Ship Photo of the Day

[Randy Daytona]

IJN Kisaragi. One of 12 Mutsuki class destroyers which followed the Kamikaze class above, she was the second Japanese surface warship sunk by the US - this time by Marine Air. At the Battle of Wake Island, Captain Henry Elrod flying a F4F Wildcat from VMF-211 scored a direct hit with a 100 lb bomb. Conflicting reports say it hit amidships with the resulting fire taking out the ship or other accounts say it detonated the depth charges, sinking the destroyer within several minutes.

Length: 335' 11" Beam: 30' 1" Displacement: 1,800 tons
38,500 HP gave 37 knots
Armament: 4 (4x1) 4.7"/45 caliber cannons, 2 triple 24" torpedo tubes
Commissioned: 21 Dec 1925 Sunk: 11 Dec 1941



Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Kisaragi


Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Mutsuki (Mutsuki-class)

 

[Jim123]

Conflicting reports say it hit amidships with the resulting fire taking out the ship or other accounts say it detonated the depth charges, sinking the destroyer within several minutes.

I love explosions, big and small, loud or bright, short and tall, I love them all- but secondaries are my favorite.

 

[Randy Daytona]

SMS Seydlitz. An improved Moltke class, Seydlitz was another of the German battlecruisers at Jutland that took a pounding, she (barely) survived the battle despite being hit by 21 heavy caliber shells, 2 secondary shells and a torpedo. One of the reasons that she might have survived Jutland (and perhaps had an influence on the German safety measures) was that she almost blew up at the Battle of Dogger Bank. The British battle cruiser Lion hit her with a 13.5" shell destroying her aft turret - only by quickly flooding the magazines prevented detonation and perhaps those lessons carried over with the High Seas Fleet at Jutland.

Length: 658' 2" Beam: 93' 6" Displacement: 28,550 tons
88,510 HP turning 4 screws gave 26.5 knots
Main armament: 10 (5x2) 11.1"/ 50 caliber guns firing 663 lb shells to 20,890 yards.
Secondaries: 12 5.9"/45 calibers, 12 88mm (3.5")
Armor: Belt: 3.9" - 11.8", Deck: 1.2" - 3.1", Turret: 9.8", Conning Tower: 13.8"
Commissioned: 22 May 1913, Scuttled at Scapa Flow: 21 June 1919

Taking a look at the battlecruisers at Jutland, Beatty's battlecruisers were armed with 13.5" / 1,400 lb shells and 12" / 850 lb shells while Hipper had
12", 893 lb shells and 11.1", 663 lbs (although the German ships traditionally had a heavier secondary armament)



German battlecruiser Seydlitz in port, prior to World War I


Seydlitz, drawn in her 1916 configuration


Seydlitz with a zeppelin overhead


Seydlitz, heavily damaged during the battle of Jutland and attempting to limp home


Maps showing the maneuvers of the British (blue) and German (red) fleets on 31 May – 1 June 1916

 

[Pags]

SMS Seydlitz. An improved Moltke class, Seydlitz was another of the German battlecruisers at Jutland that took a pounding, she (barely) survived the battle despite being hit by 21 heavy caliber shells, 2 secondary shells and a torpedo. One of the reasons that she might have survived Jutland (and perhaps had an influence on the German safety measures) was that she almost blew up at the Battle of Dogger Bank. The British battle cruiser Lion hit her with a 13.5" shell destroying her aft turret - only by quickly flooding the magazines prevented detonation and perhaps those lessons carried over with the High Seas Fleet at Jutland.

