Photos Navies Of All Nations

[BravoZulu]

RN:
HMS Wellesley was a 74-gun third rate, named after the Duke of Wellington, and launched in 1815. She captured Karachi for the British, and participated in the First Opium War, which resulted in Britain gaining control of Hong Kong. Thereafter she served primarily as a training ship before gaining the distinction of being the last British ship of the line to be sunk by enemy action and the only one to have been sunk by an air-raid.

In 1854 Wellesley was a guard ship at Chatham. That same year she became a harbour flagship and receiving ship at Chatham.

In 1868 the Admiralty loaned her to the London School Ship Society, which refitted her as a Reformatory School. She was renamed Cornwall and was moored off Purfleet in April. Later, Cornwall, renamed Wellesey, was moved to the Tyne and served as The Tyne Industrial Training Ship of Wellesley Nautical School. In 1928, due to industrial development at that location, she was moved to Denton, below Gravesend.

On 24 September 1940 a German air-raid severely damaged Wellesley and she subsequently sank.[5] She was raised in 1948 and beached at Tilbury, where she was broken up. Some of her timbers found a home in the rebuilding of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, while her figurehead now resides just inside the main gates of Chatham Dockyard.

HMS Lord Clyde and HMS Caledonia, possible 1871 on the Mediterranean Station

HMS Orlande, HMS Nelson and HMS Lizard at Farm Cove, Sydney, c. 1888

 

[BravoZulu]

RN:
HMS Rodney firing her secondary armament, October 1936

HMS Eagle seen in 1937. She was sunk by U73 on the 11th of Aug 1942 during operation Pedestal.

Light cruiser HMS Manchester at Spithead, May 2, 1942

 

[BravoZulu]

Italy:
Battleship Duilio fitting out at the Cantiere Navale Ansaldo, Genoa, 1913

Battleship Roma undergoing trials of its main armament while fitting out

Light scout Antoniotto Usodimare in drydock, after being accidentally rammed by the steamer Pallade, 1934.

The accident happened in the night between 10 and 11 August 1934, between the island of Procida and Cape Miseno, near Naples; unfortunately, three seamen died and seventeen more were wounded. The Usodimare suffered serious damage, as can be glimpsed by the picture, but was able to reach Naples safely.

 

[BravoZulu]

RN:
A general view looking down Line B during the Naval Review or the King's Review of the Fleet at Spithead. The battleships include (left to right), in the distance on the left in Line C, HMS 'Queen' (1902), and in Line B, the port bow views of 'King Edward VII' (1903), 'Britannia' (1904), 'Hindostan' (1903) and 'Dominion' (1903). June 1909

A general view of part of Line C at Spithead for the Naval Review. In the middle distance are stern views of (left to right) the armoured cruisers 'Duke of Edinburgh' (1904), 'Black Prince' (1904), 'Leviathan' (1901), 'Donegal' (1902) and 'Berwick' (1902), with the Second Class Protected Cruiser 'Arrogant' (1896) and another unidentified warship anchored in the distance. The Isle of Wight can be seen in the background.

HMS Renown and HMS Iron Duke at Malta, c. 1924

 

[BravoZulu]

Italy:
At the time of Italy's entrance into World War II Galileo Galilei was stationed at the Italian base of Massawa on the Red Sea being part of the Italian Red Sea Flotilla.

On June 10, 1940 the submarine under command of captain Corrado Nardi was ordered to proceed to her area of operation near Aden where she arrived on June 12.

In the early morning of June 16, while submerged, she intercepted Norwegian tanker James Stove, about 12 miles south of Aden. After surfacing and ordering the crew to leave the ship, Galileo Galilei fired three torpedoes that set the ship on fire and sank the tanker.

It is likely, the explosions were heard in Aden and the smoke column rising from the burning tanker was also observed, but no British ships or planes appeared and the submarine continued her mission unmolested until the afternoon of June 18 when a Yugoslavian steamer Drava was spotted. Galileo Galilei fired a shot across the bow ordering the ship to stop, but after seeing the ship was under a neutral flag, the steamer was allowed to leave.

