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| Gneisenau arrives in Brest December 1941 after Operation Berlin, a successful commerce raid performed with her sistership Scharnhorst. |
Monday, 23 September 2019
Gneisenau
USS Texas & USS Arkansas
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| A 9" shell falls between USS Texas and USS Arkansas, as seen from Arkansas. With her 14" Main guns at the ready, USS Texas duels with battery Hamburg. Cherbourg coast, France, October 1944 |
Spanish Navy Destructor
Destructor (“destroyer”) was a fast ocean-going torpedo gunboat built for the Spanish Navy in the late 19thcentury, and a precursor of the destroyer. Destructor was the first warship classified as a "destroyer" at the time of her commissioning, also described as a “contratorpedero” (counter-torpedo). Her designer was a Spanish Navy officer, Fernando Villaamil, commissioned by the Minister of the Navy, Vice-Admiral Manuel Pezuela.
During the 1860s-1880s the rapidly improving, fast and cheap torpedo boats were presenting an escalating threat to major warships. Escort vessels were already in use to provide protection for battleships but it was decided that what was needed was a new type of enlarged and fast torpedo boat, capable of escorting larger ships on long voyages and also able to attack enemy battleships with torpedoes as part of a fleet action. The Spanish Navy asked several British shipyards to submit proposals capable of fulfilling these specifications. In 1885 it chose the design submitted by the shipyard of James and George Thomson of Clydebank, near the Yarrow shipyards. The vessel was laid down at the end of the year, launched in 1886, and commissioned in 1887.
In terms of gunnery, speed and dimensions, the specialised design to chase torpedo boats and her high seas capabilities, Destructor is widely considered the first torpedo-boat destroyer ever built and was described as such by British naval engineer Sir William Henry White. Destructor is thought to have influenced the design and concept of later destroyers developed by the British Royal Navy. Further developments followed the pattern of the Havock class, built in 1893. The aim of the new destroyer design was not only to neutralize the torpedo boat as an effective weapon but also to replace it as a faster and more reliable torpedo-carrying warship.
Her triple-expansion engines generating 3,784 horsepower (2,822 kW), for a maximum speed of 22.6 knots (41.9 km/h), made Destructor one of the faster ships in the world by 1888. On her maiden voyage, Destructor established a record after steaming from Falmouth to Ferrol in 24 hours.
Construction:
Ordered: 1885
Builder: James and George Thomson of Clydebank, United Kingdom
Laid down: 14 November 1885
Launched: 29 July 1886
Commissioned: 19 January 1887
Decommissioned: 1 January 1908
Fate: Offered for sale December 1911 and scrapped
General characteristics:
Displacement: 348 long tons (354 t)
Length: 58.74 m (192 ft 9 in)
Beam: 7.63 m (25 ft 0 in)
Draught: 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
Propulsion: 2 triple-expansion engines 3,784 hp (2,822 kW)
Speed: 22.6 knots (26.0 mph; 41.9 km/h)
Range: 4,500 NM (8,300 km)
Complement: 60
Armament:
1 × 90 mm (4 in) Spanish-designed Hontoria breech-loading gun
4 × 57 mm (2.2 in / 6 pdr) Nordenfeldt guns
2 × 37 mm (1.46 in) Hotchkiss revolving cannons
2 × 381 mm (15-inch) torpedo tubes with three Schwartzkopff torpedoes carried per tube.
HMS Black Prince
HMS Black Prince was a Duke of Edinburgh Class Armoured Cruiser. She was part of the 1st Cruiser Squadron of The Grand Fleet consisting of HMS Defence ( Flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot), HMS Warrior and HMS Duke of Edinburgh. At the Battle of Jutland "Black Prince" became detached from her Squadron, and the last that was heard from her was when she reported a submarine sighting by wireless at 20:48 hrs on 31st May 1916. But this was not the last that was seen of her at 23:35 GMT on the 31st she briefly engaged the German Battleship Rheinland hitting her with 2x 6-inch shells. And at 00:10hrs GMT the 1st June 1916, HMS Black Prince approached a force of Dreadnought Battleships believing them to be part of the Grand Fleet and made the Grand Fleets challenge by signal lamp. She was answered by being illuminated by searchlights and being deluged by salvoes of 12inch shells at point-blank range causing catastrophic damage ( the Dreadnought Battleships were, in fact, the German ships Thuringen, Ostfriesland and Friederich Der Grosse). HMS Black Prince immediately turned away and disappeared into the darkness. The last sighting of " Black Prince" was by the British Destroyer HMS Spitfire ( which was laying stopped and disabled after a ramming incident with a German Cruiser) in the early hours of the 1st June 1916. when "Spitfires" ships company sighted a ship with 2 funnels shot away, Guns trained to Starboard and ablaze from stem to stern bearing down on them out of the darkness. This was HMS Black Prince, as she steamed past HMS Spitfire the crackle and hiss of the fires that were engulfing" Black Prince" could plainly be heard by the men on deck on " Spitfire". Shortly afterwards an explosion was observed and heard from the direction from which HMS Black Prince had steamed. HMS Black Prince had disappeared into the dark of night and was lost there were no survivors. Her entire ships complement of 857 officers and men perished with her. HMS Black Prince`s wreck would not be located for another 99 years.
USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31)
USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) on January 9, 1945, six weeks after her commissioning, unloading bombs at New York. She is wearing Measure 32/17A. This bow view shows the port catapult situated somewhat farther aft than the starboard one. Note the flight deck markings, the aircraft elevators offset to one side of the ship's centerline, and the large number of 20 mm Oerlikons. There is a floating crane on her port side and a covered lighter on her starboard side. Photo from "Aircraft Carriers of the U.S. Navy," by Stefan Terzibaschitsch courtesy of Robert Hurst from NavSource.
HMNZS Gambia (48)
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| HMNZS Gambia (48), a Crown Colony class light cruiser, underway circa 1945. Official U.S. Navy photo NH 86629 from the Naval History and Heritage Command. |
Battleship Jean Bart, Cruisers Ocean & Montcalm
French battleship Jean Bart with the cruisers (from left to right) Océan (formerly Suffren) and the La Galissonnière-class cruiser Montcalm.
She was photographed by USN Photographers Mate Third Class Bill Wade from an aeroplane from USS Ranger.
HMS Crusader
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| HMS Crusader, comm 1930 trans to Canada 1938, named HMCS Ottowa, lost 1942, sunk by U91. |
Regia Marina Zara Class Cruisers
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| All four sister ships of the Italian Zara-class cruiser. Zara, Fiume and Pola were sunk during the Battle of Cape Matapan on 27–29 March against the British battleships Barham, Valiant, and Warspite. |
USS New Jersey & IJN Battleship Nagato
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| BB-62 USS New Jersey and "USS" Nagato (Ex IJN Nagato) *After being captured as a war prize |
Somewhere In Pacific Ocean, 30 December 1945
SMS V 99
Imperial German Navy Zerstörer (destroyer) SMS V 99. Officially designated as "large torpedo boat" or "ocean-going torpedo boat", these ships were to a great degree equivalent to its contemporaneous destroyers of other navies and were numbered sequentially as torpedo boats.
V 99 was one of eight ships of the B 97 class and the only one lost in WW 1. The class leader was transferred in 1920 to Italy as war reparation. She operated from December 1924 until January 1939 as Regia Marina Cesare Rossarol. The other six vessels were scrapped after the end of WW 1.
Monday, 16 September 2019
HMS Prince of Wales
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| Winston Churchill on board the battleship HMS Prince of Wales during his journey to North America to meet President Roosevelt, August 1941. |
IJN Shinano
IJN Shinano was supposed to be the 3rd Yamato-Class battleship. The partially completed battleship hull was converted to a carrier due to Japan's disastrous loss of 4 carriers at the Battle of Midway. She still holds the record as the largest warship ever sunk by a submarine.
USS Kearsarge (BB-5)
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| USS Kearsarge (BB-5), a Kearsarge-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the U.S. Navy. A colour-tinted postal card from 1912. |
USS Wisconsin (BB-64)
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| USS Wisconsin (BB-64), a little bruised, but underway after her collision with USS Eaton (DD-510). |
HMS King Edward VII
HMS King Edward VII and her seven sisters comprise the second largest class of battleships ever built and where the final design submitted by Sir William White, the man who designed the late Victorian Royal Navy. These ships were the first major departure from the original design White had produced back in the early 1890s with the Majestic Class, the main feature being the addition of four 9.2" guns in single turrets in the corners of the superstructure, and the 6" battery being all on a single deck, instead of being on two levels in casemate's as had been the case with the Majestic, Canopus, London, Formidable, Queen and Duncan Classes. Backed up with the standard Main Armament battery of four 12" guns these ships could pour out a terrific volume of fire, much greater than any earlier British battleship, and comparable to contemporary foreign design's which were starting to mount an intermediate battery of 7.5", 8" or 10" guns. These ships were the first British Battleships to feature a mixed Oil and Coal-fired boilers, with oil fuel being kept in tanks held in the ships double bottom. All ships proved to be reliable steamers in service, and all bettered their expected top speed of 18kts, top speed in service proved to be around 19.5kts. The addition of oil Sprayers to the ship's boilers meant that they could easily outstrip the rest of the fleet if need be. Very useful when chasing an enemy fleet. In service, the class were given the nickname of the "wobbly eight" predominantly because they had a high metacentric height meaning the class were rather more prone to roll. R.A. Burt states that a time of 14 seconds was all it took for a double roll to happen. When compared to the earlier Bulwark class there were considered wet ships, having a slightly lower freeboard (eight inches), however, they were also considered very good sea-boats, and found to be very quick to answer the helm. Formed into their own complete squadron in peacetime, during the Great War this class formed the 3rd Battle Squadron, and spent the first two and a half years of the war operating with the Grand Fleet Dreadnoughts. Over the course of the Great War two of the class were lost. HMS King Edward VII herself was lost in January 1916 to a mine strike, taking 9 hours to sink. HMS Britannia was torpedoed and sunk just off Cape Trafalgar on 9th November 1918, she took two and a half hours to sink and became the last British warship sunk in WW1. The long sinking times of both ships is a testament to the Damage Control operated by both crews in trying circumstances (Britannia especially as she suffered a secondary explosion in one of the 9.2" magazines after the torpedo strike), but also the toughness of the ship's design.
