines and submarines.

Ramillies spent the 1920s and 1930s alternating between the Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet. Whilst serving in the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the early 1920s, the ship went to Turkey twice in response to crises arising from the Greco-Turkish War, including the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922. She also saw limited involvement during the Franco-British intervention in the Russian Civil War. The ship's interwar career was otherwise uneventful. With the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Ramillies was initially assigned to escort duties in the North Atlantic. In May 1940, she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as war with Italy loomed. After the Italians entered the war in June, Ramillies bombarded Italian ports in North Africa, escorted convoys to Malta, and supported the Taranto raid in November.

HMS Ramillies, at anchor, in dazzle paint.

The ship returned to Atlantic escort duties in 1941, during which time she prevented the two Scharnhorst-class battleships from attacking a convoy; she also joined the search for the battleship Bismarck. In late 1941, Ramillies was transferred to the Eastern Fleet as tensions with Japan rose; the following year, she was the flagship for the invasion of Madagascar. While moored there, she was torpedoed and badly damaged by Japanese midget submarines. The ship was updated for coastal bombardment duties in 1944, which she performed later that year during the Normandy landings in June and the invasion of southern France in August. In January 1945, the worn-out battleship was withdrawn from service and used as a barracks ship attached to the training establishment HMS Vernon. She was ultimately broken up in 1948.

USS North Carolina (BB-55) with the aircraft carrier Hornet (CV-8)

USS North Carolina (BB-55) during workups with the aircraft carrier Hornet (CV-8), January 1942.

USN Ship Names & Type Designations

USS Indiana (BB-1)

US battleship Indiana (BB-1) at the New York Navy Yard around the turn of the 19th century. Though lacking instability due to fitting far too much into a limited displacement, the Indiana class managed to incrementally improve on the many shortcomings of the foreign-designed USS Texas, the USN’s first battleship, which was obsolete when launched and never received a hull designation during the retroactive nomenclature standardization of 1920.
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Naming ships is frequently much more complex than one would think. The United States did not adopt the prefix “USS” officially until 1909 - similarly, they did not begin using type designations until 1895. When type designations began, the navy was expanding; this led to a need for designating vessels with a type and a hull number, so Indiana as the first authorized battleship under these rules became “Battleship 1.” Often these were abbreviated to “B-1” while cruisers and destroyers used C and D with their hull number respectively. After WWI, with the addition of a multitude of auxiliary types, the nomenclature was standardized as two letters; the first letter represented the overall type, while the second represented subclass. Thus, C for a cruiser, L for a light cruiser, etc. Battleships and destroyers did not have a subclass, thus the first number was duplicated.
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Other navies did not mirror the practice. In fact, most navies internationally in the first half of the 20th century did not even adopt national prefixes; for this reason, many of the errant shorthand prefixes applied to French, German, Russian, and Japanese warships never existed. Germany did use the “SMS” prefix during the Imperial years, but nothing thereafter. Austria-Hungary, Argentina, and Britain also used national prefixes, as notable examples. Dutch, Swedish, and Norwegian prefixes are usually anglicized to include a national identifier to their basic “His/Her Majesty’s Ship,” already in English use. Most prefixes seen in literature for the period are simply western authors adding in an Anglican acronym for “clarity” and uniformity, which is a shorthand route away from fact and has led to serious confusion over proper naming conventions.
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USS Winconsin (BB-64) The last completed Battleship to enter service with the US Navy

USS Brooklyn (CL-40)

USS Brooklyn (CL-40) bombarding the beach in support of allied landings at Anzio, January 1944. Brooklyn was commissioned in September 1937 and had one career with the U.S. Navy before being sold to Chile, where she served for 40 years. She was sold for scrap but sunk under tow to India for scrapping in November 1992.

High Seas Fleet of Imperial Germany

Dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet

The High Seas Fleet (Hochseeflotte) was the battle fleet of the German Imperial Navy and saw action during the First World War. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet (Heimatflotte) was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to challenge the Royal Navy's predominance. Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German Emperor, championed the fleet as the instrument by which he would seize overseas possessions and make Germany a global power. By concentrating a powerful battle fleet in the North Sea while the Royal Navy was required to disperse its forces around the British Empire, Tirpitz believed Germany could achieve a balance of force that could seriously damage British naval hegemony. This was the heart of Tirpitz's "Risk Theory," which held that Britain would not challenge Germany if the latter's fleet posed such a significant threat to its own.

