The first WWII mission of Dido was the escort the carrier, Furious to West Africa in November 1940, before spending four months on convoy escort duty in the Atlantic. She then joined operations in the Mediterranean in 1941, assisting in the evacuation of British forces from Crete in May. Badly damaged in these efforts she spent the latter half of that year...
Neptune operated during her World War II service with a crew predominantly composed from the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, but also a large proportion of South African personnel. In late 1939 she was in pursuit of the German pocket battleship, Admiral Graf Spee. In the aftermath of the Battle of the River Plate she was sent to Uruguay, however...
Essentially an enlarged Fubuki-class, the Kagerō-class hull design was scaled up to overcome earlier design deficiencies. As a result, the Kagerō-class was the equal of any of its contemporaries in other navies and superior to most. Only the initial lack of radar and continued poor quality of sonar equipment and anti-aircraft defences (shortcomings which...
Kongō (金剛, “Indestructible Diamond”), named for the mountain, was the first battleship of her class, serving in both the first and second world wars. At the time of construction in the early 1910s she was a capital ship (the last Japanese Capital ship to be built outside of Japan) and was among the most heavily armed ships in any Navy. She received two...
The second of the four Mogami class heavy cruisers, Mikuma was completed in 1935 but quickly underwent refits to replace her main turrets with twin 203 mm guns. Her former weapons, triple 155mm guns went to Yamato. Early in her career she was tasked with the occupation of Cochinchina, the invasion of Malaya and the invasion of British Borneo. At the Battle...
The heavy cruiser, Suzuya, is believed to be one of the deepest shipwrecks on record at (a yet) unconfirmed 27,600 feet. She met her fate at the Battle of Leyte Gulf when she was beset upon by carrier-based aircraft – a torpedo exploding in her own tubes set off a chain reaction of fired and damage that forced the ship’s abandonment. Prior to her sinking...
USS Chester supported the landing on Samoa (18-24 January 1942), and after repairs joined TF 17 for the Guadalcanal-Tulagi raid, the attack on Misima Island and the Battle of the Coral Sea, defending the carriers with anti-aircraft fire. She thereafter provided fire support at Tarawa, the lead ship of the operation, and covered other landings in the...
Built during World War Two, USS Essex was the lead of her class of aircraft carriers. She was commissioned in December 1942 and went on to serve in several campaigns in the Pacific Theatre of operations. For her efforts, she received the Presidential Unit Citation and 13 battle stars. She operated right until the finale of the war, participating in the...
Originally conceived as a light cruiser, USS Houston (second of her name) was reclassified as a heavy cruiser early in her life, serving in the 1930s to protect American interest in the China-Japan war of 1931 and later transporting President Roosevelt on special ‘cruises’. On the night of the Pearl Harbour attack, Houston departed Panay Island for...
USS New Mexico (BB-40) was the lead of her class of battleship and served with the United States Navy between 1918 and 1946. She was the first ship with a turbo-electric transmission, capable of a cruising speed of 10 knots. She served as an escort to President Woodrow Wilson’s voyage to Brest, France, for the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. She...
USS Portland, the lead ship of the Portland class of cruiser, launched in 1932. She completed a number of training and goodwill cruises in the interwar period before seeing extensive service during World War II. Her first wartime action was at the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942, escorting the carrier Yorktown and rescuing survivors from the carrier...