HMS Renown. Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. 1927
HMS Renown was the lead ship of her class of battlecruisers of the Royal Navy built during the First World War. She was originally laid down as an improved version of the Revenge-class battleships. Her construction was suspended on the outbreak of war on the grounds she would not be ready in a timely manner. Admiral Lord Fisher, upon becoming First Sea Lord, gained approval to restart her construction as a battlecruiser that could be built and enter service quickly. The Director of Naval Construction (DNC), Eustace Tennyson-D’Eyncourt, quickly produced an entirely new design to meet Admiral Lord Fisher’s requirements and the builders agreed to deliver the ships in 15 months. They did not quite meet that ambitious goal, but the ship was delivered a few months after the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Renown, and her sister HMS Repulse, were the world’s fastest capital ships upon completion.
Renown did not see combat during the war and was reconstructed twice between the wars; the 1920s reconstruction increased her armour protection and made other more minor improvements, while the 1930s reconstruction was much more thorough. The ship frequently conveyed royalty on their foreign tours and served as flagship of the Battlecruiser Squadron when Hood was refitting.
During the Second World War, Renown was involved in the search for the Admiral Graf Spee in 1939, participated in the Norwegian Campaign of April–June 1940 and the search for the German battleship Bismarck in 1941. She spent much of 1940 and 1941 assigned to Force H at Gibraltar, escorting convoys and she participated in the inconclusive Battle of Cape Spartivento. Renown was briefly assigned to the Home Fleet and provided cover to several Arctic convoys in early 1942. The ship was transferred back to Force H for Operation Torch and spent much of 1943 refitting or transporting Winston Churchill and his staff to and from various conferences with various Allied leaders. In early 1944, Renown was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean where she supported numerous attacks on Japanese-occupied facilities in Indonesia and various island groups in the Indian Ocean. The ship returned to the Home Fleet in early 1945 and was refitted before being placed in reserve after the end of the war. Renown was sold for scrap in 1948.
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The George Washington returns to Japan in 2024, Reagan heads home – By Diana Stancy Correll Friday, Dec 22
The aircraft carrier George Washington departed Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia in May 2023. The maintenance on the ship kicked off in 2017. (Huntington Ingalls)The aircraft carrier George Washington is slated to return to Yokosuka, Japan, as the Navy’s only forward-deployed carrier in 2024 — replacing fellow carrier Ronald Reagan.
Yokosuka previously hosted the George Washington from 2008 to 2015. The carrier then started its mid-life refueling and complex overhaul maintenance, known as an RCOH, in 2017 in Virginia.
The maintenance was originally scheduled to conclude in 2021 under a four-year timeline, but delays meant it didn’t wrap up until May 2023.
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Unplanned growth in work, labor inefficiencies and the COVID-19 pandemic were all factors that slowed the progress of maintenance, Navy officials previously told Navy Times’ sister publication, Defense News.
The RCOHs are completed at the 25-year mark in a carrier’s service life and are designed to refuel the nuclear power reactor and address other major maintenance issues and upgrades.
The Reagan, which joined U.S. 7th Fleet in 2015, will head to Bremerton, Washington, for maintenance work, according to U.S. Pacific Fleet.
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– The first USS Oahu (PR-6), a Yangtze River gunboat, was laid down by Kiangnan Do
The first USS Oahu (PR-6), a Yangtze River gunboat, was laid down by Kiangnan Dock and Engineering Works, Shanghai, China, 18 December 1926; launched as PG–46 on 26 November 1927; sponsored by Mrs. Bryson Bruce, wife of Comdr. Bruce; and commissioned 22 October 1928, Lt. Comdr. A. C. Thomas in command.
Service history[edit]
One of six river gunboats built for use on the Yangtze Kiang in south central China, Oahu departed Shanghai on her shakedown cruise 3 November 1928, proceeding upriver to Chongqing, 1,300 miles (2,100 km) inland, stopping at the open treaty ports en route and returning to Shanghai 2 June 1929. She then operated all along the Yangtze from the river’s mouth to Chongqing and in the tributaries in protection of American lives and property into the 1930s. In the course of her service with the Yangtze Patrol Force, the gunboat convoyed American and foreign merchantmen up and down the river, supplied armed guards to U.S. and British river craft, landed bluejackets at treaty ports threatened by unrest and evacuated foreign nationals in times of danger.
