Category Archives: World War Two

Warship Wednesday 20 May 2026: Long Night of the Wolf

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger 

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday 20 May 2026: Long Night of the Wolf

Naval History and Heritage Command NH 85868

Above we see the modified Spica (Alcyone)-class torpedo boat Lupo at sea during maneuvers likely at the “H” naval review off Naples on 5 May 1938. Note her “LU” hull identifier, 3.9″/47 OTO M1937 forward, and four 17.7-inch torpedo tubes aft.

Lupo had a short career– as did most of her assorted three dozen sisters– but she was exceptionally well-fought (or lucky, depending on the outlook) some 85 years ago this week.

The Spicas

The Italian navy was huge, and I mean huge, fans of torpedo boats.

Going back to the 80-foot Thornycroft-built Nibbio and Yarrow-built Avvoltoio in 1881, they had already built and discarded more than 60 Aldebaran and Euterpe class boats before the Great War began.

In the early 1920s, the fleet had almost 100 newer torpedo boats on hand (Condore, Pellicano, Gabbiano, four Sirio class, 18 Perseo class, four Oriones, 38 1PN-class, 39 40PN-class) that went 200~ tons, were good for 25-27 knots, and carried a few 350mm or 450mm tubes with a couple of light guns.

Italian torpedo boat 54 AS during World War I. She was one of 39 40PN-class boats built during the war. At 150 tons, they ran 139 feet oal, could make 27 knots, and carried two 76mm guns, two 450 TT, and had space for 10 mines.

That’s not even counting the 422 small 20-30 ton mosquito boats of the MAS (Motoscafo Armato Silurante) type that were ordered during the Great War, of which 244 were completed.

As we said, the Italians really liked torpedo boats. I mean, if you look at the Italian coastline and consider the short ranges involved in fighting in the Adriatic and chokepoints such as the Strait of Messina and Strait of Bonifacio, it makes perfect sense.

Fast forward to the late-1920s/early 1930s and, with Italy’s 100 Great War vintage large torpedo boats slow, poorly armed, and aging, the Italian admiralty moved to replace them with a new class of faster (34 knots) boats that were much better armed (three 3.9-inch guns, four Vickers 40mm AAA guns, four 450mm tubes, as many as 28 mines).

To allow the weight and space for needed engines (two sets of Tosi geared steam turbines and two Yarrow boilers generating 19,000hp, good for 37 knots) and extra armament, this new class of TBs would come in just under 600 tons (on paper) to take full advantage of the London Naval Conference of the 1930s minimum tonnage threshold for regulated warships.

This left a fairly large 269-foot hull with a layout similar to a downsized Italian Freccia class destroyer (1,200 tons, 315 feet oal, 44,000hp). When compared to other navies, these ships would be more akin to destroyer escorts or frigates, only faster and without the ocean-crossing range, the latter a feature that the Italians didn’t need.

The Italian Freccia-class light (1,200 ton) destroyer Saetta, probably at the 5 May 1938 fleet review off Naples. The Spicas could be seen as essentially just downsized Freccias at 45 feet shorter and half the weight.

Main gun armament was three OTO 100/47 Mod. 1931 guns in single mounts, backed up by a AAA battery of eight 13.2 mm machine guns in four twin Breda Mod. 31 mounts.

Torpedo armament was four 17.7-inch tubes arranged either in a twin turnstile with a single tube on each side of the bow, as in class-leader Spica, or in four single tubes, two on each side of the bow, as in the Vega and her flight.

17.7-inch torpedo tube mount on an Italian torpedo-boat, summer 1941

450 mm (17.7 inch) torpedo being launched by the Italian Spica class torpedo boat Pallade during an exercise, 1936

See below from Jane’s 1938 edition:

Jane’s 1938 entry. Disregard the mention of 37mm guns. Only Spica and Astore had two twin 40/39 Vickers-Ternis. None had 37s. The typical pre-war AAA mounting was M.31 Breda mounts with twin 13.2mm guns. These were later replaced by twin Breda 20/65 Mod. 1935 and then by four single Scotti-Isotta-Fraschini 20/70 Mod. 1939 mounts.

They also had weight and space reserved for two depth charge throwers, although they had no listening gear, at least pre-war.

When it came to mines, they could both mechanically sweep (with embarked cables and paravanes) and lay mines (able to carry up to 28) if needed.

Lupo’s stern showing her paravane stowed with a good look at her two aft 3.9″/47 OTO mounts.

A good stern view of Lupo showing her beam-mounted tubes, aft 3.9s, and “peppermint” aerial recognition pattern over her bow

Named for constellations, the first two of the class, Spica and the Astore, both built in the Bacini & Scali Napoletani (BSN) yard between 1933-35, were sold to Sweden in 1940 and commissioned as the destroyers (jagaren) Romulus and Remus, respectively, serving that Scandinavian Navy until 1958.

HSwMS Romulus (Jagare Nr 27) Swedish Marinmuseum  D 14939:179

Plan of HSwMS Romulus (Jagare Nr 27) in her 1950s layout, sans torpedo tubes and with sonars and M/48 Bofors 40mm guns fitted. Swedish Marinmuseum

The next 30 were built in three flights (16 “Alcyone” type, 6 “Climene” type, and 8 “Perseus” type) with very minor variations in armament. Besides BSN, which built four more vessels, CT Riva Trigoso built two (Canopo and Cassiopea), CNR Ancona built four, Ansaldo Genoa built 12, and CNQ Fiume 6, all entering service by November 1938.

The brand new Italian Spica-class torpedo boat Calipso setting sail from Naples. She was sunk on 5 December 1940, by mines from submarine mine-layer HMS Rorqual east of Tripoli

Launch of Italian Spica-class torpedo boat Altair in 1936. She was sunk on 20 October 1941 in the Saronic Gulf, also by mines laid by HMS Rorqual

They proved prolific in pre-war images of the Regia Marina at play.

Several Italian Spica-class torpedo boats photographed in 1938. The Circe (1938-1942) appears in the left foreground. NH 85999

Italian Trento-class heavy cruiser and Spica-class torpedo boats in the late 1930s, probably photographed at the 5 May 1938 naval review off Naples, Italy. NH 86334

Italy Torpedo Boats. CG=Cigno, SI=Sirio, VG=Virgo, SG=Sagittario, PS=Perseo, AD=Andromeda (classe di Climene). Spica – Partenope class, circa 1938. New York Times Files. NH 111510

Several Italian Spica-class torpedo boats, probably photographed at the 5 May 1938 naval review off Naples. NH 111485

Meet Lupo

Lupo was one of a dozen of the Spicas built by CNQ (Cantieri navali del Quarnaro S.A.) in Fiume in spitting distance of the old Whitehead torpedo factory with her direct sisters Libra (LB), Lince (LC), and Lira (LR), all having the same armament and arrangement.

Late model boats, they suffered a bit from mission creep and had grown to 785 tons standard, 1,035 full load, on a hull some six feet longer than the original Spica design but with the same engineering plant. This dropped the maximum speed down to just over 30 knots, a big difference from the blistering 37 that Spica got in light load on trials.

Italian torpedo boat Libra (Fiume-built Alcione type Spica class). Circa 1939. Note her two stern 3.9″/47s, twin paravanes, beam-mounted torpedo tubes, and Breda 13.2mm AAA guns on bandstands amidships. NH 111428

To be sure, by this stage, they were more DE than TB.

Jane’s 1938 entry putting Lupo and the rest of the “L” boats built by CNQ as part of the 16 Alcyone/Alcione type vessels listed as Partenope type.

Laid down 7 December 1936, Lupo launched 7 November 1937, and commissioned 20 February 1938, under the command of LCDR (capitano di corvetta) Pio Valdambrini, based in Sicily.

Lupo at launch, when she carried an “LP” pennant. This was soon changed to “LU.”

War!

By the time Italy entered WWII on the side of the Axis during the Fall of France, Lupo and sisters Lince, Libra, and Lira, were part of the VIII Torpedo Squadron (Squadriglia torpediniere) based at Torpediniere Rhodes in the Aegean Naval Command.

Beginning the war under the command of LCDR Gennaro Cioppa, by December 1940, Lupo’s skipper was 37-year-old LCDR Francesco Maria Mimbelli. A Livorno-born regular from a Dalmatian family who put on his cadet uniform at age 15, by 1923, he was serving as a junior officer on the gunboats Caboto and Carlotto on China Station. Part of the Italian delegation sent to the London Naval Conference, he later served on the cruiser Trento and commanded torpedo boats during the 1939 invasion of Albania.

Lupo drew her first blood at 18:00 on 31 January 1941 when, taking part in a patrol of the Caso Channel in the Dodecanese with sister Lince, spotted part of British Convoy AN.14 and went in to attack. Headed from Alexandria to Piraeus, the small (Aegean Northward) convoy element had two merchantmen escorted by the light cruiser HMS Calcutta and two corvettes.

With Lince pulling away Calcutta with a torpedo attack that failed, Lupo went after the largest merchie, the big Shell tanker Desmoulea (8,120 GRT), and hit her with two fish (the British say one), badly damaging the vessel. Abandoned by her crew in a sinking condition, the tanker was later towed the next day to Suda Bay with her cargo intact.

Notably, along with torpedo damage inflicted on the cargo ship Clan Cumming (7,264 GRT) of Convoy AS.10 on 19 January by the Adua-class submarine Neghelli (NG), Lupo’s hit(s) on Desmoulea were the only Italian naval successes against British convoys in the Aegean.

Lupo and her sisters were soon pressed into service shuttling troops around the Greek littoral.

On 25 February, she and Lince, along with the old destroyers Crispi and Quintino Sella, carried a reinforcement force of 240 soldiers and 88 marines to the embattled islet of Castelrosso (Kastellorizo​) in the Levantine Sea, which was being assaulted by British 50ME Commandos in the rather slapstick Operation Abstention. This led to a swirling night action between the two TBs and the British destroyers HMS Hereward and Decoy, with no casualties on either side. Finally able to land their troops on the 27th, Lupo and Lince also turned their 3.9-inch guns on said Commandos (reportedly causing three deaths and seven wounded), which withdrew the next day.

This brings us to the…

Night of the Wolf

As part of the epic German airborne assault on Crete, while Kurt Student’s Fallschirmjäger made their last ride-of-the-Valkyries level jump to glory in Operation Merkur, a two-pronged seaborne assault was attempted by the mountain troops of Julius Ringel’s 5. Gebirgs-Division.

One of these convoys of mountain troops was made up of 21 overloaded requisitioned Greek caiques, coasters, and barges, carrying 2,331 men, which left Piraeus on 19 May, bound for Maleme on the Allied-held Greek island at a lumbering seven knots. A second, larger, flotilla of 42 vessels would carry 4,000 mountain troops to Heraklion.

Both convoys were surveilled by RAF reconnaissance aircraft and duly reported.

The smaller Gebirgsjäger convoy was escorted at first by the Spica-class torpedo boat Sirio, but had to be replaced as she lost her starboard propeller. Her intended replacement, the old de-rated destroyer Curtatone, was sunk by mines on 20 May.

This left Lupo to answer the call alone.

Assigned to the defenseless convoy of wallowing caiques, she arrived on scene on the 21st of May and by that night made contact with British RADM Irvine Glennie’s Force D north of Canea, still 18 miles from their intended landing beaches at Maleme.

First involved was the destroyer HMS Janus, which Lupo fired two torps at from 1,000m at 2233.

Then came another vessel looming out of the night, the cruiser HMS Dido, which got a third and fourth torp fired at her from 700m at 2235.

Then came a second cruiser, HMS Orion, which she avoided ramming by just a few feet.

A third, the legendary HMS Ajax of Graf Spee fame, was on scene, as were the destroyers Hereward, Hasty, and Kimberley.

There was no way one Italian torpedo boat could compete with that kinda pressure, especially when the Brits had radar on their side. Just counting the cruisers, Lupo had three 3.9-inch guns against the British cruiser’s 10 5.25-inch and 16 6-inch guns. Then add the 20 4.7-inch guns on the four British greyhounds.

