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I must say I am not at all happy about the eventual deletion of the forums, hopefully, that part at least will change, but to the main subject of my post; I had some time in the past saw those posts where its an old photo being held up in the modern location the shot was taken and I thought "hey, lets try that but with ships". So I had spent the time to find and edit together some photos that do just that, but for warships. I had initially planned to post up the work here in the forums when I was done and make it a regular thread I would update with fresh work, but never got around to making anymore than the initial batch, and promptly forgot to make the forum thread. Better late than never I guess Up first here we have one of Gneisenau's Secondary turrets in Denmark Next is Gulio Cesare at Ponte Girevole Taranta (modern pic is super pixely cuz i couldnt find a more HD shot at that angle) for our next ship, we have the Famous and actually historical HMS Monarch This is Admiral Scheer under Kiel Canal Levansau Bridge Up next is USS Wyoming passing by the Gillard Cut in the Panama Canal Last but not least we have Bismarck passing under the Rendsburg High Bridge Finally for the final photo I made in this batch, we have Mikasa!! (also a little grainy but it is what it is) Hope everyone enjoys this little trip with the past mixing with the present, so long forums, was fun. Many memories made and I did enjoy my time giving back to this place when I Moderated it with @Boggzy and the team and i hope not the last time either. hopefully, we can avoid the forum's total removal. To preserve all the history within this place.

This question might have already been asked, but I couldn't find the previous answer. What are Preussen and GK based on? FDG is "pretty" historical, with 16 and 16.5-inch H39 & H41 designs. Hannover has (H43?) 18.9-inch guns, and questionable secondaries, I thought they all had Bismarck secondaries even for H44 20-inch main batteries. But what are Preussen and GK, they say it is H42, but H42 has 18.9-inch guns, the same as Hannover's guns. No German battleships have 18-inch guns as far as I know. Am I missing something?

Na live do EU no dia 02/12/21, foi anunciado, junto com a nova linha de destroyers italianos, o encouraçado brasileiro "Atlântico" de Tier VIII. Atlântico é o 4° navio da nação Pan-America e o 3° navio brasileiro no jogo e o 1° encouraçado da Pan-America e 1° encouraçado brasileiro no jogo, sendo os outros navios o Juruá e o Almirante Abreu, e nesse artigo quero trazer algumas curiosidades, fatos e referencias que esse navio possui. I- O nome e origem Bom, vamos começar com o nome "Atlantico". Esse nome nunca foi usado na marinha brasileira até o ano de 2018, quando o Brasil comprou da Inglaterra o HMS Ocean e o rebatizou de NAM Atlântico (A140). Outra referencia que pode ser notada é a origem desse encouraçado e o atual navio almirante da Marinha do Brasil, onde ambos são de origem Inglesa. E o fato que ambos os navios carregam armamentos de origem Americana. II- A Camuflagem Para o segundo fato eu trago a camuflagem, que pode parecer aleatória, mas não é. A camuflagem escolhida para esse encouraçado é referencia a camuflagem que foi pintada no encouraçado brasileiro São Paulo III- O Motivo de Armamentos Ingleses e Americanos Durante os anos de 1890-1918/19, a Marinha do Brasil buscava muitos projetos e parcerias com o Reino Unido, tanto apos o plano naval de 1905 que aprovou a construção de encouraçados e cruzadores, o Brasil buscou a Inglaterra e encomendou os futuros encouraçados São Paulo, Minas Geraes, Rio de Janeiro, os cruzadores de patrulha Bahia e Rio Grande do Sul e os Destroyers da classe Pará. Contudo, após 1919, o Brasil se viu politicamente, economicamente e militarmente sob a esfera de influencia dos EUA, tanto que a maioria dos armamentos e navios adquiridos pelo brasil durante e após a 2° Guerra são americanos. IV- De onde a WG se inspirou? Como você provavelmente notou, o design e a escolha dos armamentos secundarios é um tanto quanto...exotica. Bom, eu estou aqui para dar luz a essa escuridão e confusão. Pelas minhas interpretações, a WG se inspirou em 2 designs de 2 encouraçados que quase fizeram parte da Marinha Brasileira, um é o aclamado pela comunidade brasileira, o Rio de Janeiro, e outro, não tão conhecido, o encouraçado Riachuelo. O modelo que a WG escolheu para o Atlântico é o Design 782 do Riachuelo, que foi encomendado a Inglaterra pelo Brasil em 1913-1914, e a Armstrong and Vickers fez alguns designs para o que seria o Riachuelo, um dos designs favoritos foi o Design 782, com 10(5x2) canhões de 15 polegadas (381mm). Já a escolha do armamento secundario pode ser relacionado a um dos designs do nosso querido Rio de Janeiro (HMS Agincourt/Sultan Osman I Evvel), mais especificamente, Design 686, apelidado de Monstro de Bacellar, devido ao uso inotordoxo de canhões de 9.4 polegadas em torres como bateria principal. Abaixo eu trago para vocês os designs que falo. Caso se interessem nesses designs e queiram ver mais, eu tirei esses desenhos do livro "Warships for Export - Armstrong Warships" de Peter Brook Muito Obrigado pela sua atenção, e até uma proxima God Bless the King and God be with you James I, King of Great Britain

