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Ships of World War Two

Battleships, Aircraft Carriers, Cruisers, Destroyers, etc.

Using the pictures from the 1943-45 Naval Recognition Manual as a base, I plan to cover the five major powers of the war: United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and Italy.  As the manual was designed specifically for recognition, it includes plan views of classes of warships, not individual ships. Thus, all the ships presented here are lead ships of their class.

Below is a random page from the 1943 Naval Recognition Manual, which includes plan views, profiles, and photographs of the ships.

United States Navy

This is not an online version of Samuel Eliot Morison's History of United States Naval Operations in World War Two, merely a summary and some images of ships.

Battleships

USS Arkansas

USS Colorado

USS Iowa

USS Nevada

USS New Mexico

USS New York

USS Pennsylvania
 
USS South Dakota

USS Tennessee

Aircraft Carriers

USS Bogue

USS Charger

USS Enterprise

USS Essex

USS Independence

USS Ranger

USS Sangamon

USS Saratoga

Cruisers

USS Baltimore

USS Brooklyn

USS Cleveland

USS New Orleans

USS Northampton

USS Omaha

USS Pensacola

USS Portland

USS San Diego

USS Wichita



Destroyers

USS Bagley

USS Benham

USS Benson

USS Buckley (DE)

USS Doherty (DE)

USS Farragut

USS Fletcher

USS J. Fred Talbott

USS Mahan

USS Porter

USS Somers

Other Types

Minor Combatants

Auxiliaries

United Kingdom - the Royal Navy

This is not an online history of all British Naval Operations in World War Two, merely a summary and some images of ships.

Battleships

HMS King George V

HMS Nelson

HMS Queen Elizabeth

HMS Warspite

HMS Malaya

HMS Royal Sovereign

Aircraft Carriers

HMS Furious

HMS Illustrious

HMS Battler

HMS Archer

HMS Argus

Cruisers

HMS Kent

HMS Norfolk

HMS Hawkins

HMS Dragon

HMNZS Leander

HMS Arethusa

HMS Southampton

HMS Dido

HMS Charybdis

HMS Fiji

Destroyers

HMS


Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN)

This is not an online history of all Japanese Naval Operations in World War Two, merely a summary and some images of ships.

Battleships

Kongo

Fuso

Ise

Nagato

Aircraft Carriers

Shokaku

Hosho

Zuiho

Mizuho

Chitose

Cruisers

Nachi

Atago

Mogami

Aoba

Chokai

Tone

Sendai

Kuma

Natori

Tenryu

Katori

Yubari

Destroyers

Mutsuki

Minekaze

Wakatake

Amagiri

Shigure

Asashio

Terutsuki

Hibiki

Shinonome

Hatsuharu

Chidori


German Navy (Kriegsmarine)

Articles on particular German ships to follow.

Shipwrecks

Some of the most famous shipwrecks of World War Two are off Guadalcanal, in the famed "Iron Bottom Sound." In one terrible night, the Battle of Savo Island, August 8-9, 1942, the United States Navy lost three cruisers and the Australians one, while the Japanese ships were only damaged that night. Altogether almost 50 Japanese and American ships were sunk in WW2 naval battles lie off Guadalcanal, from other engagements in the same area.

Another spot filled with shipwrecks is Truk Lagoon, site of a major Japanese naval base that was heavily bombed by the Americans. Many warships and merchantmen ("maru") still lie there, in relatively shallow waters that have made Truk Lagoon a favorite destination for scuba divers.

This site is devoted the the thirteen shipwrecks in Kwajalein.

Ship plans

Check out each ship page in this section, as the schematic diagrams are, in effect, gross-level plans.

Here is a sample, the USS Colorado:

USS Colorado

For every ship discussed here, there is a comparable ship plan.

Ships sunk

During the course of WWII, over 1,500 ships were sunk: in the Pacific, by German submarines in the North Atlantic, the French Fleet at Toulon, on the Murmansk run.

The oceanographer, Bob Ballard, who had devoted life to underwater research, has even located and photographed the U.S.S. Yorktown, destroyed during the battle of Midway in 1942 and now resting 17,000 feet below the waves. His book "Graveyards of the Pacific" offers exactly what readers expect, including a Japanese torpedo at Pearl Harbor.

Sources: Public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

and scans from my father's 1943 Naval Recognition Manual

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