Lupo broke contact, and the Brits were able to sink 10 caiques in the night, sending over 300 German troops to the bottom of the Med, decimating the III Battalion of the 100th Gebirgsjäger regiment. Two caiques, altogether loaded with 113 Germans, made it to shore on Crete at Cape Spatha. The other caiques were able to slip away in the confusion and made it back to Piraeus.

Lupo during the Battle of Crete convoy action

The second, larger, convoy was recalled to prevent a similar fate.

The only damage done to the RN was via friendly fire, with Orion suffering 11 casualties due to 40mm (2-pounder) hits (which Lupo didn’t carry). The Brits also fired a tremendous amount of ammunition in the clash, with the cruisers firing some two-thirds of their magazines (Orion had 38 percent of her shells left, Ajax 42 percent, and Dido just 30 percent). Further, Ajax rammed and sank a troop-carrying barge, damaging her bow in the process, her stem fractured and bent over waterline level, and her forepeak flooded.

Lupo had been hit at least 18 times by 6-inch and 4.7-inch shells from British destroyers and cruisers, although most of the AP rounds passed cleanly through her without exploding. She suffered two dead, quartermaster Orazio Indelicato and gunner Nicolò Moccole, and 26 wounded. This against a complement of 116 officers and men. She nonetheless returned to the scene of the convoy massacre at dawn on the 22nd to pick up survivors, with Lupo, seaplanes, and rescue launches picking up 242 waterlogged Gebs by 1600 that afternoon.

The 5th Gebirgs-Division reported 506 missing in the Crete campaign, with most having drowned with the caiques, delivered to Posiedon by Force D.

German assault on Crete – May 1941 via USMA collection

Most of the Gebs involved in Operation Merkur that arrived on Crete did so as fly-in reinforcement, with 5,000 brought by Junkers 52s.

As for Lupo, she sailed back into Taranto looking like Swiss cheese.

The clash saw Mimbelli awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valour, while Lupo had the Silver Medal placed on her ensign.

Continued campaigning

Repaired and refitted, Lupo picked up a more ASW-oriented battery to include landing her 13.2mm guns for four twin Breda 20/65 Mod. 1935s, and taking on hydrophones and as many as 40 depth charges, with many of her sisters so converted.

Italian Libra (Fiume-built Alcione type Spica class), late in the war with camouflage. Note her depth charge racks instead of torpedoes and twin Breda 20/65 Mod. 1935 on port beam. Aldo Fraccaroli collection.

Thus rearmed, the Spicas became a fixture on Italian convoys in the Med, supplying outposts in occupied Greece and running troops to North Africa.

Italian Spica class torpedo boat Lupo, May 1941

Italian Spica class torpedo boats Libra, Lupo, and Lira in Mytilene, 4 May 1941

Italian torpedo boat Lupo and hospital ship Gradisca Tobruk, Libya, on 28 May 1941

While escorting a convoy of four steamers with the torpedo boats Altair and Monzambano and the auxiliary cruiser Barletta on the evening of 19 October 1941, Altair struck a mine laid eleven days earlier by the British submarine Rorqual in the Gulf of Athens, and her sister Lupo came to her aid. Taking 124 men aboard from Altair, Lupo tried to tow the vessel, whose bow had been blown off, but had to cut ties and let the stricken TB sink.

On 23/24 November 1941, Lupo and sistership Cassiopea, while escorting two German steamers, Maritza and Procida, to Benghazi with supplies for Rommel, bumped into British Force K, which had been birddogged to the convoy by deciphered Ultra messages. This pitted the two Italian TBs against the light cruisers HMS Aurora and Penelope and the destroyers HMS Lance and Lively. The resulting night action in the rain left the two German steamers sunk, but the Italians survived to fight again. Lupo is generally credited with hitting Penelope’s superstructure with her 3.9s, causing minor damage, and in turn, picking up some minor damage herself.

Lupo was with another convoy, from Piraeus to escort to Suda, again with sister Cassiopea, escorting three merchies when they escaped an attack from HM Submarine Porpoise on 17 January 1942.

In March 1942, the now-famous Mimbelli was sent to command the IV MAS Flotilla operating in the Black Sea, leaving Lupo in the hands of her third wartime skipper, LCDR Giuseppe Folli.

Committed to a series of Piraeus to Tobruk convoy runs, it was on one of these sorties on 2 September 1942 that Lupo’s convoy came under the combined attack of USAAF B-24s and HM Submarine Thrasher.

On her next run to Tobruk, with sister Sirio and three small freighters, Lupo survived an attack from HM Submarine Taku.

The extremely lucky Lupo’s run ended on the evening of 2 December 1942 when, along with the TBs Ardito, Aretusa, and Sagittario, she was escorting three steamers from Naples to Tripoli. After dodging Albacore bombers of NAS 828 out of Malta, which struck the steamer Veloce, the convoy again found its old nemesis, Force K, this time composed of the radar-equipped destroyers HMS Jervis, Nubian, Kelvin, and Javelin.

Lupo, at the time attempting to tow Veloce and bathed in the light of 40-inch searchlights, was smothered in 4.7-inch shells at 2,000 yards, and sank in the Gulf of Gabès at 2345.

Lupo carried LCDR Folli and 134 other souls to the bottom of the sea. Just 29 survivors were picked up by Ardito.

The shattered wreck of the ship, missing her bow and stern, was found approximately 96 miles SW of Lampedusa and 20 miles off the Kerkennah Islands in December 2011 by AHTS Buccaneer, some 435 feet down. It has been extensively surveyed.

Epilogue

The Italians recycled the name “Lupo” for Battaglione Lupo, a marine infantry unit within the infamous Xª Flottiglia MAS in 1944. It fought with Mussolini’s rump Italian Social Republic in Northern Italy against Allied forces and partisans until the end of the war.

Lupo Battalion Italian Marines of X MAS division, La Spezia, Italy, 1944. Note the “samurai” mag carriers and MAB 38 Beretta SMGs.

The modern Italian Navy commissioned a frigate (F 564) using the Lupo name in 1977, which served until 2003. She is still in service with Peru as BAP Palacios (FM-56).

Italian frigate Lupo (F564)

Of Lupo’s 30 Spica-class sisters in Italian service, 23 were lost during the war. Seven survivors returned to Italian service, modernized as fast corvettes outfitted with radar, sonar, and Hedgehog ASW devices. The last two, Sagittario and Libra, were only retired in 1964.

As for Lupo’s only victim during the war, the Greenock-built Shell D-class tanker Desmoulea was patched up, survived a second torpedoing in May from an Italian S.79 bomber, was patched up again, survived German He. 111s, and continued sailing until 1961. A tough-to-kill tanker for sure!

The Shell tanker, Desmoulea, Fremantle, 1948. Fremantle History Collection LH004488

Lupo’s most famous skipper, LCDR Mimbelli, earned two Iron Crosses (EK1 and EK2) for the Sevastopol campaign and picked up two companion Silver Medals and five Bronze to his Gold for leading several actions with his speedy MAS boats along the Calabrian and Sicilian coasts. Post-war, he commanded the battleship Vittorio Veneto and the cruiser Garibaldi before heading the Naval Academy in Livorno.

The Italian fleet’s CNO from September 1959 to April 1961, Ammiraglio di Squadra Francesco Maria Mimbelli, moved to the retired list in 1964 and passed in 1978, having spent 57 of his 72 years in uniform.

As noted by the Marina Militare, “The mission report of the Royal Torpedo Boat Lupo, written by Commander Mimbelli in a dry and elegant style, is kept by the Historical Office of the Navy in Rome, for current and future generations.”

In 1993, an Ammiragli-class destroyer, ITS Mimbelli (D 561), was commissioned with his name and remains in service.

The destroyer Francesco Mimbelli in Valletta, Malta, 17 May 2005. Wiki Commons by Anthony Vella.

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Old School

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I always love to see the old M-14 clocking in with the fleet. Sure, it is just shooting lines here, but work is work, baby. The steel-and-wood M-14 was officially replaced in service by the M-16 platform in 1967, but is still kicking by all means.

“Crimson Connection.” Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn (DDG-113) shoot a line during a replenishment with the fleet replenishment oiler USNS John Lewis, May 13, 2026. The John Finn is deployed to the U.S. Central Command area of operations to support maritime security in the Middle East. U.S. Navy Photo 260513-D-D0477-9009.

The Pascagoula-built Finn, a Flight IIA Burke, entered the fleet in 2017 and is forward-deployed and assigned to Commander, Task Force (CTF) 71/Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force.

The destroyer’s namesake, Chief Aviation Ordnanceman John W. Finn, would no doubt approve of the M-14. He earned his MoH the hardest of ways on 7 December 1941 when he ran to a VP-14 training stand at Kaneohe Bay and worked a water-cooled Browning during the attack on Pearl Harbor, remaining at his gun even after picking up wounds from strafing Japanese fighters, until ordered to seek medical attention.

WWII torpedo boat redux

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How about this great assemblage of nine Italian torpedo boats passing the Ponte Girevole in Taranto between the Mar Grande and Mar Piccolo in the spring of 1960?

Leading the parade is the 130-ton, 114-foot Motor Gunboat 485, with other units of the Comando delle motosiluranti (Motor Torpedo Boat Command) following close behind.

If 485 looks immediately like a German WWII E-boat/S-boot, while her consorts look like a mix of Italian and American MTB and PT boats from the same era, you are correct on all accounts.

The former S38-class German Schnellboot S67, 485 was built at Lürssen in 1942 and served with 1st Schnellbootflottille (1. SFltl) in the North Sea. Captured by the British in 1945 and sold as the merchant ship Torüs, she was then purchased and put into service in 1953 with the post-war Italian Navy as MV 621, MS 485, and finally MC 485, before being decommissioned in 1966.

Via the 1960 edition of Jane’s:

She is followed in the above image by two Italian 60-ton 92-foot C.R.D.A. type MTBs modified after the war, followed by two ex-U.S. 78-foot Higgins type PT boats and four ex-U.S. 70-foot Elco (Vosper) PTs.

Again, Jane’s:

Warship Wednesday 6 May 2026: 50 Years Low and Slow

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger.

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday 6 May 2026: 50 Years Low and Slow

Historic New England PC047.02.5870.09396

Above we see the class-leading shallow-draft, single-masted armored sloop USS Wilmington (Gunboat No. 8) in Boston Harbor for a naval parade on 2 September 1898, just after the SpanAm War. Note her array of 4″/40 guns, including two forward behind shields, two aft, and two in her portside casemates.

Basically a low-horsepower light cruiser, Wilmington went on to have an amazingly long service life.

Steel Navy’s early gunboats

The first steel-hulled steam warship that was (eventually) rated as a gunboat was the 1,400-ton 16-knot dispatch vessel USS Dolphin, which was authorized by the New Navy Act of 1883. Carrying a three-masted schooner rig, later reduced to two masts, she carried a single 6-inch gun on a 255-foot hull.

USS Dolphin at Galveston, Texas, 1 March 1919. Photographed by Paul Verkin, Galveston. Note that the ship is still wearing pattern camouflage nearly four months after the World War I Armistice. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007. NH 104949

Then in 1889 came the trio of Yorktown class boats (PG 1, 3-4), which went 1,900 tons and carried six 6-inchers. They also had an armored conning tower, clad in two inches of nickel steel.

Yorktown Class Gunboat USS Concord pictured about to depart Dry Dock No.1 at Mare Island Navy Yard on June 26th 1903.

USS Petrel (PG-2) was a smaller boat, just 867 tons, armed with four 6-inchers and capable of just 11 knots.

USS PETREL (PG-2) (1899-1920) in Japanese waters, during the 1890s. Collection of Shizuo Fukui, copied from Dr. S. Watanabe’s Album. The photo was provided by William H. Davis. NH 42706

USS Bancroft (PG 4 1/2, not kidding) mimicked Petrel but mounted four-inch guns and could gin up 14 knots plus, as a bonus, carried two torpedo tubes.

Bath Iron Works in Maine in 1893 built the twin 15-knot gunboats USS Machias (PG-5) and Castine (PG-6), which went 1,310 tons and 203 feet overall, while mounting eight 4-inchers. These boats carried armor, two inches of it, protecting their casemates. This left them with a 15-foot draft.

