Photos Navies Of All Nations

[BravoZulu]

USN, France & Japan:
PACIFIC OCEAN (Feb. 19, 2021) USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54) conducts a replenishment-at-sea with JS Hamana (AOE-424) and French Floreal-class light frigate FNS Prairial (F-731). (Photo courtesy of Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force)

 

[uktabber]

USN:
USS Solar DE-221, 30 April 1946

On 30 April 1946, Solar was berthed at Leonardo Pier I of the Naval Ammunition Depot at Earle, N.J., to discharge ammunition. The operation went smoothly until, shortly after 1130, three explosions blasted the ship near her number 2 upper handling rooms. Her number 2 gun was demolished and the bridge, main battery director, and mast were all blown aft and to starboard. Both sides of the ship were torn open, and her deck was a mass of flames. The order to abandon ship came after the second explosion and was carried out expeditiously. Nevertheless, the tragedy claimed the lives of 1 officer and 6 sailors and injured 125 others.

Salvage work on Solar was begun by 1500, and her wrecked superstructure was cut off to prevent her capsizing. She was moved to New York, where she decommissioned on 21 May 1946. Solar was then stripped of all useable equipment, towed 100 miles to sea, and sunk on 9 June 1946 in 700 fathoms of water. Her name was stuck from the Navy list on 5 June 1946.

Additional info in comments and excerpts from New York Times reports.

From a New York Times report: No one seemed certain tonight what had caused the explosion, but what seemed like a possible explanation came from Jack Horne, fireman second class, of Charlotte, N.C. He thought a piece of ammunition carried by Joe Stuchinski, seaman, of Baltimore might have done it. “Ski,” the fireman said, “was carrying a ‘hedgehog’ from the forward magazine. While he was holding it, it just went off. He must have bumped it against something, because those things go off when anything touches them.”

Seaman Stuchinski oddly was not seriously injured. He was deafened, a few minor scratches showed on his chest when he got to the first-aid station and his dungarees were split. “It went off. The thing just went off,” he said.

Some insight into the series of events leading up to the first explosion was given by the members of a five-man ammunition team, which was passing up hedgehogs, or anti-submarine missiles, from below the decks to topside

“I was passing this equipment,” Stuchinski said, “when it suddenly exploded. I saw a guy blown to pieces and I don’t remember how I got out, but I got out.”

"Dog Last to Quit Ship; Mascot Wet But Unhurt" Special to The New York Times

LEONARDO, N.J., April 30 - Lobo, a brown-and-white mongrel of uncertain ancestry, who has been the mascot of the Solar’s crew for the last five months, left the damaged vessel after all the personnel had been removed somewhat damp – but in style.

Lobo returned to the naval ammunition depot headquarters in an ambulance that had come all the way from Oakhurst, N.J., to aid at the disaster. He was attended by a first-aid squad, although he was uninjured. When he arrived a rousing cheer went up from the crewmen who had grown to love Lobo and to regard the part Spitz and part spaniel as a member of the crew.

Lobo joined the Solar in Norfolk, Virginia. He represented an investment of $4.

WOW.......that was a bloody big explosion to peel back the entire front of the ship like that, goodness....and how does the chap carrying the projectile that set the whole thing off in a confined space NOT get hurt in the entire affair................??? AMAZING!!!

 

[morris]

George H. W. Bush being rescued by USS Finback after being shot down over Chichijima island, 2 September 1944

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[santana]

Brazilian Navy

 

[morris]

RFS 368 'Vasiliy Bykov', a patrol ship of project 22160 and RFS 584 Odintsovo, a missile corvette of the project 22800 Karakurt-E

 

[morris]

U-118, a World War One submarine washed ashore on the beach at Hastings, 1919 · The U-101 was a Type VIIB U-boat of German Kriegsmarine during World War One.

 

[uktabber]

Those are just GREAT photos mate........Thanks for posting those!!

 

[morris]

Project 641/Foxtrot class SSK B-840 returning from a 7.5 month combat service under a command of Commander V.V Slyushchenko to the 12th pier of the Liepaja submarine base on 02/12/1989. Photos by Vladimir Sozonov & Marat Golimov.

 

[morris]

Project 641/Foxtrot class SSK B-28 pier-side during a storm in Kamchatka.

 

[morris]

Photos of HMS Mersey shadowing the Russian Navy Kilo Class Submarine RFS Rostov Na Donu through the English Channel on its way to the Mediterranean recently.

