Warships and Ships at war

[brian daley]

I thought I would give the thread this title because it allows to post both Merchant and Naval ships ,of all nations and ages . I have put the whole page of this story,whgich is taken fromthe July 1940 edition of War Illustrated. In a page you are shown the British version of a page in history,the effects of which live with us still,
BrianD

[brian daley]

Charles Pears painted many notable wartime scenes and here he is at his best. This is a painting of the hard fought "Pedestal" convoy to Malta.
Fighters from HMS Victorious and HMS Indomitable engage enemy bombers whilst a barrage of flak is being thrown up,
BrianD

[pablo42]

Great that Brian. Love them old warships.

[brian daley]

Refduelling at Sea, in the British Navy this was carried out by the ships of the Royal Fleet auxilliary,the seamen were all merchant navy and were not on "active service" but did one of the most crucial jobs in battle. Keeping those ship fed and fuelled. This picture is of an American fleet oiler,servicing two ships at the same time. It was ta
ken by an official photographer; it was in the Pacific and the oiler was the Cohaba,
BrianD

[pablo42]

Refduelling at Sea, in the British Navy this was carried out by the ships of the Royal Fleet auxilliary,the seamen were all merchant navy and were not on "active service" but did one of the most crucial jobs in battle. Keeping those ship fed and fuelled. This picture is of an American fleet oiler,servicing two ships at the same time. It was ta
ken by an official photographer; it was in the Pacific and the oiler was the Cohaba,
BrianD

Nice one Brian. I always thought the RFA were RN guys. I'm sure they wear RN denims.

[pablo42]

Charles Pears painted many notable wartime scenes and here he is at his best. This is a painting of the hard fought "Pedestal" convoy to Malta.
Fighters from HMS Victorious and HMS Indomitable engage enemy bombers whilst a barrage of flak is being thrown up,
BrianD

Is that the famous convoy that got through to Malta.

[captain kong]

HMS Barham exploding 25 November 1941. hundreds of men cling to the hull when she explodes. Amazingly, 450 men survive.

QUEEN ELIZABETH-Class Battleship ordered from John Brown at Clydebank after approval of design in June 1912. This ship was laid down on 24th February 1913 and launched on 31st December 1914. She was the third RN warship to bear this name, introduced in 1811 and last used for a cruiser in 1989 sold in 1914. The ship began service in October 1915 and had cost ?2,408,000, including the armament, communication equipment and other items of Admiralty supply. She was present at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and after extensive service during WW2 was sunk by a U-Boat torpedo in November 1941.For more information on design see BRITISH BATTLESHIPS by A Raven and J Roberts.
24th - Took part with QUEEN ELIZABETH , VALIANT and screen of eight Fleet destroyers for provision of cover to cruisers of 7th and 15th Squadrons carrying out search for military convoys on passage to Benghazi (Operation ME7). (Note: cruisers were deployed as Force B ? See Naval Staff History).



25th November 1941, - Under constant supervision by enemy aircraft. Under attack by U331 and hit by three torpedoes which struck between funnel and X turret on port side. Ship sank in position 32.34N 26.24N within 4 minutes after the magazine detonated. (On VALIANT, the closest ship to BARHAM when she was hit, was the Gaumont News cameraman John Turner who shot 2 minutes of movie film, all he had left in the camera, of the sinking. This film became one of the most poignant shot in the whole war)

Only 450 survived from the complement of about 1312. (Casualty List - note on casualties)

Note: At the subsequent Board of Inquiry it was suggested that the fires started caused the explosion of the 4in and 15in magazines. All internal communications failed and the speed of the development of a list made it impossible for many to escape. See above references and TUBAL CAIN by E Muspratt.)

B a t t l e H o n o u r s

JUTLAND 1916 - MATAPAN 1941 - CRETE 1941 - MEDITERRANEAN 1941

SEE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HSY94QVIss

[pablo42]

Great that Brian. Often seen pictures of HMS Barham exploding. Amazing anyone survived.