However, the gunfire was heard by the anti-submarine warfare trawler HMS Moonstone who fired a warning signal. At around 16:30, while the submarine was still on the surface, she was attacked by an enemy plane. Galileo Galilei was forced to submerge but remained on station considering a rather weak response to her sighting.

When darkness fell, the boat resurfaced to recharge the batteries, but it was discovered by the British ship forcing the submarine to crash dive and go through a brief but intense depth-charge attack which did not cause any damage.

In the morning of June 19, while Galileo Galilei was laying immobile on seabed, the first mild symptoms of methylchloride poisoning appeared in some crew members. Meanwhile, the submarine had been detected by HMS Moonstone who launched another depth-charge attack.

Captain Nardi ordered the submarine to periscope depth, examined his adversary and noted their single 4-inch cannon and a pair of machine guns. Considering possible effects of methylchloride poisoning if the submarine continued staying submerged, and the modesty of trawler's armament, he decided to face HMS Moonstone on the surface with his two 100 mm guns and two machine guns.

As the fight began, the bow gun's sighting mechanism on the Galileo Galilei failed, greatly affecting the accuracy of shooting. Moonstone also moved too fast for the submarine's crew to aim their cannons effectively.

After about ten minutes Galileo Galilei was hit for the first time, wounding commander Nardi and killing several people around him. Shortly thereafter, the bow cannon was hit killing the gun crew including second in command. The cannon continued shooting, however, under command of Ensign Mazzucchi. The aft cannon soon jammed, and then another salvo from Moonstone killed all those on the conning tower including Nardi. The bow cannon continued shooting until HMS Kandahar arrived at the scene and Mazucchi, as the most senior on board the submarine, ordered Galileo Galilei to stop shooting and surrender. The submarine had lost 16 men: commander Nardi, four other officers, seven NCOs and four sailors. The submarine was then towed into Aden by Kandahar.

After her capture, Galileo Galilei was berthed at Port Said and served as a generating station to charge the batteries of British submarines. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy in June 1942 as HMS X2 (later changed to P 711), and was operated as a training boat in the East. She was scrapped on 1 January 1946.

 

[BravoZulu]

Vietnam:
Gepard 3.9 frigates, HQ-012 Ly Thai To, HQ-011 Dinh Tien Hoang and HQ-105 Trần Hưng Đạo

Tarantul class corvette HQ-378 launching a Kh-35 anti-ship missile during an exercise in 2017

Kilo 636MV submarine and Gepard 3.9 frigate HQ-011 Dinh Tien Hoang at Cam Ranh bay , May 2015

A Gepard 3.9 frigate HQ-012 Ly Thai To along with 3 Tarantul 1241.RE corvettes, May 2015

 

[BravoZulu]

USN:
USS Porter (DD-59) arriving at Queenstown, Ireland, on 4 May 1917, as part of the first U.S. Navy forces to reach European waters for World War I service

 

[BravoZulu]

Imperial Germany:
SMS Markgraf, 3rd in the Konig class of battleships

 

[BravoZulu]

Australia:
Destroyer HMAS Vampire as seen from the Bow, Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney

 

[BravoZulu]

Germany:
Minensuchboot 1935 class minesweeper

U-66, returning from the patrol, in the port of Lorient, France, Sept 1942

 

[BravoZulu]

USN:
USS Massachusetts fires the very last 16 inch shells of WW2 at Honshu. USS Indiana is in the foreground.

USS Pompano (SS-181), a United States Porpoise-class submarine. Her keel was laid down on 14 January 1936 by the Mare Island Navy Yard in California. She was launched on 11 March 1937, sponsored by Mrs. Isaac I. Yates, wife of Captain Isaac I. Yates, manager of Mare Island Navy Yard. The boat was commissioned on 12 June 1937

Pompano left Midway on 20 August, bound for Hokkaidō and Honshū. She was never heard from again, and when she failed to return, was presumed lost. The Japanese knew she was in her area, however, for two ships fell to her torpedoes during September: Akama Maru on 3 September, and Taiko Maru on 25 September. The enemy made no anti-submarine attacks during this period in Pompano's area, so newly-laid mines in the vicinity, not known to U.S.Navy intelligence until after she sailed,[probably sank her. Pompano was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 12 January 1944.

