WW1 British Destroyers Royal Navy (1895-1919) – About 536 ships WW1 British Destroyers: 26 knotters | 27 knotters | 30 knotters | 33 knotters | Turbine destroyers | River class | Cricket class | Tribal class | Beagle class | Acorn class | Acheron class Acasta class | L class | M class | Repeat … Read more
United Kingdom (1914-22) 7 sub-classes, 28 cruisers The veteran light cruisers The ‘C’ class were called artificially that way by most authors for simplification; This comprised the Caroline class on one hand, and the Calliope, Cambrian, Centaur, Caledon, Ceres, and Carlisle, relatively similar in design, concept, and specifications. They were a wartime “mass-production” class to … Read more
HMS Furious (1917) United Kingdom – Aircraft Carrier History’s first aircraft carrier The HMS Furious is like a warship with several lives. She started as a battlecruiser, evolved into an hybrid plane carrier, an experimental aircraft carrier during WW1, and a modern aircraft carrier during WW2. But above all, she was the first to carry … Read more
United Kingdom (1914) – Seaplane Carrier History’s first purpose-built seaplane carrier HMS Ark Royal is a famous name, as it went back to Elizabethan times (1587) but was used only with this ship and became even more famous in the interwar as the most modern, purpose-built British aircraft carrier. But back in WW1, she was … Read more
United Kingdom (1898) Formidable, Irresistible, Implacable, London, Bulwark, Venerable, Queen, Prince of Wales. The improved Canopus This “superclass” of eight pre-dreadnought battleships was a same time very close to the Majestic and Canopus, yet they had true turrets and were enlarged Canopus essentially. Design changes were made during construction, so that two-subclasses appeared, the London … Read more
United Kingdom (1911) King George V, Centurion, Ajax, Audacious If the King George V class battleships are generally assumed to be the one which soldiered in WW2, there was another one which did the same in the previous war, in 1914-18. These were “super-dreadnoughts” (faster with a heavier artillery) presenting a new aspect of the … Read more
United Kingdom (1899-1906), 10 armoured cruisers: Monmouth, Bedford, Essex, Kent, Berwick, Cornwall, Cumberland, Donegal, Lancaster, Suffolk. The other County Class These armoured cruisers bearing County names answered to the concern of well-armed and well-protected but cheaper ships, especially compared to previous Drake. The concern was to produce a series of armoured cruisers for half the … Read more
Town class cruisers (WWI) United Kingdom (1917) Sub-classes Bristol, Weymouth, Chatham, Birmingham, Birkenhead: 21 protected cruisers The battle-hardened WW1 Town class Cruisers Some of these made it through WW2 as well, and they are less well-known than the 1936 namesake class designed to answer to the Mogami, but they were perhaps the most involved British … Read more
British P-Boats (1915) United Kingdom (1915-18) Submarine-chasers, 43 ships The Mass-built British ww1 sub-chasers The submarine total war in the Atlantic by 1914-18 was no less savage and critical than in the second world war. With her fleet prisoner of the Baltic and confined to the western cost of Denmark, the German Empire unleashed dozens … Read more
United Kingdom (1904) Classes Adventure, Forward, Pathfinder & Sentinel, 8 ships Genesis of British scout cruisers Scout cruisers were the type that spawn the entire generation of ww1 light cruisers fielded by the Royal Navy. Adventure class scout cruisers were, as the title suggests, not designed for the battleline (like armoured cruisers) nor used more … Read more
