Monthly Archives: October 2023

HMS Victorious – 1966 Nov. 1966: HMS VICTORIOUS  HMS Victorious was the third Illustrious-class aircraft carrier after Illustrious and Formidable. Ordered under the 1936 Naval Programme, she was laid down at the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1937 and launched two years later in 1939. Her commissioning was delayed until 1941 due to the greater need for escort vessels for service in the Battle of theContinue reading “HMS Victorious”

 HMS Petard underway at speed. As seen from the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable. HMS Petard was a P-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during the Second World War. She was one of only three P-class ships, out of the original eight, to survive the war in a serviceable condition.[1] Originally to have been named HMS Persistent, Petard was launched in March 1941.[2] She initiallyContinue reading “HMS Petard – On completion in 1942 she was a ‘P’ class Destroyer with the number G56.From 1953 to 1955 she was converted into a Type 15 Frigate with the number F56At some point, maybe early 1960s, she was apparently renumbered as F26.Broken up in 1967.”

Work was completed in August 1940, when she was commissioned into the German fleet. Bismarck and her sister ship Tirpitz were the largest battleships ever built by Germany, and two of the largest built by any European power. In the course of the warship’s eight-month career, Bismarck conducted only one offensive operation that lasted 8 days in May 1941, codenamed Rheinübung. The ship, alongContinue reading “Bismarck was the first of two Bismarck-class battleships built for Nazi Germany’s Kriegsmarine. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched in February 1939.”