HMS Charybdis, AA cruiser, sunk 1943 (Navy Photos)     NAVAL-HISTORY.NET 1998-2010 archived by British Library & U.S. Library of Congress working with National Maritime Museum & Citizen Science Alliance/University of Oxford     "Knowledge not shared is lost" - with thanks to Don Kindell    RN Casualties  1914-2008 US Navy Casualties WW1 World War 1 Inter-War World War 2 Royal Navy Ships  Naval-Military Campaigns Naval Events - War Diaries  Royal Navy in World War 2 Post-War Falklands War Ships & Seas Links Contact

SUGGESTED STARTING POINT TYPE IN MEN, SHIPS, BATTLES, DATES  etc   Books from Naval-History.Net and Bertke Publications         WORLD WAR II SEA WAR: Volume 1, The Nazis Strike First by Donald A Bertke, Don Kindell, Gordon Smith. Detailed record of world-wide naval actions and activities from August 1939 through March 1940. Based on the original researches of Don Kindell. Click for Book or lower cost PDF download         ROYAL NAVY ROLL of HONOUR, WORLD WAR 1, Part 1 - by Name by Don Kindell. Includes Dominion Navies, Royal Navy Division, Royal Marines; taken from Admiralty Death Ledgers, Admiralty Communiqués, other Official sources. Click for Book or lower cost PDF download         ROYAL NAVY ROLL of HONOUR, WORLD WAR 1, Part 2 - by Date and Ship/Unit by Don Kindell. Part 1 is, in effect, the index to Part 2, which identifies ships sunk and damaged, land battles, how killed or died etc Click for Book or lower cost PDF download           ROYAL NAVY ROLL of HONOUR, Between the Wars 1918-1939 - by Name, by Date/Ship by Don Kindell. All volumes with a Foreword by Capt Christopher Page RN Rtd, Head, Naval Historical Branch, MOD Click for Book or lower cost /PDF download       Review of "Roll of Honour" by Navy News, September 2009 - excerpts Of the already lengthy list of essential reference works charting the long, proud history of the Royal Navy, now add the first volumes of a monumental work listing casualties from 1914 to the present. Don Kindell's Royal Navy Roll of Honour intends to list, for the first time, every sailor or Royal Marine who died while in the Senior Service - in action, in accidents, as a result of illness. The author is a former US Navy sailor and police officer with a passion for the RN over four decades. He's researched the details of 120,000 individuals whose records have been scattered around the archives - Kew, Whitehall, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and the Naval Historical Branch among others. The latter in particular has been heavily involved in what its head, Capt Christopher Page calls an "astonishing corpus of work". And how right he is, Royal Navy Roll of Honour isn't a book you read as such, but it is one, serious naval, social and family historians will no doubt turn to time and again. The first three volumes (of a projected six to eight) deal with casualties of WW1 (two volumes, one by name and the other by date/ship) and the Inter-War period (by name and by date/ship). We've only caught sight of the 'Between the Wars' volume, but it give an excellent idea of the quality of the research and the incredible usefulness of Mr Kindell's labour of love.           BATTLE ATLAS OF THE FALKLANDS WAR 1982, by Land, Sea and Air by Gordon Smith. Click for Book/PDF download and   Latest review, in the International Journal of Naval History       Books - new publications         TIRPITZ: The Life and Death of Germany’s Last Super Battleship by Niklas Zetterling and Michael Tamelander,  published by Casemate Publishing - www.casematepublishing.co.uk. Tirpitz investigates the history of the ship, its time in combat and presents a fascinating new interpretation of the final days of Tirpitz.   Dedications   This site is partly dedicated to my father, Ordnance Artificer George Smith (left, at Gibraltar in 1942, before Malta convoy Operation 'Pedestal'), lost in the sinking of HMS Charybdis off the Brittany coast on 23rd October 1943. Few men survived and just a handful of bodies were washed ashore on Guernsey. When they were buried by the German authorities, thousand's of Channel Islander's attended, and ever since, Guernsey has commemorated the cruiser's loss, usually with a Royal Navy guardship present - an unusual honour given the thousands of British warships and auxiliaries sunk in two World Wars alone.   