USS Machias

The Newport News-built USS Nashville (Gunboat No. 7), at 1,300 tons and 233 feet, was good for 16 knots on a 2,530shp plant and, like the Machias twins, carried eight 4-inch guns while the casemate armor had been upped to 2.5 inches. She was awarded on 22 January 1894 in Newport News’s first Navy contract, and was laid down as Yard No. 7 on 9 August 1894.

Gunsboat USS Nashville PG-7

This sets the stage for our subject.

Meet Wilmington

Wilmington, the only commissioned U.S. Navy warship named for the Delaware city, was ordered specifically to be a shallow draft gunboat, capable of floating in nine feet of water. Running 250 feet overall with a plow bow, she was a beamy girl, at 40 feet.

Line drawing from Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, Vol. 2, 1894. Robb Jensen collection

Displacing 1,397 tons standard (1,689 full) she was powered by six single-ended Hohenstein cylindrical coal-fed boilers pushing twin vertical triple expansion engines powering twin screws, and capable of generating 1,988 horsepower, good for 15.5 knots (light, 13.2 full). While her normal load was 100 tons, when her bunkers were packed with 277 tons, she had a 5,500nm range at 10 knots

Wilmington Olangapo PI dry dock

Wilmington Olangapo PI dry dock

Her main battery consisted of eight single 4″/40 Mark III mounts, the yankee version of the 4″/40 (10.2 cm) QF Mark XI, which was staple when it came to U.S. gunboats from PG-5 through PG-35, as well as secondary batteries on the Iowa (B-4), Puritan (M-1), Columbia (C-12) and New York (ACR-2) classes. Designed to deliver 8-9 rounds per minute, well-trained American crews in the war with Spain found themselves able to pump out as many as 15 rounds per minute when needed in battle.

USS Wilmington (PG-8) getting underway from Port of Spain, Trinidad, 21 January 1899 for Orinoco/Amazon Rivers cruise, giving a good view of her stern pair of 4″/40s. NH 77614

Her secondary armament consisted of six 57mm/50 6-pounder Driggs-Schroeder Mk II anti-boat guns and two 37mm/40 Driggs-Schroeder heavy Mk I 1-pounders.

Crewmen at the six-pounder and one-pounder guns of USS Wilmington (PG-8), circa January 1899, with the latter commonly used for saluting and challenges. Courtesy of Mrs. Chapman C. Todd, 1973.NH 77633

The 1904 Jane’s entry for the class showing the battery arrangement with two 4″/40 guns forward, two rear, and two on each beam, while the 6- and 1-pounders were split between an amidships gundeck with two aloft in the fighting top.

A pair of Colt Gatling guns and a 3-inch field gun were also issued with the intention that they could be dismounted for service ashore. Speaking of which, it was expected that her 175-man crew could provide a reinforced two-platoon (70-man) landing force if called upon, with rifles and marching kit stocked aboard if needed.

Sailors at Musketry Drill, circa 1900-1910. They are armed with M1898 (Krag-Jorgenson) rifles. Note Warrant Officer at left, holding a sword. The sword was abolished in 1905 for landing party duty, but may have continued in use, informally, for drill. Courtesy of Carter Rila, 1986. NH 100833

Her armor plan included a watertight deck with 3/8″ armor on the slopes and 5/16″ on the flats. In addition, her conning tower, casemates, and machinery spaces had a 1-inch belt while she had shields for her deck-mounted 4-inchers.

Our girl was ordered for $280,000, laid down at Newport News as Yard No. 8 on 8 October 1894, just two months behind Nashville, and the two very different gunboats were built side-by-side.

USS Wilmington (PG-8) and USS Nashville (PG-7) ready for launching at Newport News, Virginia, 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63204

Miss Anne Grey, daughter of Senator Grey of Delaware, just before christening USS Wilmington (PG-8), at Newport News, Virginia, 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63206

Miss Anne Grey, daughter of Senator Grey of Delaware, christening USS Wilmington (PG-8), at Newport News, Virginia, 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63208

Wilmington launched at Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63202

Wilmington during fitting out with no armament installed. NH 63584

Wilmington would commission on 13 May 1897.

Her first skipper was CDR Chapman Coleman Todd (USNA 1866), late from his post as the Ordnance Officer, Navy Yard, Norfolk. The son of Kentucky steamboat captain, Franklin County sheriff, state legislator, and state penitentiary warden Harry Innes Todd, the younger Todd secured his appointment to Annapolis from Governor John J. Crittenden at age 13 during the Civil War.  He would prove a man of action.

Newport News would build one sister to Wilmington, USS Helena (PG-9), which commissioned on 8 July 1897.

Wilmington and Helena gunboats, Janes 1898

Officers of the USS Helena (PG-9) and HMS Espiegle alongside the Helena in China, 1903-1904. Courtesy of Captain E.B. Larimer, USN, 1931.NH 133

Wilmington conducted sea trials and underwent training off the east coast, and joined the South Atlantic Squadron at Key West.

War (her first)

At the beginning of 1898, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet was split into Northern and South Squadrons with all of the country’s battleships (except USS Oregon), armored cruisers, and monitors (save for Monadnock and Monterey). The South Atlantic Squadron, consisting of the cruiser USS Cincinnati and the gunboats Castine and Wilmington, was meanwhile detailed to cruising north along the coast of South America. Meanwhile, Wilmington’s sister, Helena, was detailed to the two-ship European Squadron along with the Bancroft, lounging at Lisbon.

On 21 April 1898, two months after the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor, Cuba, the United States declared war on Spain.

The blockade began in earnest on the morning of 23 April with USS Puritan, Marblehead, Cincinnati, Wilmington, Foote, and the Revenue Cutter Winslow ordered to the eastward of Havana to blockade Matanzas and Cardenas, and to patrol the coast between the latter and Havana.

A haze gray USS Wilmington. Halftone photo from “War in Cuba”, 1898. Note the gun shields are installed on her 4″/40s. NH 85651

On 4 May, the tug Leyden, with Captain J. H. Dorst, of the U.S. Army, aboard, landed ammunition for the Cuban insurgents near Mariel. Spanish cavalry that attempted to prevent Captain Dorst’s plucky landing were dispersed by a few 4-inch shells from the Wilmington. The next day, Wilmington, along with Newport and the USRC Morrill, captured the French steamer Lafayette while off Havana with a cargo of provisions and 161 passengers.

On 11 May, Todd was made a defato commodore and given a little flotilla including the schooner-rigged gunboat USS Machias (PG-5), the torpedo boats Winslow and Foote, and the armed Revenue Service tug Hudson, tasked with destroying the Spanish gunboats sheltering at Cardenas and bombarding any troops found inside the sheltered bay.

Machias, drawing 15 feet, remained outside Cardenas due to her greater draft, and destroyed the signal station of Cayo Diana, while Wilmington, Foote, and Winslow entered the bay, amidst a dense fog and haze, hoping to make short work of the much inferior Spanish squadron. Hudson held back to tow any prizes.

Opposing the American force was a pair of small 42-ton cañoneras, Ligera and Alerta, armed with a single 42mm Nordenfelt and a 37mm Maxim. The problem was, Ligera was already disbled with a shot through her boiler in a 25 April engagement with Foote. They were augmented by the armed Trasatlántica-company 68-ton tugboat (remolcador) Antonio Lopez, which had been pressed into service, as well as shore batteries.

With the cañoneras hugging the shallows, the heavier Lopez was forced to stand just off the wharf and fight– and she did– taking the leading American warship, Winslow, under fire, beginning an 80-minute artillery duel.

While the Spanish Navy got a bad rap when it comes to remembering the war of 1898, they made a good showing at Cardenas with the little Antonio Lopez taking at least 12 hits from Winslow’s 1-pounder popgun, and in turn fired 135 shells with her single 57mm 6-pounder, riddling Winslow and keeping up her fire until her magazine was empty. Dead in the water and with her XO, Ensign Worth Bagley, and five enlisted killed and her skipper wounded, Winslow had to be towed to safety by Hudson.

The engagement only ended, via DANFS, when “Wilmington and Hudson brought their guns to bear on the Spanish ship and shore batteries, and the combined fire of the three American warships put the Spanish gunboat out of action and caused the shore batteries to slacken fire.”

La batalla de Cárdenas, Museo naval de Madrid, showing the gunboat Antonio Lopez facing off against Wilmington, Winslow, and Foote, at distances made shorter for artistic license.

Engagement off Cardenas, May 11, 1898. Death of Ensign Bagley of the Winslow by Henry Reuterdahl. Left to right: USS Winslow, Hudson, and Wilmington. NH 71837-KN

Battle of Cárdenas USS Wilmington USS Winslow Hudson

Todd, who wrote a chapter about the battle (The Affair at Cardenas) for the book, With Sampson Through the War, noted the results of the battle:

The amount of damage from the guns of the three American vessels engaged could not be determined at the time, apart from the burning of two or three buildings near the location of the gunboats; but a few days later there came on board a Cuban pacifico, who was in Cardenas at the time of the engagement, and who visited the locality where the gunboats were lying the day following the engagement.

He brought the information that both of the large gunboats were riddled and practically destroyed. They could not sink, as they were lying in only six feet of water. This information was undoubtedly correct.

The net results of this attack on Cardenas may be stated as:

1st. The destruction of two Spanish gunboats.

2d. It was the first severe blow struck, which had a great effect upon the swarms of Spanish gunboats surrounding the island of Cuba, rendering their attacks by night much less probable, as shown by experience.

3d. It made feasible the anchorage at Piedras lighthouse for coaling purposes, and it was so used.

4th. It made the Spaniards feel they were not free from attack even though the channels were mined, and forever destroyed their sense of security, no matter how well defended they might be. They now knew that American ships-of-war would take and hold the offensive during the war.

5th. Here was made evident the great advantage of smokeless powder over the ordinary brown powder used by the American ships. The only gun used by the Spaniards, burning brown powder, was the one that fired from the bow of the gunboat moored bows out at the wharf. The others, including field guns observed on the shore and the machine guns on both gunboats, used only smokeless powder, thus making a very poor target for a vessel surrounded, as were the American ships, by clouds of overhanging smoke.

According to Spanish sources, the American bombardment of Cárdenas on 11 May destroyed the English consulate, warehouses, and several houses and buildings, resulting in two fatalities: a volunteer militiaman and a civilian– while a sergeant and seven soldiers were wounded.

Wilmington continued on her blockade service, was credited with seizing two other Spanish ships, dragged for and cut the telegraph line from Santa Cruz and Jucaro, and, oh, yeah, took part in a second, much more successful raid on a Cuban port, Manzanillo (about 80 miles from Santiago, on the south coast of the island), to destroy shipping.

The raid would be led by Wilmington/Todd, joined by sistership Helena, a collection of armed yachts (Hist, Scorpion, Hornet, and Osceola), and the tug Wompatuck (YT-27).

As detailed by DANFS, the Manzanillo raid was textbook:

Accordingly, at 3:00 a.m. on 18 July 1898, the American ships set out from Guayabal and set course for Manzanillo. At 6:45 a.m., the group split up according to plan: Wilmington and Helena made for the north channel; Hist, Hornet, and Wompatuck for the south; Scorpion and Osceola for the central harbor entrance. Fifteen minutes later, the two largest ships entered the harbor with black smoke billowing from their tall funnels and gunners ready at their weapons.

Taking particular care not to damage the city beyond the waterfront, the U.S. gunners directed their gunfire solely at the Spanish ships and took a heavy toll of the steamers congregated there. Spanish supply steamer Purissima Concepcion caught fire alongside a dock and sank at her moorings; gunboat Maria Ponton blew up when her magazines exploded; gunboats Estrella and Delgado Perrado also burned and sank while two transports, Gloria and Jose Garcia, went down as well. Two small gunboats, Guantanamo and Guardian, were driven ashore and shot to pieces.

Beyond the effective range of Spanish shore batteries, the Americans emerged unscathed, leaving columns of smoke to mark the pyres of the enemy’s supply and patrol vessels. The twenty-minute engagement ended with the attackers withdrawing to sea to resume routine patrol duties with the North Atlantic Squadron for the duration of hostilities.

American sources list between eight and nine (five gunboats, three merchant vessels, and one pontoon) successfully destroyed at Manzanillo without suffering any losses, while the NYT that week ran the story, citing at least seven.

