Naval History Forums

The USN was indeed planning battlecruisers, but stopped their construction as a result of the Washington Naval Treaty following WW-1. USN fleet carriers USS Lexington , CV2, and USS Saratoga , CV3, were built on the hulls of two of the discontinued battlecruisers of the same name. The originally pla...

Thanks, Antonio! Very nice work. I've always been fascinated by the events at Narvik in April, 1940.

The loss of FdZ Bonte at Narvik was a huge loss to the KM Zerstorer forces.

Derf

Jack - Also consider AJ Press No. 42 on KM Graf Zeppelin. Simply terrific!!!

Derf

Antonio - Very nicely done! As you may remember from prior forum discussions, I sailed up Oslofjord to Oslo in September, 2004 on the overnight ship from Copenhagen, and was on deck in the morning when we passed through the narrows and over the resting place of KM Blucher. It was an emotional experi...

Another anniversary to remember - 62 years ago today, Boxing Day, December 26, 1943, KM Scharnhorst was lost with most of her crew, above North Cape, Norway. A moment to remember her and her lost sailors ....

Derf

I don't know the details of the three boiler/turbine/shaft arrangements that were in Bismarck/Tirpitz, but I can't imagine any naval design engineers, let alone German naval design engineers, creating a multiple boiler/turbine multi-shaft drive system in a very valuable capital ship, that would not ...

Steve - No problem. :cool: I'd like to see this forum, and other KM forums as well, do more to stimulate discussion of other German ships, WW2 and WW1. In particular, I'd like to have more discussion of the KM Zerstorer and Torpedoboot fleets, long favorites of mine. As I'm getting to the age now wh...

Jose - I find your web site and your forum to be quite valuable. Perhaps the forum would be more active if you added some topic headers to stimulate discussion of the other KM ships by class? I'd like to see more discussion, for example, on the KM destroyers and torpedo boats, which have always been...

Finally after much trouble I could get it. It is the Lyon´s 1998 edition. It doesn´t have pictures, I was wondering if the original Conway edition has, can anyone tell? Marcelo - My copy, published by the U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1987, has numerous drawings, maps and diagrams, but no pictures. D...

FYI, I was surfing around the internet this afternoon and thought to check in with Joseph Gilbey's web site to see if his new KM book is available yet. It is. Mr. Gilbey wrote a very nice book a few years ago on Kapitan zur See Hans Langsdorff and the Admiral Graf Spee: Langsdorff and the Graf Spee ...

In case anyone is interested in adding a classic book on the KM Hilfskruezer saga to their personal library, I have a spare copy which I have just listed on eBay for a minimal sum ($6 US). See eBay listing 4587972841. I don't like the idea of using this forum to sell things, but as this book is one ...

Ulrich - Thanks for posting these. Some great views in there!

Derf

There are some pictures posted showing damage resulting from hurricane Katrina to USS Alabama, BB60, and the surrounding Battleship Memorial Park. You can clearly see the resulting list to port of the ship, from shifting mud under the hull, not necessarily from water taken on board. She was hit by a...

In assessing armor protection, it's important to go beyond what the statistics tell you. For example, Dunkerque's belt armor was inclined at 11deg for its full length. It covered about 1.5m more height of the ship's side than Scharnhorst's. Scharnhorst's barbette armor is angled inward to give inco...

Sergio wrote:Hello, it is a shame the Yamato couldn't be sent to Guadalcanal and fight in the battles of 13-14 Nov 42.

Don't discount the "Johnnie Walker" factor!

Derf