Warships that survived World War Two and should have been museums!

[nortex]

Enterprise-no explanation necessary. Sadly even Nimitz and Truman couldn't save her.

Saratoga-a distant second among American carriers

Washington-the victor of one of history's last battleship engagements, and from a coastal state too! Docking her in Seattle, Bremerton, wherever should have been a no brainer. Sorry South Dakota, can't tow you up the Missouri River. Washington vs. Kirishima is much more interesting than anything that happened to preserved battleships like Massachusetts, North Carolina or Alabama.

Any one of the Pearl Harbor survivors. California and Maryland would make a lot of sense. I guess the navy didn't want anyone remembering Pearl Harbor!

San Francisco-a heavy cruiser goes toe to toe with a battleship and survives. Museum ship!

Any light cruiser, since we have no WW2 configuration American cruiser on display today. USS Little Rock in Buffalo is as close as it gets. Ideally an Atlanta class vessel.

HMS Warspite-this ship was badass to the core. Jutland, the fjords of Norway, Normandy. She saw it all. Send the Brits a little extra Marshall Plan money a little early and save her!

SMS Goeben-she was not scrapped until 1971. How was she not saved! Cheap West German government trying to forget its past.

There must be many more who else you all got?

 

[CV(N)-6]

Enterprise-my account's namesake and my favorite ship of all time. Her not being preserved is a crime IMO.
Warspite-The money wasn't really there, but it's still a shame.
Sheffield-There are other choices, but she's probably my favorite WW2 cruiser and was all over. I get Belfast was in better condition when there was a choice between preserving one of the two, but Sheffield far and away contributed the most in the War.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

Either HMS Argus or Furious, the only WWI/experimental era aircraft carriers to survive WWII that actually did any fighting.

 

[MatthewDB]

HMS Implacable. Captured at Trafalgar and surviving the Second World War, only to be scuttled postwar in 1949. She should have been on display alongside HMS Victory.

 

[Colin Haggett]

HMAS Australia - County Class Heavy Cruiser. Absorbed four kamikaze strikes plus one partial strike 6th - 7th January 1945 and only withdrew after the fifth.

 

[Colin Haggett]

Enterprise-my account's namesake and my favorite ship of all time. Her not being preserved is a crime IMO.
Warspite-The money wasn't really there, but it's still a shame.
Sheffield-There are other choices, but she's probably my favorite WW2 cruiser and was all over. I get Belfast was in better condition when the choice between preserving one of the two, but Sheffield far and away contributed the most in the War.

HMS Warspite as well as WW1 & WW2, she broke away from her tugs on the way to the breakers yard. She was not going to go quietly or easily.

 

[NHBL]

USS Holland or Plongeur--earlier than the time specified, but Plongeur lasted until 1935.

 

[general]

HMAS Australia - County Class Heavy Cruiser. Absorbed four kamikaze strikes plus one partial strike 6th - 7th January 1945 and only withdrew after the fifth.

Totally agree. But we have a shit record on preserving our industrial heritage. Thank God, C.E.W. Bean was such a jackdaw. for the Australian Army and the blue jobs, Aus is pretty well set up - RAN, not so much.

 

[isayyo2]

Dreadnought, or any Jutland survivors?

 

[McPherson]

USS Oregon... used during WWII to retake Guam and then sold to the Japanese to be scrapped. Idiots. If ever a moral boost was needed...

 

[UCB79]

Enterprise-my account's namesake and my favorite ship of all time. Her not being preserved is a crime IMO.
Warspite-The money wasn't really there, but it's still a shame.
Sheffield-There are other choices, but she's probably my favorite WW2 cruiser and was all over. I get Belfast was in better condition when there was a choice between preserving one of the two, but Sheffield far and away contributed the most in the War.

I have long felt exactly the same way CV- this was quite simply one of the US Navy’s greatest fighting
ships ever, how could the richest country in the world NOT preserve it?

While we’re on the subject of WWII aircraft carriers, the SARATOGA should also have been preserved-
she was also the US’ what, second or third aircraft carrier ever built & did see distinguished service
in WWII. She deserved much better than her fate- to be sunk as so much scrap metal in an A-Bomb
test. (Yes, I most certainly agree with the OP).

 

[HarryLeferts]

USS Oregon... used during WWII to retake Guam and then sold to the Japanese to be scrapped. Idiots. If ever a moral boost was needed...

