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Convoy ON 92
Convoy ON 92 was a trade convoy of merchant ships during the Second World War. It was the 92nd of the numbered series of ON convoys Outbound from the British Isles to North America. The ships departed from Liverpool on 6 May 1942Hague, p. 158 and were joined on 7 May by Mid-Ocean Escort Force Group A-3. The convoy was discovered by Wolfpack Hecht on 11 May; seven ships were sunk before the U-boats lost contact with the convoy on 13 May. Surviving ships reached Halifax, Nova Scotia on 21 May. Prelude ON 92 was a west-bound convoy of 42 ships, either in ballast or carrying trade goods, and sailed from Liverpool on 6 May 1942 bound for ports in North America. Convoy commodore was Capt. R Gill in ''Southern Princess''. It was escorted by mid-ocean escort group A-3, comprising the destroyer ''Gleaves'' (Capt. J Heffernan as SOE), the US Coast Guard cutter ''Spencer'', and four corvettes ''Algoma'', ''Arvida'', ''Bittersweet'' and ''Shediac''. The convoy was supported by a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of The Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. The campaign peaked from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the German '' Kriegsmarine'' (Navy) and aircraft of the ''Luftwaffe'' (Air Force) against the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, United States Navy, and Allied merchant shipping. Convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States beginning September 13, 1941. Carney, Robert B., Admiral, USN. "Comment and Discu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USCGC Spencer (WPG-36)
USCGC ''Spencer'' (WPG-36) was a Treasury-class cutter of the United States Coast Guard that served during World War II. She was named for U.S. Treasury Secretary John Canfield Spencer. Early career and World War II Commissioned in 1937, she was first used as a search and rescue unit off Alaska's fishing grounds. When the United States entered World War II, the Coast Guard temporarily became part of the United States Navy. ''Spencer'' saw service in the Pacific War. During the Battle of Atlantic, she acted as a convoy escort, hunting German U-boats, and was responsible for sinking U-633 and ''U-175'' in 1943. Convoys escorted ''Spencer'' was assigned to the US Navy's Seventh Fleet, in the Pacific in late 1944, where she served as a Communications Command Ship. There she was credited with taking part in numerous amphibious assaults including Luzon and Palawan in the Philippines Campaign. Post-war career After the war, ''Spencer'' returned to her Coast Guard duties, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
B-Dienst
The ''B-Dienst'' (german: Beobachtungsdienst, observation service), also called x''B-Dienst'', X-''B-Dienst'' and χ''B-Dienst'', was a Department of the German Naval Intelligence Service (german: Marinenachrichtendienst, MND III) of the OKM, that dealt with the interception and recording, decoding and analysis of the enemy, in particular British radio communications before and during World War II. B-Dienst worked on cryptanalysis and deciphering (decrypting) of enemy and neutral states' message traffic and security control of ''Kriegsmarine'' key processes and machinery. :"The ultimate goal of all evaluation was recognizing the opponent's goal by pro-active identification of data." B-Dienst was instrumental in moulding Wehrmacht operations during the Battles of Norway and France in spring 1940, primarily due to the cryptanalysis successes it had achieved against early and less secure British Naval cyphers. B-Dienst broke British Naval Combined Cypher No. 3 in October 1941, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knight's Cross
Knight's Cross (German language ''Ritterkreuz'') refers to a distinguishing grade or level of various orders that often denotes bravery and leadership on the battlefield. Most frequently the term Knight's Cross is used to refer to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, a military decoration of Nazi Germany. However, numerous orders have a Knight's Cross grade. Examples include the Cross of Merit on the ribbon of the Bundesverdienstkreuz, the ''Chevalier'' (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur, a grade of the War Merit Cross, the Knight's Cross of the Brandenburg Bailiwick of the Knights' Order of the Hospital of St John in Jerusalem, the Knight's Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph, the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, 1st class (Knight) of the Order of the Sun, and the Knight's Cross of the House Order of Hohenzollern The House Order of Hohenzollern (german: Hausorden von Hohenzollern or ') was a dynastic order of knighthood of the House of Hohenzollern awa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Type VII U-boat
Type VII U-boats were the most common type of German World War II U-boat. 703 boats were built by the end of the war. The lone surviving example, , is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial located in Laboe, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Conception and production The Type VII was based on earlier German submarine designs going back to the World War I Type UB III and especially the cancelled Type UG. The type UG was designed through the Dutch dummy company ''NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw Den Haag'' (I.v.S) to circumvent the limitations of the Treaty of Versailles, and was built by foreign shipyards. The Finnish ''Vetehinen'' class and Spanish Type E-1 also provided some of the basis for the Type VII design. These designs led to the Type VII along with Type I, the latter being built in AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, Germany. The production of Type I was stopped after only two boats; the reasons for this are not certain. The design of the Type I was further used in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HF/DF
