Select Page

Navy General Board

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.

We are working on creating the world’s greatest military website and eventually the world’s greatest military museum. We welcome you to join us on this incredible journey!

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!

German Aircraft Carrier Of World War 1

by | August 6, 2022 | History Article | 0 Comments

By 1919 the Great War had dragged on for five long blood-soaked years. Even with the USA havingjoined the Allies in 1917, victory had been elusive for any of the combatants. For the two years that hadfollowed that declaration, a flood of war materials had poured from...
Read More

The slow death of the Lion class – Britain’s never-built battleships

by | November 10, 2018 | History Article | 0 Comments

As war clouds loomed over Europe in the late 1930s, Britain’s last generation of battleships were well in hand. By 1938 the five King George V class were under construction and the first two examples of their successors, the Lions, were due to be laid down in 1939.[1]...
Read More

The Tarawa coast-watch massacre of 1942

by | August 14, 2019 | History Article | 1 Comment

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...
Read More

The Armoured Conning Tower on Battleships

by | May 1, 2019 | History Article | 0 Comments

Even the mightiest warship, with its intimidating guns and thick armor, would be severely handicapped without a conning tower. The conning tower served as the control center for a warship, allowing officers to observe everything around the ship and direct it. What Is...
Read More

Designing Britain’s oddest looking battleships

by | October 16, 2019 | History Article | 0 Comments

In the mid-1880s the British began building two new battleships as part of the so-called ‘Northbrook’ programme, a massive burst of naval expenditure to which government reluctantly agreed in early December 1884. What then emerged from the drawing boards of the...
Read More

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

by | February 5, 2019 | History Article | 0 Comments

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...
Read More

Why were so many warships never built?

by | July 25, 2018 | History Article | 0 Comments

Why were so many warships never built ? Naval history is littered with warships that were planned or designed but never built, especially in the past century or so. There were many reasons why proposed ships never saw the light of day. Some designs were abandoned at...
Read More

The story behind the battlecruiser HMAS Australia

by | January 15, 2024 | History Article | 1 Comment

In March 1909 there was a good deal of around Australia’s major cities about responding to the latest Imperial naval crisis by giving Britain a battleship. At a time when social militarism was a major feature of society the call resonated. It also came on the eve of a...
Read More

Battleship Evolution : From the first Dreadnought to the Last

by | July 29, 2019 | History Article | 0 Comments

This series on battleships originally began on the Navy General Board Facebook page. It got to be so popular that we combined all of the posts into one article on battleship evolution. In this article we will see how each Navy's first dreadnought differed compared to...
Read More

Prelude to Battle : HMAS Sydney vs SMS Emden

by | May 23, 2019 | History Article | 0 Comments

Andy South has just completed volume II on his series detailing the career of the cruiser HMAS Sydney. He was kind enough to share an excerpt from his book. In this section, he examines the battle between HMAS Sydney and SMS Emden. If you would like to read the...
Read More

The origins of the American battlecruiser – part 3: Jutland lessons

by | March 6, 2020 | History Article | 0 Comments

America’s only battlecruisers,[1] the Lexington class, emerged from ideas flowing through the Naval War College, General Board and other US Navy circles before and during the First World War.[2] As we saw in the previous article, this thinking finally came together...
Read More

The story behind ‘The battlecruiser HMS New Zealand: a gift to The Empire’

by | October 17, 2021 | History Article | 0 Comments

The story of HMS New Zealand, the battlecruiser that the Dominion of New Zealand gave as a gift to the Empire of Britain in 1909, has been told many times. Often incorrectly. Indeed, the ship is surrounded with mythology. A variety of stories about her origin and...
Read More

The Malta class: the carriers that never were

by | February 17, 2019 | History Article | 0 Comments

During the 1930s, as the world’s major navies began rearming, it was clear that aircraft carriers were going to play a significant role in any future combat. Just how significant was not wholly anticipated at the time – but there was no question that carriers were...
Read More

Eggshells and hammers: Fisher’s last battlecruisers

by | April 5, 2025 | History Article | 0 Comments

In 1919 an embittered Admiral Sir John Fisher published a trenchant criticism of the British Admiralty’s latest heavy warship. He did not name her, but he didn’t have to: there was only one. To Fisher, HMS Hood had too much weight devoted to armour. ‘And so bang went...
Read More

Stories from the Navy with Fred Dufault

by | September 21, 2019 | History Article | 0 Comments

In our first ever interview for our stories from the navy series, we sit down with Fred Dufault. Retiring a Master Chief in 1975 with a navy career spanning 21 years behind him, Fred has seen a great many things. He has been kind enough to chat with me and share some...
Read More

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. 

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

by | July 16, 2018 | News | 0 Comments

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...
Read More

Canada’s Next Generation Submarine

by | July 19, 2021 | History Article, News | 29 Comments

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

Read More

China’s Newest Warship : The Type 55 Destroyer

by | July 16, 2018 | News | 0 Comments

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...
Read More

Why China’s Island Bases are Not a Big Deal

by | July 16, 2018 | News | 0 Comments

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...
Read More

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. 

Like Us On Facebook

Loading...
Donate!
Connect!
Shares
Share This