WW1 Pictures Page 2

Below are some more pictures that have been sent to me by visitors to this website and may be of interest to others.

HMS Aboukir, a Cressy class armoured cruiser, pictured here pre-war at Malta.  Sadly the ship became most famous for being sunk along with two of her sister ships by the German submarine U-9.  Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel who believes the photo was taken by his Great Uncle.

HMS Bacchante, a sister ship of Aboukir.  Although flag ship of the patrol that Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy were lost during she was fortunate enough to be absent that day.  Bacchante went on to serve in support of the Gallipoli campaign and then at Gibraltar and was scrapped post war.  Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel

HMS Sutlej, another Cressy class.  The class were the first British Armoured Cruisers for over a decade.  The re-introduction of side armour was made possible by the use of the new Krupp armour which provided much superior protection than previous types of armour allowing enough side armour to be used to be worth while.  Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel

 

An unidentified Eclipse Second Class Protected Cruiser.  Originally criticised for a weak armament  they were re-armed with a uniform 6 inch battery before WW1 and the class saw extensive service in World War 1 around the world, but not in the North Sea, and all survived the war.   Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel

 

HMS Philomel, a Peal class Third Class Cruiser.  Most of her class were scrapped before WW1 started but Philomel was transferred to the New Zealand Government in 1914 and served as an escort in the Indian Ocean and off the Syrian coast until 1917 when she was no longer sued on active service.  She survived until 1949 spending most of that time as a base ship.  Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel.

 

HMS Queen.  She spent much of the war in the Mediterranean with the Italian fleet to help counter the Austro-Hungarian Fleet.  This was a mainly political deployment ans the combined strength of the French and Italian fleets was sufficient for this task and the Royal Navy spent much of the time trying to cancel the deployment to release manpower for the many new and urgently needed anti-submarine craft then being built.   Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel

 

HMS Canopus.  Most famous for firing the opening shots of the Battle of the Falkland Islands although as she was beached as a make-shift fort at the time she played not further part in the battle.  She went on to see service in the Dardanelles, being one of many older royal Navy warships involved in supporting the failed campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsular.  Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel

 

HMS Boxer, a "27-knotters" class Torpedo Boat Destroyer.  Although there were 42 in the class there were many differences between them as each shipyard, in this case the Thornycroft yard, was left to build to their own design within certain predetermined parameters.  Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel

 

HMS Cumberland, a Monmouth class Armoured Cruiser.  The closseness of the the lower level casemate mounted guns can be clearly seen here and it takes little imagination to see why such guns were of limited use in anything but the calmest seas.  Despite the obvious drawbacks they were a common feature of many warships of this era.  Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel.

 

HMS Suffolk, also of the Monmouth class.  She started the war as Flag Ship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron under Rear-Admiral Craddock in the West Indies.  There she encountered the German Light Cruiser SMS Karlsruhe but the German vessel was too quick and escaped.  Suffolk survived the war but Craddock came to an unfortunate end at the Battle of Coronel.  Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel.

 

Another Monmouth class, this time HMS Lancaster, also started the war as part of the 4th Cruiser Squadron in the West Indies.  She then served with the Grand Fleet based at Scapa Flow but as more newer Light Cruisers became available she was transferred to less dangerous areas such as the Pacific where she saw out the war.  Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel.

 

Another unidentified cruiser, this time a Third Class Protected Cruiser of the Pelorous class.  These small cruisers were designed for and spent most of their careers on overseas stations, a role for which a larger more expensive ship was not considered necessary.    Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel

 

HMS Glory.  She spent August 1916 until September 1919 as flag ship of the British North Russia Squadron based at Archangel.  This force was there to protect supplies being sent to Russia and she was one of the last British pre-Dreadnought Battleships to serve overseas.  Picture courtesy Peter Cocquerel

 

A picture of a German an unidentified sailor from the pre-Dreadnought battleship SMS Hessen in uniform getting married.  Picture courtesy Robin Pershing.