Spanish personnel losses were negligible for the raid, typically referred to as the Third Battle of Manzanillo, as the vessels were largely abandoned due to the Americans having superior range, with Spanamwar.com noting, “The casualties among the Spanish squadron were a wounded boatswain, and the garrison suffered two dead and five wounded, and one wounded civilian.”

The war ended just 24 days later in an armistice.

Our gunboat headed home and was drydocked at Boston for repairs and peacetime overseas service.

Wilmington, just after the SpanAm War, Boston Harbor for a naval parade on 2 September 1898, Historic New England PC047.02.2970.10961

Her crew was eligible for the Sampson (West Indies Naval Campaign) Medal with “Wilmington” and “Manzanillo” bars, authorized by Congress in 1901.

Following repairs, the ship departed the Massachusetts coast on 20 October bound for the reestablished South Atlantic Squadron.

Roaming

Wilmington was then sent some 150 miles up Venezuela’s Orinoco River in January 1899 from Barrancas to Ciudad Bolivar, followed by an impressive 1,800-mile trip up the Amazon across the South American continent from Pernambuco, Brazil, to Iquitos, Peru, into May.

The 32-page report prepared by CDR Chapman C. Todd makes for interesting reading, especially when the extensive photos of the trip (taken by one hired professional shutterbug, Mr. F.S. Bassett) are taken into account.

Talk about a time capsule!

USS Wilmington (PG-8) portrait photo of the ship’s officers in January 1899, by the helm. The commanding officer was Commander Chapman C. Todd, seated second from the left. Francis B. Loomis, the U.S. minister to Venezuela, is in civilian dress, and Army Captain Charles Collins, military attaché to Venezuela, is seated on the right. Courtesy of Mrs. Chapman C. Todd, 1973. NH 77638

USS Wilmington (PG-8) crew members on the forecastle of the ship, circa January 1899, while the ship was on an exploratory cruise of the Orinoco River, Venezuela. Note the 6-pounder to the right. NH 77631

Wilmington at anchor at Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, during the ship’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco River, January 1899. Ciudad Bolivar was the most inland point reached. The river was not navigable by ship shortly beyond this point. NH 77625

Wilmington at anchor in the Orinoco River at Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, during the ship’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco, January 1899. Note stevedoring on the merchant ship. NH 77626

USS Wilmington, gunboat #8 LOC Detriot LC-DIG-det-4a16361

Gunboat No 8, USS Wilmington, pictured on the Orinoco River, Venezuela. LOC det 4a05681

Ship at anchor during a brief visit to Barrancas, Venezuela, returning downstream from the USS Wilmington’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco River, January 1899. Barrancas is located near the delta formed by the Orinoco. NH 77629

Ship’s bugler and a rapid-fire gun squad of USS Wilmington, circa January 1899. Crewmen not identified. Description: NH 77613

USS Wilmington (PG-8) saluting the governor of the province at Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, during the ship’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco River, January 1899. NH 77628

Coal-passers of the ship on deck with mascot (goat), circa January 1899, while the ship was on an exploratory cruise of the Orinoco River, Venezuela. NH 77632

USS Wilmington (PG-8) approaching anchorage at Guanta, Venezuela, in February 1899. Guanta was a village on the north coast of Venezuela. Note laundry drying. NH 77636

USS Wilmington (PG-8)  anchored in Guanta Harbor, Venezuela, circa February 1899. NH 77637

Todd even used unit funds to create cages for living animals collected from the region, with the ship’s doc, Passed Asst. Surgeon Frank Clarendon Cook, responsible for their care. From the report:

In his report to the State Department, Loomis stated that the Wilmington had made a “strong and agreeable impression wherever she went in Venezuela and, as a result of the trip, American prestige has been substantially and handsomely augmented.”

Wilmington would remain on South American station until October 1900, when, in the midst of the Boxer Rebellion and Japanese-European encroachment in Manchuria, she was ordered to China service. She arrived in Manila on 21 January 1901 after a three-month voyage via Gibraltar, the Suez, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean, and for the next 21 years remained in Asiatic waters, alternating between the Philippines and China.

Wilmington and Callao at Canton, China, 1912

As detailed by DANFS:

Ordinary activities included the usual calls and port visits to such places as Hong Kong, Canton, and Swatow. She conducted target practice after constructing her own target rafts and laying out a firing area. On one occasion, Chinese fishermen decided that the raft presented a good perch from which to carry out their piscatorial pursuits. Repeated attempts by the gunboaters to shoo away the fishermen only ended in frustration. Finally, as the ship steamed slowly toward the area, she fired a few blank rounds purposely “over,” and the squatters promptly abandoned their erstwhile fishing vantage point.

USS Wilmington seen at Hong Kong BCC (British Crown Colony), likely during her stint as station ship from 30 June 1912 to 30 June 1914. Note she still has her bow crest. NH 49466

War (again)

Stationed in the Western Pacific during the Great War, Wilmington in 1914 had her secondary battery of 6-pounders, 1-pounders, and Gatling guns replaced with four 47/40-45 Driggs-Schroeder Mk II 3-pounders and a pair of Colt Model 1895 .30-06 machine guns.

In Shanghai, when Congress declared war in April 1917, the Chinese government ordered all U.S. ships to leave in 48 hours or be interned. This left Wilmington on patrol of the Philippines for the duration.

Great Lake Days

Returning to the U.S. for the first time since 1899, Wilmington arrived at Portsmouth on 20 September 1922 after a 15-week cruise via Singapore, Colombo, Bombay, Karachi, Aden, Port Said, Gibraltar, and the Azores, with the last leg under tow by USS Sapelo (AO 11) due to the poor state of her engines.

After a refit, which included changing out her legacy boilers for four new Babcock & Wilcox sets, she was reduced to a Naval Reserve training ship, assigned to the Ninth Naval District, for the states of Kentucky and Ohio, based in Toledo. She arrived on Lake Erie via the Soulanges, Cornwall, and Welland Canals on 1 August 1923.

She would spend the next 18 years in a quiet existence of winter layups and summer training cruises with her assorted reservists, with her deck guns removed to keep from violating the Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 with Canada. Her NRF bluejackets could still drill with small arms and practice stands, seen below.

A 5″/51 gun training stand, which helped drill rammers, loaders, and powdermen. A second stand would be used for training pointers and trainers.

USS Wilmington was taken in the 1920s while operating in the Great Lakes as a training ship. Courtesy of Mr. A.W. Mears, 1967. NH 49465

USS Wilmington (IX-30, ex PG-8) during the 1930s, while serving as a Naval Reserve training ship on the Great Lakes. NH 76514

Wilmington circa 1920s-30s on the Great Lakes. Note that her casemates are empty and deck guns removed. Indiana University Frank M. Hohenberger Photograph Collection Hoh034.000.0003

During this same period, sister Helena, on Asiatic Station since February 1899, was decommissioned there in 1932 and sold for scrap.

Helena & Wilmington, 1929 Janes

(Yet another) War

As the U.S. edged towards its second world war in just 21 years, the old gunboat Wilmington was *redesignated USS Dover (IX-30) on 27 January 1941, and soon got involved in neutrality patrol, rearmed for the first time in 18 years.

*The renaming came as the Navy intended to upcycle the name “Wilmington” to a planned Cleveland-class light cruiser, CL-79, which ultimately entered service as the Independence-class light aircraft carrier USS Cabot (CVL-28). Nonetheless, the Navy did use “Wilmington” for a planned Fargo class, USS Wilmington (CL-111), which was laid down in March 1945, but was suspended in August and later scrapped.

Sporting a single 5″/38 over her stern, our old Wilmington/Dover even clocked in on convoy duty, escorting the five merchant ships and one auxiliary (the 11,000-ton USS Antares (AG-10)) of  HF-24 from Halifax to Boston over Christmas 1942, with 106 men embarked as her crew, sailing under the command of LT Raymond George Brown, USNR.

Sailing via New York and Miami, Wilmington/Dover arrived in Gulfport, Mississippi, on 3 February 1943 to serve the Eighth Naval District as an Armed Guard training ship, moored along with the 187-foot circa 1914 patrol yacht USS Lash (PYc 31), the 183-foot Kil class gunboat USCGC Marita (WYP-175), and the old 261-foot armed freighter USCGC Monomoy (WAG-275).

Dover at Gulfport, May 1944

Dover at Gulfport, May 1944

Dover at Gulfport, May 1944. Note her cased 20mm guns

Dover at Gulfport, May 1944

Besides training Armed Guards at a rate of 585 per week, the ships also served as “floating laboratories for the students in the Basic Engineering School.”

Wilmington/Dover would remain there until 27 November 1944, the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, when she was sent to Alabama Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at Pinto Island in Mobile Bay for two weeks of refurbishment to allow her to transfer to Treasure Island, California, upon the pending disestablishment of the Gulfport Armed Guard base.

She arrived at her last homeport via the Panama Canal on New Year’s Day 1945, LT William Louis Hardy, USNR, in command.

In just her limited time at Treasure Island, Wilmington/Dover gave refresher gunnery training to 84 officers and 3,370 enlisted men in the San Francisco area during 1945.

She was finally decommissioned on 20 December 1945.

Stricken from the Navy List on 8 January 1946, Wilmington/Dover was sold for scrap on 30 December 1946 to the San Francisco Barge Company, and sunk at sea in early 1947.

Epilogue

Little remains of our subject.

Wilmington’s first skipper, CDR Chapman Todd, who commanded her during the SpanAm War and her trips across the rivers of South America, went on to serve as hydrographer of the Navy Department, where he supervised the initial survey of the newly acquired U.S. territories of the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Promoted to captain in 1901, he commanded the cruiser USS Brooklyn on Asiatic station during the Philippine insurrection. He retired from active service in October 1902 with the rank of rear admiral after a naval career that spanned 41 years, counting his time at Annapolis.

RADM Todd passed away in April 1929 at the Naval Hospital in Washington, aged 80, and was buried in Kentucky. At the time of his passing, his son, CDR Chapman Todd, Jr. (USNA 1913), was an officer on the battlewagon USS Florida (BB-30) who would go on to serve in WWII. Besides the two scrapbooks whose images are in the Naval History and Heritage Command’s files, many of which are seen in the above article, the senior Todd’s 1870 Lieutenant’s commission, signed by President Grant, is in the Kentucky state archives– along with his Civil War dress epaulettes. 

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) 30 April 2026: 695 Feet of Glory

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger.

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) 30 April 2026: 695 Feet of Glory

Official Royal Navy Photograph, from the All-Hands collection at the Naval History and Heritage Command. NH 97044

Above we see a Fleet Air Arm Hawker Sea Fury F.B.11, VR-943, of No.804 Squadron, take to the air of the British Colossus-class light fleet carrier HMS Glory (R62) for a combat mission during the Korean War, circa June 1951. Note the Fury’s invasion stripes to keep UN allies unfamiliar with the type from engaging it, and the “R” tail flash, denoting her as belonging to Glory’s 14th Carrier Air Group.

Completed too late for much combat in WWII, Glory earned her keep off Korea, completing 25 highly active patrols across three tours between April 1951– arriving on station some 75 years ago this week– and May 1953.

The Colossus class

Our girl was one of 16 (planned) “1942 Design Light Fleet Carriers” for the RN. This series, broken up into Colossus and Majestic-class sub-variants, was nifty 19,500-ton, 695-foot-long carriers that the U.S. Navy would have classified at the time as a CVL or light carrier.

They were slower than the fast fleet carriers at just 25 knots with all four 3-drum Admiralty boilers lit and glowing red, but they had long legs (over 14,000 miles at cruising speed), which allowed them to cross the Atlantic escorting convoys, travel to the Pacific to retake lost colonies, or remain on station in the South Atlantic or the Indian Ocean for weeks.

The classes’ 1946 Jane’s entry.

Ditching the full armored decks of the RN’s larger carriers, these light boys only had 10mm mantlets around aircraft torpedo warhead rooms while longitudinal watertight bulkheads covered machinery spaces.

A sort of “pocket” fleet carrier, they could be manned by just 850 crew if needed– not counting their air group personnel and Marine detachment, which could bring her embarked numbers up to 1,300– while still being able to carry 40~ aircraft.

