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HMS Hawkins
HMS ''Hawkins'' was the lead ship of her class of five heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War, although the ship was not completed until 1919. She was assigned to the China Station until 1928 and was briefly assigned to the Atlantic Fleet in 1929–1930, always serving as a flagship, before being placed in reserve. ''Hawkins'' was recommissioned in 1932 for service on the East Indies Station, but returned to reserve three years later. The ship was disarmed in 1937–1938 and converted into a cadet training ship in 1938. When the Second World War began in 1939, the Royal Navy decided to reconvert her back into a heavy cruiser and her original armament was reinstalled. ''Hawkins'' reentered service in early 1940 and was assigned to the South Atlantic Division where she patrolled for Axis commerce raiders and escorted convoys. The following year, she was transferred to the Indian Ocean where she played a small role in the East African campaign in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Admiral
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, or fleet admiral. Etymology The word in Middle English comes from Anglo-French , "commander", from Medieval Latin , . These evolved from the Arabic () – () (), "king, prince, chief, leader, nobleman, lord, a governor, commander, or person who rules over a number of people" and (), the Arabic definite article meaning "the." In Arabic, admiral is also represented as (), where al-Baḥr (البحر) means the sea. The 1818 edition of Samuel Johnson's '' A Dictionary of the English Language'', edited and revised by the Rev. Henry John Todd, states that the term "has been traced to the Arab. emir or amir, lord or commander, and the Gr. , the sea, q. d. ''prince of the sea''. The word is written both with and without ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belt Armor
Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from penetrating to the heart of a warship. When struck by an artillery shell or underwater torpedo, the belt armor either absorbs the impact and explosion with its sheer thickness and strength, or else uses sloping to redirect the projectile and its blast downwards. Typically, the main armor belt covers the warship from its main deck down to some distance below the waterline. If, instead of forming the outer hull, the armor belt is built inside the hull, it is installed at a sloped angle for improved protection, as described above. The torpedo bulkhead Frequently, the main belt's armor plates were supplemented with a torpedo bulkhead spaced several meters behind the main belt, designed to maintain the ship's watertight integrity even if the main belt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Navy During The First World War
The Royal Navy had three main tasks at the beginning of the war: to bring the British Expeditionary Force to France and ensure its supplies and reinforcements; to establish and maintain a blockade against Germany; and to ensure the security of British world trade. Background At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Royal Navy was at the height of its power. The French Navy had not been a threat for years, Russia had suffered a crushing defeat against the Japanese at Tsushima in 1905, and the United States Navy was insignificant. However, German shipbuilding plans were seen as a challenge to British supremacy and led to a naval arms race. As relations with Germany deteriorated, Britain joined the Entente Cordiale. In the meantime, Admiral John 'Jackie' Fisher carried out a series of radical reforms designed to transform the Royal Navy into a state-of-the-art naval force. These included the introduction of submarines, steam-powered turbines, a switch from coal to oil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawkins-class Cruiser
The ''Hawkins'' class consisted of five heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War, although none of them saw service during the war. The first ship to be completed, , was renamed from HMS ''Cavendish'' and converted into an aircraft carrier while under construction. All ships were named after Elizabethan sea captains. The three ships remaining as cruisers in 1939 served in the World War II, Second World War, with ''Effingham'' being an early war loss through wreck; ''Raleigh'' had been lost in a similar shipwreck on uncharted rocks in 1922 (and ''Vindictive'' was nearly lost to grounding in 1919). ''Vindictive'', though no longer a cruiser, also served throughout the War. This class formed the basis for the definition of the maximum cruiser type under the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Design Although the ''Hawkins'' class are sometimes named as the "Improved ''Birminghams''", referring to the ''Birmingham'' sub-class of the Town-class cruiser (1910), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lead Ship
The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships that are all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may take five to ten years to build. Improvements based on experience with building and operating the lead ship are likely to be incorporated into the design or construction of later ships in the class, so it is rare to have vessels that are identical. The second and later ships are often started before the first one is completed, launched and tested. Nevertheless, building copies is still more efficient and cost effective than building prototypes, and the lead ship will usually be followed by copies with some improvements rather than radically different versions. The improvements will sometimes be retrofitted to the lead ship. Occasionally, the lead ship will be launched and commissioned for shakedown testing before following ship ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oerlikon 20 Mm Cannon
The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II. Many versions of the cannon are still used. Blowback-operated models History Origins During World War I, the German industrialist Reinhold Becker developed a 20 mm caliber cannon, known now as the 20 mm Becker using the advanced primer ignition blowback (API blowback) method of operation. This used a 20×70mmRB cartridge and had a cyclic rate of fire of 300 rpm. It was used on a limited scale as an aircraft gun on ''Luftstreitkräfte'' warplanes, and an anti-aircraft gun towards the end of that war. Because the Treaty of Versailles banned further production of such weapons in Germany, the patents and design works were transferred in 1919 to the Swiss firm SEMAG (''Seebach M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