HMS Rockingham G58 ex USS Swasey (DD-273)
HMS Rockingham G58 ex USS Swasey (DD-273) a Clemson-class destroyer. USS Swasey was decommissioned at San Diego on June 10th 1922 and assigned to the reserve fleet for the next 17 years. Swasey was reactivated on December 18th 1939, after an overhaul and sea trials she was transferred to Britain and renamed HMS Rockenham on November 26th 1940 under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement.
HMS Rockingham was modified for trade convoy escort service by removal of three of the original 4-inch guns and three of the triple torpedo tube mounts to reduce topside weight for additional depth charge stowage and installation of the hedgehog. Rockingham was assigned to Escort Group B-1 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force for convoys ON 96, SC 105, SC 119, ON 171, HX 230 and HX 236 during the winter of 1942-43.
Japanese cruiser Kashii
The Japanese cruiser Kashii sinking off the coast of French Indochina after an attack by U.S. Navy carrier aircraft on January 12, 1945. Kashii was hit amidships on her starboard side by a torpedo from a Grumman TBF Avenger, then a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver struck her with two bombs aft, setting off the depth charge magazine. Of Kashii's crew, 621 men went down with the ship and only 19 were rescued. US Naval History and Heritage command photo NH 80-G-300864.
USS Brooklyn light cruiser (CL-40) / Chilean Navy cruiser O'Higgins
The Chilean Navy cruiser O'Higgins, which was formerly USS Brooklyn light cruiser, (CL-40) Brooklyn was the lead ship of her class of seven, and the third United States Navy ship to bear its name. Commissioned in 1937, she served in the Atlantic during World War II, as a convoy escort and as fire support for amphibious landings.
Decommissioned in 1947.
On 9 January 1951, USS Brooklyn was transferred under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program to Chile, where she was renamed O'Higgins after one of Chile's founding fathers, Bernardo O'Higgins, and she served for 40 years. She was sold for scrap in 1992, but foundered and sank off Pitcairn Island while under tow to shipbreakers in India. One of her turrets is preserved at the Chilean Navy base at Talcahuano.
HMS Agincourt (1913)
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| HMS Agincourt ploughing through the Atlantic on a menacing and troubled looking evening with all 7 main armament turrets trained to starboard while an Aircraft passes |
Shunsuke Tomiyasu
The family of Shunsuke Tomiyasu, born in 1922 in Nagasaki Prefecture, moved to Tokyo when he was six years old. As a young boy he was skilled at all sports, and he was a member of the judo team as a student at Waseda University in Tokyo. He also enjoyed music, and he organized a harmonica band that performed concerts. His eyes were very large, and he had the nickname of "Eyeballs" in elementary school.
In September 1942, Tomiyasu graduated with a degree in political science and economics from Waseda University, and he started work at the South Manchurian Railroad Company.
On September 18, 1943, he entered the Navy in the 13th Class of Reserve Students. After basic training, he was assigned to the Tsukuba Naval Air Group in Ibaraki Prefecture. On April 22, 1945, Lieutenant Junior Grade Tomiyasu went to Kanoya Air Base in southern Kyushu to wait for the date that his kamikaze squadron would sortie.
Tomiyasu wrote the following final letter to his family:
Dear Father, Mother, and Sister,
I was suddenly ordered to sortie to a certain area, and I must depart now. Since from the beginning I gave my life for our country, I do not expect to return alive. I am surely determined to achieve excellent battle results.
Today the fate and existence of our country are at hand. We leave as defenders of our country. You may miss me when I am not here, but please live with great enthusiasm and cheerfulness. Worries will cause everyone to be discouraged.
When I entered the Navy, I naturally was prepared for death, so I think everyone also should not feel lonely. I plan to send a letter to Hideo, but please give him greetings also from our home.
Since Lieutenant Junior Grade Kondo plans to go visit you, please meet with him. I will do my very best, so please rest assured about that.
Shunsuke
At 5:30 in the morning of May 14, 1945, Lieutenant Junior Grade Tomiyasu sortied from Kanoya Air Base as leader of the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps 6th Tsukuba Squadron, which consisted of 14 Zero fighters each carrying a 500-kg bomb. He evaded heavy antiaircraft fire and crashed into the forward elevator of the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV-6), the US Navy's most decorated ship in World War II with 20 battle stars. Damage control put out the fires in 30 minutes, but the damage caused by Tomiyasu's plane and its bomb put Enterprise out of the rest of the war as she had to return to the States for repairs. The kamikaze attack killed 13 and wounded 68. The explosion also blew eight crewmen over the side of the carrier, but the destroyer Waldron (DD-699) quickly picked them up.
