Pensacola class heavy cruisers (1928) USA (1928-30) – USS Pensacola, Salt lake City The top heavy cruisers This summup in a quick way the fundamental problem of the first two cruisers of the USN, experiments of the new abstract concept imposed by the treaty: A 10,000 tonnes cruiser with a ten inches armament, whatever its … Read more
USN and Armada, context, developments, battles. How the “splendid little war” began As we know, this war began with the blowing up of the USS Maine in Havana harbor. The explosion later formally identified it as accidental, but the American public then has been pushed “white hot” by the press and recent events, such as … Read more
Chinese PLAN (1955) – Anshan, Fu Chun, Chang Chun, Chi Lin The first Chinese Destroyers: The Anshan class was not an indigenous design but the new denomination of four Soviet-built vintage Gnevniy class destroyers, designed in the mid-1930s and built at Nikolayev, Dalzavod and Komsomolsk yards. There were transferred in December 1954 (two), and another … Read more
Torpedo semi-submersible rolling Catamaran Germany (1944), Fast Attack Craft, paper project, 1944 A daring concept born from desperation: At the end of the war, Nazi Germany desperately needed new, essentially technological ways to deal with the allied steamroller, on land, air and sea. This led to an engineering fest of epic proportion, spawning some of … Read more
German Navy vs Royal Navy 8 December 1914 British Revenge over Von Spee Just as Newsweek frontpage stated in 1982, the “Empire Strikes Back” in December 1914. Like then and earlier, the Royal Navy departed for the Falklands. This remote, cold corner of the South Atlantic, not far from the Argentinian coast and infamous Cape … Read more
USA – 35 boats Prologue: Early precursors (1800-1870s) The invention of the “Torpedo” While the torpedo was invented only in 1866 by Robert Whitehead, just a year after the end of the Civil War, the prototype was first created in 1863 by the Austro-Hungarian officer Ivan Lupis. Called salvacoste it had many shortcomings that were … Read more
Orion class Battleships (1911) United Kingdom (1911) Orion, Monarch, Conqueror, Thunderer. Built in emergency Built in the emergency plan of 1909 (due to public pressure “we want eight and we won’t wait” the programme was raised to six dreadnoughts and two battlecruisers), these four battleships innovated by their main artillery, with a 343 mm caliber … Read more
Skory class destroyers (1949) USSR – 70 ships The first postwar soviet destroyers The Skory (or Skoryy, Skoriy) was a somewhat backward response to the large series of standardized destroyers of the American Fletcher and Gearing classes. These were essentially a takeover of the Ognevoi class from 1940, but they incorporated many of the technologies … Read more
Panther class cruisers (1885) Austria-Hungary (1885) Panther, Leopard, Tiger Austro-Hungarian Torpedo-cruisers These three cruisers are grouped together in the same class by convenience. In reality they differed in detail but overall proceeded of the same philosophy: In 1884, the Admiralty decided to order two torpedo cruisers from Great Britain to study foreign construction, and in … Read more
France (1928-45), Minelayer Diesel Electric Submersibles. Diamant, Nautilus, Perle, Rubis, Saphir, and Turquoise France’s most successful ww2 subs This class of “diamonds” became the best known during the war among french subs, the only ones to gain fame within the allied forces and pass to posterity with a new class of nuclear attack submarines named … Read more