The primary component of the Fleet was its battleships, typically organized in eight-ship squadrons, though it also contained various other formations, including the I Scouting Group. At its creation in 1907, the High Seas Fleet consisted of two squadrons of battleships, and by 1914, a third squadron had been added. The dreadnought revolution in 1906 greatly affected the composition of the fleet; the twenty-four pre-dreadnoughts in the fleet were rendered obsolete and required replacement. Enough dreadnoughts for two full squadrons were completed by the outbreak of war in mid-1914; the eight most modern pre-dreadnoughts were used to constitute a third squadron. Two additional squadrons of older vessels were mobilized at the onset of hostilities, though by the end of the conflict, these formations were disbanded.

The fleet conducted a series of sorties into the North Sea during the war designed to lure out an isolated portion of the numerically superior British Grand Fleet. These operations frequently used the fast battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group to raid the British coast as the bait for the Royal Navy. These operations culminated in the Battle of Jutland, on 31 May–1 June 1916, where the High Seas Fleet confronted the whole of the Grand Fleet. The battle was inconclusive, but the British won strategically, as it convinced Admiral Reinhard Scheer, the German fleet commander, that even a highly favourable outcome to a fleet action would not secure German victory in the war. Scheer and other leading admirals, therefore, advised the Kaiser to order a resumption of the unrestricted submarine warfare campaign. The primary responsibility of the High Seas Fleet in 1917 and 1918 was to secure the German naval bases in the North Sea for U-boat operations. Nevertheless, the fleet continued to conduct sorties into the North Sea and detached units for special operations in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Baltic Fleet. Following the German defeat in November 1918, the Allies interned the bulk of the High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow, where it was ultimately scuttled by its crews in June 1919, days before the belligerents signed the Treaty of Versailles.

French Battleship Massena 1892

French Battleship Massena

Masséna was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy, built in the 1890s. She was a member of a group of five broadly similar battleships, along with Charles Martel, Jauréguiberry, Bouvet, and Carnot, that were ordered in response to the British Royal Sovereign class. She was named in honour of Marshal of France André Masséna. Masséna significantly exceeded her design weight and suffered from serious stability problems that inhibited the accurate firing of her guns; as a result, she was considered to be an unsuccessful design.

Masséna served in both the Northern and Mediterranean Squadrons during her career, which included a period as the flagship of the Northern Squadron. She was withdrawn from service before the outbreak of World War I in 1914. The following year, she was hulked at Toulon. She was later towed to Cape Helles at the end of the Gallipoli peninsula where on 9 November 1915 she was scuttled to create a breakwater to protect the evacuation of the Allied expeditionary force withdrawing from the Gallipoli Campaign.

Japanese Battleship Hatsuse

British built Japanese battleship Hatsuse passing the High Level & Swing Bridges moving down the River Tyne shortly after completion, 1901.

The King receives the homage of his fleet as he passes down the lines of the monster assemblage of fighting ships - June 12th 1909

The King receives the homage of his fleet as he passes down the lines of the monster assemblage of fighting ships - June 12th 1909

A general view looking towards the Isle of Wight of the line of warships for the Naval Fleet Review at Spithead. In the foreground is an unnamed ketch-rigged yacht under sail, towing its tender. In the middle distance is the battleship 'Dominion' (1903), partially obscuring the battleship 'Albion' (1898). To the right of the photograph can be seen the stern of the battleship 'Formidable' (1898). The coast of the Isle of Wight is in the background.

SMS Nassau

Rare original photograph, which shows battleship SMS Nassau sailing on the Kaiser - Wilhelm - Kanal (Kiel Canal) in late July 1918. Most likely during operation "Schlusstein", which had the seizure of St. Petersburg as an operational goal. After having reached the Baltic Sea with two other Battleships (Oldenburg and Thueringen) the operation was cancelled, and the units had to sail back to Wilhelmshaven.

