Battleship Vittorio Veneto was one of the three Italian Littorio class battleships operating in the Second World War. She was one of the most modern and powerful battleships of her times. She was designed by General Umberto Pugliese and engineer Francesco Mazzullo. She was the first battleship to exceed the limit of 35,000 tons of displacement imposed in the Washington Naval Treaty. The keel of the Vittorio Veneto battleship was laid down by the Italian shipbuilder “Cantieri Riuniti dell’Adriatico”, in Trieste, on 28th October 1934.She was launched on July 1937 and began her service in the Italian Fleet (Regia Marina) by August 1940. She was named in honour of the Italian victory at Vittorio Veneto in the First World War and she had three sisters ships: Littorio, Roma and Impero (the last one was never completed). She was armed with a main battery of nine 381 millimeters guns and three triple turrets. She was able to reach the speed of 30 knots (56 Km/h).

The contract for construction of the Panzerschiff E (Ersatz Hessen) was signed with the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel on January 25, 1934. The ship was laid down on February 14 of the same year, but the construction process was halted on July 5, 1934 and the slipway was cleared. In practice, the elements of the hull that had already been built were removed from the slipway. Important, however, was the fact that the contract for the construction of the ship remained valid and it was to be resumed as soon as the modified design had been approved. The most important decision concerning the addition of the third gun turret was made on June 27, 1934 and that was the reason to suspend the construction for some time. However, the 28 cm calibre of the main battery was retained. This decision was taken solely to avoid further delays and the design itself allowed for the subsequent re-armament of the battleship. During the design process, it was recommended that the barbettes were chosen in such a way as to allow for the installation of the larger calibre guns (330, 250 or 380 mm). It was estimated that the re-armament procedure would take approximately 12 to 15 months. The alteration of the number of the main battery guns affected the change of the previous classification from Panzerschiff (armoured ship) into Schlachtschiff (battleship). For the second time the ship was officially laid down on July 6, 1935. The hull was launched on December 8, 1936 and the christening ceremony speech was given by Colonel General Freiherr von Fritsch. The ship’s godmother was the widow of the late Julius Maerker – commander of the armoured cruiser Gneisenau. The launching ceremony did not go without a minor incident. Due to defective drag weights, the launched hull could not be completely stopped, so it hit the wall of the opposite Hindenburg Embankment. Luckily for the ship, the quay sustained more damage than the hull. Further fitting out work continued according to schedule and on May 21, 1938 the ship was commissioned into the Kriegsmarine. Captain Erich Förster, former commander of the light cruiser Karlsruhe, became her commanding officer.

The last battleship of the German Kriegsmarine was ceremonially launched on 1 April 1939. After the failure of the operation “Rheinübung” and sinking of the battleship Bismarck during an Atlantic rally (May 1941) Hitler banned planning such operations. A decision to send Tirpitz to Norway was made. There she could be stationed in fiords relatively safely and raid Allied shipping in Arctic waters. Her presence in that region alone caused that every convoy sailing nearby had to be escorted by heavy warships. That way the Germans were forcing Royal Navy to great logistic effort with minimum own effort. The greatest success in the career of Tirpitz, albeit achieved without firing even a single salvo was the operation against the convoy PQ-17 in July 1942. The ships heading for Murmansk were detected and the battleship with her escorts steamed out to attack the convoy. It led to a controversial order issued by the British Admiralty: to avoid a concentrated attack it was ordered to disperse the convoy. Each ship was to reach the Soviet port on her own. The result was a true massacre – unprotected ships easily fell victims to bombs and torpedoes from German aircraft and U-Boats. The last offensive operation in the battleship’s career took place in early September 1943. Tirpitz supported with her artillery fire the landing on Spitsbergen, a base of marginal military significance. After the disaster of the convoy PQ-17 the British were determined to eliminate Tirpitz and sought the best ways to sink or damage the battleship. Until the end of her career she was almost constantly harassed by air and sea attacks. One of the most successful attacks took place in late September 1943. Tirpitz was heavily damaged by X-craft – midget submarines carrying explosive charges. Repairs lasted until Spring 1944. During several next months the battleship was attacked by carrier-based aircraft and damaged several times. The final blows were struck by land-based four-engined aircraft armed with 5.5 tonne-bombs. In the first raid on 15 September 1944 Tirpitz sustained heavy damage. The end of the battleship took place on 12 November when the ship, following another attack, capsized and sank in shallow waters of the fjord. All pictures in this publication show the battleship in the configuration of July 1942.

Scirè was an Italian Adua-class submarine, which served during World War II in the Regia Marina (the Italian Navy). She was named after the Ethiopian region, where there was a battle between the Italian and Abyssinian troops during the war in Ethiopia in 1936. She was laid down by the Italian shipbuilder “Odero-Terni-Orlando (OTO)”, in La Spezia, on January 30, 1937. She was launched on January 6, 1938 and was commissioned into “Regia Marina” on April 25, 1938. During the war, she was modified to carry three mini submarines (SLCs). Actually she is one of the most famous submarines in the world due to the missions to Gibraltar and Alexandria.

Laid down at Kure on 11 March 1912, launched 28 March 1914, joined the Navy on 8 November 1915. He was the second battleship bearing the name of the first "Fuso" was one of the first ships of the Imperial Navy,participated in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese war, and among the officers who took him to England, Admiral. The battleship Fuso enrolled in the 1st division of the linear ships of the First fleet. Japan at this time was involved in the first world war, but the ship was tested and the course of combat training in peacetime. The first long-range voyage of the new battleship became patrulirovanie Chinese waters April 1917.

