1.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
2.
Royal Navy
–
The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
3.
Navy
–
A navy or maritime force is a fleet of waterborne military vessels and its associated naval aviation, both sea-based and land-based. It is the branch of an armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare, namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations. The strategic offensive role of a navy is projection of force into areas beyond a countrys shores, the strategic defensive purpose of a navy is to frustrate seaborne projection-of-force by enemies. The strategic task of the navy also may incorporate nuclear deterrence by use of submarine-launched ballistic missiles. In most nations, the naval, as opposed to navy, is interpreted as encompassing all maritime military forces, e. g. navy, marine / marine corps. First attested in English in the early 14th century, the navy came via Old French navie, fleet of ships, from the Latin navigium, a vessel. The word naval came from Latin navalis, pertaining to ship, cf. Greek ναῦς, ship, ναύτης, seaman, the earliest attested form of the word is in the Mycenaean Greek compound word
4.
Motor Torpedo Boat
–
Motor Torpedo Boat was the name given to fast torpedo boats by the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy. The motor in the designation, referring to the use of petrol engines, was to distinguish them from the majority of other naval craft that used steam turbines or reciprocating steam engines. The capitalised term is used for the Royal Navy boats. During the Second World War, the US Navy boats were called by their hull classification symbol of PT. German motor torpedo boats of the Second World War were called S-boote by the Kriegsmarine, Italian MTBs of this period were known as Motoscafo Armato Silurante. French MTBs were known as vedettes lance torpilles, soviet MTBs were known as торпедные катеры. After the end of the War in 1945, a number of the Royal Navys MTBs were stripped and the empty hulls sold for use as houseboats. MTBs were designed for speed, operating at night, low speed ambush and manoeuvrability on the water. With no significant armour, the boats relied upon surprise and their agility at high speed to avoid being hit by gunfire from bigger ships, the British and Italian navies started developing such vessels in the early 20th century, shortly before the beginning of the First World War. Italian MAS boats were small, at 20-30 tons displacement. MAS15 was the motor torpedo boat in history to sink a battleship. British torpedo boats of the First World War were small at only around 15 tons and were known as Coastal Motor Boats, in the Second World War, British MTBs were operated by Coastal Forces. A similar size boat with a different role in the Second World War was the BPB63 ft High Speed Launch used by the RAF, the last MTBs in the Royal Navy were the two Brave-class fast patrol boats of 1958 which were capable of 50 knots. Many boats were built with a MTB designation but varied substantially, a 55 footer capable of 40 knots was shown in 1930. The Vosper private boat was designed by Commander Peter Du Cane CBE and she was completed and launched in 1937. She was bought by the Admiralty and taken into service with the Royal Navy as MTB102. Length,68 ft Beam,19 ft 9 in Draft,3 ft 9 in, armament, Two 21 in torpedo tubes MTB102 was the fastest wartime British naval vessel in service. She was at Dunkirk for the evacuation and carried Winston Churchill and they were based on the British Power Boat rescue craft and were originally designed for the Royal Air Force but reduced to 60 ft in length
5.
World War I
–
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
6.
World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
7.
Minesweeper
–
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to engage in minesweeping. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, although naval warfare has a long history, the earliest known usage of the naval mine dates to the Ming dynasty. Dedicated minesweepers, however, only appear in the record several centuries later, to the Crimean War. In the Crimean War, minesweepers consisted of British rowboats trailing grapnels to snag the mines, despite the use of mines in the American Civil War, there are no records of effective minesweeping being used. Officials in the Union Army attempted to create the first minesweeper but were plagued by flawed designs, minesweeping technology picked up in the Russo-Japanese War, using aging torpedo boats as minesweepers. In Britain, naval leaders recognized before the outbreak of World War I that the development of sea mines was a threat to the nations shipping, sir Arthur Wilson noted the real threat of the time was blockade aided by mines and not invasion. A Trawler Section of the Royal Navy Reserve became the predecessor of the mine sweeping forces with specially designed ships and these reserve Trawler Section fishermen and their trawlers were activated, supplied with mine gear, rifles, uniforms and pay as the first minesweepers. The dedicated, purpose-built minesweeper first appeared during World War I with the Flower-class minesweeping sloop, by the end of the War, naval mine technology had grown beyond the ability of minesweepers to detect and remove. Minesweeping made significant advancements during World War II, combatant nations quickly adapted ships to the task of minesweeping, including Australias 35 civilian ships that became Auxiliary Minesweepers. Both Allied and Axis countries made heavy use of minesweepers throughout the war, historian Gordon Williamson wrote that Germanys minesweepers alone formed a massive proportion of its total strength, and are very much the unsung heroes of the Kriegsmarine. Naval mines remained a threat even after the war ended, after the Second World War, allied countries worked on new classes of minesweepers ranging from 120-ton designs for clearing estuaries to 735-ton oceangoing vessels. The United States Navy even used specialized Mechanized Landing Craft to sweep shallow harbors in, as of June 2012, the U. S. Navy had four minesweepers deployed to the Persian Gulf to address regional instabilities. Minesweepers are equipped with mechanical or electrical devices, known as sweeps, mechanical sweeps are devices designed to cut the anchoring cables of moored mines, and preferably attach a tag to help the subsequent localization and neutralization. They are towed behind the minesweeper, and use a body to maintain the sweep at the desired depth. Influence sweeps are equipment, often towed, that emulate a particular ship signature, the most common such sweeps are magnetic and acoustic generators. There are two modes of operating an influence sweep, MSM and TSM, MSM sweeping is founded on intelligence on a given type of mine, and produces the output required for detonation of this mine. If such intelligence is unavailable, the TSM sweeping instead reproduces the influence of the ship that is about to transit through the area. TSM sweeping thus clears mines directed at this ship without knowledge of the mines, however, mines directed at other ships might remain
8.