HMS Nelson

Calculation the firepower to the Nelson class battleships.

These ships were very well armed by the end of the war. In 1945, HMS Nelson was armed with:

6x 4.7" Anti-Aircraft guns (Six Single Mounts)

16x 40mm Bofors (Four Quad Mounts)

48x Pom-Poms (Six Octuple Mounts)

65x 20mm Oerlikon (Single Mounts)

A total of 135 anti-aircraft guns. By a total number of barrels, that is more than the Iowa class at 129!

USS Oakland (CL-95)

USS Oakland CL-95, a modified Atlanta class light cruiser.  Shown here off San Francisco on August 2, 1943.  Scrapped in 1959.

HMS Malaya

A Sopwith 1 1/2 strutter being loaded on to HMS Malaya. (No date.)

Battleship Division Two

Battleship Division Two

In line abreast formation, 7 June 1954, in the Virginia Capes operating area. The only occasion that all four Iowa class battleships were photographed operating together....

Ship closest to the camera is USS Iowa (BB-61).

The others are (from near to far):

USS Wisconsin (BB-64);

USS Missouri (BB-63)

USS New Jersey (BB-62).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

HMS Rodney (29)

The battleship HMS Rodney (29) fires at Normandy. The photo, from the "Morris Collection", is courtesy of Iain Ballantyne, who writes:

"... the psychological impact of aerial bombing combined with the guns of the Navy and Army inflicted Hell on earth upon the enemy. Some German troops were literally driven insane and even resorted to shooting themselves, rather than endure further bombardment. In one episode, some 50 out of 127 German tanks massing for an attack were wiped out.

General Paul Hausser, [survivor of the Eastern Front] commander of the II SS Panzer Corps, was forced at the end of June to tell his higher commanders a ‘murderous fire from naval guns’ together with concentrated fire of British Army artillery had ‘destroyed the bulk of our attacking force in its assembly area.’ He continued: ‘The few tanks that did manage to go forward were easily stopped by the British anti-tank guns."

Rodney was able to fire up to 22 miles inland during her Normandy operations.

HMS Rodney (29)

HMS Rodney. Mediterranean, 1942.

HMS Rodney (pennant number 29) was one of two Nelson-class battleships built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1920s. The ship was named after Admiral Lord Rodney. The Nelsons were unique in British battleship construction, being the only ships to carry a main armament of 16-inch (406 mm) guns, and the only ones to carry all the main armament forward of the superstructure. As her superstructure was located aft of midships like RN fleet oilers whose names carried the ...'ol' suffix, she was sometimes derisively referred to as "Rodnol". Commissioned in 1927, Rodney served extensively in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean during the Second World War.

HMS Rodney at Devonport, 1934: she and her sister Nelson were crudely cut down versions of a larger design in order to comply with the Washington Treaty, losing their stern turrets (and considerable engine power) as a result. Together with HMS King George V, Rodney was one of the final conquerors of Bismarck in May 1941.

Rodney played a major role in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941. During and after Operation Torch and the Normandy landings, Rodney participated in several coastal bombardments. In poor condition from extremely heavy use and lack of refits, she was scrapped in 1948.

Rodney firing on Bismarck, which can be seen burning in the distance

USS Eaton (DD-510) & USS Glennon (DD-840)

USS Eaton (DD-510) and USS Glennon (DD-840) in Aarhus, Denmark during the 1954 N.Europe/Med cruise. From the collection of Wendell Stimets who was the Medical Officer for Escort Division 22 from 1952-1955.

Soviet Orfey class destroyer Engels

Soviet Orfey class destroyer Engels armed with a 305mm recoilless gun, fitted for testing in 1934.

The designer of the gun, Leonid Kurchevsky, had many other gun designs that all mostly had irreparable defects, and thus was arrested, charged with designing poor weapons, and sentenced to death in 1937. The exact date of his execution is still uncertain: various sources claim it to be either November 26, 1937, or January 12, 1939.

