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

What a cool houseboat that would have been .

I'd seen that before about Prince Eugene , I'm assuming the technicality was USS Prinz Eugene . He must be unique in that respect.
 
Imagine that instead of nuking all ships they took USN told movie studios that the studios could rent the ships and use for movies as long as they were operational. Imagine Tora Tora Tora with Pennsylvania playing herself. And then Cheer comes asking for a ship to star in the video If I can turn back time and the USN open a catalogue "These are the oldest one we got, do you want Enterprise, a battleship or a submarine"
 
What a cool houseboat that would have been .

I'd seen that before about Prince Eugene , I'm assuming the technicality was USS Prinz Eugene . He must be unique in that respect.
Yup - that's the technicality!

tigercat, Coulsdon Eagle,

Not to drag us off-topic, but you might find this article on Prinz Eugen post-war of interest:


Regards,
 

Coulsdon Eagle

Monthly Donor
tigercat, Coulsdon Eagle,

Not to drag us off-topic, but you might find this article on Prinz Eugen post-war of interest:


Regards,
Thank you. That was a fascinating article with plenty of information new to me. The picture of the removed 8" gun being removed emphasized how large marine cannon are.
 
Was there some way, some how the superb British battleship KING GEORGE V(which of course helped
sink the BISMARCK)could have been saved? Or were(are)the British just too starved for money to do such a thing?
 
Was there some way, some how the superb British battleship KING GEORGE V(which of course helped
sink the BISMARCK)could have been saved? Or were(are)the British just too starved for money to do such a thing?

IIRC, when the RN ships passed into reserve postwar, there was no preservation like USN mothballing (overhaul, dehumidifiers, electric current passed through the hull to prevent rust), so by the time anyone thought of doing anything with them, they had substantially deteriorated and were sent to the breakers.

Regards,
 
After reading the responses I have to second adding a KG5 class battleship to the museum list. Since my first choice of British warships (Warspite) is so worn out and would have been difficult to preserve, I'd have my backups as:

1) King George V (for chase of the Bismarck, obviously)
2) Duke of York (Sharnhorst at North Cape)
Anson and Howe didn't doing anything significant enough to my knowledge for preservation.

I am surprised USS England was not preserved. Admiral King said there would always be a USS England in the navy. Sadly today his promise is unfulfilled after two ships served their time.
 
For obvious reasons this list some typical WW2 erea "grand" ships deserving to have been preserved:

- HMS Warspite. (No comment needed)
- HMS Illustrious (First ever Armored Flightdeck Aircraft Carrier and a ship that fought in almost every important part of the world in the conflict, taking her fair share of damage and still surviving every time.)
- HMS Ajax (a typical interwar build light cruiser with a good service record, including the hunt for the Graf Spee.)
- Richelieu, or Jean Bart (Latest French Battleship design and still in good shape in then post war period.)
- Triomphant (French Contre-Torpilleur of the Fantasque Class.)
- Prinz Eugen (Please give her a better status then becomming a testship for a nuclear test.)
- Nagato (same as Prinz Eugen. Japan's last battleship of the War, excluding the already museumship Mikasa)
- Yukikaze (Kagero class destroyer and only surviving member of this typical class in WW2)
- USS Enterprise CV-6 (Already mentioned)
- USS Augusta CA-31 (interwar build typical "treaty" cruiser design and former Flagship of Atlantic Fleet at Normandy.)
- USS Nautilus SS-168 (Interwar build so called submarine cruiser with a good war record.)
- Hr. Ms. Tromp and/ or Hr. Ms. Jacob van Heemskerck (Dutch light cruiser build just before the war and the only surviving Dutch cruisers of the conflict.
- Hr. Ms. O-21. (Submarine with best record in the Dutch Navy in WW2.)
-
 
Admiral King said there would always be a USS England in the navy.

I think that might have been a joke.
There is a song called "there'll always be an England".

Especially since I have heard that King did not like the British much (and actually, unintentionally, harmed the US because of that by not listening to British advice on ASW operations in the Atlantic leading to USN doing somewhat worse than it could have).

- HMS Ajax (a typical interwar build light cruiser with a good service record, including the hunt for the Graf Spee.)

I would love for Ajax to have been preserved.


Also, while not a ship that participated in WW2 it is a ship that was still around after WW2, that should have been a museum:
SMS Goeben/Yavuz Sultan Selim/TCG Yavuz
 
For obvious reasons this list some typical WW2 erea "grand" ships deserving to have been preserved:

- HMS Warspite. (No comment needed)
- HMS Illustrious (First ever Armored Flightdeck Aircraft Carrier and a ship that fought in almost every important part of the world in the conflict, taking her fair share of damage and still surviving every time.)
- HMS Ajax (a typical interwar build light cruiser with a good service record, including the hunt for the Graf Spee.)
- Richelieu, or Jean Bart (Latest French Battleship design and still in good shape in then post war period.)
- Triomphant (French Contre-Torpilleur of the Fantasque Class.)
- Prinz Eugen (Please give her a better status then becomming a testship for a nuclear test.)
- Nagato (same as Prinz Eugen. Japan's last battleship of the War, excluding the already museumship Mikasa)
- Yukikaze (Kagero class destroyer and only surviving member of this typical class in WW2)
- USS Enterprise CV-6 (Already mentioned)
- USS Augusta CA-31 (interwar build typical "treaty" cruiser design and former Flagship of Atlantic Fleet at Normandy.)
- USS Nautilus SS-168 (Interwar build so called submarine cruiser with a good war record.)
- Hr. Ms. Tromp and/ or Hr. Ms. Jacob van Heemskerck (Dutch light cruiser build just before the war and the only surviving Dutch cruisers of the conflict.
- Hr. Ms. O-21. (Submarine with best record in the Dutch Navy in WW2.)

-
Nice to see the Dutch getting the recognition they deserve.

I'd also say a personal favourite: HMS Furious, if it is at all possible to save this last of Fisher's Follies. The first aircraft carrier in the world is definitely worth keeping.
 
As his daughter was quoted as saying "Daddy hated everyone!"

And one of my favourites

"He is the most even tempered man in the Navy. He is always in a rage"

Yeah their are two schools of thought.

1) King was deployed on a exchange program on a RN destroyer for a few months during. Some say something happened ( No one knows what) that permanently soured King on the RN and the British.
2) The other theory as advanced by his daughter is that he didn't hold any special hate for the RN or the British. He was just a misanthrope who hated everyone and since he had to work heavily with the RN they're the ones it showed the greatest against.
 
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