Beginning in 1934, Oahu took up duty as station ship at various Yangtze ports supplying the increasing river traffic with naval armed guard detachments on a regular basis. Serving station ship duty at Yichang, Chongqing, Hankou, Wuhu, and Nanjing into 1937, the gunboat made intermittent patrols down the length of the river on convoy duty and then following the Japanese invasion of China in July, served as escort for merchantmen and protected American neutrality in the conflict. Following the sinking of sister gunboat Panay off Nanjing by Japanese planes 12 December 1937, Oahu picked up the survivors and carried them to Shanghai, returning to the scene of the incident to conduct salvage operations.
As the Japanese campaign in China grew, the gunboat operated only on the lower river as far as Wuhu and Hankou, in addition serving as station ship and radio relay vessel for American officials at the temporary U.S. embassy at Nanjing. Whenever the warship attempted to cruise the river on regular patrol, she was convoyed by Japanese minesweepers that kept watch on her movements while protecting her from attacks by their planes. Oahu remained as station ship at ports below Hankou, returning to the latter city to refit and give liberty to her crew until late in November 1941 and then, under orders of Commander, Asiatic Fleet departed Shanghai for the Philippines as signs of approaching war with Japan became clearer.
Following a long and difficult voyage across the South China Sea, the gunboat, never designed for open sea operations, arrived at Manila Bay in the week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. When war began, the warship operated in and around Manila Bay and Cavite Navy Yard on inshore patrol and in support of U.S.-Filipino forces on Bataan until after the fall of that peninsula 8 April 1942, and then continued to operate about the island fortress of Corregidor until sunk by enemy gunfire on 5 May. She was struck from the Navy List three days later.
On the night of 5 April, during the Battle of Bataan, the Mindanao and Oahu engaged the Japanese 21st Independent Engineer Regiment sailing south off Bataan’s east coast, sinking several enemy craft.[2]
Oahu, one of the last “old China hands”, never actually voyaged to the U.S. She received one battle star for World War II service. She is sunk at the “tadpole’s tail end” at Corregidor (in 20 feet of water). The only thing showing is the ship’s railing. Everything else is buried in the very small coral gravel. She may have sunk and washed up in the bay at the end of the island, and slowly settled down into the sand and gravel and still lies there.
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Subreddit Icon r/WarshipPorn •Posted by u/_Tegan_Quin 3 days ago The Pounds Yard Portsmouth (now closed) with the old Whale Island Gate guard (Twin 4.5 inch naval gun turret) – next to Tipner, Portsmouth, England, United Kingdom.
The old (twin 4,5 inch inch naval guns) used in the Type 12, 12M ,12 i, Leander-class frigates, County-class destroyers, other frigates and old Daring class destroyers of the British Royal Navy.
The Daring-class destroyers were both the largest and most heavily armed ships serving in British Commonwealth navies to be classified as destroyers.
They were intended to fill some of the duties of cruisers, which post-Second World War. were considered both expensive and obsolete by British naval planners, and the ships were briefly officially considered a hybrid type (Darings) before being rated as destroyers. They were also the last destroyers of the Royal Navt and Royal Australian Navy to have guns as their main armament (instead of guided missile systems), which the ships use during the Indonesian Confrontation from January 20th 1963 to August 11th, 1966, and the Vietnam War.
The Daring-class destroyers were in service in the British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy, from the 1950s to the 1980s. Following decommissioning, two British Darings were sold to the Peruvian Navy, which operated one ship until 1993 and the other until 2007. One ship of the class is preserved: the HMAS Vampire as a museum ship at the Australian National Maritime Museum.
Photo source – https://x.com/awenham1/status/1737066300596224476?s=46
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Photos – More than 6,500 sailors and marines stand guard this Christmas to keep us safe and secure 22 December 2023
Crew of destroyer HMS Diamond face the clear and present danger of drone attacks fired by Houthi rebels at shipping in the Red Sea – a danger now faced down by more than half a dozen navies on Operation Prosperity Guardian, whose vessels are watching over merchant ships like the shepherds of Christmas lore.
Diamond’s sailors are just 200 of some 6,500 Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Fleet Air Arm and Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel – roughly one in five members of the Naval Service – either deployed or on standby to respond to incidents at home and abroad during Christmas 2023.