Length: 658' 2" Beam: 93' 6" Displacement: 28,550 tons
88,510 HP turning 4 screws gave 26.5 knots
Main armament: 10 (5x2) 11.1"/ 50 caliber guns firing 663 lb shells to 20,890 yards.
Secondaries: 12 5.9"/45 calibers, 12 88mm (3.5")
Armor: Belt: 3.9" - 11.8", Deck: 1.2" - 3.1", Turret: 9.8", Conning Tower: 13.8"
Commissioned: 22 May 1913, Scuttled at Scapa Flow: 21 June 1919

Taking a look at the battlecruisers at Jutland, Beatty's battlecruisers were armed with 13.5" / 1,400 lb shells and 12" / 850 lb shells while Hipper had
12", 893 lb shells and 11.1", 663 lbs (although the German ships traditionally had a heavier secondary armament)


View attachment 22973
German battlecruiser Seydlitz in port, prior to World War I

View attachment 22974
Seydlitz, drawn in her 1916 configuration

View attachment 22975
Seydlitz with a zeppelin overhead

View attachment 22977
Seydlitz, heavily damaged during the battle of Jutland and attempting to limp home

View attachment 22976
Maps showing the maneuvers of the British (blue) and German (red) fleets on 31 May – 1 June 1916

Germans learned the dangers of powder flashes at dogger bank. It took the loss of three battlecruisers for the Brits to figure out that the NARCs put the flash shutters there for a reason.

 

[Pags]

Not disagreeing, although I would also argue you don't put a battlecruiser up against a battleship. (Denmark Strait)

Brits didn't have much of a choice. Hood was one of the few ships that had the speed to catch Bismarck. Unfortunately she was a generation older than Bismarck and while Hood was built with lessons learned from Jutland she was not adequately protected against a modern fast battleship. The RN knew this and had scheduled Hood for a refit to improver her armor but the requirements of the war prevented the refit from happening. ADM Tovey considered ordering VADM Holland to put prince of Wales in the van due to these vulnerabilities but decided not to meddle in the tactical picture.

 

[Randy Daytona]

Brits didn't have much of a choice. Hood was one of the few ships that had the speed to catch Bismarck. Unfortunately she was a generation older than Bismarck and while Hood was built with lessons learned from Jutland she was not adequately protected against a modern fast battleship. The RN knew this and had scheduled Hood for a refit to improver her armor but the requirements of the war prevented the refit from happening. ADM Tovey considered ordering VADM Holland to put prince of Wales in the van due to these vulnerabilities but decided not to meddle in the tactical picture.

Agree on both - sometimes ya gotta dance with who brought you... The Brits had all kinds of bad luck in regards to the Bismarck - you had the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk to take care of the Prinz Eugen but bad comm messed that up, then the Prince of Wales guns jammed. In addition, one of the things that was brought up about Jutland is the Admiralty didn't trust their ability to accurately fire and thus the tactic was to swamp the enemy with shells, thus the ships were at 150% of ammunition loadout. The fatal problem there was not enough room to store the extra cordite - not something you want to leave lying around. The naval battles of WW1 are very interesting to study.

 

[Randy Daytona]

China’s first amphibious assault ship, a Landing Helicopter Dock known as Type 075, was launched in Shanghai on Thursday.

What caught my eye was the following: Some five months after the first pictures emerged of its keel under construction, China has launched its first Type 075 landing helicopter dock amphibious assault ship, or LHD, at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai.

Length: 820' 3" Beam: 95' 5" Displacement: 35,000+ tons







https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...redibly-quickly-built-amphibious-assault-ship
https://news.usni.org/2019/09/27/china-launches-first-type-075-big-deck-amphibious-warship

 

[Griz882]

China’s first amphibious assault ship, a Landing Helicopter Dock known as Type 075, was launched in Shanghai on Thursday.

What caught my eye was the following: Some five months after the first pictures emerged of its keel under construction, China has launched its first Type 075 landing helicopter dock amphibious assault ship, or LHD, at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai.

Length: 820' 3" Beam: 95' 5" Displacement: 35,000+ tons

View attachment 23114

View attachment 23115

View attachment 23116

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...redibly-quickly-built-amphibious-assault-ship
https://news.usni.org/2019/09/27/china-launches-first-type-075-big-deck-amphibious-warship

Good pictures. On a recent trip to China I came to the impr Scion that the Chinese can build things fast, but not very well. While a lovely ship, I would be interested to see if it could hold up to a pounding.