Designed specifically for globetrotting, their 112-foot-wide flight deck and easily dismantled abeam sponsons allowed for passage through the Panama Canal. Meanwhile, special attention was given to operations in tropical conditions, be it Aden or Singapore, with air conditioning standard in many compartments.

Benefitting from late-war sensor technology, they were completed with Type 79B early warning, Type 281B air search, and Type 282 fire control radars, as well as a Type 144 sonar. When it comes to the Type 282, they had as many as six of the UHF-band range-only fire control radar for AAA batteries. Speaking of which, they were designed to carry six quad 40mm/39 2pdr QF Mk VIII pom poms and 32 Oerlikons (11 twin and 10 single).

August 1951. Off Korea. Pom Pom gun action stations in HMS Glory. The gun’s crews closed at instant readiness. A multiple close-range weapon manned by Royal Marines of HMS Glory. Note the Brodie-style helmets, surely quaint even in the early days of the Cold War. IWM (A 31959)

HMS Glory at dock in January 1946, showing public inspection and queues. Note her array of 2-pdr pom poms and 40mm Bofors with Type 282 fire control radars, and her small island with a thin funnel. Photo by Allan Green. State Library Victoria H91.108/2012

This would quickly change, as we shall see.

Meet Glory

Our subject is at least the 13th HMS Glory in the Royal Navy since 1747 and, as such, carried six cherished battle honors forward (Glorious First of June 1794, Calder’s Action 1805, Martinique 1809, Guadeloupe 1810, China 1900, and Dardanelles 1915).

The 12th Glory was formerly the German-built Russian protected cruiser Askold, seized by the British in Kola Bay in May 1918 during the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War and used as a depot ship in Scotland until she was returned to the Soviet Navy for scrapping in 1922.

Askold had five thin funnels, which gave her a unique silhouette for any vessel in the Imperial Russian Navy. This led British sailors to nickname her “Packet of Woodbines” after the thin cigarettes popular at the time.

Our carrier Glory was laid down at Harland & Wolff at Belfast on 27 August 1942, just as the Japanese were being stopped in the Solomons and the Germans were closing in on Stalingrad. However, our new flattop was a slow build-out and wasn’t launched until after the Avalanche Landings in Italy in late 1943.

HMS Glory began her trials in November 1944 and was accepted, allocated for service with the British Pacific Fleet, commissioning on 2 April 1945, just a month out from VE-Day. Still, Glory beat her sisters Ocean, Theseus, Triumph, Venerable, Vengeance, and Warrior into fleet service. Meanwhile, sisters Perseus and Pioneer were completed as aircraft maintenance ships, not true carriers.

HMS Glory underway in coastal waters circa late 1944-early 1945. IWM (A 28925)

Same as above, IWM (A 28926).

Glory’s first skipper was Capt. Anthony Wass Buzzard, DSO, who picked up the suffix after his name as commander of the destroyer HMS Gurkha in the Norway campaign. A regular who shipped out to fight the Kaiser as a 13-year-old Mid in 1915, Buzzard was later gunnery officer aboard the battleship HMS Rodney during the pursuit and sinking of the Bismarck in 1941, with his guns the first to open fire on the German leviathan in her last surface action.

Last Days of the Big Show

Before heading to the Far East to join the BPF’s 11th Aircraft Carrier Squadron, Glory conducted flying trials with her first air wing, a mixture of 18 Barracudas from 837 Naval Air Squadron and 21 Corsairs of 1831 NAS, forming the 16th Carrier Air Group. She also picked up 17 40mm Bofors in place of smaller 20mm cannons.

On 14 May 1945, the ship became operational and departed Portsmouth, bound for Australia by way of the Mediterranean.

Arriving at Fremantle on 16 August 1945, she received word that the Japanese were suing for peace.

HMS Glory arrives at BPF Australia in August 1945 with Barracuda and Corsairs on her deck. IWM (A 30392)

A brand new carrier full of fresh aircraft and crew with nothing to do, Glory achieved a footnote in WWII history by hosting the surrender of 139,000 troops under Japanese Lt. General Imamura and Admiral Jin Icha Kusaka at Rabaul on 6 September (VJ+4), with the surrender party signing the instruments on her deck after a conference in Capt. Buzzard’s cabin. As such, she became the flag of Task Group 111.5, escorted by HM Sloops Hart and Amethyst.

“At sea off Rabaul, New Britain. 6 September 1945. Flight crews prepare Corsair and Barracuda aircraft on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Glory before takeoff. They will circle overhead during the surrender ceremony between Lieutenant General V.A.H. Sturdee, General Officer Commanding First Army, Lt. General H Imamura, commander Eighth Area Army, and Vice Admiral J. Kusaka, commander Southeast Area Fleet.” Note the widespread use of shorts and the general lack of blouses– the tropical uniform of the day. AWM 095778

Same as the above, a Corsair riding the elevator from hangar to flight deck off Rabaul, 6 September 1945, to provide CAP over the surrender. AWM 095740

The conference was held in the captain’s cabin. Left to right: Admiral Jin-Incha Kusaka, Commander Japanese S E Navy; General Imamura, General S E Japanese Army; Lieutenant General V A H Sturdee, GOC First Australian Army; Brigadier E L Sheehan, BGS, First Australian Army; and Captain Wass Buzzard, RN, discussing the immediate occupation of Rabaul by the 11th Australian Division. IWM (A 30501)

The surrender ceremony for 139,000 Japanese in New Britain, New Ireland, the Solomons, and New Guinea, which took place on the flight deck of HMS Glory off Rabaul. The surrender of the Japanese army in the southwest Pacific area was signed by General Imamura, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Army in the region. Here General Imamura is bending over the table reading after Admiral Jin Icha Kusaka signed the treaty for the Japanese Southeastern naval forces. In the background are officers and ratings of HMS GLORY. Note the men stood at ease on either side of the flight deck. Photo by Lt C Trusler, Royal Navy. IWM (A 30499)

Note the RM with the Lancaster SMG ready to the left! General Imamura, Japanese South-Eastern Army Chief, signing the official document for the surrender of 139,000 Japanese in New Britain, New Ireland, the Solomons, and New Guinea. The surrender ceremony took place on the flight deck of HMS GLORY off Rabaul. Lieutenant General Sturdee, GOC First Australian Army, who signed for the Allies, is closely watching the Japanese General from the other side of the table. Admiral Jin Icha Kusaka signed the treaty for the Japanese southeastern naval forces. Photo by Lt C Trusler, Royal Navy. IWM (A 30498)

Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura, Commander of the Japanese 8th Area Army, signing the instrument of surrender on board HMS Glory near Rabaul. Vice Admiral Jinichi Kusaka, Commander of the Japanese Southeast Area Fleet, stands by to add his signature to the document. AWM 045213

Gen. Hitoshi Imamura, who surrendered his sword to Sturdee, was tried by an Allied war crimes tribunal and imprisoned until 1954. Finding his punishment to be too light, Imamura built a replica of his prison in his garden and confined himself there until he died in 1968. VADM Kusaka Jinichi died in 1972, aged 83. No war crimes indictments were leveled against him personally, though subordinate officers faced trials at Rabaul for atrocities against Allied prisoners and local populations.

Glory then proceeded to Manila to embark liberated Commonwealth POWs from Japanese camps, with part of the carrier’s hangar turned into a temporary hospital. Many of the men had been captured in Singapore in 1942. She would take these men across the Pacific to Esquimalt/Vancouver in Canada for further repatriation. Over 1,000 men were carried, and the ship made three such trips from October through the end of the year.

9 October 1945, HMS Glory embarks released British and Canadian POWs at Manila. Five members of the RAF who spent three years in captivity in Japan. Left to right: AC1 Melville of Clydebank, Scotland; AC1 Barry of Frindale, Glamorgan; LAC Duncan of Leeds; LAC Parish of Arsett, Essex; and Corporal Painey of Tamworth, Birmingham. Photo by BT Hawk. IWM (A 30943)

British aircraft carrier H.M.S. “Glory” at dock, Vancouver BC, November 1945, sporting Victory Bond signage. Keep in mind that the Crown was broke as a joke for a generation after VJ Day. Photo by James Crookall, Vancouver City Archives. AM640-S1-CVA 260-1539

Same as above, giving a good dockside view, giving a good look at her mast. Note the Canadian Pacific boarding gangway and the building in the Marine Building, a renowned Art Deco skyscraper that was the tallest building in the British Commonwealth when completed in 1930– and had been designed with a zeppelin tower. AM640-S1-: CVA 260-1537

Same as above, photo by William Donn. AM1545-S3-CVA 586-4077

Quiet Interbellum

Her POW Magic Carpet rides completed, Glory remained in the Pacific for the first eight months of 1946 and called on Australia again that January with the larger carriers Indefatigable and Implacable, along with sister Venerable.

HMS Glory (R62) upon her arrival at Melbourne, Australia, on January 23, 1946. Note the dress uniformed RM band on her bow. Photo by Allan Green. State Library Victoria H91.108/2063

Aircraft carriers HMS Implacable (left), HMS Indefatigable (right), and HMS Glory (back right) at Station Pier in Melbourne, Australia, January 1946. Note how well the little 13,000-ton/695-foot light carrier compares to her 32,000-ton/766-foot armored deck big sisters.

Station Pier, Melbourne, Australia, Jan 1946 HMS Indefatigable near opposite Implacable, ahead HMS Glory Victoria State Library

HMS Glory on a visit to Melbourne, 1946. Argus news image. State Library Victoria H98.104/2475

Visit by British aircraft carriers H.M.S. Glory, H.M.S. Indefatigable, H.M.S. Venerable, and H.M.S. Implacable to Melbourne, 1946. State of Victoria Archives

Visit by British aircraft carriers H.M.S. Glory, H.M.S. Indefatigable, H.M.S. Venerable, H.M.S. Implacable to Melbourne, 1946 State of Victoria Archives

HMS Glory leaves Waitematā Harbour with aircraft and vehicles of No. 14 Squadron RNZAF bound for Japan. 8 March 1946. RNZAF Archives

By August 1947, Glory departed for home with her paying off pennant flying via Singapore, Trincomalee, and the Mediterranean, arriving back at Portsmouth in October, where she entered ordinary for the next two years, reactivated in October 1949 and, after a stint at Devonport dockyard, sailed to join the Mediterranean Fleet.

It was in Malta in December 1949 that Princess (future Queen) Elizabeth came aboard Glory on the occasion of the King’s birthday for a visit and inspection.

The parade on the flight deck of HMS Glory was inspected by Princess Elizabeth. IWM (A 31630)

Princess Elizabeth inspects officers and men of the Mediterranean fleet on HMS Glory on the King’s birthday. 14 December 1949, on board the light fleet carrier HMS Glory, at Malta. IWM (A 31626)

In July 1950, she was part of Exercise Bandit, off the island of Skiathos, then went on to receive a very smoky salute from the elderly Turkish battlecruiser Yavuz (ex-SMS Goeben).

July 1950. The cruiser HMS Phoebe entering Marmice Harbor, Turkey, for the Fleet Regatta. HMS Glory in the foreground. Fireflies of 812 on the flight deck of HMS Glory. IWM (A 31691A)

August 1950. HMS Glory, the flagship of the Flag Officer (Air) Mediterranean, Rear Admiral Guy Grantham, CB, CBE, anchored off Tangier during the summer cruise of the Mediterranean Fleet. The bow of the Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci in the foreground. IWM (A 31716)

War! (of the Korean variety)

One of Glory’s sisters, HMS Triumph (R16), was the first British aircraft carrier deployed to the Korean War, dispatched on 29 June 1950. As part of the Royal Navy’s Far Eastern Fleet, she and her 13th Carrier Air Group—equipped 800 Naval Air Squadron equipped with the Supermarine Seafire F.R Mk. 47 and 827 Naval Air Squadron with the Fairey Firefly F.R.Mk.1—conducted the first British carrier strikes against North Korean targets at Pyongyang and Haeju by 3 July.

