Fascinating action shots of the British Navy in the midst of battle during the World War Two have been released this week, as part of a new book written by a former seafarer.
Taken from Martin Watts’s own personal archives, the vintage shots show a portrait of the author’s great-uncle Sergeant Albert ‘Nobby’ Elliot, who took part in Operation Torch in North Africa, while another shows a gun crew in action.
Further photographs show the warship HMS Hood, which was sunk by the Bismarck in May 1941, while a different shot shows the ship’s mighty guns.
A Royal Marine band is also shown on board HMS Glory, while another picture shows the surrender of 139,000 Japanese aboard the same boat.
Fascinating action shots of the British Navy in the midst of battle during World War Two have been released this week. Pictured is HMS Hood, a battlecruiser which was launched in 1918 and sunk by the Bismarck in May 1941 when she was struck by several German shells during the Battle of the Denmark Strait and sank within three minutes when the ship broke in two
The mighty guns of HMS Hood are seen in this image. Like all battlecruisers, the Hood was well armed but too lightly armoured and so vulnerable to high, plunging shots, as the Admiralty later found out to their cost. All but three of her 1,418 crew went down with HMS Hood, becoming the Royal Navy’s heaviest loss of life in a single ship, and the largest British warship which has ever been lost
The battleship HMS Howe became the flagship of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Pacific Fleet, for the final stages of the war against Japan. She was the last of her class of battleships, launched in 1940, and spent the first part of her service covering the Arctic convoys to Russia before joining the Eastern Fleet in 1944 to aid the war effort in the Pacific Ocean
A ceremony aboard HMS Glory marks the formal surrender of 139,000 Japanese troops on the islands of New Britain, New Ireland, the Solomon Islands and New Guinea on September 6, 1945, a month after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States, which had prompted Japan’s Emperor to announce the country’s surrender. The legal document was signed on board the ship
A Royal Marines band with drums is pictured aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Glory. The Colossus-class ship was launched in 1943 and served in the Pacific in the last few months of the war, culminating in the Japanese surrender in 1945. She helped to return Japanese prisoners of war home before going on to a further deployment in the Korean War, which broke out just five years later
An aerial view of HMS King George V, a battleship which was launched in 1939 and which operated throughout World War Two. In 1941 she was sent to hunt the German battleship Bismarck, eventually locating the enemy vessel off the French coast, and helping to sink the German ship with the help of Royal Navy cruisers. The ship also witnessed Japanese surrender ceremonies as it proceeded to Tokyo Bay
The vintage pictures are compiled into a book titled The Royal Marines and the War at Sea by naval historian and former seafarer, Martin Watts, 64. It is published by Amberley Publishing.
‘As a former seafarer, it has taken me far too long to write about the war at sea, and it was very rewarding writing about a relative with whom I’ve spent much time when studying in Plymouth,’ Martin said.
‘The best part was writing about the sea and the tactical and technical analysis of the warships involved.’
Albert Elliott, also known as ‘Nobby’, took part in the British-US invasion of French North Africa known as Operation Torch, part of the North African Campaign.
Martin explains in the book that the overall strategy behind the concept of the invasion was to ‘drive all Axis forces out of North Africa, as a precursor to an invasion of Sicily and then Italy’.
‘This would open up what has been termed ‘the soft underbelly of Europe’, and thereby avoid, or at least delay, the cross-Channel invasion so dreaded by Churchill and his military advisers,’ he said.
‘Operation Torch saw the emergence of General Eisenhower as Supreme Commander, and the establishment of an Anglo-American command system that lasted through to victory in Europe.
Pictured is Sergeant Albert Elliott, the great-uncle of author Martin Watts. Also known as Nobby, he took part in the British-US invasion of French North Africa known as Operation Torch, a deployment intended to drive all Axis forces out of North Africa, as a precursor to an invasion of Sicily and then Italy. Some 600 vessels sailed from ports in Britain and the United States in what was then the largest invasion fleet in history
British maritime trade is pictured under the protection of the Royal Navy, which guarded it from German U-boats, aerial attack and bombardments, in the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and even further afield
A stern view of Commodore Henry Harwood’s flagship HMS Ajax, a wartime cruiser, seen at the Battle of the River Plate in the South Atlantic Ocean in December 1939, the first Atlantic confrontation of World War II. HMS Ajax joined forces with Achilles, a light cruiser from the New Zealand Navy to take on the German cruiser Graf Spree which had been attacking merchant shipping
The invasion, which began on November 8, ended just two days later on November 10, 1942. The allies paid a heavy price, though, with 574 British soldiers, 526 American soldiers and over 1,346 French being killed in the battle.
‘From a naval point of view, Torch required the deployment of what was then the largest invasion fleet in history, with some 600 vessels sailing from ports in Britain and the United States,’ Martin said.
‘They were tasked with landing 65,000 soldiers at three points – Casablanca, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, and Oran and Algiers, on the Mediterranean coast of Algeria.
‘Ideally the main objective would have been Tunis, thus placing the western arm of the Allied pincer very much closer to Rommel’s supply base at Tripoli, but air cover from nearby Luftwaffe airfields in Sardinia and Sicily ruled this out.’
Royal Marines who served on HMS Glory are pictured marching in a victory parade in Sydney, Australia, with a large crowd gathering to see the parade near St James railway station (right of picture). The ship had sailed to Australia after taking the Japanese surrender in the Pacific, before returning to Britain in 1947 and going on to be deployed in the Korean War
Ice was a perpetual problem for ships on the Russian convoys. The vintage pictures are compiled into a book titled The Royal Marines and the War at Sea. The Arctic convoys, described by Churchill as the ‘worst journey in the world’, delivered vital supplies to the Soviet Union as it resisted Hitler’s invasion, a naval effort which cost the lives of around 3,000 sailors, with over 100 civilian and military ships lost
Royal Marines are seen training for gunnery, one of their principal wartime duties. This picture was taken at a shore establishment. Five Royal Marine Commandos were involved in the Normandy landings with 46 (RM) Commando landing the day after the initial assaults, helping their Army colleagues and fellow invaders from the United States to make progress across the continent
The vintage pictures are compiled into a book titled The Royal Marines and the War at Sea by naval historian and former seafarer, Martin Watts, 64