Navistory Seabird Sunday ! The Curtiss BF2C Goshawk (Model 67) was a 1930s naval land-based biplane fighter that was the last of a long series made by the Curtiss for the Navy. It was also distributed internationally as the Model 68 Hawk III. Developed from the very similar F11C-2 featuring a land-based undercarriage, the latter was … Read more
Japan, 56 Escort (kaibōkan)/300 planned, 28 lost, 79 cancelled. The Imperial Japanese Navy Type C and D constituted the last and massive effort to stem the US Navy submarine and air-sea campaign to strangle japan, cut it from all its supply lines and forced it to surrender. These were Kaibōkan, light versatile escorts for AA … Read more
RN Turret Ironclad (1869-1905) We continue our exploration of British Royal Navy Turret Ironclads of the Victorian Era with HMS Monarch, a recommendation by the committee appointed in 1865 and groundbreaking, but also compromised vessel. Not only she was the first sea-going turret ironclad completed, before Coles’s HMS Captain, but also the first to sport … Read more
MDAA ex-US Independence class Carriers: FS La Fayette (R96), Bois Belleau (R95) (1951/53-1960/63) The “Lafayette class” were two ex-US Independence class aircraft carriers loaned to France to fight the Indochina War. Lafayette was acquired in 1951 and later modernized, returned in 1963 as the ex-USS langley. FS Bois Belleau was the ex USS Belleau Woods … Read more
Coastal Minelaying Submarines – 15 completed 1915: UC-1 to UC-15 The Type UC I coastal submarines were small minelaying models built in 1914-15, the first type of three that were part of the German all-out U-boat war. They were not the first operational minelaying submarines in the world, but the first class, with fifteen boats … Read more
Imperial Japanese Navy Protected Cruisers: IJN Niitaka, Tsushima 1904-1936 Called the Tsushima class in some publications but today more generally the Niitaka class, these two protected cruisers were built at Yokosuka and Kure between 1901 and 1904, one named after a sacred mountain, and the second after the strait, which later became the famous battle … Read more
Seabird Sunday ! ✈ 30/08/2026 Vickers Wellington in the Coastal Command (1940-45) Before the Vickers Warwick developed for the Coastal Command, here is the story of the RAF Bomber Wellington Mark IC, VIII, and tailored Gr.Mk. XI, XIII and XIV. The Wellington is a famous 2-engine bomber of the early years of the Bomber command … Read more
UK, Royal Navy: HMS Brecon, Bissenden. The Hunt class Type IV were the very last destroyer escorts made for the Royal Navy, after the Type III and the lend-lease Captain class. They were by far the largest, best armed and refined of the series, but proceeded from a private venture by Thornycroft, not from an … Read more
Germany (1938-40): 14 boats completed, 12 lost: U-64, U-65, U-103, U-104, U-105, U-106, U-107, U-108, U-109, U-110, U-111, U-122, U-123, U-124 The Type IXB: The class comprised U-64 to U-124 and this was the most successful of the whole IX series, with 12 out of 14 U-Boat having ace captains, Viktor Schütze in 7 sorties … Read more
Deodoro class coastal defense ship (1898) Marinha Marshal Deodoro, Floriano Peixoto The Deodoro class was a pair of coastal defense battleships fielded by the the Brazilian Navy in WW1. Named after its first two presidents, Deodoro da Fonseca and Floriano Peixoto they were part of an emergency vessel acquisition program to modernize the Brazilian Navy. … Read more
