Every British Warship Used in WWII #RoyalNavy #WorldWar2 #MilitaryHistory

They kept the lifeline of Britain alive against U-boats and hunted the German Kriegsmarine across the globe. From the open bridges of the destroyers to the armored decks of the carriers. This is the complete catalogue of British sea power, the senior service. Let's start with the battlecruisers and pre-war giants. HMS Hood. The mighty Hood. The pride of the Royal Navy for two decades. Fast and heavily armed, she tragically exploded while fighting the Bismarck, breaking the heart of the Empire. HMS Repulse. The Sprinter. A fast battlecruiser that hunted German raiders. She was sunk alongside the Prince of Wales by Japanese bombers, signaling the end of the Big Gun era. HMS Renown. The Survivor. The sister of Repulse. She served in every theater, from hunting the Graf Spee in the Atlantic to shelling Japanese bases in the Indian Ocean. Next, the early aircraft carriers. The Pioneers and Conversions. HMS Eagle. The Converter. Originally a battleship purchased from Chile, she was converted into an aircraft carrier. She was vital in the Mediterranean before being torpedoed by a U-boat. HMS Hermes. The Pioneer. The first ship in the world designed from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. She was small and carried few planes, eventually sunk by Japanese dive bombers. HMS Furious. The Hybrid. A bizarre World War I battlecruiser converted into a carrier. She delivered vital aircraft to Malta and served as a training ship for new pilots. HMS Glorious. The Tragedy. A fast carrier sunk by German battleships Scharnhorst and Nisenau during the evacuation of Norway. A rare instance of carriers lost to naval gunfire. HMS Courageous. The First Loss. Sunk by a U-boat in the opening weeks of the war, her loss forced the Royal Navy to withdraw carriers from anti-submarine patrols. Now the Monitors. Specialized coastal bombardment ships. HMS Erebus. The Monitor. A shallow-draft vessel carrying massive 15-inch guns. She wasn't fast, but she provided devastating shore bombardment on D-Day. HMS Roberts. The Heavy Hitter. An improved Monitor class. She supported Allied landings in North Africa, Sicily and Normandy with heavy artillery support. Before we move to the battleships, if you enjoy naval history, make sure to like and subscribe to Wardex. Next are the battleships. HMS Warspite. The Grand Old Lady. A Queen Elizabeth class veteran. She survived heavy damage at Jutland, Narvik and Salerno, earning the reputation as the ship that refused to die. HMS Barham. The Explosive End. A Queen Elizabeth class battleship. Her sinking by a U-boat in the Mediterranean resulted in a massive magazine explosion captured on film. HMS Valiant. The Italian victim. She served with Warspite, but was severely damaged by Italian frogmen planting mines in Alexandria Harbor. HMS Malaya. The Gift. Funded by the Federated Malay States, she escorted convoys and provided heavy gunfire support throughout the Mediterranean. HMS Royal Oak. The Harbor Tragedy. A Revenge class battleship sunk at anchor inside Scapa Flow by a German U-boat. A shock that changed British harbor defenses forever. HMS Ramillies. The Convoy Guard. Old and slow, she spent the war deterring German surface raiders from attacking vital merchant convoys. HMS Resolution. The distinct silhouette. Known for her single funnel, she fought the Vichy French at Dakar and later served in the Indian Ocean. HMS Revenge. The Namesake. The lead ship of her class. Though obsolete, she bombarded Cherbourg during the liberation of France. HMS Nelson. The Cherry Tree. Unique for having all three main turrets mounted forward. She was torpedoed, mined, and bombed, but survived to see the Japanese surrender. HMS Rodney. The Brawler. The Sister of Nelson. She is famous for closing the range on the Bismarck and smashing the German flagship with her 16-inch guns. HMS King George V. The Modern Standard. Armed with 14-inch guns in distinctive quad turrets. She led the home fleet and was instrumental in the final destruction of the Bismarck. HMS Prince of Wales. The Short Life. She fought the Bismarck while brand new, carrying civilian workers, and was later sunk by air attack in the South China Sea. HMS Duke of York. The Night Fighter. She used radar-guided gunnery to stalk and sink