Articles
- Article by Peter Kimenai
- Published on January 12th, 2025
American Battleships
When the global naval arms race started in the early 1900s, the US Navy soon followed. This article describes how American battleships at first followed the design characteristics of the British HMS Dreadnought. It further expands on how battleship innovation during the 1920s and early 1930s was constrained by international naval treaties and therefore required some ingenuity from the naval engineers. With the advent of WW2 and the treaties having become redundant in the late 1930s, this ingenuity paved the way for a number of successive battleship classes that became a league of their own. However, the article also concludes that in the course of WW2, the primary role of the battleship was soon replaced by the aircraft carrier.
- Article by Peter Kimenai
- Published on January 18th, 2025
American battleships of the South Dakota class (1941)
The American battleships of the South Dakota class (USS South Dakota, USS Indiana, USS Massachusetts and USS Alabama) were a class of fast battleships designed in the late 1930s under the constraints of the Washington and London Fleet Treaties. Compared to the preceding North Carolina class, the four battleships of the South Dakota class were more compact and better armoured but had the same primary armament.
- Article by Wilco Vermeer
- Published on February 17th, 2025
Japanese Kongo-class (1912) battleships
The Kongo-class battleships were built between 1911 and 1915 as battlecruisers, based on a British design. The lead ship of the class, Kongo (1913), was the last Japanese naval ship at that time to be built outside Japan, namely in Great Britain. At the end of the 1920s, all the ships were modernised and hence re-classified as battleships. All ships in the class were lost during World War II. Only Haruna (1915) could be refloated but was scrapped in 1946.
- Article by Peter Kimenai
- Published on January 19th, 2025
British battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class (1913)
On the eve of World War Two, Great Britain had 12 capital ships and 3 battlecruisers at her disposal. Right after World War One, this number stood at 46. The Washington Treaty, signed in 1921 by the major naval powers at the time in order to prevent a new arms race, stipulated that in the 20s, 28 British warships be dismantled. The five Queen Elizabeth class vessels and the five of the Royal Sovereign class were retained.
- Article by Frank van der Drift
- Published on August 27th, 2023
German Battleships Bismarck class
Designing the Bismarck started as early as 1934 and entailed a 35,000 BRT so-called Panzerschiff or armored vessel equipped with 8 38cm guns. The design entailed an armor strong enough to withstand any battleship and the armament was sufficiently strong to take on any opponent. Final design was completed in May 1935.
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