[captain kong]

Another great warship that seems to be forgotten these days in case we upset our european neighbours,
HMS VICTORY.
21 October, TRAFALGAR DAY.

[pablo42]

Another great warship that seems to be forgotten these days in case we upset our european neighbours,
HMS VICTORY.
21 October, TRAFALGAR DAY.

Wow, great ship. Must have been horrendous to sail in her though. I'll bet it was very squalid below decks.

[captain kong]

HMS Formidable
1) 4 May 1945: Struck by a Zero carrying one 250 kg bomb which caused a 2 foot square hole and a 24 x 20 foot depression in the armored flight deck. Some structural damage was inflicted and three fragments penetrated the hanger deck with one going through a center boiler and into the double bottom. Speed was reduced to 18 knots and she was out of action for five hours. This attack killed eight men, wounded 51 and destroyed eleven aircraft.*
2) 9 May 1945: Kamikaze strike into the after deck park killed one and wounded eight. Deck depressed 4.5 inches with a supporting beam distorted by 3 inches. Six Corsairs and one Avenger were destroyed on deck, and a blown out rivet allowed burning fuel to penetrate into the hanger, which together with the sprinkler system damaged a further eight Corsairs and three Avengers. Out of action for 25 minutes. Amazing how fast they recovered from that attack. 25 minutes.

[pablo42]

Twenty five minutes, jeez, takes longer to make a brew.

[Waterways]

HMS Formidable

Amazing how fast they recovered from that attack. 25 minutes.

The US carriers had wooden flight decks and would have been out for months.

US and Japanese carriers had wood because of repairability. If they had an accident, or crash, they just pulled up the damaged or burnt wood and replaced it, apparently, with enough men, something they had plenty of, they could replace large areas quickly.

However if the damage penetrated through the flight deck then the consequences to the hanger space underneath would be severe and then it was a dockyard job for repairs. Witness the frequency of time spent in dock by USN carriers after kamikaze hits. RN carriers took less damage from comparable hits and could resume operations sooner.

The British crews mainly mixed quick drying concrete to flatten out dents in the flight deck after kamikaze attacks.

A USN liaison officer on HMS Formidable off Okinawa was reported as saying "When a kamikaze hits a US carrier, it's six months repair in Pearl. In a Limey carrier, it's 'sweepers, man your brooms'.

[pablo42]

So they repaired the decks with concrete. Was that special concrete or just ordinary stuff.

[Waterways]

So they repaired the decks with concrete. Was that special concrete or just ordinary stuff.

It was developed for that application and was quick drying. The US had wooden decks which were also for topside lightness - a compromise. However they all adopted the UKs full armoured hangars and flight decks after WW2. I think the US Essex class were armoured decks towards the end of WW2.

The US view was that if you had enough planes you could protect the carrier, so no need for heavy armour - it never worked. Their carriers were large and designed to operate in the vast Pacific, so their planes were forward attack planes. US carriers were supplied from Atolls. UK carriers were smaller and more armoured as they expected to operate near to shore within range of land bases enemy planes. They also had limited range as the expected at sea time was 10 days, as they would be always be near to a friendly port having such a vast empire. British carriers were not for attack, rather more support than anything else, until that doctrine was changed during WW2.

The problem with armoured hangars was that it reduced aircraft capacity - hence larger, massive, expensive carriers post-war. The British Far East fleet carriers in 1945 ended up with 81 planes by storing them on decks and some overhanging the sea.

The British perfected the carrier and developed just about everything in carrier systems in its evolution:

• the first purpose built carrier
• armoured flight decks
• angled flight decks,
• the ski-jump deck,
• the steam catapult
• practical vertical take-off jet aircraft - the Harrier.
• mirror landing systems
• the first through decks
• hurricane bows.

..and a few more I haven't thought of.