the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst in the freezing darkness of the North Cape. HMS Howe. The Pacific Latecomer. A King George V-class ship that joined the British Pacific Fleet, providing cover for raids on Japanese islands. HMS Anson. The Upgrader. She spent much of the war receiving constant refits to her electronics and anti-aircraft guns to counter new threats. HMS Vanguard. The Last Battleship. Built with the lessons of the war and guns left over from World War I. She was the ultimate evolution of British naval engineering, arriving just after the war ended. Now, the modern aircraft carriers. HMS Ark Royal. The Hunter. The most famous British carrier. Her outdated Swordfish biplanes crippled the Bismarck in the Atlantic. HMS Illustrious. The Armored Box. Unlike American carriers, she featured a steel flight deck. This allowed her to survive direct bomb hits in the Mediterranean. HMS Victorious. The Loner. She served with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific under the codename Robin, when the Americans were short on carriers. HMS Formidable. The Kamikaze Survivor. She took a direct hit from a Kamikaze aircraft on her armored deck, swept the wreckage into the sea, and resumed flight operations in hours. HMS Indomitable. The Middle Ground. Built with a slightly thinner armored deck to carry more aircraft, serving extensively in the invasion of Sicily. HMS Implacable. The Fast Carrier. Designed for the Pacific theater with high speed and a larger air group to keep up with American fleets. Colossus Class. The Light Fleet. Built quickly to increase carrier numbers. They were smaller and cheaper but brought vital air power to the final stages of the war. HMS Archer. The Escort. A converted merchant hull fitted with a flight deck. These small carriers closed the air gap in the Atlantic, hunting U-boats. Moving to the cruisers, the eyes of the fleet. HMS Exeter. The Giant Slayer. A heavy cruiser with 8-inch guns. She famously stood toe-to-toe with the German pocket battleship Graf Spee at the river plate. HMS Norfolk. The Shadow. A county-class heavy cruiser. She tracked the Bismarck through the Denmark Strait using her radar, guiding the fleet to the target. HMS Dorsetshire. The Executioner. The heavy cruiser that fired the final torpedoes that sent the Bismarck to the bottom. HMS Belfast. The Fortress. A town-class light cruiser. She fired some of the first shots on D-Day and remains preserved in London today. HMS Sheffield. The Shiny Chef. Famous for mistaken identity when she was attacked by her own Ark Royals planes during the Bismarck chase, thankfully without damage. HMS Ajax. The Tactician. A Leander-class light cruiser. She led the attack against the Graf Spee using speed and maneuverability to harass the larger German ship. HMS Achilles. The Kiwi. Crewed largely by New Zealanders, she fought alongside Ajax at the river plate, striking a blow for the Commonwealth. HMS Dido. The Skysweeper. A specialized anti-aircraft cruiser armed with 10 5.25-inch guns designed to protect the fleet from air attack. Finally, the Destroyers, Escorts, and Submarines. Tribal-class destroyer. The Fighter. Designed with heavy guns rather than torpedoes. They were the elite destroyers, fighting furiously from Norway to the Mediterranean. HMS Campbellton. The Battering Ram. A U.S. destroyer given to Britain. She was filled with explosives and rammed into the drydock at St. Nazir in a legendary commando raid. Battle-class destroyer. The Latecomer. Large powerful destroyers designed with massive anti-aircraft weaponry for the Pacific War. Flower-class corvette. The Shepard. Based on a whaling ship. Small, slow, and wet, yet these little ships bore the brunt of the war against U-boats. Black Swan Sloop. The Elite Hunter. Specialized anti-submarine vessels. They were faster and better armed than corvettes, recording the highest kill rates against U-boats. T-class submarine. The Silencer. The workhorse of the British submarine service. They devastated Axis supply lines in the Mediterranean. X-Craft. The Midget. Tiny submarines towed to their targets. They famously infiltrated a Norwegian fjord to place mines under the German battleship Tirpitz. From the tragedy of the Hood to the victory of the Atlantic convoys. This was the Royal Navy that ruled the waves.