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Convoy SC 129
SC 129 was a North Atlantic convoy of the SC series which ran during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. It was one of several convoy battles that occurred during the crisis month of May 1943. Background SC 129 was an east bound convoy of 25 ships, plus local contingents, which sailed from New York on 2 May 1943 bound for Liverpool and carrying war materials. Mid-Ocean Escort Force group B2 joined the convoy from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador on 6 May. Escort group B2 was led by Cdr D MacIntyre in HMS ''Hesperus''; other ships of this group were destroyer and five corvettes. They were joined for the voyage by two armed trawlers, plus a convoy rescue ship and an oiler. Arrayed against them in the North Atlantic were patrol lines ''Rhein'', ''Elbe'' and ''Drossel'', though although in the event only ''Elbe'', re-configured and comprising 21 U-boats, engaged SC 129. Action First contact with the convoy was made on 11 May by ''U-504'', which called up oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million Military personnel, personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Air warfare of World War II, Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in hu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Hesperus (H57)
HMS ''Hesperus'' was an H-class destroyer that had originally been ordered by the Brazilian Navy with the name ''Juruena'' in the late 1930s, but was purchased by the Royal Navy after the beginning of World War II in September 1939, commissioned in 1940 as ''HMS Hearty'' and then quickly renamed as ''Hesperus''. ''Hesperus'' was damaged by German aircraft during the Norwegian Campaign in May 1940 and was assigned to convoy escort and anti-submarine patrols after her repairs were completed. She was assigned to the Western Approaches Command for convoy escort duties in late 1940. She was briefly assigned to Force H in 1941, but her anti-aircraft armament was deemed too weak and she was transferred to the Newfoundland Escort Force the next month for escort duties in the North Atlantic. ''Hesperus'' was transferred to the Mid-Ocean Escort Force in late 1941 and continued to escort convoys in the North Atlantic for the next three years. She was converted to an escort destroyer in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Submarine U-186
German submarine ''U-186'' was a Type IXC/40 U-boat of Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' built for service during World War II. Her keel was laid down on 24 July 1941 by ''DeSchiMAG AG Weser'' in Bremen as yard number 1026. She was launched on 11 March 1942 and commissioned on 10 July with ''Korvettenkapitän'' Siegfried Hesemann in command. The U-boat's service began with training as part of the 4th U-boat Flotilla. She then moved to the 10th flotilla on 1 January 1943 for operations. The submarine carried out two patrols and was a member of nine wolfpacks. She sank three ships totalling . She was sunk by a British destroyer on 12 May 1943. Design German Type IXC/40 submarines were slightly larger than the original Type IXCs. ''U-186'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. The U-boat had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two MAN M 9 V 40/46 supercharged fou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Submarine U-223
German submarine ''U-223'' was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' during World War II. Ordered on 15 August 1940 from the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel, she was laid down on 15 July 1941 as yard number 653, launched on 16 April 1942 and commissioned on 6 June under the command of ''Kapitänleutnant'' Karl-Jürg Wächter. A member of eight wolfpacks, she sank two ships totalling in six patrols. She also sank one warship of 1,935 tons and caused one ship of and one warship of 1,300 tons to be declared total losses. She was sunk on 30 March 1944 by British warships in the Mediterranean Sea. 23 men died; there were 27 survivors. Design German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. ''U-223'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Submarine U-402
German submarine ''U-402'' was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' for service during World War II. She was laid down at the Danziger Werft in the city of the same name on 22 April 1940 as yard number 103, launched on 28 December 1940 and was commissioned on 21 May 1941, with ''Kapitänleutnant'' Siegfried Freiherr von Forstner in command. The boat commenced her career with the 3rd U-boat Flotilla on 21 May 1941 carrying-out training before moving on to operations on 1 October 1941. ''U-402'' carried out eight combat patrols, sinking 14 merchantmen and one auxiliary warship for a total of during the Second World War. She also damaged three other ships. The submarine was a member of twelve wolfpacks. For his numerous successes, von Forstner received the Knight's Cross. Design German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. ''U-402'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a total len ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coastal Command
RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation had been neglected in the inter-war period, due to disagreements between the Royal Navy (RN) and RAF over the ownership, roles and investment in maritime air power. The Admiralty's main concern until 1937 was the return of the Fleet Air Arm to the Royal Navy while the RAF prioritised the development of a bombing force to provide a deterrent. Coastal Command was referred to as the "Cinderella Service" by A V Alexander, the First Lord of the Admiralty in November 1940. Soon after RAF Coastal Area was elevated to Coastal Command, its headquarters moved from Lee-on-Solent to Northwood in northwest London. During the Second World War, Coastal Command's most important contribution was the protection of Allied convoys from attacks by the Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in 1885 by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish NavySmith, Charles Edgar: ''A short history of naval and marine engineering.'' Babcock & Wilcox, ltd. at the University Press, 1937, page 263 as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War. Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Biter (D97)
HMS ''Biter'' was a Royal Navy escort carrier during the Second World War. She was laid down as a merchant ship at the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company yard at Chester, Pennsylvania. Laid down on 28 December 1939, she was converted to an escort carrier and commissioned in the Royal Navy on 6 May 1942. She was returned to the United States in 1945 and subsequently lent to France. Design and description ''Biter'' was an . These carriers were converted American type C3 merchant ships. Their design was based on the U.S. Navy′s (AVG); to differentiate between the two classes, the Royal Navy added the prefix "B" (BAVG). HMS ''Biter'' (BAVG3) was built by the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, originally named the ''Rio-Parana''; she was laid down on 28 December 1939, launched on 18 December 1940 and delivered on 4 September 1941.Cocker (2008), p.78. She was converted to an escort carrier in the Atlantic Basin Iron Works at Brooklyn New York and commissioned into the Roy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Escort Carrier
The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft carrier used by the Royal Navy, the United States Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II. They were typically half the length and a third the displacement of larger fleet carriers, slower, more-lightly armed and armored, and carried fewer planes. Escort carriers were most often built upon a commercial ship hull, so they were cheaper and could be built quickly. This was their principal advantage as they could be completed in greater numbers as a stop-gap when fleet carriers were scarce. However, the lack of protection made escort carriers particularly vulnerable, and several were sunk with great loss of life. The light carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVL) was a similar concept t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Admiralty
The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of its history, from the early 18th century until its abolition, the role of the Lord High Admiral was almost invariably put "in commission" and exercised by the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty, who sat on the governing Board of Admiralty, rather than by a single person. The Admiralty was replaced by the Admiralty Board in 1964, as part of the reforms that created the Ministry of Defence and its Navy Department (later Navy Command). Before the Acts of Union 1707, the Office of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs administered the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of England, which merged with the Royal Scots Navy and the absorbed the responsibilities of the Lord High Admiral of the Kingdom of Scotland with the unification of the Kingdom of G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Submarine U-504
German submarine ''U-504'' was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 29 April 1940 at the Deutsche Werft yard in Hamburg as yard number 294, launched on 24 April 1941 and commissioned on 30 July 1941 under the command of ''Korvettenkapitän'' Hans-Georg Friedrich "Fritz" Poske. Initially attached to the 4th U-boat Flotilla for training, the U-boat was transferred to the 2nd flotilla on 1 January 1942 for front-line service. She was a member of six wolfpacks. Design German Type IXC submarines were slightly larger than the original Type IXBs. ''U-504'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. The U-boat had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two MAN M 9 V 40/46 supercharged four-stroke, nine-cylinder diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, two Siemens-Schuckert 2 GU 345/34 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tank Ship
A tanker (or tank ship or tankship) is a ship designed to transport or store liquids or gases in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and gas carrier. Tankers also carry commodities such as vegetable oils, molasses and wine. In the United States Navy and Military Sealift Command, a tanker used to refuel other ships is called an oiler (or replenishment oiler if it can also supply dry stores) but many other navies use the terms tanker and replenishment tanker. Tankers were first developed in the late 19th century as iron and steel hulls and pumping systems were developed. As of 2005, there were just over 4,000 tankers and supertankers or greater operating worldwide. Description Tankers can range in size of capacity from several hundred tons, which includes vessels for servicing small harbours and coastal settlements, to several hundred thousand tons, for long-range haulage. Besides ocean- or seagoing tankers there are also specialized ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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