 

[morris]

According to U.S. Naval Institute, by the end of WWII, American industrial might and the need to fight on two fronts resulted in the U.S. Navy having a greater tonnage of combatant ships than all other navies combined. In 1947, the U.S. had 3,820,000 tons versus the world's combined 2,860,000 tons.

Now:

• United States (3,415,893)
• Russia (845,730)
• China (708,886)
• Japan (413,800)
• United Kingdom (367,850)
• France (319,195)
• India (317,725)
• South Korea (178,710)
• Italy (173,549)
• Taiwan (151,662)

 

[bdpopeye]

View attachment 281181
According to U.S. Naval Institute, by the end of WWII, American industrial might and the need to fight on two fronts resulted in the U.S. Navy having a greater tonnage of combatant ships than all other navies combined. In 1947, the U.S. had 3,820,000 tons versus the world's combined 2,860,000 tons.

This photo is Naval Station San Diego about 1947-49....That's a lot of steel!

 

[morris]

Project 667BDRM Delfin/Delta IV class Ekaterinburg (K-84)

 

[BravoZulu]

France:
Battleship Dunkerque turret under construction in Brest, 1935

Battleship Richelieu, 1953 after her major refit at Brest (1 January 1950 to 24 October 1951).

 

[BravoZulu]

RN & Germany:
HMS Hood and HMS Resolution with the Admiral Graf Spee in 1937 for the coronation of King George VI

 

[BravoZulu]

USN:
Fletcher class destroyer, museum ship The Sullivans, at risk of sinking due to hull damage, February 2021

 

[BravoZulu]

RN:
On November 25, 1941 at 4:25 pm, while sailing to cover an attack on Italian convoys with sister-ships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant, along with eight destroyers, 90 miles North-East of Sallum, Egypt. Barham was hit by 3 torpedoes from the German submarine U-331, commanded by Hans-Dietrich von Tiesenhausen. The torpedoes were fired from a range of only 750 yards which provided no time for Barham to take evasive action, and all of them struck so closely together that they threw up a single column of water. Leading Telegraphist A. R. Bacon remained at his station following the attack to alert the accompanying RN ships to the presence of U-331 in the waters around the convoy, this would greatly help with the search and rescue efforts later. As Barham rolled over to port, her magazines exploded and she sank quickly with the loss of 861 men out of a crew of 1,184 officers and men. 450 survivors of Barham were rescued by the other British ships that had been sailing with her. The explosion on Barham was caught on camera by Gaumont News camaraman John Turner, who was on the deck of the nearby Valiant.

 

[BravoZulu]

Germany:
Remains of an M-type minesweeper, battered by Allied destroyer and aircraft at Bele des Anges off Brittany Coast, September 1944.

 

[BravoZulu]

USN:
Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri Sep. 2, 1945.

 

[BravoZulu]

RN:
Aircraft carrier HMS Glorious is inspected by her crew after collision with French ocean liner Florida. East of Gibraltar, April 02, 1931.

Shortly after 9:00 a.m., on April 1, 1931, the slightly more than one year old British aircraft carrier, HMS Glorious, left Gibraltar with her attendant vessels to conduct operations with her air wing. The twin funneled, three year old French liner Florida of Societe Generale de Transport Maritime a Vapeur was returning to Genoa from Buenos Aires. Passengers on the Florida delighted in watching the maneuvering warships. At times, the intermittent fog would shroud one or the other vessels.

The Glorious had seventeen Fairey Flycatcher aircraft in the air with her escorts deployed on station around her when she entered one fogbank at about thirty knots. The Uruguayan consul in Malaga, Don Victor Barros, was a passenger on the Florida. “I was watching the British Fleet at maneuvers as we steamed along through patches of drifting fog. It was possible to see some of the ships quite plainly, and the Glorious was evidently calling her aircraft in. Four planes were about to alight, and the Glorious drew away from the remainder of the fleet, tearing along at about thirty miles an hour to allow them to land on her deck.” On the Glorious’ bridge was her captain, forty six year old Charles Kennedy-Purvis, who already had nine years seniority as a captain. Early press reports list her captain as D.F. Moir.

The initial attempts by the Glorious to obtain optimum conditions for landing her aircraft started to come apart. Had she completed her turns to facilitate the landing, she would have endangered her escorting cruisers. She maintained course and they steamed right into the fog. Kennedy-Purvis had every reason to be confident in the skills of captains of his escorts, and their ability to maintain station. The joker in the deck was the Florida.