QF 4-inch Naval Gun Mk V
The QF 4 inch Mk V gunMk V = Mark 5. Britain used Roman numerals to denote Marks (models) of ordnance until after World War II. Mark V indicates this was the fifth model of QF 4-inch gun. was a Royal Navy gun of World War I which was adapted on HA (i.e. high-angle) mountings to the heavy anti-aircraft role both at sea and on land, and was also used as a coast defence gun. Service Naval service This QF gun was introduced to provide a higher rate of fire than the BL 4 inch Mk VII. It first appeared in 1914 as secondary armament on s, was soon adapted to a high-angle anti-aircraft role. It was typically used on cruisers and heavier ships, although s of 1917 also mounted the gun. Mk V was superseded by the QF 4 inch Mk XVI as the HA (i.e. anti-aircraft) gun on new warships in the 1930s, but it continued to serve on many ships such as destroyers, light and heavy cruisers in World War II. Army anti-aircraft gun Early in World War I several guns were supplied by the Navy for e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fire-control Radar
A fire-control radar (FCR) is a radar that is designed specifically to provide information (mainly target azimuth, elevation, range and range rate) to a fire-control system in order to direct weapons such that they hit a target. They are sometimes known as narrow beam radars, targeting radars, tracking radars, or in the UK, gun-laying radars. If the radar is used to guide a missile, it is often known as a target illuminator or illuminator radar. A typical fire-control radar emits a narrow, intense beam of radio waves to ensure accurate tracking information and to minimize the chance of losing track of the target. This makes them less suitable for initial detection of the target, and FCRs are often partnered with a medium-range search radar to fill this role. In British terminology, these medium-range systems were known as tactical control radars. Most modern radars have a track-while-scan capability, enabling them to function simultaneously as both fire-control radar and se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Type 285 Radar
The Type 285 radar was a British naval gunnery radar developed during the Second World War. The Type 285 was used as a surface and anti-aircraft ranging radar on smaller ships, and as an anti-aircraft radar on larger ships. The prototype was tested at sea aboard the escort destroyer An escort destroyer was a small warship built to full naval standards which was optimised for air-defence and anti-submarine duties in wartime, but which retained many of the capabilities of a traditional fleet destroyer, enabling it to conduct ... in August 1940.Campbell, p. 16 The Type 284 radar used the same electronics with a different antenna system, and was used for surface fire control on larger ships (cruisers and battleships). Notes Bibliography * * *{{cite book, last=Watson, first=Raymond C. Jr., title=Radar Origins Worldwide: History of Its Evolution in 13 Nations Through World War II, publisher=Trafford, year=2009 , isbn=978-1-4269-2111-7 External links The RN Radar and Commu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Search Radar
This is a list of different types of radar. Detection and search radars Search radars scan great volumes of space with pulses of short radio waves. They typically scan the volume two to four times a minute. The radio waves are usually less than a meter long. Ships and planes are metal, and reflect radio waves. The radar measures the distance to the reflector by measuring the time of the round trip from emission of a pulse to reception, dividing this by two, and then multiplying by the speed of light. To be accepted, the received pulse has to lie within a period of time called the ''range gate''. The radar determines the direction because the short radio waves behave like a search light when emitted from the reflector of the radar set's antenna. Search * Early Warning (EW) Radar Radar Systems ** Ground Control Intercept (GCI) Radar ** Airborne Early Warning (AEW) ** Airborne ground surveillance (AGS) ** Over-the-Horizon (OTH) Radar *Target Acquisition (TA, TAR) Radar Systems * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of World War II British Naval Radar
This page is a List of World War II United Kingdom, British naval radar. Nomenclature These sets were initially numbered as wireless telegraph (w/t) sets, but a distinguishing prefix of "2" was soon added. Metric sets were numbered in the 28x and 29x series. When centimetric sets arrived with the advent of the cavity magnetron, they were numbered by subtracting 10 from the metric type number they were based on (e.g. the metric Type 284 was replaced by the centimetric Type 274). This was not always possible however, as Types 271 - 274 were already in use for original centimetric sets, thus some metric sets in the Type 28x range had 20 subtracted (e.g. the metric Type 282 was replaced by the centimetric Type 262). Aerial outfits were given a three letter identifier that began with "A". Suffixing letters indicated the following; * B - conversion of sets with separate Transmitter, transmitting (Tx) and Receiver (radio), receiving (Rx) Antenna (radio), antennas to single antenna opera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early-warning Radar
An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum time in which to operate. This contrasts with systems used primarily for tracking or gun laying, which tend to offer shorter ranges but offer much higher accuracy. EW radars tend to share a number of design features that improve their performance in the role. For instance, EW radar typically operates at lower frequencies, and thus longer wavelengths, than other types. This greatly reduces their interaction with rain and snow in the air, and therefore improves their performance in the long-range role where their coverage area will often include precipitation. This also has the side-effect of lowering their optical resolution, but this is not important in this role. Likewise, EW radars often use much lower pulse repetition frequency to maximi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