Another of Glory’s sisters, HMS Theseus (R64), relieved Triumph, carrying 23 Furies from 807 Squadron and 12 Fireflies from 813 Squadron, 17th Carrier Air Group, beginning strikes on North Korean targets on 9 October 1950. All told, Theseus launched 3,500 sorties on 86 days during its seven-month deployment. During the first six months, Theseus’ air wing dropped 829,000 lbs. of explosives and fired 7,317 rockets and “half a million rounds of 20mm ammunition.”

Then Glory clocked in to relieve Theseus, with the 14th CAG’s 804 Squadron (Sea Fury) and 812 Squadron (Firefly) embarked.

Her first tour, 23rd April to 30th September 1951, would cover nine patrol periods, each of about two weeks, in which her Furies and Fireflies would hammer enemy positions in conjunction with American carriers.

She also picked up a U.S. Navy HO3S-1 (Sikorsky H-5 Dragonfly) C-SAR helicopter det, which would put in yeoman service not only for her downed aviators but also for others.

Glory suffered her first loss in the campaign on Saturday, 28 April 1951, when Lt. EPL Edward, FAA, a Sea Fury pilot of 804 Squadron, crashed into the Yellow Sea while on a patrol near Clifford Island. He was listed MPK (missing, presumed killed) and never recovered, one of 254 British personnel considered MIA during the Korean War.

Korea, 1951. Aircraft positioned on the flight deck of HMS Glory following a strike on Korea during the Korean War. AWM P00320.001

A Sea Fury takes off from HMS Glory circa 1951 off Korea. AWM P00320.010

A war photographer apparently shipped aboard in June 1951 and captured some amazing images.

June 1951. Off Korea. A Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron being maneuvered into position on the flight deck of HMS Glory. The aircraft is already bombed up and ready to fly off on another sortie. Note the deck tractor and 60-pound rockets under wings. IWM (A 31912)

June 1951. Off Korea. A Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron, assisted by rockets, takes off from HMS Glory. IWM (A 31910)

June 1951. Off Korea. A Firefly aircraft of 812 Squadron with rocket-assisted take-off leaving the flight deck of HMS Glory for an anti-submarine patrol in Korean waters. IWM (A 31911)

June 1951. Off Korea. HMS Glory’s U.S. Navy Sikorski Dragonfly helicopter landing on the flight deck. This helicopter has been christened “The Thing”. It has saved several of the Glory’s pilots. IWM (A 31916)

June 1951. Off Korea. A Firefly aircraft (FR 5, 812 Squadron), touching down on HMS Glory. The ‘bats’ are watching his charge safely down. His assistant with binoculars is reporting the next aircraft coming in to land. IWM (A 31914)

June 1951. Off Korea. One of HMS Glory’s Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron goes down on the flight deck lift for servicing in readiness for the next day’s strikes. IWM (A 31909)

August 1951. Off Korea. Cleaning the pilot’s windshield is one of the many essential tasks performed by the Pilot’s Mate before takeoff. Leading Airman R Colebrook, of Mitcham, Surrey, is cleaning the windshield of his Sea Fury aircraft in HMS Glory. IWM (A 31960)

August 1951. Off Korea. Naval Airman J Davies of Birmingham loads the cannon of a Sea Fury aircraft with 20mm shells before the next flight takes off from HMS Glory. Note the airman’s sandals and the Firefly in the background. IWM (A 31957)

On 26 September, Glory handed over her station to the arriving Australian Majestic-class near-sister carrier HMAS Sydney (ex-HMS Terrible) and made for Kure, where she spent four days cross-decking her Fireflies and most of the air stores to the Ozzie flattop.

25 September 1951, on board the light fleet carrier HMS Glory, operating in Korean waters shortly before her relief by HMAS Sydney. Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron flying past the carrier’s island before landing after accomplishing their last strike mission of their first Korean deployment. IWM (A 31982)

September 1951. Two aircraft carriers, HMAS Sydney (left) and HMS Glory, side by side in dock. The flight decks of both carriers are packed with aircraft whose wings are folded up. The Sydney is carrying Hawker Sea Fury and Fairey Firefly aircraft of Nos. 805, 808, and 817 Squadrons, 20th Carrier Air Group, RAN Fleet Air Arm. (Original print housed in P run in AWM Archive Store) AWM P01838.005

Glory then sailed for Hong Kong for a four-month refit and much-needed R&R for her crew and squadrons.

Thus refreshed, Glory relived Sydney and began her second tour off Korea on 27th January 1952, and would continue it until 5 May, conducting five patrols.

April 1952. Off Korea. A Stork perched on the wing of an aircraft in HMS Glory. IWM (A 32115)

Glory left the area on 29 April and headed for Sasebo, where she de-ammunitioned. On 1 May, she sailed for Hong Kong and turned over to her sister HMS Ocean on the 3rd. This wrapped the 14th CAG’s war.

When Glory started her third tour (8 November 1952 to 19 May 1953) for a further 11 patrols, she did so with a new air group as the 14th CAG had been disbanded. She also carried an RN helicopter C-SAR det rather than having to go with a loaner from the USN.

From the Small Wars Journal:

When Glory returned in November 1952 to the Korean theatre, she had embarked two independent squadrons, in place of 14th CAG, these being No.801 squadron, flying Sea Furies, and No.821 Squadron flying Fireflies. She rendezvoused with Ocean on 4th November, and participated in exercise Taipan, the defense of Hong Kong, at the end of which, she embarked five Sea Furies, three Fireflies, and two Dragonfly helicopters from Ocean, along with some pilots. The Fireflies were modified for operational work by having HF radio and ASH radar removed, and a fuel tank fitted in place of the radar nacelle. A map box was fitted in place of the pilot’s PPI mounting. A Sten gun was carried, in case of an emergency landing in enemy territory, and the observer had an R/T press-to-transmit switch fitted in the rear cockpit, so he could warn of approaching hostile aircraft. The white spinners were painted grey.

On 6th November, Glory sailed for Sasebo and arrived on the 9th, embarking stores and fuel, before leaving for the operational area the next day.

HMS Glory with Sea Fury FB.IIs of 801 NAS and Firefly AS.5s of 821 NAS (Firefly AS.5) embarked Korea, winter of 1952-53.

HMS Glory and a Town-class cruiser, probably HMS Birmingham, during the Korean War, circa winter 1952-53. A Dragonfly helicopter is approaching the cruiser’s stern. IWM (A 31911)

Across her three tours, Glory lost 22 aircraft destroyed or damaged beyond repair. These included one of the ship’s SAR Dragonfly helicopter and crew on 16 December 1952, when it was caught in a crosswind on the flight deck and, despite a snatch takeoff, it toppled into the sea, taking its two-man crew to the bottom.

She suffered no fewer than 20 Air Crew Casualties during the war:

  • Lieutenant E.P.L. Stephenson, 26 April, 1951.(804 Squadron)
  • Pilot 3 S.W.E. Ford, 5 June, 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant J.H. Sharp, 28 June, 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Aircrewman G.B. Wells, 28 June 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant R. Williams, 16 July 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant I.R. Shepley, 16 July 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Commissioned Pilot T. Sparke, 18 July 1951 (804 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant R.G.A. Davey, 22 July 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant R.J. Overton, 15 March 1952 (804 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant R. Neville-Jones, 18 November, 1952 (801 Squadra)
  • Lieutenant A.P. Daniels, 16 December 1952, SAR helicopter crew
  • Aircrewman E.R. Ripley, 16 December 1952, SAR helicopter crew
  • Lieutenant P.G. Fogden, 20 December 1952 (821 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant R.E. Barrett, 25 December 1952 (821 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant B.E. Rayner, 5 January 1953 (801 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant J.M. Simmonds, 5 January 1953 (801 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant C.A. MacPherson, 11 February 1953 (801 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant R.D. Bradley, 11 February 1953 (801 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant J.T. McGregor, 25 April 1953 (801 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant W.J.B. Keates, 25 April 1953 (801 Squadron)

Glory also had one of her aircrew captured, 801 Squadron’s Lieutenant (E)(A/E/)(P) Derek Graham Mather, shot down during an attack on the bridges near Chaeyoung on 5 January 1953.

“We had some secondary targets, one of which was another bridge. I led the second attack in — they were waiting for us. It was a flak trap. I released my bombs, and suddenly there was a bang from a 76mm shell,” noted Mather, who managed to escape his shattered Sea Fury only to be met in the snow by a waiting Chinese patrol.

During her three tours in Korean waters, Glory had spent 530 days at sea and had steamed 157,000 miles. The period included 15 months of war service and 316 days in Korean waters. An impressive 9,064 operational sorties (7,388 offensive and 1,676 defensive) had been flown with 13,070 flights made in total when non-combat missions were logged.

Across those three tours, Glory and her squadrons had expanded:

  • 278 1,000-pound bombs
  • 7,080 500-pound bombs
  • 24,238 60-pound rockets
  • 20 depth charges
  • 1,441,000 20mm shells

Targets destroyed included 712 buildings, 33 road bridges, 37 rail bridges, and 162 railway lines cut.

In recognition of her service, Glory was authorized the battle honor “Korea 1950-53” while her crew and CAG accumulated six DSOs, 20 DSCs, two CBEs, two OBEs, three MBEs, eight BEMs, a Queen’s Commendation (PoW), and 33 Mentions in Despatches.

July 1953. A Sikorsky Dragonfly helicopter, operating from Malta, hovers over HMS Glory when she called in at Malta on her way to the UK. The broken plate gives a pleasing frog skin camo effect. IWM (A 32604)

Throughout the war, Commonwealth-manned Colossus and Majestic-class light carriers endured off the coast– the Admiralty tasking them rather than larger flattops to save money– with Glory being replaced by HMS Ocean and HMAS Sydney, while the Canadian-manned HMCS Warrior transported replacement aircraft from Britain.

In all, FAA and RAN pilots flew at least 25,366 combat sorties from these budget light carriers during the Korean conflict– with Glory alone accounting for 36 percent of these by herself.

Continued Cold War service

By 1954, the Royal Navy had been reduced to 139,000 billets, down from 153,000 seen at the end of the Korean War the year prior, and was targeted to be reduced to just 133,000 by 1955. The signs of things to come!

The number of Glory’s sisters in RN service had greatly decreased. Venerable, renamed Karel Doorman, had been sold to the Netherlands in 1948. Colossus, renamed Arromanches, was sold to France in 1951. Vengeance was lent to the Australians in early 1953. Half-sister ferry carriers Perseus and Pioneer were on the bubble, with the latter slated to be scrapped that year.

This just left Glory, Ocean, Theseus, Triumph, and Warrior in RN service, as listed in Jane’s 1954-55 volume, as seen below.

The Brits still had a very significant carrier force headed into the rest of the Cold War, with the 46,000-ton sisters HMS Ark Royal and Eagle, the twin 33,000-ton armored carriers Implacable and Indefatigable of WWII fame, the 29,000-ton Indomitable, the 32,000-ton Illustrious, the 30,000-ton Victorious (then being refit with an angled flight deck), the four 20,000-ton Hermes class sisters (Hermes, Albion, Bulwark, and Centaur), the 19,000-ton Hercules and Leviathan, plus our five Glory and two ferry carriers (Perseus and Unicorn).

That’s 20 flattops, which are a lot of flattops by any standard!

Taken in hand with Britain’s last battlewagon, HMS Vanguard, still in service as flagship of the Home Fleet, her four mothballed KGVs (Anson, Howe, Duke of York, and King George V), and two laid up monitors (Abercrombie and Roberts), and you could mistake the RN as the world’s second largest fleet in the world at the time.

Silhouettes as per the 1954 Jane’s:

Of course, all was subject to change, and many of the above were laid up or pending disposal or transfer.

Following a post-Korea refit in Rosyth, Glory went back to the Med for another round of flying exercises and flag-showing visits before returning to Portsmouth in February 1954.

Glory in the Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta, in January 1954

That saw the end of the Glory’s flying as she now became a ferry carrier, making a trip out to the Far East, again dropping off and picking up men and supplies en route, spending a few hours on a mud bank in the Great Bitter Lake on her way out there.

Shortly after her return, she took part in delivering relief supplies in Scotland during the blizzards of January 1955. The remainder of that year was spent in Rosyth before, in May 1956, leaving for Plymouth for a few weeks before she returned to Rosyth in June and was finally Paid Off.

