Battleships and Battlecruisers losses in WWII

From the Washington Naval Treaty to the end of the Second World War.
Danelov
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Battleships and Battlecruisers losses in WWII

Post by Danelov »

A list of Battleships and Battlecruisers losses in combat in WWII

US NAVY

The USN sole losses were the battleships sunken at Pearl Harbour , actually BB-39 Arizona,BB-37 Oklahoma and the old Utah; all other battleships were refloated and repaired.

ITALIA

-Conte di Cavour was sunk in the Taranto attack, was refloated but never complet repaired before the Italian Armistice in 1943.
-Roma(Class Littorio) was sunk by the Guided flying bombs of the Luftwaffe with great loss of live ,in his transfer sail to Malta after the armistice ,for rendition, in september 1943.

FRANCE

-The Bretagne(Provence Class) was sunk in Mers El Kebir by the Royal Navy in Operation Catapult with great loss of live.
-The Provence was hit the same day and also was sunk in shallow waters, refloated ,was transladed to Toulon and scuttled by his crew in November 1942 to avoid the capture by the Germans.

ROYAL NAVY

HMS Royal Oak sunk by U-47, HMS Barham by U-331 ,HMS Hood by Bismarck,HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales by IJN planes.HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth sunken at Alexandria in shallow waters by Italian human torpedos, refloated and repaired.

KRIEGSMARINE

Bismarck by Rodney-King George V, Scharnhorst by Duke of York and several cruisers and destroyers , Tirpitz by Lancasters of the RAF 617 Sqd with Tallboy bombs.Graf Spee scuttled by his crew at Montevideo after the Battle of River Plate(*).

IJN

All Battleships and battlecruisers sunken by ships,submarines and air attacks, except Nagato ,taked in charge by the USN and utilised for the atomic test a Bikini.Battleship Mutsu exploded at port and sunk after accident in powder magazines by 1943.

SOVIET UNION

Marat hit by JU-87 stukas, sunk in shallow waters,sten section repaired and utilised as floating battery under the name of Petropavlovsk.
Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya damaged by German artillery, repaired and after desactivated to the end of the war.
HMS Royal Sovereign was transfered in 1944 to the Soviet Navy and named Arkangelsk.Returned to UK in 1948.


Other Battleships or Battlecruisers were scuttled to evade capture like the French Strasbourg and Dunkerque at Toulon, other were descommisioned and retired like Gneisenau, others surrended like the Italians Littorio and Vittorio Veneto,others destroyed at port under bombardement like Admiral Scheer and Lützow,etc.

(*): I have also included Graf Spee after his British denomination or clasification as "Pocket Battleship"
ostriker
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Post by ostriker »

Great list :clap:
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Antonio Bonomi
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Post by Antonio Bonomi »

Ciao all,

so you must add on KM :

Gneisenau : RAF bombers at dock.

Adm Scheer : RAF bombers at Kiel.

Lutzow : RAF Lancasters with Tallboys at Swinemunde


Just for the records....

Ciao Antonio :D
Captain Morgan
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Post by Captain Morgan »

A better covering of the IJN would be

Hiei damaged by USN cruiser and destriyer force, further damaged and sunk by continued air attacks.

Kirishima battered by USN battleships and scuttled.

Mutsu destroyed by magazine explosion.

Musashi sunk by USN air attack

Fuso sunk by USN detroyer torpedos

Yamashiro by USN Battleships and destoryers

Kongo sunk by USN submarine

Yamato by USN air attack

Haruna, Ise and Hyuga sunk at Kure in shallow water by air attack in the closing weeks of the war.

Nagato sunk at Bikini in operation crossroads after the war.
There are 2 types of vessels out there. One type is called a target. If it isn't capable of silently doing 30+ knots at 2000 ft depth its always considered a target. The vessel that can silently go fast and deep is the one the targets are afraid of.
Danelov
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Post by Danelov »

Hi Antonio , well the two Pockets Battleships are mentioned at the end of the post and about Gneisenau :

The ship was hit by the RAF the 27-02-42 ,the bomb had destroyed the "Anton" turret and caused 112 victims,starting a furious fire in the bow sector, but the ship had not sunk.
Considered still reparable was towed nach Gotenhafen and discommisioned the 01-07-42. Then, after the disaster of Barent Sea ,all works of reparations or rebuild were suspended under order of Hitler in January 1943 .
Finally in 27-03-45 was towed to the entry of Gotenhafen port and loaded with explossives was sunk there to make a blocus of the harbour.
The demolition works were started by the Polish in 1947 and the 12-09-81 (!!!)was finnish the complete remove of the wreck.


And to complete this retrospective Kriegsmarine a note about the old ladies: Schleswig-Holstein and Schlesien.

Schleswig-Holstein was hit at Gotenhafen by three bombs the 18-12-44 and sunk in a depth of 12m.
Was descomissioned the 25-01-45 and finally destroyed by explossive charges the 21-03-45.
Refloated by the Soviets in 1945 was towed to Tallin(Reval).By 1948 was fixed in a sand bank near Odsmussar island and was utilised as target ship to 1966.
There still today some debris of the wrack at place.

Schlesien hit by mines dropped by the RAF in Greifswalder Oie the 03-05-45.Was towed to Swinemünde by the destroyer Z-39.
The ship was too heavy damaged and was scuttled with explossives the next day, 4th May 1945 sinking in shallow waters.
The wrack was salvaged after the war but there are still some debris and parts by 1980.

Only as info for the archive... :D
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RF
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Re: Battleships and Battlecruisers losses in WWII

Post by RF »

Danelov wrote:A list of Battleships and Battlecruisers losses in combat in WWII

Other Battleships or Battlecruisers were scuttled to evade capture like the French Strasbourg and Dunkerque at Toulon, other were descommisioned and retired like Gneisenau, others surrended like the Italians Littorio and Vittorio Veneto,others destroyed at port under bombardement like Admiral Scheer and Lützow,etc.
The Gneisenau was not gracefully retired, it was effectively destroyed in an RAF bombing raid in April 1942, when bombs ignited gas vapour in its nearly empty oil bunkers. The resulting explosion and fire left the ship so badly burn't out the Kriegsmarine took the decision that it wasn't worth repairing her and paid off her crew and took out her guns. Just after the Channel Dash as well, the effort in that hardly seems worth it.
Tiornu
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Re: Battleships and Battlecruisers losses in WWII

Post by Tiornu »

It was not an explosion of oil vapors but a fire in the forward magazine.
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RF
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Re: Battleships and Battlecruisers losses in WWII

Post by RF »

Tiornu wrote:It was not an explosion of oil vapors but a fire in the forward magazine.
Have a read of Richard Garretts' book ''Scharnhorst and Gneisenau'' as he is quite outspoken on this topic.
Tiornu
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Re: Battleships and Battlecruisers losses in WWII

Post by Tiornu »

My mistake. The fire did start with oil fumes, but the spectacular effects resulted from the magazine fire. This was what picked up turret Anton.
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