In 2003, Guernsey Post issued this stamp (©Guernsey Post Limited 2003) bearing a painting of HMS Charybdis as well as Hunt-class escort destroyer HMS Limbourne, torpedoed at the same time (by T-type small destroyers, not E-boats as often described). I am grateful to Guernsey Post for permission to reproduce this rather beautiful stamp.   Naval-History.Net is also dedicated to my grandfather, Chief Yeoman of Signals George Smith DSM. He joined the Royal Navy in 1904, and was sunk twice in World War 1 - destroyer HMS Medusa and cruiser HMS Cassandra. Post-war, he served with the North Russian Expeditionary Force 1919, cruised the Baltic in 1921, served on HMS Curlew on the America & West Indies Station 1922-25 and HMS Durban on the China Station in 1926-28. He joined the Royal Naval Shore Signal Service in 1928 and served as a Chief Officer through World War 2 and on to 1948.   He was an early and avid photographer, and perhaps because of his experiences as a Signalman, a natural communicator. A lovely man, I am proud to make all his work available on the Internet. He would have appreciated and understood the value of the Web.     Site information   If you use any material, please acknowledge www.naval-history.net   Contact information   copyright 1998-2010, updated January 2010   see also J B Phillips New Testament & Background by Gordon Smith     Background & Comments   Naval-History.Net started in 1998 with books written by Gordon Smith:   'an invaluable reference book on the war at sea (in World War 2) .... as well as an informative guide to naval strategy', Lloyds List   'contributed tremendously to my knowledge of the war', Francois Heisbourg, Director, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London   'excellent source for naval history of the First and Second World Wars, campaign summaries and more.' - Imperial War Museum (London)   'arguable the best military history site currently online .....' - BBC family history magazine Who Do You Think You Are, June 2008     Since its early days, Naval-History.Net has been considerably enlarged and enriched by the researches of  Don Kindell from the United States, Lieutenant-Commander Geoff Mason RN (Rtd), and other contributors whose names will be found on the pages they helped make available. Over the last 30 or more years, Don and Geoff have produced an estimated total of 15,000 pages of work, most of which is now online. You can find out more in:   Naval History and the Internet - the Story of One Site     Notices   Learn more about Mesothelioma Cancer   from Asbestos News   Mesothelioma Cancer Center, international resource for Naval Veterans exposed to asbestos. Information on symptoms, diagnosis of asbestos related diseases, and Mesothelioma Treatment options.     Read online - support the Royal Navy       Conway's "All the World's Fighting Ships" 1865-1905, 1906-21, 1922-46, 1947-95 all highly recommended. My own copies are falling apart through over-use.     if any ads offend, please contact me         from the Art of Joe Hinds     ...... and Daniel Bechennec       Recent additions   SHIP - Ship History Information Project a joint project with the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich   World War 1   Battle of Heligoland Bight, August 1914 Cameroons Campaign 1914 Carmania v Cap Trafalgar Action, September 1914 Battle of Coronel, November 1914 Sydney v Emden Action, November 1914 Battle of the Falklands, December 1914 British East Coast Raid, December 1914 Battle of Dogger Bank, January 1915 Suez Canal 1915 Königsberg Action, July 1915 Despatch, Casualties, Awards etc   British Vessels Lost and Damaged at Sea - expanded and corrected update of the HMSO,  "British Vessels Lost at Sea 1914-1918"   Royal Navy Despatches, Gallantry Awards and Honours from the London Gazette - new series now being added   World War 2   Admiralty War Diary - Levant Command, Sept-Nov 1943   NAVAL and MARINE CORPS CASUALTY LISTS       ROYAL NAVY & DOMINION CASUALTIES, pre-1914-2008 by Name and Date/Ship, including Royal Marines, over 125,000 names by Don Kindell, US Researcher - "What it is all about"       UNITED STATES NAVY, COAST GUARD & MARINE CORPS CASUALTIES World War 1 by Name, Date/Ship, Branches   WORLD WAR 1, 1914-18   BACKGROUND   ROAD TO WAR, Franco-Prussian War to Sarajevo, 1871-1914 EXPANSION and ORGANISATION of the IMPERIAL GERMAN NAVY 1897-1918 - A Note World War 1 - A MARITIME WAR       MEN   CASUALTY LISTS Royal Navy and Dominion Navies, 1914-1918  