Oh yeah, that’s why I started playing a historical naval battle simulation game, so I could get mods and gear based on a child’s toy that was invented 40 years after the end of World War II (Transformers). Oh, and ya gotta love the Cleveland’s perma-camo with the giant eagle head from Zardoz or Easter Island blocking the bridge, complete with wings. I still generally like the game mechanics and UI, but childish themes, unbridled inappropriate fantasy designs, and the like are becoming more and more of a turnoff.

Read Popular Mechanics. February 1943. Page 63

Probably just going to act like an archive of ship histories here are some I have made, definitely not complete nor completely detailed. Will add more when have time. You guys can also chip in Massachusetts: fire upon Jean Bart when the Allies tried to prevent it from being captured and used by German forces after the French surrender. Jean Bart was also attacked by USS ranger planes, and she fought back with a makeshift rangefinder and incomplete aa guns Jean Bart: French Battleship that had most of its action while incomplete, decommissioned in 1957 and scrapped in 1970’s after finally completed in the 1955 USS ranger was the first aircraft carrier built from scratch as a CV for the USN, with CV-1, Langley, being a converted coal ship. She was supposed to be flat evoked, but later had a island superstructure installed that caused large stability issues. She operated in the Atlantic and took part in Operation Torch (allied invasion of Africa) and the attack on Jean Bart. Scharnhorst- record holder for one of the longest hits ever made, about 28,000 yard hit on HMS Glorious in 1940 if I remember. She was a famous commerce raider with her sister Gnesiau (spelling) along with She was sunk by torpedo spread by British forces. Tirpritz - famously painted as a series of residential homes as camoflage, and was hit badly in port by famous 4,000 pound Tallboy bombs from British bombers. One of these bombs missed and is now a pond today lol. Hood - entered Battle of Denmark strait with only her forward and mid deck/magazine armor reinforced, with her aft deck plates and additional armor package waiting at a shipyard. This delay in the upgrade was due to the need for constant presence of hood as a flagship- very little time to upgrade. She, in sheer bad karma, was sunk by a 15inch shell through the unreinforced aft armor. Bismarck, also in sheer bad karma, will get a lucky torpedo hit by swordfish torpedo bombers (too long of a story). Vangard- one of the last British battleships ever built, sad to see her scrapped Alaska- part cruiser part battleship built to counter new Japanese cruisers. 12inch guns, but cruiser like characteristics with radar in game. - no combat experiances Kii was a modern battleship at time of construction with a archaic ww1 doctrine layout, which favored many dual gun turrets rather than a smaller number of triple or quadruple gun turrets to maintain as much firepower in the even of the turret knockout USS Colorado: upgunned version of previous standard battleships, equipped with 16inch rifles. She mostly took part in shore bombardment, supporting landings at Tarawa, Kwajalein, Eniwetok and the Marianas operation between 1943 and 1944 in the Pacific. On 24 July 1944, while bombarding Tinian, she was hit by shore batteries, causing serious casualties among exposed crew topside. She was also hit by kamakazi planes in the late-war era of her service. USS Mexico is known to be the ship that carried Woodrow Wilson, then president of the US, to France in order sign the Treaty of Versailles. In WW2, she, like many USN battleships, was used for shore bombardment. KMS Graf Spee - pocket battleship, armed with battleship-like 11 inch (283mm) cannons and battleship style secondary batteries in a cruiser hull with cruiser specifications. She was primarily tasked with raiding convoys of merchant ships. She was credited with sinking 8 merchant ships and disrupting their convoys. She was engaged by HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax, and HMS Achilles in one of the first naval engagements of WW2. After being damaged significantly she escape to a neutral port and a tilled after misinformed that the three British ships were waiting for her outside the harbor. Closer inspection by the British with approval by the neutral port revealed she had radar.