In 1957, all preservation work was stopped, then after being on the disposal list for a time, the tugs arrived on 23 August 1961 to tow her to Inverkeithing to be broken up.

Tugs pulling HMS Glory, Colossus aircraft carrier, to the breakers in Inverkeithing, August 23 1961

By 1960, the RN had drawn down to 102,000 officers and men and had no battleships or monitors and just nine carriers of all types (Ark Royal, Eagle, Hermes, Albion, Bulwark, Centaur, Magnificent, Victorious, and Leviathan), with only about half considered active fleet carriers.

The last of her Glory’s sisters in the Royal Navy, Triumph, was kept around as a repair ship until 1975, then scrapped.

The final vessel of her class sent to the breakers, the third-hand ex-HMS/HMAS Vengeance/ex-NAeL Minas Gerais, was sold for scrap by the Brazilian owners in 2004, torched to man-portable pieces on the beach at Alang.

Of Glory’s WWII and Korean War squadrons, 837 NAS disbanded in 1947, 1831 NAS in 1982, 804 NAS in 1961, 812 NAS in 1956, 821 NAS in 1953, and 801 NAS in 2007, the latter flying Harriers in the Falklands.

Epilogue

The HMS Glory Association continues the ship’s legacy. 

Little remains of our subject.

In the early 1960s, when Glory was being decommissioned, Lord Mountbatten, Chief of the British Defence Forces and Admiral of the Fleet, allowed the ship’s 1944-marked brass bell to be taken by Mr. F C Wilkins CB, a retiree of the RN who had served for 47 years. It, along with its clapper, marlinspike bell rope, plaque, and a WWII flown ensign, now resides in the collection of the Australian War Memorial.

The IWM contains a collection of interviews with past members of Glory’s crew, of which at least 21 are available to listen to online.

Her WWII skipper, RADM Anthony Wass Buzzard DSO, OBE, RN, retired in 1951, capping a 29-year career. He passed away in 1972, at age 69.

The aviator lost as a POW during Korea, Sea Fury driver Derek Graham “Pug” Mather, underwent brutal mistreatment over nine months as a Chinese prisoner, including attempted brainwashing, but was eventually released post-cease fire and returned to service, on Glory— welcomed back aboard by a Royal Marines band– in January 1954. Converting to helicopters, he did an exchange tour with the USN, served aboard the commando carrier HMS Albion, and retired as a captain in 1969 with his last post as Director of the Air Engineering School at HMS Daedalus in RNAS Lee-on-Solent. On retirement, he spent 10 years with Marconi Underwater Systems, then assumed charitable work as a hospital driver and domestic governor of the King William IV Naval Foundation Cottages. Pug passed in 2007, aged 79, leaving two daughters and two sons.

Sadly, the Admiralty’s naval list has not been graced with a “Glory” since 1961.

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Spitfire at 90

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Sporting a pale blue-grey commonly called “French Grey” that was arrived at by adding blue pigment to a grey enamel base, Supermarine F.37/34 fighter prototype serial K5054 made its first flight on 5 March 1936 under the controls of test pilot Capt. Joseph “Mutt” Summers, CBE.

Prototype Spitfire K5054 Air Historical Branch-RAF MOD

After several minor tweaks and a new and improved prop, K5054 reached 348 mph in level flight in mid-May, then Summers flew K5054 to RAF Martlesham Heath and handed the aircraft over to Squadron Leader Anderson of the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) where it led to the Spitfire with the Air Ministry placing an inital order of 310 aircraft for roughly £9,500 a pop on 3 June 1936– while A&AEE was still working on its final report!

The first production Spitfire, K9787, rolled off the Woolston, Southampton assembly line in mid-1938, and ultimately 20,351 Spitfires were produced over the next 10 years in 24 main “Marks” (variants).

No less than 341 Allied pilots (including 16 Americans) gained “ace” status at the controls of a Spit during WWII.

Flight Lieutenant W.H. Pentland, of No. 417 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, awaiting start-up in his Supermarine Spitfire Mark VC (s/n BR195 ‘AN-T’) at Goubrine, Tunisia, in May 1943. Other aircraft of the squadron are lined up alongside. Royal Air Force official photographer, Woodbine G (F/O) IWM TR 861

The type remained, impressively, in front-line service until at least 1961, when it was retired by the Irish Air Corps at a time when jet fighters were entering their third generation.

The Imperial War Museum’s painstakingly built “99 percent accurate” circa 1993 flying replica of K5054 has been making rounds on a two-week tour of the country but has recently returned to Duxford, just in time to celebrate the Spitfire’s 90th birthday.

The Big Spud returns to the Fleet

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The country’s newest fast-attack submarine and the fifth U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name, USS Idaho (SSN 799), was commissioned at SUBASE New London on Saturday, 25 April.

Sailors assigned to the Virginia-class fast attack submarine USS Idaho (SSN 799) man the rails during a commissioning ceremony at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn., on April 25, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo 260425-N-UM744-1007 by John Narewski/Submarine Readiness Squadron (SRS) 32)

One of 10 Block IV Virginias, Idaho, carries two multipurpose Virginia Payload Tubes (VPT) forward, seen open in the above image, allowing her to carry and launch a dozen Tomahawks or similar missiles vertically. This is in addition to her 25 slots for Mk-48 ADCAPS or Harpoons fired from her four forward tubes.

The future USS Idaho (SSN 799) seen on builders trials 251215-N-N2201-002

Named for “The Gem State,” SSN 799 will operate as part of SUBRON4 and is expected to have a 33+ year life cycle, surpassing that of the fourth USS Idaho (Battleship No.42), which commissioned in 1919 and, after earning seven battle stars during WWII, was scrapped in 1947.

Nice to see the name return to the Navy List after a nearly 80-year break.

USS Idaho (BB-42) passing through the Panama Canal, c. 1945 National Archives 80-G-K-6572

With the Dragon Slayers

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Lucky Number Three! Belgium. 12 January, 1945. 42nd Tank Battalion, 11th Armored Division. They keep their fingers crossed as this is their third tank since the 29th of December. The other two were shot out from under them, but they sustained no injuries. Left to right: Cpl. Cecil M. Lindsey, Springfield, Mo.; Cpl. Walter P. Waymer, Seymour, Conn.; Capt. John Megglesin, Aurora, Ill., all of the 42nd Tank Battalion, 11th Armored Division. Photographer: MacDonald. SC 335399.

23 April represents the observed 1,723rd anniversary of the execution in Nicomedia (modern-day İzmit, Turkey) of Nestor of Cappodocia, a Roman Army officer, punished by the Emperor Diocletian for not renouncing his religious faith.

He came to be known as “Saint George” by the Catholic Church. Over the years, legends grew that he appeared on horseback to save a village by slaying a Dragon.

Saint George Killing the Dragon, 1434, Bernat Martorell

Centuries later, Saint George has become the patron saint of many, including England.

But most importantly for the U.S. Army Armor Branch, Saint George is the only saint depicted fighting on horseback and thus is the patron saint of Cavalrymen and now modern Tankers and Cavalry Scouts.

The U.S. Cavalry and Armor Association honors old Nestor through the Honorable Order of Saint George, which, established in 1986, recognizes exceptional Tankers and Cavalrymen.

Guppy foursome

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Some 60 years ago this week.

Subron-21’s GUPPY IIIs, complete with high “North Atlantic” sails, motor by in a tight formation on 18 April 1966.

USS Clamagore (SS-343) is in front, with USS Corporal (SS-346) on Clamagore’s port side, USS Cobbler (SS-344) on Clamagore’s starboard side, and USS Blenny (SS-324) bringing up the rear.

All four submarines were part of the Balao-class, and all were commissioned into the U.S. Navy in the final two years of WWII, although only Blenny arrived in time to make war patrols that earned battle stars (four) before VJ-Day.

In formation on 18 April 1966. The boats seen are: USS BLENNY (SS-324), CLAMAGORE (SS-343), COBBLER (SS-344), and CORPORAL (SS-346)

Formation on 18 April 1966. The boats seen are: USS BLENNY (SS-324), CLAMAGORE (SS-343), COBBLER (SS-344), and CORPORAL (SS-346)

Of the quartet, Clamagore survived the longest, retired in 1980, and was scrapped in 2022 after four decades of slowly wasting away as a museum ship in Charleston.

Blenny, the WWII combat vet, decommissioned in 1973, was scuttled off Ocean City, Maryland, on 7 June 1989.

Cobbler, which transferred to Turkey in 1973, was renamed TCG Çanakkale (S 341) and somehow served until 1998.

Corporal also transferred to Turkey in 1974 and commissioned TCG Ikinci İnönü (S333), serving until 1996.

Warship Wednesday 15 April 2026: The Fastest Yugo

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger.

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday 15 April 2026: The Fastest Yugo

Courtesy of Mr. C.W. Beilstein 1983. Naval History and Heritage Command Catalog #: NH 94341

Above we see the class-leading destroyer (razarac) Beograd of the Royal Navy of Yugoslavia (Kraljevska mornarica Jugoslavije, KMJ) shortly after she was completed at Nantes in 1939. Note her “B” hull identifier.

Lightning-fast at 39 knots during her trials, she was captured 85 years ago this week and went on to serve under two other flags until the final days of WWII.

The KMJ’s tin can needs

Emerging from the wreckage of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, mashed together with the kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro by the Versailles Treaty in 1919, Yugoslavia needed a fleet.

The country inherited eight small 188-foot/250-ton torpedo boats, four Danube River monitors (the ex-Bosna, Enns, Körös, and Bodrog), four small TBs converted to minesweepers, and some scratch-and-dent auxiliaries from the Austrians. The largest ship collected from the smashed empire was the circa 1887 7,000-ton ironclad SMS Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf, which was condemned and sold for scrap within a couple of years.

In 1921, the budding polyglot country bought six surplus 500 ton German minelayers as tugs on the open market and armed them with new Skoda 3.5″/45s then followed that up in 1926 with the elderly German Gazelle-class light cruiser ex-SMS Niobe (2,370 tons) and added six new Skoda 3.4″/55s to that hulk, bringing her into service as the flagship Dalmacija.

Moving to purchase new construction, in 1927-31 the KMJ bought two small (236-foot/975-ton) 6-tubed Armstrong-built coastal submarines (Hrabri and Nebojsa), another two similarly small subs from France (Smeli and Osvetnik), the 250-foot/1,870-ton seaplane tender/minelayer Zmaj from Germany (capable of supporting 10 floatplanes, which the Yugos didn’t seem to have), and five 174-foot/130 ton Maclinska-class minelayers, the latter built by Yarrow’s Adriatic Yard in Kraljevica.

As part of the 1928 naval program, the KMJ moved to order from Yarrow, Scotstoun, what would be their most modern and well-armed surface combatant, the 2,800-ton destroyer leader Dubrovnik.

At 371 feet overall and powered by three oil-fired Yarrow boilers and dual sets of Parsons steaming and Curtis cruising turbines, she had 48,000shp on tap and was designed for 37 knot speeds (made 37.2 on trials).

Crtež razarača Dubrovnik, Yugo destroyer leader

Yarrow had built the experimental one-off destroyer HMS Ambuscade for the RN, delivered in 1927, and it could be argued that Dubrovnik was basically an enlarged take on that design.

Dubrovnik photographed by A.T. Kelly of Glasgow, while fitting out at the shipyard of Yarrow & Co., during the winter of 1931-1932. Courtesy of Mr. C.W. Beilstein. NH 94345

Same as above. NH 94344

Outfitted with four new 5.5″/56 Skoda single mounts— guns capable of firing 87.7-pound HE rounds at up to eight rounds per minute per tube out to 25,600 yards– Dubrovnik was one of the most heavily armed destroyers in the world at the time. In fact, her guns were the largest the KMJ ever had afloat, barring the trio of 12-inch Krupp M1888 L/35 guns on the old Erzherzog Rudolf, which were likely never put into service.

Škoda 140mm guns, Yugoslav destroyer Dubrovnik, May 1932, during a visit to the Netherlands, Den Helder, to install Hazemeyer fire control devices

Going past the 5.5″/56s, she had weight and space for an embarked seaplane, carried several 83mm M.1929 and 40mm/L67 Skoda AAA guns, and two triple 21-inch tubes for French-designed 1923DT torpedoes as well as depth charges and mines.