After the burial at sea for the Enterprise crewmen killed in the attack, there was also a burial at sea for Tomiyasu off the ship's stern. His rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade was discovered from the insignia on his flight suit, and there were also name cards in one of his pockets. The name of these cards was translated incorrectly as Tomi Zai, so this was the name used by Americans for almost 50 years to refer to the kamikaze pilot who hit Enterprise. The following poem by Arlond "Jack" Banks, who served aboard Enterprise from 1943 to 1946, describes the attack that knocked the carrier out of the war [1]:
The Last Attack
'Twas Fourteen May, the year '45
Ragged few of her crew remain alive
Witness to that deadly cruise
Off Japanese islands - Okinawa and Kyushu
A fateful day for Tomi Zai,
Kamikaze pilot with death wish to die.
Granted his wish by "Son of Heaven"
Plunging to Enterprise - was morning after 7.
Steadfast its course quick and true,
Straight as an arrow his Zeke flew.
Through walls of fire impossible to survive,
That suicide plane kept its fatal dive.
Striking our Queen on her number one,
Lit off like a rocket, to the sky it spun.
Big E wounded, shook, rattled and rolled,
To rid the evil taking its toll -
Crushing our ship, killing our mates,
That last attack sealed our fate.
'Twas our ticket home, Stateside alive,
Aboard our Queen Good Enterprise.
Kan Sugahara, a graduate in the 77th class at the Japanese Naval Academy at Etajima, was instrumental in the determination of the correct identity of the kamikaze pilot who hit the carrier Enterprise. He examined Japanese records of Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade kamikaze pilots who died on May 14, 1945, and concluded that Tomiyasu had to be the same person named Tomi Zai by the Americans based on the similarity of the kanji (Chinese characters) in the names and based on Tomiyasu's sortie time from Kanoya Air Base. Sugahara also coordinated the return by the USS Enterprise CV-6 Association of a small piece of Tomiyasu's Zero fighter to the Kanoya Naval Air Base Museum for display.
The photo of Shunsuke Tomiyasu, his last letter, and information about his life come from the Kasama Museum of History and Folklore (Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture), which has an exhibit room dedicated to the history of the Tsukuba Naval Air Group. The description of Tomiyasu's crash into Enterprise comes from Stafford (1962, 496-9).
1. Poems of the Big E <http://www.cv6.org/company/accounts/abanks/> (December 1, 2007).
Source Cited
Stafford, Edward P. 1962. The Big E: The Story of the USS Enterprise. New York: Dell.
HMCS Niobe (1897)
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| HMCS Niobe in Halifax August 1914 |
The British battleships HMS Rodney, HMS Nelson and the battle cruiser HMS Hood.
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| The British battleships HMS Rodney, HMS Nelson and the battle cruiser HMS Hood. |
USS Delaware (BB-28)
USS Delaware (BB-28) was a dreadnought battleship of the United States Navy, the lead ship of her class. She was laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding in November 1907, launched in January 1909, and completed in April 1910. The sixth ship to be named for the First State, Delaware was armed with a main battery of ten 12-inch (305 mm) guns all on the centerline, making her the most powerful battleship in the world at the time of her construction. She was also the first battleship of the US Navy to be capable of steaming at full speed for 24 continuous hours without suffering a breakdown.
Delaware served in the Atlantic Fleet throughout her career. During World War I, she sailed to Great Britain to reinforce the British Grand Fleet, in the 6th Battle Squadron. She saw no action during the war, however, as both the British and Germans had abandoned direct confrontation with each other. After the end of the war, she returned to her peacetime duties of fleet manoeuvres, midshipmen cruises, and good-will visits to foreign ports. Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, Delaware was retained until the new battleship USS Colorado was completed in 1924, at which point she was broken up for scrap in accordance with the treaty.
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| USS Delaware in 1920 |
French battleship Strasbourg
Tank Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. G (turret nr. 822) of the 7th division of the 25th tank regiment on the pier in the port of Toulon, at the flooded French battleship "Strasbourg". On November 27, 1942, after German tanks entered Toulon during Operation Lila (Germany’s capture of the ships of the French fleet in Toulon), French ships in the port were ordered to flood. The crew of "Strasbourg" established subversive charges, and the ship moved away from the mooring wall. When German tanks appeared on the pier, the Kingstones were discovered, and the ship was blown up. "Strasbourg" sank to the bottom, plunging 2 meters into the mud. The battleship was raised on July 17, 1943, but was no longer commissioned. Toulon, France.
Date: November 1942.
