Photos Navies Of All Nations

PLA(N):
Type 956EM (Sovremenny class) destroyer Ningbo (139) transiting Suez Canal en route to China after being constructed in Russia, 2006

RN:
Anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Curacoa, late 1942. She was a First World War-era ship re-armed with 4-inch guns, a Pom Pom mount and two HACS systems explicitly to enhance fleet air defence. In late 1942, during escort duty, she was accidentally sliced in half and sunk by the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary, with the loss of 337 men.

On the morning of 2 October 1942, Curacoa rendezvoused north of Ireland with the ocean liner Queen Mary, which was carrying approximately 10,000 American troops of the 29th Infantry Division The liner was steaming an evasive "Zig-Zag Pattern No. 8" course at a speed of 28.5 knots (52.8 km/h; 32.8 mph), an overall rate of advance of 26.5 knots (49.1 km/h; 30.5 mph), to evade submarine attacks. The elderly cruiser remained on a straight course at a top speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) and would eventually be overtaken by the liner.

Each captain had different interpretations of The Rule of the Road believing his ship had the right of way. Captain John Wilfred Boutwood of Curacoa kept to the liner's mean course to maximize his ability to defend the liner from enemy aircraft, while Commodore Sir Cyril Gordon Illingworth of Queen Mary continued their zig-zag pattern expecting the escort cruiser to give way.

We could see our escort zig-zagging in front of us - it was common for the ships and cruisers to zig-zag to confuse the U-boats. In this particular case however the escort was very, very close to us.
I said to my mate "You know she's zig-zigging all over the place in front of us, I'm sure we're going to hit her."
And sure enough, the Queen Mary sliced the cruiser in two like a piece of butter, straight through the six-inch [sic] armoured plating.
— Alfred Johnson, eye witness, BBC: "HMS Curacao Tragedy"

Click to expand...

At 13:32, during the zig-zag, it became apparent that Queen Mary would come too close to the cruiser and the liner's officer of the watch interrupted the turn to avoid Curacoa. Upon hearing this command, Illingworth told his officer to: "Carry on with the zig-zag. These chaps are used to escorting; they will keep out of your way and won't interfere with you." At 14:04, Queen Mary started the starboard turn from a position slightly behind the cruiser and at a distance of two cables (about 400 yards (366 m)). Boutwood perceived the danger, but the distance was too close for either of the hard turns ordered for each ship to make any difference at the speeds that they were travelling. Queen Mary struck Curacoa amidships at full speed, cutting the cruiser in half. The aft end sank almost immediately, but the rest of the ship stayed on the surface a few minutes longer.

Acting under orders not to stop due to the risk of U-boat attacks, Queen Mary steamed onwards with a damaged bow. She radioed the other destroyers of her escort, about 7 nautical miles (13 km; 8.1 mi) away, and reported the collision.[37] Hours later, the convoy's lead escort, consisting of Bramham and one other ship,[38] returned to rescue approximately 101 survivors, including Boutwood.[Note 3] Lost with Curacoa were 337 officers and men of her crew, according to the naval casualty file released by The National Archives in June 2013.[40][Note 4] Most of the lost men are commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial and the rest on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. Those who died after rescue, or whose bodies were recovered, were buried in Chatham and in Arisaig Cemetery in Invernesshire.[39] Under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, Curacoa's wrecksite is designated a "protected place".[42]

Those who witnessed the collision were sworn to secrecy due to national security concerns.[43] The loss was not publicly reported until after the war ended, although the Admiralty filed a writ against Queen Mary's owners, Cunard White Star Line, on 22 September 1943 in the Admiralty Court of the High Court of Justice. Little happened until 1945, when the case went to trial in June; it was adjourned to November and then to December 1946. Mr. Justice Pilcher exonerated Queen Mary's crew and her owners from blame on 21 January 1947 and laid all fault on Curacoa's officers. The Admiralty appealed his ruling and the Court of Appeal modified the ruling, assigning two-thirds of the blame to the Admiralty and one third to Cunard White Star. The latter appealed to the House of Lords, but the decision was upheld.[44]

USN:
Ex-USS Vincennes (CL-64) is towed out of San Diego Bay, by USS Kalmia (ATA-184). Assisting are the harbour tugs Muskegon (YTB-763), alongside Vincennes, and Arawak (YTM-702), off Vincennes' stern, 7 October 1969. She was expended as a target on 28 October 1969.

Australia:
HMA submarine J1 being refitted in Sutherland Dock, Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney Harbour, 18 November 1919

After the war, the British Admiralty decided that the best way to protect the Pacific region was with a force of submarines and cruisers. To this end, they offered the six surviving submarines of the J class to the Royal Australian Navy as gifts. J1 and her sisters were commissioned into the RAN in April 1919, and sailed for Australia on 9 April, in the company of the cruisers Sydney and Brisbane, and the tender Platypus. The flotilla reached Thursday Island on 29 June, and Sydney on 10 July. Because of the submarines' condition after the long voyage, they were immediately taken out of service for refits.

J1 and J4, plus Platypus, sailed on 10 February 1920 for Geelong, where a submarine base was established. Apart from local exercises and a 1921 visit to Tasmania, the submarines saw little use, and by June 1922, the cost of maintaining the boats and deteriorating economic conditions saw the six submarines decommissioned and marked for disposal.

USN & RN:
Enterprise and Boxer by Carlton T Chapman

Context: During the War of 1812, USS Enterprise was patrolling the east coast until on 5th of September, 1813, she spotted HMS Boxer and both begun firing on each other closely and fiercely. Both commanding officers got killed and USS Enterprise ended up capturing HMS Boxer and took her to Portland, Maine. The funeral for the lost was held there including Lieutenant William Burrows of the USS Enterprise and Captain Samuel Blyth of HMS Boxer.