Dubrovnik was essentially a lead-in for the construction of a very similar new series of large (2,500-ton/377-foot) British destroyers authorized under the 1935 program, the well-liked Tribal class, which also had four gun mounts (for smaller 4.7″/45s), two funnels, and a three-boiler/two-turbine 44,000shp power plant for 36 knots.

The Yugoslavian fleet, circa 1937.

Yugoslav destroyer Dubrovnik in 1934

Delivered in May 1932, it was planned to build two sisters to Dubrovnik, and, since they were destroyer flotilla leaders, a whole class of modern tin cans for them to lead.

Which brings us to our subject of this week’s Warship Wednesday.

Meet Beograd

Named for the Yugoslav capital (Belgrade), the lead ship was ordered to a design from Ateliers et Chantiers after the fast French destroyer L`Adroit, which had entered service in 1929.

French destroyer torpilleur l’Adroit. The speedy French greyhound went 1,380 tons (standard) and ran 351 feet overall and, powered by three three-drum Temple boilers and two turbines for 31,000shp, could make turns for 33 knots.

French destroyer torpilleur l’Adroit. Armed with four 5.1″/40s and two triple torpedo tubes, she was a brawler, and the French would build 14 of her class.

Beograd would run a little shorter than L`Adroit (321 feet overall, 316 at the waterline with two funnels instead of three and less of a clipper bow) and hit the scales at 1,200 tons standard (1,655 full). Powered by three Yarrow boilers on two sets of Curtiss geared steam turbines, she had 44,000shp on tap and made just over 39 knots on trials versus a designed speed of 38.

Schemat niszczyciela Beograd

Armament would be four new model 4.7″/46 Skoda DPs, which could fire 52.9-pound HE shells at 10 rounds per minute to 18,000 yards. Secondary battery would be two twin 40mm Swedish Bofors with Dutch Hazemeyer fire control devices (one of the first mountings of such guns that would go on to become iconic), two 15mm Skoda heavy MGs, and two triple 21-inch torpedo tubes in addition to a stern depth charge rack. As many as 30 mines could be carried as well.

Laid down as Yard No. 585 at Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in Nantes in 1936, Beograd took to the water on 23 December 1937 and was completed in August 1939, just as Europe was marching to another world war.

Beograd photographed before World War II. Courtesy of Mr. C.W. Beilstein, 1983. NH 94342

Just 300 miles to the north of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia had just been swallowed up by Germany, Hungary (which occupied Carpathian Ruthenia), and Poland (which occupied and annexed the Zaolzie area), and things were getting tense between Russia, Poland, and Germany. Meanwhile, Italy invaded and swiftly annexed Albania to Yugoslavia’s south in April 1939, sending 22,000 troops across the Adriatic supported by two battleships, six cruisers, and two dozen escorts.

The first of at least two of Beograd’s planned sisters, Zagreb and Ljubljana, were ordered in 1936 from the new Ateliers et Chantiers-founded Jadranska Brodogradilista shipyard in Split, as Yard Nos. 22 and 23, respectively, and were likewise delivered in the summer of 1939.

Yugoslav Beograd-class destroyer Zagreb in the Bay of Kotor

Destroyer Zagreb, 1939

Jadranska brodogradilišta A.D shipyard in 1933, where Zagreb and Ljubljana were constructed between 1936 and 1939. The yard is still around, as Brodosplit, one of the largest Croatian shipyards.

War!

As noted by Dr. Milan Vego in his 1982 Warships International article on the KMJ, in 1940, the force counted 326 officers, 1,646 petty officers, and 1,870 seamen. At that time, just 64 former Great War era Austro-Hungarian officers (1 VADM, 27 CAPT, 27 Senior CDR, 5 CDR) were still on the rolls, while 336 officers were educated in the Yugoslav schools after 1918 (14 CDR, 110 LCDR, 27 ensigns).

The U.S. military attaché in Belgrade then observed that the “discipline and morale of navy personnel was very good. The men are content and like their life.” However, “higher commanders appear somewhat discouraged at the inferior position of the Yugoslav Navy due to totally inadequate appropriations.” In his view, “under such conditions the fleet units kept in service may be said to be in very good condition considering the small amount available for upkeep and training.”

Less than a month after commissioning, as Hitler marched into Poland, Beograd was sent to Britain with a large part of Yugoslavia’s gold reserves (7,344 ingots), which were deposited at the Bank of England for safekeeping.

Keeping their heads down in the event of a surprise attack from Italy, in which they had orders to make to sea to raid the Italian coast and shipping, Beograd and her sister ship Zagreb were deployed to the 1st Torpedo Division in the Bay of Kotor (Cattaro) with Dubrovnik. The third sister, Ljubljana, was undergoing repairs in the Tivat Arsenal after sinking in an accident on 24 January 1940.

It became clear that the Germans and Italians planned to move Yugoslavia into their orbit, especially after Mussolini invaded Greece in October 1940, using Albania as a springboard. When the 27/28 March 1941 coup in Belgrade changed the government’s polarization from semi-German to semi-Allied, the writing was on the wall. By 30 March, it became known that Germany and Italy had started evacuating their citizens living on the Yugoslav coast.

Mobilization orders were passed, and the KMJ’s warships were ordered to keep full bunkers, magazines, and stores, as well as charge the air valves in their torpedoes and depth charges. To keep from being picked off at pier side, they were ordered dispersed, and the crews of the ships camouflaged themselves along the coast; the destroyer Dubrovnik in the Bay of Kotor, the destroyers Beograd and Zagreb near Dobrota.

Royal Yugoslav Navy destroyer Zagreb heavily camouflaged with foliage on April 15, 1941

On the eve of the expected Axis (German, Italian, and Hungarian) invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Zagreb and Beograd, along with four 250-ton class torpedo boats and six MTBs, were sent to the port of Sibenik, about 50 miles south of Zadar– an Italian enclave on the Dalmatian coast which had been occupied since the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920– in preparation for an attack on the Italians, to be joined by a reinforced Yugo army division from landward.

While the assault on Zadar kicked off three days into the war on 9 April, it faltered, and Beograd suffered damage from Italian aircraft off Sibenik, which knocked out her starboard engine. Sailing back to the Bay of Kotor for repairs, Beograd and the rest of the Zadar assault flotilla set up a triangular kill box for attacking Italian aircraft, firing on successive waves over the next few days while the KMJ high command dithered over what to do.

Eventually, it was decided to try to evacuate the ships that could still fight to join the Allies in Greece and North Africa, and on the evening of 16 April, the submarine Nebojsa set out for Alexandria, followed the next day by the torpedo boats Kajmakcalan and Durmitor— without orders. Word was flashed to the KMJ that the surrender would begin at 0500 on the 17th.

With many of Zagreb’s crew heading ashore during the looming collapse, two of Zagreb’s lieutenants, Milan Spasić and Sergej Mašera, scuttled the destroyer, sacrificing their lives in the process on the afternoon of 17 April.

Spasic and Masera were posthumously decorated by exiled Yugoslav King Peter II with the Order of the Karađorđe Star with Swords in 1942, then awarded the Order of the People’s Hero by Tito in 1973. Zagreb never sailed again.

With Beograd hamstrung by her damaged engines, her crew disembarked in lifeboats and landed ashore at Kotor. She was captured there by rapidly advancing Italian forces just after Zagreb settled.

The destroyers Dubrovnik (left) and Beograd (right) photographed in the port of Kotor in 1941 after being captured by the Italian army. Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-185-0116-22A

Beograd in Bay of Kotor April 1941

Yugoslav Navy Beograd in Bay of Kotor, April 1941, Dubrovnik in the background

Beograd in Bay of Kotor April 1941 b

Dubrovnik in Bay of Kotor April 1941. Note the tall German Sd.Kfz. 231 armored car in the background.

Other vessels lost during the short war included the river monitor Drava, bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe aircraft off Cib with the loss of 54 of her 67 crew on 12 April, while her fellow monitors Morava, Vardar, and Sava were scuttled by their crews on the same day. The coasters Senj and Triglav were scuttled to prevent capture at the Island of Krk. Meanwhile, the cargo ships Karadjordje and Prestolonasledik Petar were sunk by Italian mines off Sibenik.

Germany’s Balkanfeldzug sideshow had only cost the Axis about 4,500 casualties to conquer Yugoslavia in less than a fortnight, but is generally believed to have forced the delay of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, by some five precious weeks, which could have made a huge difference in the outcome of the frozen Battle of Moscow that winter, which was a hard-won victory for the Red Army.

Under a different king

Much of the KMJ was put back into enemy service under either Italian or puppet (Croatian) flags over the next couple of years.

Dubrovnik served as the Italian destroyer Premuda from 1941 to 1943.

The destroyer Premuda (ex-Dubrovnik ) in the port of Patras on August 5, 1942.

Ljubljana, sidelined during the war in the shipyard, was completed by her new owner, renamed Lubiana (the Italian translation of her name), and sent to escort convoys to North Africa. She ran aground on 1 April 1943 near Tunisia and was destroyed the next day by an Allied air attack.

Italian destroyer Lubiana, formerly the Beograd-class Yugoslav destroyer Ljubljana, at Pola in January 1943

Destroyer Ljubljana under the Italian flag

Beograd, repaired and up-armed with several Breda Model 35 20mm L/65 AAA guns, was commissioned into the Regia Marina as Sebenico in August 1941.

Italian Navy destroyer Premuda, former Yugoslavian Navy Dubrovnik, crossing into Taranto circa 1942

Sebenico ex Royal Yugoslav Navy Beograd, weighing anchor, autumn 1942. Note her camo scheme and SB identifier. 

Beograd/Sebenico’s career in Italian service was much more active than under the KMJ ensign. She was immediately put to work as a convoy escort on routes between Italy and the Aegean Sea and North Africa, completing over 100 runs over a period of two years.

This brought her under the scopes of at least 12 British submarines– HMS Proteus, Safari, Taku,  Thunderbolt, Torbay, Turbulent, Ultimatum, Unbeaten, Unique, Upholder, Utmost, and Ursula— but managed to escape their wrath.

Yugoslav destroyer Dubrovnik (Premuda) and Beograd (Sebenico) listed incorrectly as the former Ljubljanka, USN ONI 202 Flashbook on Italy 1943

Under the Reichskriegsflagge

After the capitulation of Italy in September 1943, several ex-Yugoslav and ex-Italian units were taken over by the Kriegsmarine and designated Torpedoboot Ausland (foreign torpedo-boat). These included TA32 (ex-Premuda, ex-Dubrovnik), TA43 (ex-Sebenico, ex-Beograd), and the TA48 (ex-Italian and Yugoslav T3, ex-Austrian 78 T), which were amalgamated into the hodge-podge 9. Torpedobootsflottille, tasked with escort and minelaying in the still Axis-held northern Adriatic.

In German service, TA43/Sebenico/Beograd landed her torpedo tubes and saw her armament augmented by seven 37mm flak guns in one twin and five single mounts, as well as two single 20mm guns.

Surviving air attacks and both Italian and Yugoslav partisans, TA43 was scuttled by her German crew in Trieste on 1 May 1945, just a week before VE-Day. She narrowly survived Dubrovnik, which had been lightly damaged by British destroyers in March 1945 during the Battle of the Ligurian Sea and was scuttled in Genoa on 25 April.

Varying accounts have Beograd raised and scrapped postwar, generally in the 1947-48 time frame, as Trieste was under UN mandate as a Free Territory before it was split between Italy and Yugoslavia.

Salvage of the destroyer TA32 (ex-Dubrovnik) in Genoa in 1950.

Epilogue

Little remains of our destroyer that I can locate.

As for the treasure that Beograd rushed to London for safekeeping, following the war, the Bank of England restituted 334,654.186 ounces of gold and coins to the National Bank of Yugoslavia between 1948 and 1958.

Models of Zagreb, who had the most heroic ending of her class, dot museums in Zagreb, Belgrade, and Kotor, her story and that of her two defiant lieutenants retold throughout the past 85 years.

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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