United Kingdom (1902-1906), Armored Cruisers: HMS Duke of Edinburgh, HMS Black Prince The Duke of Edinburgh-class were two armoured cruisers of the Royal Navy, launched in 1904. They were the first armoured cruisers designed for battlefleet service, and no longer merchant shipping escort. They served in the Atlantic, Channel and Home Fleets and during WW1, … Read more
Imperial Japanese Navy, 1,149 built The Main IJN Carrier Torpedo Bomber in 1939-42 The Nakajima B5N was completely unknown by US Intel before 1941, and vastly underrated (like most Japanese aviation, seen as mediocre western copies). Little was known that this model, albeit of the same generation, vastly outperformed the Douglas TBD Devastator, its rival … Read more
Kawachi class Battleships (1910) Japanese Imperial Navy (1912-1945): IJN Kawachi, Settsu The first Japanese dreadnoughts After the Satsuma class which were probably the most advanced “semi-dreadnoughts” ever designed, it was logical for Japan to move towards a true dreadnought, by just scaling up the design, notably making it more beamy. Two ships were laid down, … Read more
Italy (1914-1943)- 62 TBs The Regia Marina like the Kriegsmarine did not brushed out the torpedo boat class as obsolete. On the contrary, this smaller and cheaper type could replace destroyers well in the confined waters of the central Mediterranean, notably for escort missions. In addition to all the vintage WW1 vessels reclassified as Torpedinieri, … Read more
Consolidated TBY Sea Wolf (1941) USN Torpedo Bomber (1941-44), 181 built. When good enough beats better The Consolidated TBY Sea Wolf was a USN carrier-borne torpedo aircraft, contender and contemporary to the Grumman TBF Avenger, but which development dragged on to such a point, it never saw battle, with a small number delivered and ultimately … Read more
USA – circa 23,492 (1942-45) The Landing Darling (06/06/2022) Few crafts in WW2 were underrated but these “Higgins Boats”. The LCVP has been absolutely crucial to the Allied victory From the shores of Africa to the European Western Front. It became as instrumental as the Jeep or GMC truck on land, not a proper military … Read more
Germany (1914): SMS Pillau, Elbing From Russia, with Love The Pillau class were originally the Russian-ordered Maraviev Amurskyy and Admiral Nevelskoy, in 1912 to Schichau Yards. They were laid down in 1913 and launched for the first on 11 April 1914. Therefore on 5 August, both were requisitioned and completed as SMS Pillau and Elbing. … Read more
French Navy Pre-Dreadnought Battleship (1898-1907) Iéna was ordered in April 1897, and completed in 1902, based on the relatively successful previous Charlemagne class. Although still caracteristic of the earlier designs with a pronounced tumblehome, Iéna adopted the classic international two 12-in (305 mm) gun turrets configuration of the time, but was still relatively slow, and … Read more
Mitsubishi F1M “Pete” (1936) Imperial Japanese Navy, 944 built The last IJN Biplane Genesis for this model started in 1935 when first planned to succeed the Nakajima E8N as main catapult-launched navy spotter, mostly based on cruisers (The E13N was for battleships and succeed the E7K). The E8N (assigned the identifier “Dave” by US Intel) … Read more
WWI Royal Navy Monitors United Kingdom (1912-1918): 42 Monitors Poster of all WWI British Monitors The last British monitors were dating back to the 1870s at a time there was great deal of experimentations. They resurfaced in WWI for the need of coastal bombardment, with the design and production in record time of dedicated vessels, … Read more
