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Home of Naval History and News

Welcome to the home page of the Navy General Board website! This is your portal to all things navy, whether it be current events or historical topics. You can find a wide range of news stories or historical articles on the website. You can also connect with fellow readers on the website forum.

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History Articles

Navy General Board was created to help share all aspects of naval history from throughout the ages. Here you will find our collection of history articles. It has come a long way and has something for everyone. Take your time and browse them all!

Bayern Class vs. Queen Elizabeth Class Dreadnoughts

SMS BAYERN OR HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH? In 1898 the Naval Arms race that was to conclude sixteen years later in the Great War, was begun. The culmination of that titanic struggle was to see the creation of the 'Super-Dreadnought'. The British creation was the five vessels...

The United States Navy, Albert Michelson, and the ‘aether’

One day in January 1879 a 25-year old physics instructor at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis began experiments with a curious apparatus set up along the north sea-wall of the academy grounds. This consisted of a rapidly spinning mirror, set up some 2000...

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

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

The many names of the Washington Treaty of 1922

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

Were the ‘Admirals’ Britain’s first class of battleships?

In an earlier article we explored the story of HMS Collingwood, a British battleship that the Royal Navy’s Director of Naval Construction, Nathaniel Barbaby, sketched in 1880 and which was detailed by his assistant, William White.[1] Collingwood was soon followed by...

The Q-ship hero – William Sanders, VC

The story of William Sanders (1883-1917) remains one of the most intriguing personal sea experiences of the First World War. His career, though brief, can best be described as outstanding: in quick succession he won first the Victoria Cross and then the Distinguished...

Myths about the Montana Class Super Battleships

A stretched Iowa with an extra turret. A ship designed to kill the Yamato class. Many myths surround the Montana class, the immensely powerful super battleships of the United States Navy. Designed to be larger and more powerful than any previous dreadnought, these...

The pursuit of the Goeben and the battle of the River Plate

The Battle of the River Plate is one of the best known encounters of the Second World War. It was the first major sea battle of that conflict, and it came on 13 December 1939, a time when the so-called ‘phony war’ was in full swing – the brief period when the Second...

A Cold War Warrior: A Walkthrough of a Foxtrot Class Submarine

By Blair Shaw Looking quite out of place in a tiny marina in the town of Zeebrugge Belgium is the former Russian project 641 NATO code name Foxtrot class submarine B-821. B-821 and her seventy-four other sisters would become one of the most produced post World War 2...

The Long March – Chinas First Nuclear Submarine

If you thought the Soviets were playing catch up the Chinese were also behind, learn about the type 091 submarine and its Long March to commission

Was ‘cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey’ a naval phrase?

The unprecedented cold that swept parts of the United States in early 2019 could be called 'brass monkey weather', though with the temperatures reported, that might be an understatement. According to legend, the term - in full, 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a...

The Tarawa coast-watch massacre of 1942

During 1941 a small group of New Zealand coast-watchers, mainly civilian volunteers from the Post and Telegraph Department, were stationed in the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati). They formed part of a forward line of listening posts intended to intercept Japanese radio...

Bringing back battleships? A discussion

The recent announcement from the United States that it would resume building battleships – not the classic big-gun variety of the twentieth century, but a modern concept with advanced technology[1] – came as a surprise at a time when the largest surface combatants...

Project 611 Zulu Class Submarines

With the conclusion of the Great patriotic war (World War Two), the allies set about rounding up all the advanced technologies the Germans had developed.   What the allies acquired in terms of Naval technology was leaps and bounds ahead of anything the allies had...

The Battle of the River Plate and USS Salem

Today's article will go a little off track compared to our typical articles. That's because we are looking at the American Des Moines class heavy cruiser USS Salem (CA-139) and her portrayal of the German raider Admiral Graf Spee in the classic 1956 film The Battle of...

News and Current Events

A relatively new addition to the Navy General Board website. While we remain focused on sharing history, we also want to examine naval current events that are occuring across the world. This section is still new, but more articles are coming. 

China’s Newest Warship : The Type 55 Destroyer

At a time when the United States Navy is struggling to determine the future of its Navy, China has been quietly building up its naval forces. The People’s Liberation Army Navy has risen to be the second largest navy in the world by tonnage. It’s not just quantity that...

Canada’s Next Generation Submarine

My own opinion and hypothesis on what class of submarine could become Canada’s next generation submarine

Why China’s Island Bases are Not a Big Deal

Over the past few years, the media has made a big deal of the artificial island bases that China has built in the South China Sea. Several of these islands are well fortified, featuring harbors, airstrips, and formidable land-based weaponry. Some in the media have...

The Navy’s FFG(X) Program : Foreign and Domestic Options

The Navy has all but admitted that the Littoral Combat Ships are a flop. Therefore, they have started looking at potential ships to fulfill requirements for a new frigate design known as the FFG(X) Program. Make makes things interesting is that this time the US Navy...

Want to go a little bit further than simply reading an aritcle? Interesting in writing your own and sharing it with Navy General Board? Check out our about us page for information on becoming a guest writer for the Navy General Board website! We are looking for both historical pieces and current events happening with navies across the World. 

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