Two Bismarck-class battleships were built for the Kriegsmarine. Bismarck was the first, named for the Chancellor (Otto von Bismarck). The battleship was laid down in July 1936 and launched February 1939. She and her sister ship, Tirpitz, were two of the largest battleships built by any European power, and certainly the largest built by Germany. Whilst the...
Designed in 1939, some 175 Fletcher-class destroyers were commissioned between 1942 and 1944, more than any other class of destroyer. They performed every task expected of a destroyer, including anti-aircraft, anti-submarine and more traditional surface-based actions. They served almost exclusively in the Pacific during World War II, capable of covering...
Fubuki-class are described as the world’s first “modern” destroyer, twenty-four of the class served in the Imperial Japanese Navy. They were built between 1926 and 1933, and despite being decidedly older than some of their adversaries, they remained formidable opponents until the end of the war. Of the twenty-four vessels, only two survived the war, with...
Furutaka was the lead of her two-ship class of heavy cruiser. She was named for the mountain located on the island of Etajima, off Hiroshima bay, directly behind the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy. She participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Savo Island, but met her fate at the Battle of Cape Esperance on 12th October 1942, at the...
At one time, the HMS Hood was the largest and possibly most famous ship in the world, representing the supremacy of British sea power. Though attached to Home Fleet, the Hood took part in the sinking of the French fleet at Oran. She was sunk by the Bismarck in 1941 after accurate shelling from the German ship caused a massive explosion on the Hood which...
HMS Warspite was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship of the Royal Navy. Built during the early 1910s, she served in the First World War, including at the Battle of Jutland. Modernized in the 1930s, she went on to serve in the Second World War. Warspite was part of the Norwegian campaign of 1940 and subsequently was transferred to the Mediterranean, squaring...
For centuries, Japan's policy of seclusion (sakoku) saw it concentrate on coastal defences in order to repel foreign vessels. However, with the advances other maritime nations were making, it eventually became obvious that no longer would Japan be able to ignore the rest of the world. As an island power, it needed a modern navy. Turning to Britain for...
Submarines: The Kaidai-7-class, or KD-7, was developed in the late 1930s, following on from the preceding KD-6 class. With a surface range of 8,000nm at 16kts, and a submerged endurance of 50nm at 5kts, they possessed a slightly better underwater performance to the late-model KD-6s and better surface speed (though not range) than the earlier members of...
Ships in Class: Kongo, Hisi, Kirishima, Haruna The Kongo class, dating from 1912, was rebuilt between 1927 and 1931 and was thereafter re-rated as a battleship. Armed with eight 14-inch guns in dual turrets and a secondary battery of sixteen 6-inch guns, the Kongo was further rebuilt in the late 1930s. Hiel and Kirishima were lost off Guadalcanal. Hiel was...
The Kriegsmarine had to be virtually rebuilt after the First World War. Forbidden to own capital ships and submarines, Germany nibbled away at first one clause of the Treaty of Versailles, then another, until a powerful navy force existed. The Kriegsmarine was not a navy designed to tackle a major fleet head-on in fleet engagements. Instead, it was a...
Submarines: A long-ranged submersible, the Type IX was the most successful U-boat of the war, with each vessel averaging over 100,000 tons of shipping sunk. One Type IX, U-107, made the most successful convoy mission of the war, with nearly 100,000 tons of shipping sunk out of Freetown in Africa. The latest variants of this design were capable of ranges of...