by Don Kindell United States Navy, Marine Corps & Coast Guard, 1917-18 French Navy - 25 Sailors commemorated in a New York Cemetery __________   Royal Navy - Warships and Auxiliary Crew Numbers Royal Navy - Badges of Rank for Officers, Men and Boys United States Navy - Badges of Rank for Officers and Enlisted Men   Some of the Men who served: Louis Bechennec, Fireman/Stoker, French Navy, including Serbian Evacuation Thomas Crisp VC, DSC, Skipper RNR, HM Q-ship Nelson & the Hales Naval Family Samuel R Hitchin, First Mate, SS Highland Brae, POW on German Kronprinz Wilhelm John R Hunter, Lieutenant RNVR, Canadian Motor Launch skipper, photographic record William T G Jones, Seaman, lost with collier SS Mersario, 1 October 1917 George W Smith (upper left) DSM, Chief Yeomen of Signals, 1888-1977, his service record       SHIPS   New Series now being added   BRITISH VESSELS LOST and DAMAGED AT SEA in WORLD WAR 1 by Gordon Smith   an enlarged and corrected version of the original HMSO "British Vessels Lost at Sea 1914-1918"         TRIBUTE to BRITISH SHIPBUILDING and REPAIR INDUSTRIES 1914-18 including Royal Naval Dockyards and Research Establishments   British Vessels Lost at Sea including Naval, Merchant Ships and Fishing Vessels, from "British Vessels Lost at Sea, 1914-18", HMSO   Elco-built Motor Launches for the Royal Navy   British Shipbreaking Industry   HMS Cheery, Admiralty drifter       ROYAL NAVY Victoria Cross  fishing smack HMS Nelson   New Series now being added   ROYAL NAVY DESPATCHES, GALLANTRY AWARDS and HONOURS   from the London Gazette - August 1914 to December 1920   includes Army Despatches involving Royal Navy forces, and Ships receiving Naval Salvage & Prize Bounty Money         OTHER NAVIES   Austro-Hungarian Navy French Navy Royal Hellenic or Greek Navy Imperial Japanese Navy Turkish or Ottoman Navy United States Navy, also      Navy and Coast Guard Casualties      Officers and Enlisted Ranks      Medal of Honor 1915-18       EVENTS and ....   North Sea in outline 1914-18 Eastern Front and Baltic Sea 1914-18 Mediterranean, including Turkish Waters & Black Sea, 1914-18         .... NAVAL BATTLES - Despatches, Casualties, Awards etc     Battle of Heligoland Bight, August 1914 Cameroons Campaign 1914 Carmania v Cap Trafalgar Action, September 1914 Battle of Coronel, November 1914 Sydney v Emden Action, November 1914 Battle of the Falklands, December 1914 British East Coast Raid, December 1914 Battle of Dogger Bank, January 1915 Suez Canal 1915 Königsberg Action, July 1915       MEDALS   Victoria Cross at Sea, including RN Division 1914-19 Albert Medal at Sea, including Merchant Navy  1915-19 Medal of Honor, US Navy and Marine Corps 1915-18 Pour le Merité, the "Blue Max", Imperial German Navy including naval aviation       CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS   The Navy Everywhere, by Conrad Gato -  the RN in Africa,  E. Europe, Middle East   On the Coast of France: United States Naval Forces in French Waters by Joseph Husband, Ensign, USNRF           INTER-WAR, 1918-39   MEN   CASUALTY LISTS of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies, 1918-1939 by Don Kindell   Post-World War 1 service of George W Smith DSM: North Russian Expeditionary Force 1919 HMS Vanquisher, Baltic Sea Cruise 1921 HMS Curlew, America & West Indies Station 1922-25 HMS Durban, China Station 1926-28 Royal Naval Shore Signal Service 1929-48       SHIPS   Royal Navy WARSHIP SERVICE Summaries by Lt Cdr G Mason   Cox's Navy, Salvaging the German High Seas Fleet by Tony Booth       EVENTS   Versailles Treaty to Polish Blitzkrieg 1919-39 Russian Civil War 1919 Point Honda Disaster of the US Navy 1923                 WORLD WAR 2, 1939-45   MEN   CASUALTY LISTS of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies, 1939-1945  by Don Kindell   Some of the Men who served: Horace Carswell DSM, MM, BEM, Chief Steward, and Russian Convoy PQ.17 Sidney Kerslake RNR, Leading Seaman, 1920-99, Norway and Russian Convoys Edward Palmer BEM, Coxswain, attack on HMS Foyle Bank July 1940 Harold Siddall, Stoker, 1916-97, from Scapa Flow to Crete, and on to a German Stalag George Smith (left), Ordnance Artificer, 1916-43, HMS Charybdis Henry Sutton, Petty Officer, HMS Blackpool, and his Letter from Normandy, June 1944 Frank Taylor, Able Seaman, HMS Scarab, Mediterranean service 1943-44 Roderick Timms, Lt Cdr, RD*, RNR and Coastal Forces, 1941-45 (external site) Maurice Whiteing, Leading Air Mechanic, HMS Indomitable, Far East, 1944-1945 Basil Woolf, MID, Petty Officer, the Battle for Walcheren, 1st November 1944       SHIPS       SERVICE HISTORIES of ROYAL NAVY WARSHIPS in WORLD WAR 2 including Class background by Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Mason, RN (Rtd)     Major BRITISH WARSHIP LOSSES  with commanding officers, loss locations and casualties - Capital ships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers & escort destroyers, submarines, including X-craft British Naval Losses  by Name, Date, Theatre, Type of ship, from "British Vessels Lost at Sea, 1939-45", HMSO   HMS Indomitable in the Far East 1944-45, a photographic record HMS Charybdis:      All in a Day's Work - Her Career by 'Rocky' Royle      Her Loss and Commemoration, by the Charybdis Association        Account of Her Loss from Captured German Archives Capture of British Yard Minesweeper BYMS-72, 1943 Aegean Campaign, by Cdr Bruhn USN HM Harbour Defence Motor Launch No.1001, RN and later career Thames Lighters at War, off the British & US Normandy beaches       ROYAL NAVY   Naval Life and Customs by Lt-Cdr John Irving RN, a gem of a book Ranks, Trades, Pay & Allowances, Badges of Rank 1942 Warrant Officers in the Royal Navy - a history Officer/Rating Relationships in the Royal Navy 1941-1972 Pennant Numbers - with Addendum on the Pacific 1944-45, all by Lt Cdr G Mason   South African Naval Nomenclature for Navy & Ships by Vice Adm Alan Grose RN (Rtd)       EVENTS   NAVAL and MILITARY CAMPAIGN SUMMARIES by Type of Warfare, Navies, Theatres by Gordon Smith     BRITISH and OTHER NAVIES DAY-BY-DAY 1939-42 Ship Movements, Actions, Losses by Don Kindell   ADMIRALTY WAR DIARIES 1942-45     ROYAL, DOMINION & ALLIED NAVIES in WORLD WAR 2  Month-by-Month across all Theatres   by Gordon Smith   Royal Navy, Royal Marine, Single-Ship Battle Honours 1939-45, with links to Campaigns   Naval-related Code Names - Alphabetically - Chronologically Royal Navy Minelaying Operations both by Lt Cdr G Mason       CONVOYS   CONVOY ESCORT MOVEMENTS of ROYAL and DOMINON NAVY VESSELS by Don Kindell including Armed Merchant Cruisers, Canadian Corvettes   THE SUPPLY OF MALTA 1940-1942, including the Malta Convoys ROUTE TO THE EAST - the WS (Winston’s Special) Convoys, both by the late Arnold Hague   Russian Convoys including Russian Front Summary Maps Allied Convoy Codes, courtesy HyperWar Foundation       MEDALS   Victoria Cross at Sea, 1940-45 George Cross & Albert Medal at Sea, 1939-45 Medal of Honor at Sea, 1941-45   Imperial Japanese Navy and Order of the Golden Kite - A Note       TECHNICAL   Allied Anti-Submarine Weapons - A Note High Frequency Radio Direction Finding - HF/DF or Huff Duff New Zealand's Contribution to Radar Development Hydrographic Survey Work in the RN up to the 1980's, all by Lt Cdr G Mason The Early Days of Wireless at Sea by Louis C. Kleber       MAPS, etc   Campaign and Battle Maps, World Wars 1 & 2, Falklands War Posters of the Royal Navy in World War 2 Service Magazines of the World's Forces Victory Celebrations in London, June 1946                   POST-WAR, 1945-present   MEN   CASUALTY LISTS of the Royal Navy 1945-present  by Don Kindell   David Hamilton, Commander [F}, RN, his seagoing and flying career, 1939-1968 James Summerlee, Lieutenant Commander, MID, RN (Rtd), FAA, Korea and Suez SAR       SHIPS   Royal Navy WARSHIP SERVICE Summaries   Loch-class Frigates in the Dutch East Indies 1945-1946 Salvage Operations by RN Frigates 1950-1964 Modernisation of Town and Colony-class Light Cruisers, all by Lt Cdr G Mason   Navy-Mad in the Nineteen Fifties by Gordon Smith       EVENTS   Royal Navy Chronology - 1946-1950 - 1951-1960 - 1961-1970 by Lt Cdr G Mason     BATTLE ATLAS of the FALKLANDS WAR 1982 by Land, Sea and Air by Gordon Smith   Passing Through Ascension - Photographic record of Ascension Island during the War   Missiles in the Malouines/Falklands - the Art of Daniel Bechennec                 SHIPS and SEAS       Torpedo Craft Through the Art of Joe Hinds, including the amazing planned German Type 5B   Ship and Naval Base Crests, from "Empire to Commonwealth", by Father Anthony Hathaway-Taylor (external site)   Sailing in the Bristol Channel by Gordon Smith   British Pathé Newsreel Archives 1897-1970 - Naval history footage (external site)                       revised 29/4/10