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Home of Naval History and News

Welcome to the home page of the Navy General Board website! This is your portal to all things navy, whether it be current events or historical topics. You can find a wide range of news stories or historical articles on the website. You can also connect with fellow readers on the website forum.

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History Articles

Navy General Board was created to help share all aspects of naval history from throughout the ages. Here you will find our collection of history articles. It has come a long way and has something for everyone. Take your time and browse them all!

Admiral Sir John Fisher and the first fast battleships

At the end of 1904 Britain’s First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir John Fisher, set up a committee that met over a period of several months into early 1905 and produced two new types of vessel: an all big-gun battleship and its armoured cruiser homologue. The latter...

The largest class of battleships ever built: the Majestics. Part 1.

Britain's Majestic class of the 1890s was the largest class of battleships ever built. In many ways the nine-strong class symbolised the age. The names selected for them were redolent of the period, particularly the neo-classical revival that had become a British...

Best Battleship : Anti-Aircraft Guns

I'm working on a comprehensive ranking system to establish a hierarchy in the effectiveness of each class of battleship, basically finding what was the best battleship. This post will kick off the series by looking at the anti-aircraft guns of each battleship to...

Speed and armour: Fisher’s battlecruisers vs Admiralty politics

In 1919 the embittered Admiral Sir John Fisher, former First Sea Lord and the long-standing champion of naval technology, summed up his recent thinking about heavy warships in three words: ‘speed is armour’.[1] The phrase has since been inextricably associated with...

History by influence: Winston Churchill, HMS Indomitable and Force Z

"For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself." - Winston Churchill in speech to the House of Commons, 23 January 1948.[1] In October 1941 Britain’s new...

Largest Cruisers of World War 2

After the success of our article on the largest battleships of all time, we received a lot of requests for a similar article on cruisers. So without further delay, Navy General Board presents the twelve largest cruisers of World War 2 ! 16. USS Wichita (13,015 Long...

F4U Corsair vs P-51 Mustang

In the first of a new series of posts, we will begin to examine various carrier aircraft and see how they compare to other aircraft. And what better way to start the series off than to examine two of the most famous American fighter aircraft of the Second World War....

Five Great Features of the Littorio Class Battleships

Fast, powerful, and well armed, the Littorio class were the most powerful battleships ever put to sea by the Italian Navy. As the most modern battleships, Italy lavished considerable input into their design, leading to several innovative features. From a triple rudder...

A look at British B.VIII naval gun machinery and variants

By the early twentieth century one of the problems the British had with their heavy naval guns was that existing gun machinery could not elevate or depress the guns quickly enough to compensate for the roll of the ship. In some conditions the turntables could not...

Super Battleships of the World

Battleships were among the largest, most complex, and most powerful weapons of their day. Combining the largest guns and the thickest armor, they were impressive warships. While battleships were already powerful, some navies sought new designs that were even more...

The origins of the American battlecruiser – part 2: the road to the Lexington

In 1916 the United States authorised the construction of six battlecruisers of significant size, fire-power and speed. They were the first such ships ordered for US Navy service and remain the only battlecruisers the US Navy ever ordered.[1] None were completed as...

What the Second London Naval Treaty ‘escalator clause’ Really Meant

One of the common misconceptions in naval history is the idea that the so-called 'escalator clause' of the Second London Naval Treaty - which allowed main gun calibre to automatically revert to 16-inch if any signatory failed to ratify the treaty - also enabled agreed...

Scharnhorst vs Invincible

On the first day of November 1914, the Royal Navy was to suffer its firstdefeat in over a century, denting both its pride and the hard fought for,Nelsonic image. But thirty-Seven days later, retribution in the form ofseven Royal Navy cruisers was to be delivered in an...

Battleship Evolution : From the first Dreadnought to the Last

This series on battleships originally began on the Navy General Board Facebook page. It got to be so popular that we combined all of the posts into one article on battleship evolution. In this article we will see how each Navy's first dreadnought differed compared to...

Were the ‘Admirals’ Britain’s first class of battleships?

In an earlier article we explored the story of HMS Collingwood, a British battleship that the Royal Navy’s Director of Naval Construction, Nathaniel Barbaby, sketched in 1880 and which was detailed by his assistant, William White.[1] Collingwood was soon followed by...

News and Current Events

A relatively new addition to the Navy General Board website. While we remain focused on sharing history, we also want to examine naval current events that are occuring across the world. This section is still new, but more articles are coming. 

Why China’s Island Bases are Not a Big Deal

Over the past few years, the media has made a big deal of the artificial island bases that China has built in the South China Sea. Several of these islands are well fortified, featuring harbors, airstrips, and formidable land-based weaponry. Some in the media have...

The Navy’s FFG(X) Program : Foreign and Domestic Options

The Navy has all but admitted that the Littoral Combat Ships are a flop. Therefore, they have started looking at potential ships to fulfill requirements for a new frigate design known as the FFG(X) Program. Make makes things interesting is that this time the US Navy...

Canada’s Next Generation Submarine

My own opinion and hypothesis on what class of submarine could become Canada’s next generation submarine

China’s Newest Warship : The Type 55 Destroyer

At a time when the United States Navy is struggling to determine the future of its Navy, China has been quietly building up its naval forces. The People’s Liberation Army Navy has risen to be the second largest navy in the world by tonnage. It’s not just quantity that...

Want to go a little bit further than simply reading an aritcle? Interesting in writing your own and sharing it with Navy General Board? Check out our about us page for information on becoming a guest writer for the Navy General Board website! We are looking for both historical pieces and current events happening with navies across the World. 

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