In the fog, her aircraft had to defer landing until conditions cleared, so they circled above. The Daily Mail wrote, “Looking below, the pilots saw that their parent ship had steamed at high speed into the low bank of fog, above the top of which they could see moving the black tip of her mast. Almost immediately the pilots noticed the mast of another ship break through the white carpet covering the sea.

“Their quick eyes, used to following the movements of ships beneath them, foresaw the danger. Leaning out of their cockpit, they followed the course of those little black sticks of masts. There was no doubt that a collision was imminent. Instantly, their fingers flew to the keys of their radio sets, but it was too late. It was like shouting across a greasy Broadway to prevent two automobiles from colliding.” One pilot claimed that he heard the collision.

Barros continued his account from the Florida. “After my first glimpse, however, the fog hid the Glorious until, suddenly, she loomed right over us, crashing into us near the bow. From where I was standing in the doorway of a deck-cabin, I was hurled headlong overboard into the sea, and drowning must have been the fate of many, for I was in the water in a dazed condition for twenty minutes before a cutter from the Glorious rescued me. Not until I was aboard the warship did I realize the extent of the disaster.”

In a matter of seconds, the 18,000 ton Glorious went from thirty knots to a complete stop, deep in the port side of the Florida, immediately forward of her bridge. Chaos prevailed on the Florida. Falling deck cargo, largely crates of bananas, killed some; others were butchered by flying steel from the ships’ sides, making their bodies unrecognizable. Eight passengers were missing, believed to have fallen through holes in the Florida’s side, or jumped into the sea in panic. The death toll was 33; thirty one passengers and one crewman on the Florida and one crewman on the Glorious. Ironically, the crewman on the Florida was her radio operator, Francisco Montes, who had earlier bought a zinc-lined coffin so his body could be transported back for burial in Marseilles some day; that day was earlier than he expected. The line complied with his wishes.

On board Glorious, one crewman, Seaman Ernest John Bicker, was killed, and later buried with honors at Gibraltar on April 3. Rather than pull out of the Florida’s side, Kennedy-Purvis kept the Glorious imbedded in the Florida’s side, and the two crews improvised gangways between the two ships which allowed more than 500 passengers from the Florida to cross to the Glorious. Once the Florida had her pumps going and mats over some of the holes in her side, the Glorious slowly backed out, and took the Florida in tow, despite having lost much of her bow.

Unable to land her planes, the Glorious ordered them to fly to the Malaga aerodrome. Four were unable to reach the shore, thirty miles away, and ditched at sea, their crews rescued by escorting destroyers. Eventually, the towing duties were delegated to some of her escorts.

The Florida’s passengers were trans-shipped to the Gouverneur General Laferierre, which had been diverted from her normal, Oran-Marseilles voyage. The Florida herself was made seaworthy and returned to Marseilles for repairs. During World War Two, she was sunk at Bone by Axis aircraft; raised in 1944, she was reconditioned and emerged with one funnel after her refit in 1948. In 1955, she went to Siosa Lines as the Ascania, and was scrapped in Italy in 1968.

The Glorious received temporary repairs at Gibraltar before sailing to Malta for permanent repairs, which were completed by September 21, 1931. In 1940, she was sunk under odd circumstances by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Her captain is widely believed to have been, not of sound mind at the time of her sinking. He was speeding back to the UK to court martial her air officer, J B Heath, who had been one of the fliers circling over the Glorious the day of the collision. The Royal Navy's findings will be classified until 2040.

From July 12 through July 18, Mr Justice Bateman of the Admiralty Division investigated the collision. He divided the blame between the two ships, two thirds of the blame to the Florida, and one third to Glorious. This decision was upheld on appeal in December.

Kenedy-Purvis went on to a distinguished career. From 1935 to 1938, as a rear admiral, he commanded the First Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean Fleet; from 1938 to 1940, he was the President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich; as a vice admiral, he was Commander in Chief of the American and West Indies Station from 1940 to 1942, in which capacity he oversaw the transfer of many British bases to the US; he was promoted to admiral on February 16, 1942, and served as Deputy First Sea Lord from July 29, 1942 through the end of the war, leaving the post in 1946.

Before her conversion to an aircraft carrier, the Glorious was a “large light cruiser.”