Germany:
Type 212A diesel and air-independent propulsion (AIP) submarine U-35 (S185) in 2019

USN:
Museum ship USS Texas, photo by James Findley, 2019

Russia:
Project 22800 Karakurt class corvette Odintsovo (584)

Russia:
Project 949AM (Antey modernised) nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine (SSGN) (NATO Oscar II) "Orel" K-266 in the Great Belt, Baltic/Kattegat, 6th July

USN:
USS Macon (CA-132) takes part in Operation Inland Seas (i.e. celebrations of the opening of St. Lawrence Seaway), thus becoming the largest warship to enter the Great Lakes. June 1959, Eisenhower Lock.


OTD in 1964, Task Force One consisting of USS Enterprise, USS Long Beach and USS Bainbridge left Norfolk on Operation Sea Orbit. The all-nuclear-powered unit travelled 30,565 miles around the world without refueling to “show the flag” and demo the Navy’s technical achievement.

HDML 1321 was one of a class of thirty motor launches built for the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. Nine were constructed in Australian shipyards, three in the United Kingdom and eighteen in United States shipyards. They were originally classified as Harbour Defence Motor Launches (HDMLs) and those that remained in service following World War II were subsequently redesignated Seaward Defence Motor Launches (SDMLs) in the early 1950s and Seaward Defence Boats (SDBs) in 1957.



HDML 1321 was the first HDML to be constructed in Australia and was built in Tasmania by Purdon & Featherstone. She laid down on 14 April 1943 and commissioned in the RAN on 11 November 1943 under the command of Lieutenant Norman Grieve, RANVR, a former Royal Navy motor torpedo boat skipper experienced in operations against the German Navy in the English Channel. His first Lieutenant was Sub Lieutenant Abrose E Palmer, RANVR (Special Branch).


HDML 1321 in New Guinea waters, circa 1944.


SDB 1321 departs Garden Island with HMAS Anzac in the background.


SDB 1321 as Rushcutter departing Sydney, circa 1960s.

SDB 1321 was sold in 1971 for $14,200 and was subsequently converted into the charter boat Tambourine Bay. She was later sold to the Gosford area and renamed Rushcutter. On 23 October 2016 it was reported in the Northern Territory News that the former HDML 1321, had sunk in six metres of water in the small boat anchorage of Darwin Harbour. The vessel was subsequently raised on 20 November 2016 and efforts by her owners are ongoing to raise the necessary funding required to repair and restore the vessel to her wartime configuration.

Rushcutter beached in Darwin after being raised from the sea floor. (ABC News, 20 November 2016)

USN:
USS North Carolina, 3 June 1942


Launch of USS Essex (CV-9) 31st July 1942

USN:
USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) on the deck of the USS Saratoga (CV-3), 17 January1928


Colorado-class battleship USS Maryland and destroyers USS Hovey and USS Long in the Miraflores Locks while transiting the Panama Canal, 24 Apr 1931


Colorado-class battleship USS Maryland (BB-46) underway in 1935

HMAS Canberra stationed on the port beam of the Soviet cruiser Frunze during her unsheduled encounter with the Russian surface action group in 1985.

RN:
HMS Alliance at sea during operations off Malaysia. 1965

Commissioned shortly after WW2, Alliance was initially used to test the limits of the "snort mast" (the Royal navy's term for a Submarine snorkel) before undergoing modernisation. This consisted of streamlining her, increasing the height of her fin and adding the bulge on her bow (I believe it was for a new sonar?)

Following this she would perform patrols in South-East Asia during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation and in 1973 became a static training boat. In 1979 she was towed to Vosper's shipyard to prepare her for being lifted out of the water as a memorial to the British submariners lost at sea and became a museum ship in 1981.


A Fleet Air Arm Buccaneer on takeoff from HMS Ark Royal

3 x 636, 877 submarines and supply ship of Russian Navy

RN:
HMS Defender exiting Portsmouth to join CSG21 in May 2021.

Imperial Japan:
Aircraft carrier Akagi, in her “three flight deck” configuration, off Osaka. On deck are Mitsubishi B1M and B2M bombers. 1934


Damage sustained by the Kagerou-class destroyer Isokaze during Operation Ke on February 7, 1943. The hull in front of the forward turret is almost cut off.

Germany:
Battleship Bismarck fitting out at the Blohm & Voss Shipyard in Hamburg during the summer of 1939.


KMS Gneisenau during Operation Berlin, 1941


U-233 about to be rammed by USS Thomas (DE-102), July 5, 1944

Type XB submarine. On 5 July 1944 U-233 was intercepted by ships of the USS Card (CVE-11) hunter-killer group. She was identified by sonar, depth-charged to the surface and fired on by USS Baker (DE-190), before being rammed and sunk by USS Thomas (DE-102). 32 of her crew were killed in the action, 29 others being rescued by the escorts.

RN:
Flagship of the Royal Navy Eastern Fleet, battleship HMS Warspite (03) provides distant cover for Operation Ironclad. Grumman G36B/Martlet Mk II fighter from HMS Formidable performs reconnaissance. 4 May 1942, northeast of Madagascar.


Battleship HMS Anson during her working up period, 4 August 1942


'Y' Quad 14-inch turret on battleship HMS Duke of York, with an octuple Pom Pom mounted on the roof


The seaman's recreation room of HMS KING GEORGE V showing a soda fountain. They can play cards or sleep on comfortable settees. March 1941


Battleship HMS KING GEORGE V in her Far East dress. Astern is aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, Feb 1945

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