Naval Encyclopedia of World War 2

A more recent update is available at a new location
This on-line encyclopedia could be a starting point as well as an end point for everyone curious about the naval history of World War II.
It is a starting point because we tried to reflect in our pages how rich the internet is on the matter, by including many links to the most interesting and relevant web sites. You can start your research here, and continue it on the whole web.
It is also a point of arrival: which other web site gives a more exhaustive view of 150 naval battles, 5000 war- or merchant ships and 500 classes of ships ? Where else could you find an overview of all warships that served with a nation during the war, or the losses and additions to the navy of that nation during the same period, or the balance of forces at given times of the war ?
You will also discover a broad range of articles, covering generalities like an introduction to the different kinds of warships used during the conflict, as well as particulars like the Thai point of view about the battle of Koh Chang.
Maps too are included as a useful complement to the battles and articles.
Last but not least, you can check that you did not waste your time visiting our pages: test your knowledge before and afterwards.

Available since January 6, 2004 Overviews

Cleveland: overviews	Pennants of US Cruisers: overviews
Pennants of the US escort destroyers: overviews	US fast transport: overviews
Pennants of the US destroyers: overviews

Table of Contents

Map of maps	Battles: Table of Contents
Historical diagrams	Hyperlinks
Ship Classes: Table of Contents

Articles

Armor plates during World War II	Mediterranean Sea
Introduction to World War 2 ship types	The War in the Pacific
Tactics and Technique	Editorial
What's an LSV ?	The heavy cruisers of the German Kriegsmarine
Tales from the Battle off Koh Chang	Atlantic and Arctic

Quiz

Quizz for Connoisseurs	Quiz about technical aspects
Quizz for Specialists	Quizz for Beginners

Index

Hierarchical Index	Alphabetical Index of the Classes
Alphabetic Index of Ships	Index of Classes by Countries
Index of Ships by countries

E-mailA few remarks about your e-mails. First, don't hesitate to send them. We love them, that's the only way we can ascertain what pleases you and what doesn't. We do our best to answer within the 24 hours (48 at most). Sometimes a technical problem with the mail box of our correspondant prevents our answer to reach him. We feel truly miserable, when we read a inquiry from him asking, why we didn't answer his first message (there were two instances of that recently).
Be careful about the size of your mails. Our phone line is limited. Don't send pictures without warning us in advance and always compress the files. We destroy before reading any mail above one megabyte and many above 500 K. In a net full of spam, we have no choice. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Renewal on December 31, 2003We are only in November, but the update has already started. It will proceed little by little. We hope to be ready by December 31, 2003, the date announced above. The contents could still change, but here are the main features:

• We change the way the quizzes are corrected. Up to now, you sent an e-mail with your answers and we sent back the correction as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Microsoft came in a spoiled all that. Internet Explorer 6.0 does not support the forms in HTML anymore. We changed the system by using Javascript and the cookies. The plus is that now, you have the correction of your answers immediately. We also add a new test (which will use the older correction system for a few months).
  
• Everyone knows at least something about guns, but what about armor plates ? We try to bridge that gap with an exhaustive article on the subject. Beware: the story began 400 million years ago, at a time when dinosaurs had not yet appeared !
  
• Among the battles we publish:
  
  • the Excess convoy to Malta, which saw in 1941 the first intervention of the German Luftwaffe over the Mediterranean Sea.
    
  • another convoy to Malta, probably the most important of all, Pedestal, in August of 1942.
    
  • The US landing in Casablanca, their part of the Torch operation in November of 1942.
    
  • The Battle of the Atlantic is little known, although it was probably there that the allies came the closest to losing the war. We give a few samples of the convoy battles fought there between the German U-boats and the allied escorts:
    
    • In 1940, it was the golden age for the German submarines: they slaughtered the HX 90 off the western coast of Britain, with the additional help of long-range bombers.
      
    • In 1941, the SC 26 got an insufficient escort (it was often the case then) and shared the plight of the HX 90: heavy losses off the western coast of Britain.
      
    • In 1942, the U-boats had extended their hunting grounds: the OS 33 was attacked in the Central Atlantic. Further north, the ON 67 suffered heavily despite the presence of a US escort.
      
    • In 1943, the period of victories is over for the Germans. The HX 233 went through with minimal losses despite the efforts of a group of U-boats. Now, the escorts have many ships, with experienced complements and got substantial reinforcements to cross the dangerous areas
  • In the Pacific area, we publishes two landings organized by general MacArthur in late 1943 to take hold on New Britain, the island of the frightfull Japanese base of Rabaul: first Arawe, the diversion and Cape Gloucester, the real thing.
• We continue the review of the ship classes, with the complete series of the US, British and French battleships. Same for the US, British and French cruisers.
  
• You will notice the presence of overviews, giving an exhaustive list of ships, which are not usually put together. The "Cleveland" was the largest class of cruisers ever built. But besides the cruisers, there were carriers too built on the same hull. Our overviews lists both types together. The same applies for the other overviews: it is exhaustive and unusual.
  We received several requests for banners to make links to our web sites. You have below the complete series (up to now):
  
  
  
  
  Don't hesitate to use them to link to our sites. Every link is welcome. We would like to thank Jean Secardin, who designed those banners as well as the background of all the pages of our web sites.
  Next update in the course of 2004
  Written by Dominique Lemaire and corrected by David Healy

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  Made by LemaireSoft © January 6, 2004