Navistory Soviet Navy Series IX, IX bis (1934-48), 40 boats, last active 1960s. Commonly dubbed as the S-class, for “Srednyaya” (medium), the series IX and IXbis were arguably the best Soviet submarines of WW2. They superficially looked like the German Type VII U-Boat and this was not fortuitous: Their design origins lays in the relations between … Read more
Royal Navy Flotilla Leader Destroyer built 1916-17: Vampire, Valentine, Valhalla, Valorous, Valkyrie active 1918-1947 The V class flotilla leaders were a group of five fast Royal Navy destroyer leaders built in 1917 for the planned mass-build V class destroyers. The master world of the day was speed. They were specifically designed to reach 34 knots, … Read more
Japanese Self Defence Naval Force Guided Missile Destroyers built 1983-86, active until 2021 (DDG-171-172). The The Hatakaze-class were the 3rd generation of guided-missile destroyers in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and with gas-turbine propulsion. They repeated the missile and armament suite of the Tachikaze class, but had improvements in all areas. The most important … Read more
Seabird Sunday ! The Macchi M.9 was a flying boat bomber designed by Alessandro Tonini at the end of World War I (and afterwards for export). This conventional design of flying boat for Macchi had unstaggered biplane wings of unequal span, single pusher engine in the interplane gap, and pilot/observer side by side in the … Read more
ASW Escorts (1956 to 1985): F 765-778: Le Normand, Le Picard, Le Gascon, Le Lorrain, Le Bourguignon, Le Champenois, Le Savoyard, Le Breton, Le Basque, L’Agenais, Le Bearnais, L’Alsacien, Le Provençal, Le Vendeen Second entry for French Cold War (true) Frigates: The “Le Normand” class or E52 type escort were a followed up of the … Read more
Regia Marina: 4 midget submersible 1938-43: CA-1 to CA-4 First on four articles on Regia Marina’s midget submarines in ww2: The CA class were a secret weapon developed from 1937 by Italy. This first class of midget submarine (Italian “sommergibili tascabili”, the latter traduced rather as “pocket sub”) in the second world war, had a … Read more
Italy (1883) Re Umberto, Sicilia, Sardegna The Re Umberto considered by some as ironclads, are a departure from “classic” ironclads of the 1880s series, the Duilios (1876), Italia (1880) and Ruggero di Lauria (1884) whih all had their main armament in échelon amidship. The Re Umberto would be the first to embrace the new trend … Read more
KuK Kriegsmarine Submarine: SMS U3, U4 (1909) The Austro-Hungarian Empire developed U-Boats prior and during WWI. The first U1 sereie was derived from plans of US naval engineer Thomas Lake. But they were criticized for their weak gasoline engines and long, complicated diving procedures and were relegated to training in Pola until January 1918. The … Read more
Armoured Cruiser (1886) ARA Patagonia was an Argentinian armoured cruiser built by the Austro-Hungarians at Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino in Trieste. She was laid down and launched in 1886, Commissioned 1887 and departing by late January for Buneos Aires. She had been ordered with controversy as part of the growing naval rivalry and tension with Chile. … Read more
DEG/FF-1 to 7: Brooke, Ramsey, Schofield, Talbot, Richard L. Page, Julius A. Furer The Brooke-class were near sisters of the Garcia class, except for their second 5-inch/38 gun was replaced with a Mk.22 launcher for the Mk.74 Tartar SAM for air defence. The single arm missile launcher had afire control assisted by the AN/SPS-52 3D … Read more
