41-12-10 Repulse, Prince of Wales

.Malaya 1941: The Sinking of Repulse and Prince of Wales > .

The sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a naval engagement in WW2, as part of the war in the Pacific, that took place on 10 December 1941 in the South China Sea off the east coast of the British colony of Malaya (present-day Malaysia), 70 miles (61 nautical miles; 110 kilometres) east of Kuantan, Pahang. The Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were sunk by land-based bombers and torpedo bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. In Japanese, the engagement was referred to as the Naval Battle of Malaya (マレー沖海戦, Marē-oki kaisen).

The objective of Force Z, which consisted of one battleship, one battlecruiser and four destroyers, was to intercept the Japanese invasion fleet in the South China Sea north of Malaya. The task force sailed without air support. Although the British had a close encounter with Japanese heavy surface units, the force failed to find and destroy the main convoy. On their return to Singapore they were attacked in open waters and sunk by long-range torpedo bombers. The commander of Force Z, Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, elected to maintain radio silence and an alert was only sent (by the Repulse) one hour after the first Japanese attack.

With the attack on Pearl Harbor only three days earlier, the Malayan engagement illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against even the heaviest of naval assets if they were without air cover. This added to the importance for the Allies of the three USN aircraft carriers in the Pacific: USS Enterprise, Lexington, and Saratoga. The sinking of the two ships severely weakened the British Eastern Fleet in Singapore, and the Japanese fleet was only engaged by submarines until the Battle off Endau on 27 January 1942.

1944-8-20 SS Richard Montgomery

.Why Has Nothing Been Done? | SS Richard Montgomery - Casual > . skip ad > .

How A Cargo Ship Helped Win WW2: The Liberty Ship Story > .

Rise and Fall of the Liberty Ship - It's History > .

Liberty Ships: Extraordinarily Ordinary - Mega > . skip ad > .

SS Richard Montgomery was an American Liberty cargo ship built during World War II. She was named after Richard Montgomery, an Irish officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War.

The ship was wrecked on the Nore sandbank in the Thames Estuary, near Sheerness, England, 20 August 1944, while carrying a cargo of munitions. About 1,400 tonnes (1,500 short tons) of explosives remaining on board presents a hazard but the likelihood of explosion is claimed to be remote.

When Richard Montgomery arrived off Southend, she came under the authority of the Thames naval control at HMS Leigh located at the end of Southend Pier. The harbourmaster, responsible for all shipping movements in the estuary, ordered the ship to a berth off the north edge of Sheerness middle sands, an area designated as the Great Nore Anchorage.

On 20 August 1944 she dragged anchor and ran aground on a sandbank around 250 m (820 ft) from the Medway Approach Channel, in a depth of 24 ft (7.3 m) of water. The general dry cargo liberty ship had an average draft of 28 ft (8.5 m), but Richard Montgomery was trimmed to a draft of 31 ft (9.4 m). As the tide went down, the ship broke her back on sand banks near the Isle of Sheppey about 1.5 mi (2.4 km) from Sheerness and 5 mi (8.0 km) from Southend.

A Rochester-based stevedore company was given the job of removing the cargo, which began on 23 August 1944, using the ship's own cargo handling equipment. By the next day, the ship's hull had cracked open, causing several cargo holds at the bow end to flood. The salvage operation continued until 25 September, when the ship was finally abandoned before all the cargo had been recovered. Subsequently the vessel broke into two separate parts, roughly amidships.

During the enquiry following the shipwreck it was revealed that several ships moored nearby had noticed Richard Montgomery drifting towards the sandbank. They had attempted to signal an alert by sounding their sirens, but without avail because Captain Wilkie of Richard Montgomery was asleep. The ship's chief officer was unable to explain why he had not alerted the captain. A board of inquiry concluded that the anchorage the harbour master assigned had placed the ship in jeopardy, and returned the captain of Richard Montgomery to full duty within a week.

1914-12-8 SMS Scharnhorst

German WWI wreck Scharnhorst discovered off Falklands: 

The wreck of a WW1 German armoured cruiser has been located off the Falkland Islands, where it was sunk by the British navy 105 years ago. SMS Scharnhorst was the flagship of German Vice-Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee's East Asia Squadron. It was sunk on 8 December 1914 with more than 800 men on board, including Vice-Adm von Spee himself (in 1934 a new heavy cruiser was named after him, and was scuttled after the Battle of the River Plate).

A British squadron had pursued and engaged the German squadron. HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible inflicted substantial damage on SMS Scharnhorst, causing it to sink with all 860 people on board. The Royal Navy then gave pursuit to the remaining German ships.

2022-3-24 Saratov destroyed

22-3-24 Ukrainians destroy Russian warship in occupied port of Berdyansk > .

2o22-2-24+ Special Invasive Operation - Fyrd Færeld >> .

The Soviet designation Project 1171 (Tapir-class) landing ship (NATO reporting name: Alligator) is a class of Soviet / Russian general purpose, beachable amphibious warfare ships (Soviet classification: large landing ship, Russian: БДК, большой десантный корабль).

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, in the aftermath of the Battle of Berdiansk, BDK-65 Saratov was reported as destroyed by a Ukrainian attack on 24 March 2022 while in the harbour of Russian-occupied Ukrainian Port of Berdiansk. Video showed a large fire, smoke, and explosions, with one explosion engulfing the bow of the ship. The ship was originally reported as having been Orsk, but the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces later reported that Saratov had been destroyed, and two Ropucha-class ships, Caesar Kunikov and Novocherkassk damaged.

41-3-26 Souda Bay - Pericles, York

41-3-26 tanker Pericles sunk, HMS York damaged - Italian MT speed boats > .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Souda_Bay .

Explosive Speed Boats ..