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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!

The origins of the American battlecruiser – part 3: Jutland lessons

America’s only battlecruisers,[1] the Lexington class, emerged from ideas flowing through the Naval War College, General Board and other US Navy circles before and during the First World War.[2] As we saw in the previous article, this thinking finally came together...

Designing Britain’s oddest looking battleships

In the mid-1880s the British began building two new battleships as part of the so-called ‘Northbrook’ programme, a massive burst of naval expenditure to which government reluctantly agreed in early December 1884. What then emerged from the drawing boards of the...

Aircraft launching devices of the Imperial Japanese Navy Vol 1A – Flying-off platforms

By Joseph Ed. Low, and Sander Kingsepp This is the first of a series of articles that explores the history of aircraft launching devices used by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The series will start with flying-off platforms and will eventually also cover catapults....

Where did the term ‘battleship’ come from?

Think ‘battleship’, and you might think of the steam-driven steel warships that emerged during the last decade or so of the nineteenth century, and which remained an important measure of sea-force until the Second World War. In that, you would be right. The word...

The Battle of the River Plate and USS Salem

Today's article will go a little off track compared to our typical articles. That's because we are looking at the American Des Moines class heavy cruiser USS Salem (CA-139) and her portrayal of the German raider Admiral Graf Spee in the classic 1956 film The Battle of...

HMS Dreadnought – revolution or evolution?

In early 1907, the battleship HMS Dreadnought sailed on her shake-down cruise to the Caribbean under Captain Reginald Bacon. She was a remarkable vessel in many ways, one whose name became synonymous with all battleships during the First World War period, and whose...

The Last Naval Battle of World War 2

  What was the last naval battle of World War 2 ? When was the last battle between sailing ships? When was the last time that the United States boarded an enemy ship in combat? Would you be surprised if all three of those things occurred simultaneously? In...

Was ‘cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey’ a naval phrase?

The unprecedented cold that swept parts of the United States in early 2019 could be called 'brass monkey weather', though with the temperatures reported, that might be an understatement. According to legend, the term - in full, 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a...

Richelieu Class Battleship : A suprisingly successful design

In the spirit of Matthew J Wright’s excellent article on the King George V class battleships, I decided to examine another battleship that also suffers from an undeservedly bad reputation. In this article we will talk about the surprisingly successful design that was...

Montana Class Battleships : Armor Examination

This will be the first in a new series where we examine the armor schemes of various battleships throughout history. We will start off this series with the never-built American super dreadnoughts, the Montana class battleships. During the Montana class armor post we...

A Cold War Warrior: A Walkthrough of a Foxtrot Class Submarine

By Blair Shaw Looking quite out of place in a tiny marina in the town of Zeebrugge Belgium is the former Russian project 641 NATO code name Foxtrot class submarine B-821. B-821 and her seventy-four other sisters would become one of the most produced post World War 2...

Best Battleship: What battleship had the best guns

The battleship was built around its guns. After our last article looking at the anti-aircraft firepower of various battleships from World War II and onward, we decided to continue our journey to discover the best battleship. In this article, we will examine how each...

The hero of the Hood Battalion

When the First World War broke out in August 1914, the British Admiralty had plans to field ground forces, largely to seize coastal areas, if required, for naval bases. Historically there was nothing unusual about sailors fighting ashore. What was unusual was the...

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...

Return of the Russian Navy

Table of Contents Executive Summary IntroductionRussia: The Economic factors The Russian Navy: Fleet overviewVessel classes in the fleet and numbersRussian Navy Strategy and ConclusionsAppendicies and Citations  Executive Summary This document serves to provide a...

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. 

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...

Canada’s Next Generation Submarine

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

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...

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...

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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