Steam Gun Boat
–
Steam gun boat was a Royal Navy term for a class of small naval vessels used during the Second World War. The class consisted of nine gun boats, powered by steam, while sixty were planned only an initial batch of nine were ordered on 8 November 1940, of which seven were completed. The Admiralty wanted Denny to produce a design that was suitable for construction to enable large numbers to be built. They were the largest of the Coastal Forces vessels, and were the ones to be built of steel. They resembled a miniature destroyer, and were perhaps the most graceful of all the craft produced during the Second World War, however their comparatively large silhouette was a drawback, making them too easy a target for the faster German craft. They were 145 ft 8 in long and had a displacement of 172 tons and they were powered by two 4,000 hp steam turbines using special flash boilers. These boilers proved to be vulnerable to attack and - once the vessel had broken down - required a major effort to repair. Steam had the advantage of quietness but demanded a large hull, large wooden hulls were not feasible for mass production so steel was used. The seven vessels actually completed were built by Yarrow, Hawthorn Leslie, J. Samuel White and William Denny and Brothers, entering service by the middle of 1942. Fuel consumption was heavy with the disadvantage that, while a petrol boat could start from cold and get away immediately. Veritable battleships of the forces, the steam gun boats were heavily armed. In action E-boat commanders respected the SGBs almost as much as destroyers, a lack of steel and turbines meant that the 52 boats initially planned was reduced to an order of nine boats which received the designations SGB1 to 9. Numbers 1 and 2 were cancelled when their hulls were badly damaged by an air raid on the Southampton area, SGB7 was sunk in this action, as a consequence the Admiralty noted their vulnerability and refitted them with the additional armour over their engine and boiler rooms. At the same time the six survivors were renamed after wildlife in the form SGB Grey, Grey Owl was damaged in a fight with German armed trawlers off Berneval while escorting landing craft in the Dieppe Raid August 1942. The nine vessels laid down, listed below, were all ordered on 8 November 1940 and these boats formed the 1st SGB Flotilla which was initially formed at Portsmouth, but later based at HMS Aggressive, Newhaven, Sussex on the south coast of England. SGB5 was damaged in the Dieppe raid after meeting a German convoy of R boats, in 1944 the six survivors were all converted to fast minesweepers and all were sold off in the years after the war. The highly advanced turbines featured intercooled compressors and recuperators to boost turbine power output, over the original steam machinery, the gas turbine powerplant provided 35% more power while weighing 50% less and using 25% less space. With the experimental engines removed SGB9 was sold off in 1958, sold in 1984, the hulk was converted to a houseboat and renamed Anserava
9.
Fairmile D motor torpedo boat
–
The Fairmile D motor torpedo boat was a type of British Motor Torpedo Boat designed by Bill Holt and conceived by Fairmile Marine for the Royal Navy. Nicknamed Dog Boats, they were designed to combat the known advantages of the German E-boats over previous British coastal craft designs and they were bigger than earlier MTB or Motor Gun Boat designs but slower, at 30 knots compared to 40 knots. Unlike the Fairmile B designs, the Dog Boats were only produced in component form in Britain, some were built for the RAFs Marine Branch for use in the long range air-sea rescue for downed airmen. 229 boats were built between 1942 and 1945, many versions were produced or converted from existing boats, MGB, MTB, MA/SB, LRRC and post-war FPB. Since the Fairmile D could be fitted out with a mix of armament that gave it the capabilities of both a Motor Gun Boat and a Motor Torpedo boat, the MGB designation was dropped, today the D-type is a popular choice among boat modelers. There are no survivors, other than two abandoned wrecks, one in Chatham, England and the other in Ellingsøy, Norway. Fairmile A motor launch Fairmile B motor launch Fairmile C motor gun boat Fairmile H landing craft Steam Gun Boat Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy Lambert,1985 ISBN 978-1-84486-006-7 Lambert, John and Ross, Al. Allied Coastal Forces of World War Two, Volume I, Fairmile designs, ISBN 978-1-84176-500-6 Chesneau, Roger. Conways all the Worlds Fighting Ships 1922-1946. London, UK, Comway Maritime Press,1980, Dog Boats at War, Royal Navy D Class MTBs and MGBs, 1939-1945. Motor Gunboat 658, The Small Boat War in the Mediterranean 1955/2002. com
United Kingdom
Royal Navy