Source: Meretmarine
USS Hornet (CV-8)
A Japanese Type 99 Aichi D3A1 Val trails smoke as it drives toward the USS Hornet (CV-8) on the morning of October 26, 1942, during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. Seconds later, this plane struck the ship's stack and then her flight deck, killing seven men and spreading burning aviation gasoline over the deck. A Type 97 Nakajima B5N2 Kate is flying over Hornet after dropping its torpedo and another Val is off her bow. Note the anti-aircraft shell bursts between Hornet and the camera, with fragments striking the water nearby. U.S. Navy photo NH 80-G-33947.
USN Cruiser in the Atlantic - 1943
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| USN Cruiser in the Atlantic - 1943 LIFE Magazine - J R Eyerman Photographer |
Pearl Harbour, 7th December 1941
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| Rare picture from a civilian taken looking out over Battleship row Pearl Harbour in the immediate aftermath of the strike. |
USS Augusta
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| CA-31 USS Augusta under fire from the incomplete battleship Jean Bart on 10 November 1942 during the Naval battle of Casablanca. |
USS Yorktown
Mid-day on the 4 December 1943
A Japanese Nakajima B6N 'Tenzan' torpedo bomber is hit by a 5-inch shell while attacking the USS 'Yorktown' aircraft carrier off Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, North Pacific.
Deck side account, "At 300 yards, the Jap plane took a shell in its left-wing and flames spurted out. The pilot then veered to try to crash into the Yorktown, skimming the flight deck so close that the flames singed the beard of one of the Yorktown gunners. The plane finally crashed into the sea 100 yards close aboard and exploded in a ball of smoke and flame." (Photo was taken from the aft end of Yorktown's flight deck, by Chief Petty Officer Photographer’s Mate, Alfred N. Cooperman)
(Colourised by Royston Leonard)
German battleship Tirpitz
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| German battleship Tirpitz anchored in Bogen Bay near Narvik, in northern Norway, 1943-44. She is protected by anti-torpedo nets. |
Russian Armoured Cruiser Bayan (1900)
The cruiser Bayan (Russian: Баян) was the name ship of the four Bayan-class armoured cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The ship had to be built in France because there was no available capacity in Russia. Bayan was assigned to the First Pacific Squadron after completion and based at Port Arthur from the end of 1903. She suffered minor damage during the Battle of Port Arthur at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and supported destroyers as they patrolled outside the harbour. After bombarding Japanese positions in July 1904, the ship struck a mine and was out of action for the next several months. Bayan was sunk during the Siege of Port Arthur and was then salvaged by the Japanese after the war.
Renamed Aso by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) she served as a training ship after extensive repairs. The ship was converted into a minelayer in 1917 and was decommissioned in 1930 to serve as a target ship. She was eventually sunk as a target in 1932.
Unlike previous Russian armoured cruisers, the Bayan-class ships were designed as scouts for the fleet. They were 449 feet 7 inches (137.0 m) long overall and 443 feet (135.0 m) between perpendiculars. They had a maximum beam of 57 feet 6 inches (17.5 m), a draft of 22 feet (6.7 m) and displaced 7,802 long tons (7,927 t). The ships had a crew of 573 officers and men.
The Bayan class had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single propeller shaft using steam provided by 26 Belleville boilers. Designed for a total of 16,500 indicated horsepower (12,304 kW) intended to propel the cruisers at 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph), the engines actually developed 17,400 hp (13,000 kW) during Bayan's sea trials in October 1902 and drove the ship to a maximum speed of 20.9 knots (38.7 km/h; 24.1 mph). She could carry a maximum of 1,100 long tons (1,118 t) of coal, which gave her a range of 3,900 nautical miles (7,200 km; 4,500 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
Bayan's main armament consisted of two 8-inch (203 mm) 45-calibre guns in single turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. Her eight 6-inch (152 mm) guns were mounted in casemates on the sides of the ship's hull. anti-torpedo boat defence was provided by twenty 75-millimetre (3.0 in) 50-calibre guns; eight of these were mounted in casemates on the side of the hull and in the superstructure. The remaining guns were located above the six-inch gun casemates in pivot mounts with gun shields. Bayan also mounted eight 47-millimetre (1.9 in) and two 37-millimetre (1.5 in) Hotchkiss guns. The ship had two submerged 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes, one on each broadside.
The ship used Harvey armour throughout. Her waterline belt was 7.9 inches (200 mm) thick over her machinery spaces. Fore and aft, it reduced to 3.9 inches (100 mm). The upper armour strake and the armour protecting the casemates was 2.4 inches (60 mm) thick. The thickness of the armoured deck was 2 inches (50 mm); over the central battery it was a single plate, but elsewhere it consisted of a 1.2-inch (30 mm) plate over two 0.39-inch (10 mm) plates. The gun turret sides were protected by 5.9 inches (150 mm) of armour and their roofs were 1.2 inches thick. The barbettes were protected by armour plates 6.7-inch (170 mm) thick. The sides of the conning tower were 6.3 inches (160 mm) thick.
