HMS Westminster (L40)
HMS ''Westminster'' was a V and W-class destroyer#Admiralty W class, W-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was the first ship to bear the name. Launched in 1918, she served through two World Wars, and survived both to be sold for scrap in 1947. Construction and commissioning ''Westminster'' was ordered on 9 December 1916 from Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock, Scotland with the 10th order of the 1916–17 Programme. She was laid down in April 1917, launched on 24 February 1918 and commissioned on 18 April 1918. First World War and interwar period HMS ''Westminster''s first role was escorting battle cruisers in the North Sea. She was later an escort for the German High Sea Fleet on its way to Rosyth in November 1918 after the German Armistice with Germany (Compiègne), surrender. Less than one month after the World War I, war ended, ''Westminster'' was required to help evacuate the crew of cruiser when she struck a Naval mine, mine. Yet just one da ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Scotts Shipbuilding And Engineering Company
Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde. In its time in Greenock, Scotts built over 1,250 ships. History John Scott founded the company in 1711. He built herring busses and small craft. He was succeeded by his son William Scott (1722–1769) and another son. In 1765 they built their first square-rigged vessel. William's son John (1752–1837) expanded the shipyard to a major shipbuilding company. The Scott family took over the Greenock Foundry in 1790. In 1791, Scott & Co. built , of 624-ton (bm), for the Newfoundland trade. She and , built in 1794, were the largest ships built in Scotland in their years. They marked the beginning of increased activity by Scott & Co., particularly with respect to large, ocean-going ships. C. G. Scott started building at Cartsdyke Dockyard in 1850, as Scott & Company. John Scott (II) and Robert Scott bought the adjacen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the world's largest brackish water basin. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. It is a Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea and marginal sea of the Atlantic with limited water exchange between the two, making it an inland sea. The Baltic Sea drains through the Danish straits into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, Great Belt and Little Belt. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia (divided into the Bothnian Bay and the Bothnian Sea), the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga and the Bay of Gdańsk. The "Baltic Proper" is bordered on its northern edge, at latitude 60°N, by Åland and the Gulf of Bothnia, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of Finland, on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga, and in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Convoy FN-31
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas. Naval convoys Age of Sail Naval convoys have been in use for centuries, with examples of merchant ships traveling under naval protection dating to the 12th century. The use of organized naval convoys dates from when ships began to be separated into specialist classes and national navies were established. By the French Revolutionary Wars of the late 18th century, effective naval convoy tactics had been developed to ward off pirates and privateers. Some convoys contained several hundred merchant ships. The most enduring system of convoys were the Spanish treasure fleets, that sailed from the 1520s until 1790. When merchant ships sailed independently, a privateer coul ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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E-boats
E-boat was the Western Allies' designation for the fast attack craft (German: ''Schnellboot'', or ''S-Boot'', meaning "fast boat"; plural ''Schnellboote'') of the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II; ''E-boat'' could refer to a patrol craft from an armed motorboat to a large ''Torpedoboot.'' The name of E-boats was a British designation using the letter ''E'' for ''Enemy''. The main wartime production boats, from ''S26'' onwards (but often designated the ''S100'' class), were very seaworthy, heavily armed and capable of sustaining , briefly accelerating to . These were armed with torpedoes and Flak guns; commonly one 37 mm at the stern, one 20 mm at the bow with a twin mount amidships, plus machine guns. Armament varied and some ''S26'' class boats substituted a 40mm Bofors or, less commonly, a 20mm ''flakvierling'' (quadruple mount) for the aft 37mm cannon. The ''S26'' class boats – which provided the bulk of the wartime deliveries – were ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arctic Convoys Of World War II
The Arctic convoys of World War II were oceangoing convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union – primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk in Russia. There were 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945, sailing via several seas of the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, Arctic oceans, with periods with no sailings during several months in 1942, and in the summers of 1943 and 1944. About 1,400 merchant ships delivered essential supplies to the Soviet Union under the Anglo-Soviet Agreement and US Lend-Lease program, escorted by ships of the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, and the U.S. Navy. Eighty-five merchant vessels and 16 Royal Navy warships (two cruisers, six destroyers, eight other escort ships) were lost. Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' lost a number of vessels including German battleship Scharnhorst, one battleship, three destroyers, 30 U-boats, and many aircraft. The convoys demonstrated ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Normandy Landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day (after D-Day (military term), the military term), it is the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France, and the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front (World War II), Western Front. Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on the day selected for D-Day was not ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the planners had re ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'. The Tyne Rivers Trust measure the whole Tyne Drainage basin, catchment as , containing of waterways. Course North Tyne The Ordnance Survey records 'the source of the North Tyne river' at grid reference NY 605974 at Deadwater, a few tens of metres short of the Scottish border. It flows southeast through the village of Kielder before entering first Bakethin Reservoir and then Kielder Water, both set within Kielder Forest. It then passes by the village of Bellingham, Northumberland, Bellingham before the River Rede enters as a left-bank tributary at Redesmouth. It passes Hadrian's Wall near Chollerford before joining the South Tyne near Warden to the northwest of Hexham. South Tyne The South Tyne rises at Tyne ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Flushing, Netherlands
Vlissingen (; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an important harbour for centuries. It was granted City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1315. In the 17th century the roadstead of Vlissingen was a main harbour for ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). It is also known as the birthplace of Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter. Vlissingen is mainly noted for the yards on the Scheldt where most of the ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy (''Koninklijke Marine'') are built. Geography The municipality of Vlissingen consists of the following places: * City: Vlissingen * Villages: Oost-Souburg, Ritthem, and West-Souburg * Hamlet: Groot-Abeele History The fishermen's hamlet that came into existence at the estuary of the Schelde around AD 620 has grown over its 1,400-year history into ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dunkirk
Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-largest French harbour. The population of the commune in 2019 was 86,279. Etymology and language use The name of Dunkirk derives from West Flemish 'dune' or 'dun (fortification), dun' and 'church', thus 'church in the dunes'. A smaller town 25 km (15 miles) farther up the Flemish coast originally shared the same name, but was later renamed Oostduinkerke(n) in order to avoid confusion. Until the middle of the 20th century, French Flemish (the local variety of Dutch language, Dutch) was commonly spoken. History Middle Ages A fishing village arose late in the tenth century, in the originally flooded coastal area of the English Channel south of the Western Scheldt, when the area was held by the County of Flanders, Counts of Flanders, va ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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French Army
The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, French Air and Space Force, and the National Gendarmerie. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Staff of the French Army (CEMAT), who is subordinate of the Chief of the Defence Staff (France), Chief of the Defence Staff (CEMA), who commands active service Army units and in turn is responsible to the President of France. CEMAT is also directly responsible to the Ministry of Armed Forces (France), Ministry of the Armed Forces for administration, preparation, and equipment. The French Army, following the French Revolution, has generally been composed of a mixed force of conscripts and professional volunteers. It is now considered a professional force, since the French Parliament suspended the Conscription in France, conscription of soldiers. Acc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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HMS Westminster (Second World War)
Two ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS ''Westminster'' after the City of Westminster; or the Duke of Westminster: * was a W-class destroyer launched in 1918 and sold in 1948. * is a Type 23 frigate launched in 1992 and currently in service. Battle honours Ships named ''Westminster'' have earned the following battle honours A battle honour is an award of a right by a government or sovereign to a military unit to emblazon the name of a battle or operation on its flags ("colours"), uniforms or other accessories where ornamentation is possible. In European military ...: *North Sea 1939–45 *English Channel 1943 {{DEFAULTSORT:Westminster, Hms Royal Navy ship names ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pennant Number
In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that identified a flotilla or type of vessel. For example, the Royal Navy used a red burgee for torpedo boats and a pennant with an H for torpedo boat destroyers. Adding a number to the type-identifying flag uniquely identified each ship. In the current system, a letter prefix, called a ''flag superior'', identifies the type of ship, and numerical suffix, called a flag inferior, uniquely identifies an individual ship. Not all pennant numbers have a flag superior. Royal Navy systems The Royal Navy first used pennants to distinguish its ships in 1661 with a proclamation that all of his majesty's ships must fly a union pennant. This distinction was further strengthened by a proclamation in 1674 which forbade merchant vessels from flying any ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |