I figured I would share this photo slide show I did a few years back on the Battleship Texas.

Be warned though its long (22 min to be exact)

BB 35 Video by Matt - MySpace Video

Its on myspace though, didnt put it on youtube cause of all the negativty one gets.

But if interested people can watch though. Here are some photos for thse that dont want to watch that video. Be warned this is a photo rich post




December 1914 or 1915 to June 1916



After August 20, 1921 and before August 11, 1922



After August 1922 and Before July 31, 1925


1923 - 1925


1926


After August 1927 and Before August 1928


1928


February 25 to May 21, 1944


Home Alive in 45


Crew


Heres some of others

DKM Bismarck








USS York Town





USS Lexington


USS Intrepid


HMS Hood


USS Enterprise




USS Essex




IJN Yamato

 

Some really good pictures. I really like any of the battleships. Even the German and Japanese had some impressive ships. One of the battle ships is on display in Pearl according to my sister. Would love to go there to see it and the Arizona. Will always kick myself for not going out to the Arizona the two times we made port there.

 

The one in pearl on display is the "Mighty Mo" or Battleship Mo. She is there to show the start and end of WWII for the US. Arizona is the start Mo is the end cause the Japanese surrender was signed on her decks in Tokyo harbor.

I had alot of these photos since I posted them on a game site cause I used to be very involved with the Silent Hunter 2 and 3 games but not so much anymore. The Bismarck though is a impresive story out of sheer luck she destoryed the Hood with a lucky shot just as she was starting her turn. The Tripitz which was the Bismarck`s sister ship almost survived the whole war.

I will have to upload the Uboat photos I have but its amazing how the germans started out with small coastal crafts and worked their way up to the type 21 super sub that all the allied nations copied after the war.

 

~U-Boats~

U-3503 Raised in 1946 - Type XXI



















U-505 Captured 1944 - Type IXC











Type IXC Specifications

Displacement : 1,120 Tons Surfaced / 1,232 Tons Submerged / 1,540 Tons Total
Length : 76.76 Meters Overall / 58.75 Meters Pressurehull
Beam : 6.76 Meters Overall / 4.40 Meters Pressurehull
Draught : 4.70 Meters
Power : 4,400 HP Surfaced (Two Diesel Engines) / 1,000 HP Submerged (Two Electric Motors)
Speed : 18.3 Knots Surfaced / 7.3 Knots Submerged
Range : 13,450 Miles @ 10 Knots Surfaced / 63 Miles @ 4 Knots Submerged
Torpedos : 22 Total / 4 Tubes Bow 2 Tubes Stern
Mines : 44 TMA
Deck Gun : 105/45 110 Rounds
Crew : 48 - 56 Men
Max Depth : 230 Meters (755 Feet)

Type XXI Specifications

Displacement : 1,621 Tons Surfaced / 1,819 Tons Submerged / 2,100 Tons Total
Length : 76.70 Meters Overall / 60.50 Meters Pressurehull
Beam : 8.00 Meters Overall / 5.30 Meters Pressurehull
Draught : 6.32 Meters
Height : 11.30 Meters
Power : 4,000 HP Surfaced (Two Diesel Engines) / 4,400 HP Submerged (Two Electric Motors)
Speed : 15.6 Knots Surfaced / 17.2 Knots Submerged
Range : 15,500 Miles @ 10 Knots Surfaced / 340 miles @ 5 Knots Submerged
Torpedos : 23 Total / 6 Tubes Bow 0 Tubes Stern
Mines : 12 TMC
Deck Gun : No Deck Gun
Crew : 57 - 60 Men
Max Depth : 280 Meters (919 Feet)

 

The First Battleship New Jersey
<img src=http://www.bb62museum.org/images16/bb16small.jpg>

<img src=http://www.williammaloney.com/Aviation/BattleshipUSSNewJersey/USSNewJersey.jpg>

<Img src=http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/dod/8406362.jpg>

Battleship USS New Jersey BB-62

The USS New Jersey is a WWII Iowa Class Battleship. BB-62's specifications are:

Length: 890 feet
Beam: 108 feet
Draught: 36 feet
Crew: 2,700
Displacement: Surface - 45,000 tons (52,000 tons fully loaded)
Max Speed: 33kts (38mph)
Fuel Capacity: 2,400,00 gallons of fuel oil
Armament:
9 16" 50 cal. in 3 turrets
20 5" 38 cal. in 10 dual gun mounts
80 40mm Bofors AA
50 20mm Oerlikon AA
In post war operations many of the smaller mounts were deleted and Phalanx gatling gun mounts and Harpoon missile launchers were added
Armor: 16" at the sides
Aircraft: 3 Vought Kingfisher Seaplanes with 2 Catapults
Power Plant: 12 oil fired boilers powering geared steam turbines driving 4 screws with 200,000 Shaft Horsepower
Launching Date: February 22, 1943 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard
Cost: $100,000,000+

 

USS Alabama is a hour to my East. ALABAMA360.com

 

Love the battleship pics!.......Cant help but thinking the Bismarck looks like the meanest most advanced of the bunch.