Bayan, named after the bard Boyan, had to be ordered in May 1898 from the French shipyard Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée in La Seyne-Sur-Mer because there was no capacity available in Russian shipyards. The ship was laid down in February 1899 and launched on 12 June 1900. Bayan was completed in February 1903 and, under the command of Captain 1st Rank Robert Wiren, made port visits in Greece, Italy and North Africa before sailing for Kronstadt. Arriving in April 1903, she was only there for several months before departing for Port Arthur on 7 August. Together with the French-built battleship Tsesarevich, Bayan arrived on 2 December and they were both assigned to the First Pacific Squadron.
On the night of 8/9 February 1904, the IJN launched a surprise attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. Bayan was not hit by the initial torpedo-boat incursion and sortied the following morning when the Combined Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, attacked. Tōgō had expected the surprise night attack by his ships to be much more successful than it was, anticipating that the Russians would be badly disorganized and weakened, but they had recovered from their surprise and were ready for his assault. The Japanese vessels had been spotted by the protected cruiser Boyarin, which was patrolling offshore, and alerted the Russian defences. Tōgō chose to attack the Russian coastal defences with his main armament and engage the ships with his secondary guns. Splitting his fire proved to be a poor decision as to the Japanese eight-inch (200 mm) and six-inch guns inflicted inconsequential damage on the Russian ships, which concentrated all their fire on their opponents with some effect. Bayan suffered superficial damage from nine hits and numerous splinters; 6 crewmen were killed and 35 injured. The ship fired 28 eight-inch, 100 six-inch and 160 seventy-five-millimetre shells during the battle.
The damage to Bayan was repaired in several days and subsequently, the cruiser patrolled off Port Arthur. Together with the protected cruiser Novik, the ship sortied on 11 March 1904 to support the destroyer Steregushchiy. Under attack by Japanese destroyers, the ship was sunk before help arrived.[ Early on the morning of 13 April, the Russian destroyer Strashnii fell in with four Japanese destroyers in the darkness while on patrol. Once her captain realized his mistake, the Russian ship attempted to escape but failed after a Japanese shell struck one of her torpedoes and caused it to detonate. By this time Bayan had sortied to provide support but was only able to rescue five survivors before a Japanese squadron of protected cruisers attacked. Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov led a force of two battleships and three cruisers out to support Bayan and also ordered the rest of the First Pacific Squadron to follow as soon as they could. In the meantime, the Japanese had reported the Russian sortie to Tōgō and he arrived with all six Japanese battleships. Heavily outnumbered, Makarov ordered his ships to retreat and to join the rest of the squadron that was just exiting the harbour. En route, however, his flagship, Petropavlovsk, struck a mine and sank almost instantly.
Bayan sailed with the rest of the Pacific Squadron on 23 June in an abortive attempt to reach Vladivostok. The new squadron commander, Rear Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft, ordered the squadron to return to Port Arthur when it encountered the Japanese fleet shortly before sunset, as he did not wish to engage his numerically superior opponents in a night battle. After bombarding Imperial Japanese Army positions on 27 July, the ship struck a mine and was under repair until September. After the death of Vitgeft during the Battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August, Wiren was promoted to rear admiral and became the commander of the First Pacific Squadron. Bayan was subsequently trapped in Port Arthur and sunk at her mooring by five 28-centimetre (11 in) howitzer shells on 9 December.
After the war, Bayan's wreck was refloated on 24 June and towed to Dairen. There she was given temporary repairs and commissioned as Aso (named after a volcano in Kumamoto Prefecture)[20] on 22 August. The next day she was towed to Maizuru, Japan for permanent repairs that lasted until July 1908. During this time, her boilers were replaced by Miyabara water-tube boilers and the majority of her armament was replaced with Japanese weapons. Aso was armed with two original 8-inch 45 caliber guns, Eight 6-inch 45 caliber Armstrong GG guns and sixteen 3-inch 40 caliber Armstrong N guns.
On 7 September 1908, Aso, together with the ex-Russian protected cruiser Soya, was assigned to the Training Squadron. On 14 March 1909, they began a training cruise that took their naval cadets to the West Coast of the United States and Canada and Hawaii before they returned to Yokosuka on 7 August. The next year the two ships made a cruise to Australia and Southeast Asia that last from 1 February to 3 July 1910. They were briefly relieved of their assignment to the Training Squadron on 25 September before rejoining it on 1 April 1911. The next training cruise lasted from 25 November 1911 to 28 March 1912 and took the cadets to the same destinations as the 1910 cruise. On 20 April 1912, Aso has transferred away from the Training Squadron[23] and she was refitted in March 1913. During this refit, her eight-inch guns were replaced by a pair of six-inch guns 50 caliber guns and her torpedo tubes were removed. Aso and Soya were reassigned to the Training Squadron on 1 December 1914 and they made their last training cruise from 20 April to 23 August 1915, during which they visited Rabaul, New Guinea, and Fremantle, Australia.