 

[Randy Daytona]

Perhaps one of the reasons that PT Boats and E-Boats were popular during WW2 was the sinking of the Austrian Hungarian battleship SMS Szent István by the Italian torpedo boat MAS 15. Last of the Tegetthofl class of four Austrian Hungarian class of battleships, she served in WW1. The Austrian fleet sortied in early June 1918 to attack a blockade of the Otranto Straits between Brindisi (Italy) and Corfu (Greece) but as Tegetthofl and Szent István were catching up to the main fleet, they were spotted by patrolling Italian torpedo boats. 2 torpedoes hit the dreadnought and the flooding overwhelmed the pumps, causing the battleship to capsize within 3 hours. This ended the Austrian Hungarian Navy's attempt to break that particular blockade.

Amazing to think now but back then Italy had a navy with 10 battleships and Austria Hungary had 9 dreadnoughts.

Length: 499' 3", Beam: 91' 10" Displacement: 21,689 tons
26,000 HP feeding 2 shafts gave 20 knots
Main Armament: 12 (4x3) 12"/45 caliber Skoda K10's firing 990lb shells out to 22km
Secondaries: 12 (12x1) 5.9", 12 (12x1) 2.6", 4 x 533mm torpedo tubes.
Armor: Belt: 5.9" to 11" Deck: 1.2" to 1.9" Turret: 2.4" to 11"

Commissioned: 13 Dec 1915 Sunk: 10 June 1918






Szent István sinking in June 1918 after being struck by an Italian torpedo, Tegetthoff can be seen on the right

 

[nittany03]

China’s first amphibious assault ship, a Landing Helicopter Dock known as Type 075, was launched in Shanghai on Thursday.

What caught my eye was the following: Some five months after the first pictures emerged of its keel under construction, China has launched its first Type 075 landing helicopter dock amphibious assault ship, or LHD, at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai.

What’s the over/under for how many days it’s underway before a disgruntled staff officer throws TACC under the bus for the first time in PLAN history?

 

[Hozer]

HMS Belfast looking smart today. Cheers!

 

[Griz882]

Interesting news on Midway, the battle, not the movie, but the timing is fascinating.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/hist...carriers-sunk-battle-midway/#comments-wrapper


The IJN Kaga was the first found.

 

[Griz882]

Here is the IJN Akagi


The debris field is fascinating, looks like she slammed into the bottom pretty hard.

 

[Randy Daytona]

Both the Kaga and Akagi were originally built with 3 flight decks - rather strange. Due to Treaty limitations, they were converted into aircraft carriers (Kaga from a Tosa class battleship, Akagi from an Amagi class battlecruiser.)


Kaga as completed, with all three flight decks visible


Kaga undergoing post-launch trials off Tateyama, 15 September 1928.


Kaga's fitting-out in 1928. This stern view shows the long funnel extending aft below the flight deck, and three 8-inch (200 mm) guns in casemates.



Kaga conducting air operations in 1930. On the upper deck are Mitsubishi B1M torpedo bombers preparing for takeoff. Nakajima A1N Type 3 fighters are parked on the lower deck forward.


Kaga after reconstruction showing the new, full-length flight deck above the wide battleship hull.


Kaga (foreground), with Zuikaku (background), heads towards Pearl Harbor sometime between 26 November and 7 December 1941.

 

[Randy Daytona]

USS Vesuvius, a "Dynamite Gun Cruiser" from the late 1800's. At the time, explosive shells were unstable and had difficulty being launched by gunpowder, the Dynamite Gun Cruiser solved that by having perhaps the world's biggest air rifles. The ship mounted three 15" pneumatic cannons pressurized to 1000 PSI, firing shells out to 4,000 yards. Unfortunately, like a tank destroyer, the whole ship had to be maneuvered to aim the guns.

USS Vesuvius served during the Spanish-American War, carrying our shore bombardments. Since there was no gunpowder, the ship did have the advantage of its shells arriving without warning.

Eventually, the pneumatic guns would be replaced and the Vesuvius would become a testbed for torpedo development.

Length: 246' 3", Beam: 26' 6", Displacement: 930 tons
Triple Expansion steam system gave 21 knots
Main Armament: Three 15" pneumatic guns
Commissioned: 3 June 1890, Decommissioned: 21 October 1921





Vesuvius in 1891


Dynamite gun muzzles on Vesuvius