Pre-Dreadnought battleship USS Indiana (BB-1)

Pre-Dreadnought battleship USS Indiana

USS Indiana (BB-1) was the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time. Authorized in 1890 and commissioned five years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armour and ordnance. The ship also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defence and as a result, her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean.

Indiana served in the Spanish–American War (1898) as part of the North Atlantic Squadron. She took part in both the blockade of Santiago de Cuba and the battle of Santiago de Cuba, which occurred when the Spanish fleet attempted to break through the blockade. Although unable to join the chase of the escaping Spanish cruisers, she was partly responsible for the destruction of the Spanish destroyers Plutón and Furor. After the war, she quickly became obsolete—despite several modernizations—and spent most of her time in commission as a training ship or in the reserve fleet, with her last commission during World War I as a training ship for gun crews. She was decommissioned for the third and final time in January 1919 and was shortly after reclassified Coast Battleship Number 1 so that the name Indiana could be reused. She was sunk in shallow water as a target in aerial bombing tests in 1920 and her hull was sold for scrap in 1924

Adolf Hitler's Navy

"Adolf Hitler's Navy", 2-page illustration from Life Magazine, Dec 7 1936. All German navy ships afloat or under construction at the time.

The Turret X Explosion of HMS Devonshire 1929

The Turret X Explosion of HMS Devonshire 1929

The 50 calibre BL 8 inch gun Mark VIII was the main battery gun used on the Royal Navy's County-class heavy cruisers, in compliance with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.

Similar to other cruisers of that era, the mountings for these weapons were given a high maximum elevation in order to provide an anti-aircraft capability. However, the training and elevation gear was inefficient and both the elevation and training rates were too slow to allow these mountings to be useful in that role.

The complex nature of the early versions of these mountings, the Mark I and Mark I*, gave trouble for a number of years. Considerable attention was paid to these faults, especially in 1927 and 1928, before these ships were accepted into service. After the initial trials, the training and elevation rates were reduced prior to commissioning and reduced still further during the 1930s in an effort to improve the operational performance of the turrets.

On 19th March 1929, 17 months after her launch, HMS Devonshire was commissioned into the Royal Navy and on 11th May, after carrying out trials at Portland, she sailed for Gibraltar. Before joining the First Cruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet Devonshire, together with her sister Sussex, underwent an eight-week work-up period at Gibraltar before, on 8th July, she finally steamed east to Malta, arriving in Grand Harbour three days later.

Eight days after arriving on station, Devonshire and the rest of the Mediterranean Fleet sailed for manoeuvres in the Aegean Sea, off the island of Skiathos. Controlling the exercises was the C-in-C in his Royal Oak flagship and also taking part were Queen Elizabeth London and Sussex, together with units of the Third Destroyer Flotilla. Arriving off Skiathos on 21st July the fleet lay at anchor, and while the senior officers planned the forthcoming manoeuvres the sailors were granted recreational leave for 'picnic and bathing parties'.

When they got underway Devonshire and the destroyers practised torpedo firing, after which there was gunnery practice. At 0800 on Friday 26th, July the fleet weighed anchor, and within minutes London, Sussex and Devonshire had formed single line ahead in order to carry out a full calibre shoot. At 08.45 there was a flurry of manoeuvring as Sussex, which was rejoining the line, almost collided with Devonshire; the latter’s stern did, in fact, touch Sussex's port quarter, but no damage was done and the exercise continued.

At 10.00 exactly Devonshire fired her first broadside, but practically simultaneously a huge explosion shook the ship. A faulty breech mechanism in 'X' turret had caused a shell and some cordite bags to ignite, and the force of the explosion blew the roof off the gun turret and started fires in the gun house and pump room. Fortunately, these were soon extinguished, but the explosion took a heavy toll of the Royal Marines who were manning the turret.

One officer and six men were killed instantly, one of them being blown overboard. Devonshire, meanwhile, made for the Greek port of Volos where 17 injured men were transferred to the hospital ship Maine. However, 11 of these subsequently died and 16 of the victims were buried at Volos with full military honours. Devonshire, with the guns of 'X' turret awry, returned to Malta and from there proceeded to Devonport where, on 14th August 1929, her tragic first commission ended.

