Preventing attacks on defenceless merchant ships is the other main role of the navy, and it was her that the war was fought, day in and day out, by the humble corvette, frigate and destroyer escort, and later by escort carriers. Commerce raiding formed a critical part of the strategy for several nations – Germany’s Kriegsmarine almost brought Britain to...
Mogami was the lead ship of her class, which consisted of four heavy cruisers which served in the Imperial Japanese Navy. These were exceptionally large for light cruisers, but were constructed in such a manner as to obey the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, but could easily be refitted as heavy cruisers by refitting their batteries with twin 8-inch guns....
The Royal Navy of Great Britain was the world’s greatest navy at the outbreak of the Second World War. However, Britain went to war with mainly First World War-vintage vessels. Since the Royal Navy already possessed many powerful units, construction of the most modern designs was limited. This meant that at the outbreak of World War Two Britain had far...
Victory at Sea: Royal Navy Submarines & MTB sections Submarines: Designed for use in North European and Mediterranean waters, the S-class was manoeuvrable with a noted ability to crash dive extremely quickly. Combined with a large salvo of torpedoes, this was a successful design of pre-war years that was soon updated and put back into production. MTBs: The...
Victory at Sea: Tokyo Express Solo Play Supplement This solo play supplement for Victory at Sea puts you in command of a US Navy squadron, tasked with interdicting the titular Tokyo Express. The Tokyo Express With their isolated garrisons in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands under sustained attack by US forces, Imperial Japanese Navy planners needed a way...
Although the United States of America contains a vast area of land, almost all of its allies and trading partners are overseas, and those interests require a powerful navy to support them. The US Navy possessed some of the largest and most modern battleships in the world at the outbreak of World War Two, and despite losses during the Japanese attack on...
Submarines: The Gato-class of submarine was the first mass production US submarine class of the Second World War, forming the majority of the United States Navy’s submarine fleet of the war. It was the Gato-class, and the successors of her design that were largely responsible for the disruption of the Japanese merchant fleet. Individual Gato-class vessels...
A Northampton-class vessel, Chicago served in the Pacific during the early years of World War Two. Though surviving attacks by midget submarines in Sydney Harbour and serving in the battle of the Coral Sea and Savo Island in 1942, it was at the Battle of Rennell Island that she was sunk on 30 January 1943, when she was struck by Japanese aerial torpedoes...
USS Idaho, the third of three ships of the New Mexico-class of Battleship, was the fourth vessel to bear the name. She was launched in June 1917 and commissioned in March 1919. She was armed with a battery of twelve 14” guns in four turrets and was protected with heavy armour plate (13.5” thick in the main belt). During the 20s and 30s, Idaho spent the...
A Portland-class heavy cruiser, Indianapolis served as flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance in 1943 and 1944 as he commanded the actions of the fifth fleet in the central pacific. She was ever-present in supporting the Island Hopping Campaigns of the Marianas and later supported the invasion of Okinawa. It was Indianapolis in July 1945 which secretly...
Only the mighty Yamato displaced more than the massive, yet very fast, Iowa-class battleships. The last battleship to be commissioned by the USA, USS Missouri known as the ‘Mighty Mo’ acted as venue for the Japanese surrender in WWII. Iowa-class ships saw service far beyond the Second World War and were upgraded with modern electronics, weapons systems and...