In 1917, Aso was converted into a minelayer, with a capacity of 420 mines, although she was not formally reclassified as such until 1 April 1920. Aso was stricken from the navy list on 1 April 1930 and renamed Hai Kan No. 4. She was sunk on 4 August 1932 by two submarine torpedoes after serving as a target for the heavy cruisers Myōkō and Nachi.
Source - Dr Dan Saranga www.the.blueprints.com
Saturday, 14 September 2019
USS West Virginia
The second drama is bomb had hit between Bridge and first smokestack, taking out only stairs to Bridge. Lt. Fred White and ships Bugler, Dick Fiske are seen on Bridge side. Port crane was manually turned toward them, where they snagged crane cable and used come-along ratchet (seen under them)
To pull tight. All on Bridge swung hand over hand to crane and climbed down. Captain Bennion (KIA, MOH) had just been placed in the open area above them.
The only colour photo of recently painted Battleships, it was used to determine true colour of these ships-deep blue-gray.
Sunday, 8 September 2019
USS PCR852
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| BRP Miguel Malvar (PS-19) is the lead ship of the Miguel Malvar class of corvettes of the Philippine Navy. She was originally built as USS PCE(R)-852, a PCE(R)-848-class rescue patrol craft escort for the United States Navy during World War II. She was acquired by the Philippine Navy in April 1976 and later on commissioned as Miguel Malvar after Miguel Malvar y Carpio. The ship is in active service. Along with other World War II-era ships of the Philippine Navy, Miguel Malvar is one of the oldest active fighting ships in the world today. |
Commissioned in the US Navy as the USS PCER-852 in 1944, she was first assigned in the Atlantic theatre of operations engaged in patrolling and training. On 1 August 1944, PCER-852 stood out of Bermuda bound for Norfolk, Virginia with 26 prisoners of war—sailors from the German submarine U-505, captured in June by a “hunter-killer” group formed around escort carrier USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60).
Relocating to the Pacific theatre of operations, her duties included treatment of wounded sailors and soldiers, and ASW patrols during the invasion of the Philippines at Leyte Gulf and Lingayen Gulf, and in the operations at Okinawa. During her six months in the war zone, her medical staff and crew handled over 1300 dead, critically wounded, and ships' survivors. After the war, she was placed under the Atlantic Reserve Fleet but was not decommissioned.
Early in 1946, however, she was converted into an experimental ship to test infrared equipment for the Bureau of Ships. She had her armament removed and her hospital facilities converted to workspaces for test equipment. At that time, she was redesignated E-PCER-852. She completed the conversion in May 1946. In September 1947, the Bureau of Ships shifted the infrared test program to the Underwater Sound Laboratory at New London, Connecticut, and E-PCER-852 operated from that base.
For the next 18 years, the ship continued to do experimental work. By the early 1950s, the nature of her test work expanded from infrared gear to include optical communications equipment, sonar apparatus, weather gear, and various other items of hardware. In addition to the Bureau of Ships, she did test work for both the Bureau of Ordnance and the Office of Naval Research. On 15 February 1956, the ship was named USS Brattleboro. She continued her experimental duties for nearly a decade after receiving her name. During that time, her zone of operations also expanded to include the coastal waters along the southeastern United States and thence into the West Indies. On 1 October 1965, Brattleboro was ordered to Philadelphia to begin inactivation. Decommissioned at Philadelphia and struck from the Navy list on 1 November 1965.
She was then transferred to the Republic of Vietnam on 11 July 1966. She served the Republic of Vietnam Navy as Ngọc Hồi (HQ-12) up until her escape to the Philippines in 1975, together with other South Vietnamese Navy ships and their respective crew.
After she was cleaned, repaired and made ready for service, she was formally acquired by the Philippine Navy on 5 April 1976 and was commissioned together with other ex-RVN ships on 7 February 1977. She underwent extensive overhaul and refitting of armaments and was commissioned into the Philippine Navy as RPS Miguel Malvar (PS-19).
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| BRP Miguel Malvar (PS 19) steams alongside the national security cutter USCGC Waesche (WMSL 751) during a replenishment at sea approach (RASAP) training event at CARAT 2012 - Philippines. |
She initially served the Philippine Navy as RPS Miguel Malvar (PS-19) until she was renamed to BRP Miguel Malvar effective 23 June 1980. Between 1990 and 1992 the Miguel Malvar underwent major overhaul, weapons and radar systems refit, and upgrade of communications gear.
She is currently assigned with the Patrol Force of the Philippine Fleet and is considered as one of the most decorated ship of the Navy.
SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm
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| SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm |
Along with her three sister ships, König, Grosser Kurfürst and Markgraf, Kronprinz took part in most of the fleet actions during the war, including the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. Although near the front of the German line, she emerged from the battle unscathed. She was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS J1 on 5 November 1916 during an operation off the Danish coast. Following repairs, she participated in Operation Albion, an amphibious assault in the Baltic, in October 1917. During the operation Kronprinz engaged the Tsesarevich and forced her to retreat.
