Navies - TheHistoryFiles.com

Cold War – Diesel-Electric Submarines

HMAS Ovens – Royal Australian Navy Diesel-electric submarines, which were also known as ‘conventional’ submarines, played a significant role in the Cold War from the very start. When NATO became operational in the early 1950s the Soviet surface fleet was generally considered to be of minor importance, since it had achieved little of strategic significance […]

Navies

Confederate Commerce Raiders

The Confederate raider Shenandoah undergoing repairs in Melbourne, Australia. (U.S. Naval Historical Center) Washington controlled 90 percent of America’s naval resources at the start of the Civil War. Therefore, the Confederate States Navy—created on February 21, 1861, two months before hostilities began—resorted to unconventional means. Jefferson Davis invited privateers to apply for licenses as early […]

Navies

After Bismarck II

Dorsetshire at anchor in Scapa Flow in August 1941. Dorsetshire and Cornwall under heavy air attack by Japanese carrier dive bombers on 5 April 1942. Photographed from a Japanese aircraft. The plucky Piorun – the English translation of her name means Thunderbolt – saw plenty of action after her encounter with Bismarck, participating in the […]

British, Navies

Modern Royal Navy 2001-2014

The war on terror began to unravel the Strategic Defence Review of 1998, which besides the usual rationalization and economies was also motivated by achieving a reinvigorated joint expeditionary edge for Britain’s armed forces. Much of this was brought about by the long-term land commitments in the Middle East since 2001 and the subsequent return […]

Navies, Russia

Czar Nicholas and his Navy

Imperial Russian battleship Borodino at Kronshtadt, Augst 1904. Borodino was the lead ship of her class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy although she was the second ship of her class to be completed. Named after the 1812 Battle of Borodino, the ship was completed after the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War […]

Navies, Warship

Post WWII Surface Warships I

Although aircraft carriers and submarines drew the headlines during the Cold War, nonaviation surface ships constituted the bulk of the world’s navies and conducted most naval operations. The nature, size, and armament of those ships changed gradually as the Cold War advanced. Radar and torpedo technology limitations eliminated small coastal fast-attack craft that had proven […]

Navies, Warship

Post WWII Surface Warships II

Interestingly, perhaps the greatest changes in surface warship design came about because of Soviet developments in naval weaponry. Lacking the resources to build aircraft carriers during the Cold War’s early years, the Soviet Union focused on developing long-range antiship missiles (ASMs) as well as SAMs for its ships. Thus, the Soviets introduced the world’s first […]

British, Navies

Royal Navy – Cold War

British Royal Navy HMS Ocean, amphibious assault ship (R), leading NATO warships. The United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) was gradually streamlined and downsized during the Cold War, shifting its strategic capability from that of a surface fleet to one that primarily employed submarines and antisubmarine warfare. In 1945 Britain still maintained naval bases around the […]

British, Navies

Royal Navy 1803

Goodbye My Lads by Fred Roe. Lord Nelson waves goodbye to the crowd at Portsmouth. Lord Nelson joins his ship HMS Victory before the battle of Trafalgar. Becalmed – HMS Victory in the Doldrums by Ivan Berryman. Two of Admiral Horatio Nelson’s ships lie becalmed together, bathed in the soft glow of the setting sun. […]

Navies, Russia

Russian Naval Operations WWI Part II

The Russian Navy in WWI – the Baltic. The Black Sea Before dawn on 16 October 1914, sudden explosions were heard at the port of Odessa and off the coast of Sevastopol. The Commander-in-Chief of the allied German-Turkish Fleet, Rear Admiral Wilhelm Suschon, decided to surprise the Russian seamen with another attack similar to the […]