The official version is that she was lost while patrolling off the coasts of Hokkaido and Honshu, probably to Japanese mines. The date usually given (27 September) is an approximate one. However Japanese records show that a submarine was sunk on 17 September by air attack off the Aomori Prefecture near Shiriya Zaki

 

[BravoZulu]

Australia:
HMAS Melbourne-Majestic Class Light Aircraft Carrier conducting damage control measures off Thistle Island 3rd March 1960

 

[BravoZulu]

Netherlands:
Java-class cruiser Hr. Ms. Sumatra in dock, Amsterdam April 1939

 

[BravoZulu]

Italy:
Sail training ship Amerigo Vespucci

 

[BravoZulu]

Imperial Italy:
Ironclad Battleship "Sicilia". 2 × 2 – 13.5-inch (343 mm)/30 guns. Launched June 1891

Regina Margherita-class pre-dreadnought battleship Benedetto Brin

 

[BravoZulu]

RN:
MV Alexia was a British merchant aircraft carrier (MAC), converted in in December of 1943. During her MAC days, Alexia was given a full-length deck and a small island. She carried four Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers. At the end of the war, Alexia was reconverted to an oil tanker.

 

[BravoZulu]

France:
Heavy cruiser Suffren above and to starboard, and heavy cruiser Duquesne. Photographed 15 October 1934 by a unit of the U.S. Navy scouting fleet.

 

[BravoZulu]

Italy:
Destroyer Grecale being towed into Taranto's Mar Piccolo to be repaired after being damaged during the battle of the Duisburg Convoy; the arrows indicate the entrance holes of two shells that hit in the machinery rooms

The Maestrale-class destroyer Grecale (commanded by Capitano di Fregata Giovanni di Gropello) sailed in the early hours of 8 November 1941, as part of the escort of a large convoy (designated "Convoglio Beta" - 51. Seetransportstaffel for the German records), of seven merchantmen, sailing from Messina and Napoli to Tripoli. The escort was particularly heavy, with a heavy cruiser division (III Divisione, two Trento-class cruisers) forming up to the rear, as Force K was based at Malta.

Discovered by aerial recon (in this instance, ULTRA was not the cause for the convoy's fate), the convoy was attacked by Force K (sailed from Malta at 1730 h of the 8 November) at 0057 h of 9 November, as the cruisers HMS Aurora and Penelope opened fire on the two destroyers positioned off the convoy's starboard first, one of which was the Grecale (the other, the Fulmine, was sunk during the attack). When his ship was hit by the very first salvo, just as the enemy ships were sighted, di Gropello ordered flank speed and to come up between the enemy and the convoy, to attack as soon as possible; however, less than half a minute later the Grecale was straddled by salvoes and suffered several hits, causing severe losses and damage, and the rudder engines stopped working, forcing the crew to switch to manual control. In all, eight 152 mm (6 inch) shells from HMS Aurora hit the destroyer, crippling it and killing or disabling about a quarter of its crew.

During the engagement, all seven merchantmen were sunk, without the Italian escort being able to mount an effective resistance (the Maestrale, flagship escort, had its aerials shot down), nor did the III Divisione manage to intervene in any meaningful matter. At 0125 h the British ships ceased fire, and four minutes later turned for home. The tragedy was compounded by the torpedoing and sinking, during rescue operations, of the destroyer Libeccio by the submarine HMS Upholder.

The Grecale was able to limp to the port of Crotone and drop anchor there; on 10 November it was taken under tow and brought to Taranto, where in 11 November it was immediately taken in the care of the shipyard to be repaired, work that lasted till March 1942.

 

[BravoZulu]

Germany/USN:
Elbing class destroyer (DD-935) running trials off Boston, Sep 14th 1945. This class was ex-WW2 German torpedo Boats Type 1939 seized after the war.

 

[BravoZulu]

USN:
USS Langley (AV-3) sinking as sailors from USS Whipple (DD-217) watch, Feb 27, 1942