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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!

The origins of the American battlecruiser – 1902-1910

The United States Navy’s only planned battlecruisers, six Lexington class ships authorised by the Naval Act 1916,[1] were cancelled by the Five Power (‘Washington’) Treaty of 1922.[2] Two – Lexington and Saratoga - were completed as aircraft carriers instead.[3] The...

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...

The First Soviet Nuclear Submarines

With the USA leading the way in submarines the Soviet Union had to catch up

How do Torpedoes Damage a Ship?

Nothing shook warship designers so much as the arrival of the torpedo. Striking the ship below the water line, torpedoes could deliver an incredible amount of explosive power to a part of the warship that is not easily protected. Designers would learn that there was...

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...

What was the Best Light Cruiser? : Main Guns

After the success of the posts examining which battleships had the best anti-surface firepower and anti-aircraft firepower, I wanted to change things up! In this post, we will examine the guns of light cruisers, determining what was the best light cruiser gun of the...

Room 40 : Cryptanalysis during World War I

The sailor in Room 53 has never, it's true, been to sea but though not in a boat he has served afloat — in a bath in the Admiralty' Dillwyn ‘Dilly’ Knox, Cryptographer Room 40 . BEGINNINGS In London there is a building that has stood on its site since 1726. A two...

The loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse, Part 2: the air attack

At 5.35 pm on 8 December 1941 the battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse, with supporting destroyers, left Singapore to attack a Japanese seaborne invasion force that was landing in Malaya. By the early afternoon of 10 December, both ships had been sunk,...

How the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand was paid for

One of the many mythologies surrounding the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand – the gift that the New Zealand government made to Britain in April 1909 – is that she was unaffordable. According to legend, New Zealand was too small to afford her, had no money and the ship...

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...

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....

A look at life ARA General Belgrano

From USS Phoenix to ARA General Belgrano and her part in two wars and one coup d’etat

The many names of the Washington Treaty of 1922

The term ‘Washington Treaty’ frequently appears in specialist naval books and even general histories of the inter-war period. There is no mistaking the meaning: it refers to the treaty signed on 6 February 1922 between the United States, Britain, Japan, France and...

New photos of HMS Hood in 1924

It is not often that previously unknown photos of HMS Hood are discovered. A set were found recently in a New Zealand archive, and are reproduced here for the first time on a naval website. The quality is typical of the day: the slightly blurred imagery typical of the...

Why HMS New Zealand’s debt wasn’t cancelled until 1944-45

One of the many myths about the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand – the ship built as a gift from New Zealand to Britain in 1909 - is that she was unaffordable for a small Dominion of just under a million people. In the previous article I showed that this was simply not...

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...

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...

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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