British Pre-dreadnoughts HMS London, Bulwark, Venerable, Queen, Prince of Wales The London class comprised five pre-dreadnought battleships. They were planned in mid-1890s and, built and commissioned in the early 1900s. The class was basically a repeat of the preceding Formidable class with incremental changes, in that case the armour layout. Artillery was the same as … Read more
Soviet Navy 1921-45: Circa 400 Boats During WW2, the Soviet Navy went on producting motor torpedo boats in larger numbers than any other warship. Cheap and capable of operating on rivers as well, with gunboats, they soon proved highly valuable to perforom a large variety of roles, from the black sea to the baltic and … Read more
Long Island class (1940) Escort Aircraft Carriers USS Long Island, USS Charger (CVE-1, CVE-30) WW2 first escort aircraft carrier The USS Long island (CVE-1) is probably forgotten today in the mass of aircraft carriers built by the United States during WW2, but is was the equivalent of the British HMS Audacity: The quick conversion of … Read more
French Navy Cruiser (1953) rebuilt as missile cruiser, active until 1991. The last French cruiser With the start of the cold war France still possessed a number of cruisers and a modernized battleship (Jean Bart), which provided cover for its aircraft carriers. In 1946 was launched her last prewar unfinished cruiser, the De Grasse completely … Read more
German Empire (1901): SMS Roon, Yorck The Roon class were follow-up armored cruisers of the Prinz Adalbert-class, built for the Kaiserliche Marine. Although quite similar in general appearance, they still incorporated incremental improvements, notably for the powerplant, reflected in their fourth funnel. Still, they had a relatively light armament and thin protection compared to the … Read more
USS Norfolk (DL-1) Ocean Escort (Cruiser) The USS Norfolk (Destroyer Leader 1) was a new type of large oceanic escort vessel, a new generation of very large destroyer, later reclassified as a cruiser. Launched in 1951 and completed in 1953, the new ship was tailored to track and hunt down the Soviet “Whiskey” class submarines, … Read more
Amphibious Warfare from scratch (1941) US Navy 1941-45, 16 major landing operations The US Navy is remembered in WW2 for its amazing industrial effort to rebuilt a fleet after the losses at Pearl Harbor, with a scale that steamrolled the Japanese, reclaimed the Atlantic and mastered the Mediterranean. It was the instrument of the “pax … Read more
Mitsubishi 1MF (1919) Imperial Japanese Navy, 148 built The long road towards the first IJN fighter The Imperial Japanese seaplanes from the Wakamiya in 1914 were used operationally during the siege of the German colony of Tsing Tao. However no needs emerged for a fighter before 1916, when it was obvious the newly created Imperial … Read more
US Navy 1941-45 – Circa 60,000 amphibious crafts & assault ships combined The fascinating aspect in the development of the USN amphibious force in WW2 was its sudden and massive rise, with a steep progression curve in years. It started with improvuizations in early 1942 and ended in late 1945 as a finely-tuned machine. For … Read more
USN Dive Bomber 1938-1944 (5,936 built) Fearless Dauntless: USN’ legendary dive bomber The image is clear now, since the river of history went by, nearly 80 years ago. On 4 June 1942, in a remote corner of the Pacific with no land in sight for hundred of miles, an epic clash turned the tide of … Read more