Musashi battleship was the second ship of the Yamato class of Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War. She and her sister, Yamato, were the heaviest and most powerful battleships ever constructed, displacing 72800 tons at full load and armed with nine 46 cm Type 94 main guns. Musashi was commissioned on August 1942 and assigned to the 1st Battleship Division. In early 1943 the ship was transferred to Truk, that was the Empire of Japan’s main base in the South Pacific. During this year she sortied several times with the fleet searching for American forces, without success. In 1944 she was used to transfer forces and equipment between Japan and various occupied islands. In early 1944 she was damaged by an American submarine attack and was forced to return to Japan for repairs. In this occasion she was strongly enhanced with anti-aircraft armament. She was present during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June, but she didn’t engage in combat with the American forces. On 24 October 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, after several hours of fighting, Musashi was sunk by a large number of torpedos and bombs hit from the American carrier-based aircraft. The wreck was located in March 2015 by the team of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, to a depth of about 1350 meters (4430 feet).

On 4 May 1940 the third Yamato-class battleship was laid down at the Navy Shipyard in Yokosuka. It was to be named Shinano, after a province on the Honshu island, in Nagato prefecture. That was also the name of the longest river in Japan (320 km). Admiral Yamamoto was born at its banks. Due to material supply difficulties, in December 1940 the construction was suspended. In 1942, after Japanese defeat at Midway (four aircraft carriers were lost) it was decided to continue the construction of the ship as an aircraft carrier, in order to partially make up for losses suffered in this class of ships. The rebuilding scheme was designed by Vice Admirals Keji Fukuda and Seichi Izamura…

Yahagi, the second Japanese warship of that name, was the third of the four Agano-class vessels (the other three being Agano, Noshiro and Sakawa). Construction of the Agano-class cruisers was approved by the Japanese parliament (Diet) in March 1939 under the Fourth Naval Armaments Enhancement Program (Dai-Yon-Ji Kaigun Gunbi Jūjitsu Keikaku), also known as “Four-in-Circle” Program (Maru Yon Keikaku), or simply Maru 4. Under the terms of the program, the four light cruisers (kei jun’yōkan), also referred to as type B cruisers (otsu-gata jun’yōkan, or simply otsu jun) and officially classed as second-class cruisers (ni-tō jun’yōkan), were to fulfill the role of destroyer squadron flagships. At that time destroyer squadrons (DesRon), called literarily torpedo squadrons (suirai sentai), consisted of four four-ship destroyer divisions (DesDiv, or kuchiku-tai).

À partir d’une incroyable collection de photos découverte dans la base sous-marine des U-Boote de Brest à la fin de la guerre, et restéecachée jusqu’à récemment dans une boîte à chaussure, ce livre exceptionnel retrace l’histoire complète d’un U-Boot en mission au coursde l’été 1942. Le sous-marin en question, l’U-564, arbore le célèbre motif à « 3 chats noirs » de « Teddy Suhren » qui, avec Prien et Kretschmer, était l’un des grands commandants d’U-Boot durant la bataille de l’Atlantique. Ce livre remarquable fournit un éclairage unique à la fois sur la vie au jour le jour dans un U-Boot en immersion et sur les rouages complexes de la Kriegsmarine. Au travers des succès et des épreuves de l’U-564, le lecteur est emmené dans cet immense champ de bataille naval qui est peut-être l’un des plus importants théâtres de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

Naval conflicts take place often far from our shores. Ships and men sometimes disappear, to leave only mystery in their wake. In the 1990s the Royal Australian Navy broke with tradition, and for the first time named six submarines after naval heroes. This book shows the true depths of their acheivements. These were men whose warrior exploits stand alongside those of any other nations. But they have been largely unrecognised, save for those submarines. Captain Hec Waller, for example, fought to the end in HMAS Perth, alongside fellow cruiser HMAS Houston. The Houston’s Captain Rooks was deservedly awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, America’s highest honor. Captain Waller, by comparison, was given distinction, but not of the highest rank. Should he have been given the Victoria Cross? Other heroes stand alongside him. Emile Dechaineux, hero of Dunkirk and the North Sea, battling it out against Japanese Kamikaze attack. John Collins, taking HMAS Sydney to victory against Italian cruisers. Hal Farncomb – the first Australian to command an aircraft carrier, in action off the French coast. But The Submarine Six also examines whether two more of its men deserve futher honor. Teddy Sheean, tenacious gunner from Tasmania, fought to the end in HMAS Armidale. Robert Rankin commanded HMAS Yarra against fearful odds, dying in defence of his convoy, attacked by overwhelming Japanese forces. Are they also VC candidates?

The first attacks on Australia by the Japanese were made by four submarines of the Sixth Submarine Squadron of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Together, these 80-man boats laid mines, and then waited in their killing zones for targets to torpedo. On 20 January 1942, it all went horribly wrong. Sunk with all hands, the submarine I-124 remains outside Darwin today, testimony to bravery but also to folly. Avonmore Books’ new edition of a 1990s work features new and improved graphics; a host of photographs, and the complete story of the submarine action, and events through the decades beyond – for the sunken vessel did not lie easy. Code seekers; treasure hunters; and potential salvors eventually led to the formation of the Historic Shipwrecks Act.