 

The Bismarck wasnt as mean as the IJN Yamato. The Yamato had way bigger and way more guns than the Bismarck. Lots of people have had what if debates on who would win in a slug fest between the DKM Bismarck and the IJN Yamato.

DKM Bismarck

Laid Down : July 1, 1936
Launched : Feburary 14, 1939
Commissioned : August 24, 1940
Construction Cost : RM. 196,800,000
Displacement : 41,700 Metric Tons Standard (45,966.38 Tons) / 50,900 Metric Tons Fully Loaded (56,107.65 Tons)
Overall Length : 251 Meters (823.49')
Beam : 36 Meters (118.11')
Standard Draught : 8.70 Meters (28.54')
Maximum Draught : 10.20 Meters (33.46')

Armor Protection
Upper Belt : 145mm (5.71")
Main Belt : 320mm (12.60")
Main Battery Turrets : 130 - 360mm (5.12" - 14.17")
Secondary Battery Turrets : 40 - 100mm (1.57" - 3.94")
Upper Deck : 50 - 80mm (1.97" - 3.15")
Third Armor Deck : 80 - 120mm (3.15" - 4.72")
Conning Tower : 220 - 350mm (8.66" - 13.78")
Torpedo Bulkhead : 45mm (1.77")
Protected Length : 70%
Armour`s Weight : 17,540 Metric Tons (19,334.54 Tons)

Armament
Main : 8x 38cm /L52
Secondary : 12x 15cm /L55
Anti Aircraft : 16x 10.5cm/L65 / 16x 3.7cm/L83 / 18x 2cm/L65

Fire Control
5x 10.5-m base rangefinders
1x 7-m base rangefinder
2x 6.5-m base rangefinders
4x 4-m Type SL-8 rangefinders
2x 3-m rangefinders

Radar : 3x FuMO 23
Propulsion : 12 Wagner boilers / Three Blohm & Voss turbine sets 150,170 hp
Speed : 30.12 knots (maximum obtained)

As you can see the Bismarck weighs more fully loaded than the Battleship New Jersey. But the Battleship New Jersey has more firepower in the fact that she has 12 main guns housed in four three barrel turrets while Bismarck only has 8 main guns housed in four two barrel turrets. The battleship Texas though has 10 main guns housed in five two barrel turrets but the Texas has a smaller caliber main guns than the New Jersey.

 

One thing to factor into the Bismarck's favor is the indisputable power and quality of her 15in Krupp main guns, Krupp simply put, made the finest artillery in the entire world at that time. And knowing the Germans, her crew was probably trained, disciplined and drilled to perfection.

 

They were. The way I have heard how they opereated the Bismarck was like this.

They wouldnt fire a full salvo of allbarrels at once. They would fire one barrel at a time from each turret and the multiple range finders would view to see if the shot was short or long and adjust. In the case of the hood thogh Bismarck started getting hits after the 3rd shot then she went into full salvo mode shooting the guns in groups instead of one at a time.

Only thing that helped bismarck was the British reluctance to put Hood in for a refit to get her deck armor thickened. But she did sink the Hood and badly damaged the Battle ship King George V I think it was. I might be wrong on the battleship that was with Hood.

 

I think it was the HMS Prince of Wales that barely escaped the Bismarck, the German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen also landed hits on both British ships with her 11in. guns during the battle and escaped unscathed. She DID survive the war and was finally sunk at the bikini atoll nuke tests in 1947.

 

Thats right HMS Prince of Wales, King George V was the one that was part of the taskforce that engaged the bismarck after she was disabled.

 

Prince of Wales was so badly damaged, she went to the US for repairs and then was promptly sunk by Japanese aircraft near Singapore along with the battle cruiser HMS Repulse in early 1942. Prinz Eugens 11in guns held back the Red Army in the Baltic sea ports of Poland in early 1945 and allowed tens of thousands of German civilians and soldiers escape the Red Army.............Little known history.

 

yep stuff like that you dont hear. Just like the US history books have no mention of how germany gave russia parts of poland and the russians took some poles as slaves. Not to mentention there is also lots of evidence of the russians raping family members of captured german pow`s mainly the pilots when they captured the air fields.

 

The Eastern front was the meanest, most brutal part of WW2 fought in Europe. We americans rarely hear about its many phases and battles, just Stalingrad and Leningrad.....Very few people hear about the hundreds of thousands of civilians also trying to escape from the Russians at wars end, including Russian civilians themselves......These people actually viewed the ***** as the lesser of 2 evils!