High-frequency direction finding, usually known by its abbreviation HF/DF or nickname huff-duff, is a type of radio direction finder (RDF) introduced in World War II. High frequency (HF) refers to a radio band that can effectively communicate over long distances; for example, between U-boats and their land-based headquarters. HF/DF was primarily used to catch enemy radios while they transmitted, although it was also used to locate friendly aircraft as a navigation aid. The basic technique remains in use to this day as one of the fundamental disciplines of signals intelligence, although typically incorporated into a larger suite of radio systems and radars instead of being a stand-alone system. Earlier systems used a mechanically rotated antenna or solenoid and an operator listening for peaks or nulls in the signal, which often took considerable time to determine the bearing on the order of a minute or more. Later systems used a set of antennas to receive the same signal in slightly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by the Supermarine Spitfire during the Battle of Britain in 1940, but the Hurricane inflicted 60 percent of the losses sustained by the Luftwaffe in the campaign, and fought in all the major theatres of the Second World War. The Hurricane originated from discussions between RAF officials and aircraft designer Sir Sydney Camm about a proposed monoplane derivative of the Hawker Fury biplane in the early 1930s. Despite an institutional preference for biplanes and lack of interest by the Air Ministry, Hawker refined their monoplane proposal, incorporating several innovations which became critical to wartime fighter aircraft, including retractable landing gear and the more powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The Air Ministry ordered Hawker's ''Int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SS Bury
SS ''Bury'' was a passenger and cargo vessel completed for Britain's Great Central Railway in 1911. ''Bury'' was employed as a packet boat for the company between Harwich and the Hook of Holland for most of her career. During the Second World War ''Bury'' was outfitted as a convoy rescue ship. History ''Bury'' was built by Earle's Shipbuilding of Hull and launched in 1910. She was one of an order for four ships, the others being , and . In 1914 she was in Hamburg at the outbreak of the First World War and the crew were taken prisoner of war and detained until the end of hostilities. The stewardesses were released early in 1914 after representation of the Railway Company through the American Consul in Hamburg. 1923 she transferred to the London and North Eastern Railway and then in 1935 to Associated Humber Lines. On 23 July 1936 she was in collision with the German steamer ''Virgilia'' in the River Elbe. The ''Virgilia'' sank and the crew of the ''Bury'' rescued the German cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Packet Boat
Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th centuries and featured regularly scheduled service. When such ships were put into use in the 18th century on the Atlantic Ocean between Great Britain and its colonies, the services were called the packet trade. Steam driven packets were used extensively in the United States in the 19th century on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, supplying and bringing personnel to forts and trading posts. History Packet craft were used extensively in European coastal mail services since the 17th century, and gradually added cramped passenger accommodation. Passenger accommodations were minimal: transportation, "firing" (i.e. a place to cook), drinking water (often tasting of indigo or tobacco, which the water casks had previously held), and a place ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMCS Shediac
HMCS ''Shediac'' was a of the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. She served primarily in the Battle of the Atlantic as a convoy escort. She was named after the town of Shediac, New Brunswick. Background Flower-class corvettes like ''Shediac'' serving with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War were different from earlier and more traditional sail-driven corvettes. The "corvette" designation was created by the French for classes of small warships; the Royal Navy borrowed the term for a period but discontinued its use in 1877. During the hurried preparations for war in the late 1930s, Winston Churchill reactivated the corvette class, needing a name for smaller ships used in an escort capacity, in this case based on a whaling ship design. The generic name "flower" was used to designate the class of these ships, which – in the Royal Navy – were named after flowering plants. Corvettes commissioned by the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMCS Bittersweet
HMCS ''Bittersweet'' was a that was commissioned in the Royal Navy but served primarily in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. She was used mainly in the Battle of the Atlantic as an ocean escort. She was named for flowering vines ''Solanum dulcamara'' and ''Celastrus scandens''. Background Flower-class corvettes like ''Bittersweet'' serving with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War were different from earlier and more traditional sail-driven corvettes.''Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II'', New Jersey: Random House, 1996, , page 68. The "corvette" designation was created by the French for a class of small warships; the Royal Navy borrowed the term for a period but discontinued its use in 1877. During the hurried preparations for war in the late 1930s, Winston Churchill reactivated the corvette class, needing a name for smaller ships used in an escort capacity, in this case based on a whaling ship design.Chesneau, Roger and Gardiner, Robert, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