Of those, 4,700 are regular or reservist sailors, submariners and Fleet Air Arm personnel, plus nearly 1,150 Royal Marines and over 700 sailors in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the vital support arm of the fighting fleet.
Many of the latter are deployed in the eastern Mediterranean aboard aviation support vessel RFA Argus and amphibious support ship RFA Lyme Bay as part of the UK’s response to the crisis in Israel/Gaza.
The tense situation in the Middle East as the year ends has not only required a response from the Royal Navy but brings down the curtain on a year when the Service has, once again, been heavily engaged in all seven oceans. Other achievements of 2023 include:
- Two new RFA ships delivered (Proteus and Stirling Castle) to help secure UK waters;
- The fifth Astute-class submarine HMS Anson delivered and now undergoing operational training;
- The capacity of Ukraine’s Navy continues to grow thanks to training from our sailors and Royal Marines;
- The two Littoral Response Groups, central to future Commando Force operations, have been deployed to the Baltic and eastern Mediterranean;
- The engine enhancements to the Type 45s are progressing well;
- HMS Prince of Wales returned to the fleet and completed aviation trials;
- HMS Queen Elizabeth provided NATO with the potential of fifth-generation carrier striking power for the first time.
The patrol ship closes out 2023 around the islands of the South Pacific, having begun it in Malaysia and conducted visits, exercises and patrols from the eastern coast of India to Sydney in the intervening 11 months.
They are marking Christmas – dressed in T-shirts and shorts as it’s the height of summer in the Southern Hemisphere – with Cornish-themed gifts donated by their affiliates at Cornwall County Council as well as presents from families.
The ship – which was recently singled out by senior officers for its efforts both promoting the UK and Royal Navy across a vast area and extensive work with allied and partner navies in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region – has offered its sailors unique personal and professional opportunities, representing the nation at high-profile diplomatic and military events, through to hosting Trafalgar Night celebrations in Sydney Harbour, diving on the Great Barrier Reef and touring the tea plantations of Sri Lanka on tuk-tuks.
“We’ve been proud to fly the White Ensign in some extraordinary locations,” said her Executive Officer Lieutenant Commander Matt Millyard.
The patrol ship is one of five deployed around the globe on long-term missions, performing a role and asserting an influence far greater than one might expect from 45 or 50 sailors in a relatively small vessel.
All remain deployed over Christmas: HMS Spey in Singapore for her end of year maintenance; HMS Medway is in Gibraltar receiving the same TLC after nine months patrolling the Falklands, which are now patrolled once again by HMS Forth; and HMS Trent is in the Caribbean working with US authorities in the ongoing fight against drug trafficking.
Icebreaker and research ship HMS Protector is the next farthest flung vessel from home – about 8,500 miles – as she conducts her first work period of the austral summer around the Antarctic peninsula.
Elsewhere, aside from HMS Diamond, the Royal Navy maintains a sizeable presence in the Gulf: frigate HMS Lancaster, which is supporting wider efforts in the region to ensure the safe and free flow of trade by sea, plus minehunters HMS Chiddingfold, Middleton and Bangor, their command/support ship RFA Cardigan Bay and the RN’s headquarters east of Suez, UKMCC in Bahrain.
In the mid-Atlantic HMS Scott is gathering deep water oceanic data to update existing charts.
The couple of dozen personnel of the Gibraltar Squadron and fast patrol boats HMS Cutlass and Dagger are keeping an eye on the waters of the Rock and the western gateway to the Mediterranean.
And, as ever, since Christmas 1969, there is a Royal Navy submarine carrying the nation’s nuclear deterrent on patrol somewhere beneath the waves.
Thanking personnel for their efforts – and families and friends for the ongoing support – throughout 2023 First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Ben Key said everyone could reflect “with enormous pride” on their achievements and contributions to the Navy’s global mission this year.
“I don’t think any one of us had quite predicted just how much and how busy we would be around the world,” he said.
“It has been a phenomenal year of delivery for the service, from the very highest to the lowest latitudes of the world and across all lines of longitude once again.”
He continued: “For those who are holding the watch over the Christmas period and away from your loved ones, thank you for being there.
“And for all, whether at home or away, on duty or on leave, please pass the thanks of me and the senior leadership team of the Service to your family and your friends.”
For those who are holding the watch over the Christmas period and away from your loved ones, thank you for being there
First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Ben Key
Units
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