That can mostly be laid down at the feet of the store owners along the boardwalk. Apparently they thought that she affected their profits negatively (as well as their views) and so wanted her gone.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

The monitor HMS Roberts survived until 1965 as a drill and accommodation ship. At that point with all the Battleships gone it would have made sense to preserve her to show what a Battleship turret was like.

 

[tigercat]

HMS Sheffield

She was widely considered as a historic and great British warship, justifying preservation and a cruiser which maintained far more the character and fit of a WW2 cruiser compared with the more modified Belfast. However, by 1966 examination showed Sheffield had deteriorated too much in unmaintained reserve in Fareham Creek and could not be preserved.

Her equipment was removed at Rosyth in 1967 and she was then broken up at Faslane in the same year. The stainless steel ship's bell, which was made by Hadfield's of Sheffield, was preserved and today hangs in Sheffield Cathedral along with her battle ensign.

 

[Captain Seafort]

Norfolk - chased the Bismarck all the way from the Denmark Strait to the final action, and was critical at North Cape.

Vanguard - the last and best battleship ever built.

Warspite is obvious - the finest service record of any ship of the 20th century.

Enterprise should also have been kept, albeit that's more with the hindsight that it would be good to have the Enterprise that served under Admiral Kirk around to visit.

 

[Count of Crisco]

In a TL I am writing the Washington treaty allows all signatories to preserve a few post 1900 battleships for posterity. The US chooses USS Oregon, Japan picks Musashi, and UK chooses HMS Dreadnought. All ships were required to be preserved like Musashi, encased in concrete and demilitarized. Dreadnought was only preserved last minute because of public outcry in the UK. That means that Oregon is never scrapped, and Dreadnought is preserved in Portsmouth barring any bomb damage during the blitz. ITTL France and Italy both preserve vessels, but the war sees them destroyed. I also have the UK retain a Majestic class as a museum ship by virtue of her just kinda being ignored for a decade or so. Not sure how practical that would be, but hey! I like ships.

On another note France should have definitely preserved either Richelieu or Jean Bart IMO as museum ships, while also the Italians should have kept around one of their battleships as a museum piece. Yavuz also should have been preserved either by the Turkish government or west Germany. A south American dreadnought would have also been hysterical. Just because with SA politics I could see one state like Chile deciding to keep a battleship for use as a museum, only for the other two nations with battleships to decide to do the same.

Non warships
RMS Olympic, a tall order but maybe she is saved as a museum in a TL where she serves in WWII
HMS Beagle, whatever your thoughts on Darwin the ship did quite a bit and was an interesting design
And others but I cant think straight right now.

Also IMTL the Tirpitz suffers much lighter damage during the war and is beached. Sweden enters the war in mid 45 and captures the ship. Later handing her to Norway after the ship is refloated. Norway thus becoming a late entrant into the BB club and keeping the ship around as a source of pride. Not at all realistic but sometimes history isnt. And can you imagine the revenue they could get from tourists coming to see the ship?

 

[SealTheRealDeal]

HMCS Assiniboine would be my pick. For one, it's a shame none of the River "Class" ships were preserved. It also had a pretty exciting and successful career.

Italian battleship Caio Duilio would have been another good one, as a survivor of Taranto and former flagship of the RM.

 

[HMS St.Lawrence]

My top two choices are - of course- Warspite and Entreprise, everybody seems to be in agreement here. Two ships of legend that definitely had no place in a scrapyard!

I'm also going to throw in the (very) much lesser-known HMCS Saguenay, the only survivor of original two River-class destroyers ordered by Canada in the early 1930s. They were the first warships purposely built for the Royal Canadian Navy and as such I think deserved to be preserved. While she did not covered herself in glory as much as Haida, Saguenay had an eventful career: she was first commanded by Percy Nelles (future head of the RCN in WW2) then by Leonard Murray (later C-in-C Northwest Atlantic), she was torpedoed, survived the explosion of her depth charges then the lost of her stern. With the money and the political will, she would have made a prime piece of collection at the Maritime Museum in Halifax.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

I think one of the China river gunboats should have been preserved as part of a museum of colonial history.

 

[Hugh Third of Five]

Enterprise.

As for other ships that I wish had been museums. Well, the USS Indianapolis didn't survive the war. I'm sure most of us are familiar with the tragedy of her sinking. She had good battle record from the Aleutians to Leyte and she transported the components of Little Boy to Tinian.