Naval
D-Day Redux I
âWhatâs your most valuable possession?â General Montgomery asked a soldier just before D-Day. âMy rifle, sir,â came the reply. âNo, it isnât,â Monty replied; âitâs your life, and Iâm going to save it for you.â Although of course any large-scale amphibious landing on the heavily defended coastline of north-western Europe would be a major risk, the Allies did everything they…
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The Naval Africa Expedition and the Battle for Lake Tanganyika
The Battle for Lake Tanganyika was a series of naval engagements during the First World War between the naval elements of Germany, Britain and Belgium between the end of 1915 and the beginning of 1916, for control of the Lake. Germanyâs most valuable colony in Africa, German East Africa, was…
French Account of the Battle of the Nile
The Admiralty had to rely on this French account to see exactly how Nelson won his victory. It was written in captivity on board the British Alexander on its way to Naples. The letter frequently refers to âplansâ, probably the maps reproduced below. The Battle of the Nile posed French…
Kaname Harada
Through the sea breeze a mechanical bugle blared and the pilot looked up startled, a rice ball halfway to his mouth. Like angry ants, men poured from everywhere over the flight deck and ran toward waiting aircraft or anti-aircraft guns. Air attack . . . that was what the bugle…
Hunting the Haguro
The âStar Attackâ carried out to perfection by 26th Destroyer Flotilla. Haguro was hit by torpedoes from all points of the compass. She was doomed long before the 61-minute action began by her inexplicable failure to sight her foes until within 6 miles. Her Type 22 radar had a 212-mile…
The Red Banner Baltic Fleet and naval infantry â Leningrad Front
Naval Infantry. Â Heavy cruiser Maxim Gorky at Leningrad 1942. The Red Banner Baltic Fleet (Krasnoznamyonnyy Baltiyskiy Flot, KBF) suffered heavy losses during the evacuation of Tallinn on 28/29 August, but by the beginning of the siege of Leningrad it still had enough warships left to provide considerable naval gunfire…
K-21 versus BBÂ Tirpitz
Captain Lunin K-21 According to citations from captain Luninâs report â at 16:55 sonarman detected far unclear sounds, at 17:00 the deck-house of submarine was detected by watch officer via periscope and soon it became clear that was not submarine but the bridge of one of escort destroyers, at 17:15…