Naval History Forums

I saw the Olympia many years ago with my favorite uncle. Then about 20 years ago he told me it was in very bad shape. So I can believe it has gotten worse.

Any updates on efforts to save this beautiful & historical ship?

I have always thought that was one of the most amazing and admirable actions of WW II, and would make a great painting!

Very interesting, thanks!

I was just looking for that old thread about the Hood's front magazine also possibly exploding from the blast channeled down the length of the ship. In spite of the bow apparently being blown off, it seems unlikely to me as eyewitness accounts don't seem to verify it.

I am looking to buy a 1/350 Seydlitz kit, and might be able to get a deal on the Iron Shipwright kit. But if the Kombrig is really a better kit, I'd rather wait a little while and get the best. Anyone know where I could find some sort of comparative reviews? Anyone know much about the relative quali...

Dresden wrote:
Only God could write that scenario.

Ha well put!

Sorry, but there seems to be a pattern here...

Every time? I'm not convinced. I think they would have some advantage, especially the speed. But that ability to absorb punishment served the German battlecruisers quite well at Jutland. The speed of the British did not serve them nearly as well. And I believe the Hoods were vulnerable to 15" f...

Thank you pg for your story-mine was much the same but embellished; as in later life he obviously saw it as a shameful act and tried to mitigate himself.Another became an SS man -he had the tatoo confirming this; and the other Poles censured him for that; but he just shrugged "So What" PS...

The best of the German vs. the best of the British battlecruisers.

The Hoods have the speed and the tonnage. The German BCs have the amazing ability to take a beating and still blow hell out of the opposition.

i would add that no more was at stake than was at Salamis, and that result was least of all predictable.

^^^They apparently even had US ships, with US crews, that were bought or leased or whatever by the Russians, sailing right under the noses of the Japanese to deliver US raw material and food. According to one source I found, almost half of US aid to Russia got there this way--though apparently it wa...

Yes, this almost implies that the British and Americans did to much to help the Soviets, and brought the Cold War upon themselves. It's a mystery to me as to just how complacent the US in particular was about allowing the USSR to overrun Eastern Europe. Well of course there wasn't much choice about...

Let's not forget, when discussing the great success of the Red Army from late '43 on, that the US basically mobilized that army by providing it with almost half a million vehicles. US Lend Lease aid to Russia: "14,795 aircraft, 7056 tanks, 1800 self propelled guns, 131,633 Submachine guns, 345....

Apparently WW I German battlecruisers had 4 shafts?

OK just read the text portion of Tirpitz the Floating Fortress by David Brown. Basically a more compact but very well done coffee table book. But in it, the author mentioned that had the Bismarck had 4 shafts instead of 3, he might have been able to deal with that nasty torpedo hit a little more eas...