As a result of this incident, a new interlock was fitted, which prevented the operator from opening the breach until it had been tripped by the gun firing or manually reset by another operator inside the turret.

Most of the problems seem to have been satisfactorily resolved prior to the start of World War II, but HMS London reported as late as June 1938 that "one would wish that the 8in mountings and torpedoes would behave as they should. The prolonged firing of 20 rounds per gun from London was a disappointment on the material side."

The later Mark II mountings appear to have been much more reliable, with the first gun trials for HMS York in February 1930 being so successful that they took only four hours to complete. As a weight-saving measure, the Mark II* version of this mounting, used only on HMS Exeter, had a significantly reduced maximum elevation.

The original design was A tube, wire, B tube, overlapping jacket, breech ring and breech-bush and these guns were designated as Mark VIII* upon completion. Owing to troubles with the A tube forging, an inner A tube was added to half of the wire-wound guns. After relining with a tapered inner A tube, guns were then designated as Mark VIII. Two prototypes and the last 26 guns built did not use wire and were designated as Mark VIII**. All guns used a Welin breech-block with hydraulic or hand-worked Asbury mechanism and were interchangeable with each other. A total of 168 guns were produced, including the two prototypes built without wire.

The original Naval Staff requirement for these weapons was 12 rounds per minute, an impossibly high figure for the time. The requirement was ultimately reduced to six rounds per minute. However, "British Cruisers of World War Two" states that this rate was never reached during wartime service and that the maximum sustained ROF in action was actually 3 to 4 rounds per minute. During trials, HMS Kent did achieve a ROF of 5 rounds per minute for a brief time.

Australia, Devonshire and Sussex had "X" turret removed during the war as weight compensation for additional light AA, radar and other electronic equipment.

HMS Devonshire Turret Explosion Casualties:

Marine Fatalities

Captain John Arthur Bath D.S.C.†     Killed Outright

Sergeant William Ernest Snell¤          Missing presumed drowned
Corporal Edward Bacon †                    Killed outright

Corporal Joseph E. Barber†                Died on board Hospital Ship HMS Maine

Corporal James Levins †                      Killed Outright
Marine James W. Blackman †             Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Joseph S. Brindle †                  Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Samuel Goldsmith †                Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Frank Grindle †                         Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Edward C. Harris †                   Died on board HMS Maine
Marine William Ernest Hellyer‡        Died on board HMS Maine
Marine William George Hole†            Died on board HMS Devonshire
Marine Augustus Alexander MacDonald† Died on board HMS Devonshire
Marine John Tossel Old †                    Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Lionel R. Taylor †                   Died on board HMS Maine
Marine Frank Williams †                     Died on board HMS Maine

Sgt. Snell’s body was never recovered, despite HMS Sussex and HMS Frobisher searching the area for the rest of the day.

Fatality -Royal Navy

Ordnance Artificer Arthur C. Edwards  † Died on board HMS Maine

Injuries - Royal Marines

Corporal L.E. Elliott                   Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Corporal G.C. Pengelly              Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Acting Corporal Charles Percival Wickenden ± Hospitalised on HMS Maine
Marine T. Agar                             Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Marine A. Brimblecombe        Hospitalised on HMS Maine
Marine F. Chalice                        Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Marine W.J. Elliott                     Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Marine J. Hallam                         Hospitalised on HMS Maine
Marine G.H. Harkcom               Hospitalised on HMS Maine
Marine E.F. Hymen                    Hospitalised on HMS Maine
Marine W. Smith                          Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Marine Albert Edward Streams°   Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire

Injuries - Royal Navy

Chief Petty Officer R.E. Jenns              Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
L/S/A W.G. Eason                                    Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Able Seaman A.E. Haley                        Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire
Able Seaman [?].J. Smith                      Hospitalised on HMS Maine
O/S O.C. Mason                                         Hospitalised on HMS Devonshire

References:
http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Ships/HMSDevonshire.html

https://www.royalnavymemories.co.uk/turret-explosion/

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_8-50_mk8.php