After Germany's defeat in the war and the signing of the Armistice in November 1918, Kronprinz and most of the capital ships of the High Seas Fleet were interned by the Royal Navy in Scapa Flow. The ships were disarmed and reduced to skeleton crews while the Allied powers negotiated the final version of the Treaty of Versailles. On 21 June 1919, days before the treaty was signed, the commander of the interned fleet, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, ordered the fleet to be scuttled to ensure that the British would not be able to seize the ships. Unlike most of the other scuttled ships, Kronprinz was never raised for scrapping; the wreck is still on the bottom of the harbour.
HMS Chester (1915)
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| HMS Chester |
The ship was 456 feet 6 inches (139.1 m) long overall, with a beam of 49 feet 10 inches (15.2 m) and a draught of 15 feet 3 inches (4.6 m). Displacement was 5,185 long tons (5,268 t) normal and 5,795 long tons (5,888 t) at full load. Twelve Yarrow boilers fed Chester's Parsons steam turbines, driving four propeller shafts, that were rated at 31,000 shaft horsepower (23,000 kW) for her intended speed of 26.5 knots. She carried 1,161 long tons (1,180 t) tons of fuel oil.
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| Some of the damage to HMS Chester from the Battle of Jutland |
| John 'Jack' Cornwell V.C. |
The ship was laid down on 7 October 1914, launched on 8 December 1915 and entered service in May 1916, three weeks before the Battle of Jutland. At Jutland, she fought as part of the 3rd Battle Cruiser Squadron and came under withering fire from German forces. She was hit by 17 150mm shells and suffered 29 men killed and 49 wounded; many of the wounded lost legs because the open-backed gun-shields did not reach the deck and give adequate protection. Amongst the gun crew fatalities was 16-year-old John 'Jack' Cornwell who received the Victoria Cross for his dedication to duty though mortally injured. Chester served with the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron until the Armistice and was subsequently placed in reserve. She was offered for re-sale to Greece but the offer was declined and the ship was sold for scrapping on 9 November 1921 to Rees, of Llanelly. The gun served by Cornwell is preserved in the Imperial War Museum in London.
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| One of Chester's 5.5-inch guns at the Imperial War Museum, London, that was operated by John Cornwell VC during the Battle of Jutland. |
HMS Vanguard
Vanguard is very much misunderstood, and quite often its mentioned that she was 'only' fitted with 15inch guns, that she was antiquated toothless.
There is so much untruth banded about that it would be impossible to tackle the whole subject of Vanguard, this post is - not - about how or why the DNC got to the point of using these existing guns etc.... But rather looking at were the guns 'old antiquated not potent enough' etc.
Firstly the four twin Turrets and mountings (mounting consisted of the gun house, working chamber and main trunk) were from Glorious and Courageous, yes, but they weren't simply 'dropped' into the Vanguard hull.
Why because they were originally for G and C which had the mags above the shell rooms but history and show that the reverse was better and the DNC and gone down that route with Nelson Rodney the KGVs and now Vanguard.
Gun ports were cut away to allow for increased elevation from 20° to 30° and the guns were given pneumatic run-out.
Internally they were completely modernised weak points eliminated and revamping of the revolving structure to bring them into line with modern requirements. Turret ventilation with larger fans fitted and heaters to condition the air in cold climates. Special fittings to the gun ports and barbettes against the weather.
Third the original 15ft rangefinders were replaced with new 30ft ones.
Fourth the turrets were fitted with (RPC) Remote Power Control training gear which involved the redesign of many valves, pointer drives and wheel gearing. ( I believe this was a first, the Iowa's received this later.)
Fifth the 15inch guns themselves were spares that had been used in the 'R's and QE class but were fully refurbished.
Sixth to increase the power and range of the shell further, supercharges were available. (though no guns were ever fired using supercharges the option was there none the less for Vanguard)
Seventh, couple this with state of the art
f/c (type 274 amongst many others) on a marvellous ship who's seakeeping even in severe weather was excellent, second to none.....and you've got a deadly stable gunnery platform as NATO exercises ably demonstrated.
The turrets and guns even in their original form could be considered the most durable reliable accurate naval rifle in history.
And now they had been - improved - and could rightly be considered as new and improved in range, rate of fire and hitting power. For sure not 'quite' the same punch as a 16inch 'super heavy' but they were perfectly adequate for ANY task asked of it in the age after ww2.. Or indeed before if it was available.
I hope this has helped some members here to understand that the guns fitted to Vanguard couldn't really be described as 'old or antiquated' but were fully re-engineered reliable punchy weapons not to be underestimated or belittled.
Photos have captions.
Source The Last Battleship HMS Vanguard 46-60 R A BURT
The Battleship Builders I Johnston I Buxton
Navweaps
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