So ya dream of a life at sea, do ya?

Rest in peace sailors. If you would like to learn more about Operation: Ten-Go, I suggest viewing Drach's video on the subject.

Since the majority of us are in our complex private prisons, I mean residence... Here is some interesting viewing You tube history concerning hospital ships... (Why do Canada get a bad wrap even with hospital ships)... For your lock down pleasure viewing...

Hey when are you guys going to do a navel legends on the USS. Enterprise my Father served on it would love to show him a navel legend on his ship. USS.Enterprise

Just posting this here because even now, I still see this 'illusory truth' pop up now and then. And you can see its influence in other games and people perceptions about U.S.S. Wichita. What falsehood am I talking about? Well, let's start with how Wichita came to be. In the latter 1930's, the United States was allowed one more Heavy Cruiser under the Washington and London naval treaties. Wichita was going to be another New Orleans class, but the Navy decided they had some issues with the New Orleans design and wanted to do something different. That is when the looked at the very successful Brooklyn design. And here is where the 'illusory truth' comes in. Several people read, they used the Brooklyn hull... and stop right there. I have been told, read, etc many times that Wichita has a light cruisers hull and armor with heavy cruiser guns. Some even say they used a spare Brooklyn hull. At first, even WG wanted to give Wichita 25mm bow armor and armor to match more of a light cruiser until her actual armor scheme was pointed out (and balance issues). Azur Lane has Wichita with 'light' armor, even though Portland and New Orleans class have 'medium' as well as Baltimore. A person on Facebook even ranted how Wichita never served in the Pacific because her armor was so bad, one hit would have caused the entire ship to break apart (he mistook Wichita for U.S.S. Ranger). Recently a twitch player said Wichita is a lighter cruiser, heavy cruiser hybrid with light cruiser hull armor and heavy cruiser guns... No, just no folks. The Naval architects used the design Layout of Brooklyn, tweaked it to a larger size, put on the best armor of any US treaty cruiser (practically Baltimore's level), and even added some more innovation with secondary placements. While Brooklyn started a much improved cruiser layout design, Wichita helped push it into the next Cleveland and Baltimore designs and beyond. She weighed 400 tons more than she was supposed to by treaty (10400 tons), but at that time no one would really care. She was not 'light' in any sense of the word. And she did have an interesting service life. From peacetime Caribbean tours, to Arctic convoys, dodging 15 inch shells from Jean Bart and sinking destroyers and cruisers there, taking a torpedo trying to save Chicago, Alaska (poor birds), numerous Pacific islands campaigns, and finishing off Chiyoda. So, if you ever here anyone say, "Wichita has light cruiser armor", please stop the 'illusory truth' right there. It is a falsehood often repeated and needs to be stopped.

USS Kitty Hawk entered service in April 29, 1961. USS Kitty Hawk(CV-63) retired in 2007 after the USS George Washington (CVN-73) took her place in Japan. She was supposed to be retired in 2008 but the Washington had a fire on the way so she had another year of active service. Here are some facts about the carrier: -Near the end of her life, her escalators stop working so it servers as a long stair case. Those pilot's legs will never skip leg day. -John F. Kennedy spent a night in the ship. -The ship has four elevators but the first one is rogue to accommodate the enlarge jet blast deflectors that were required for the F-14 - Kitty Hawk was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation for exceptionally meritorious service from 26 November 1965 to 14 May 1966 -Kitty Hawk was a cameo in the movie, The Finial Countdown. -On March 21, 1984, Kitty Hawk collides into a Soviet Sub. -Best known nickname is the [edited] Kitty due to old pipes, frequent break downs, many paint coats, hard to clean, and expensive to run as sailors described her during Operation Enduring freedom -20 deployments -Race riot in 1972 -She is the seco....third longest serving ship after USS Blue Ridge(LLC-19) CV-63's specifications: 5,624 officers and enlisted | 61,351 tones | Length: 1,068.9 feet (325.80 meters) | Beam: 284 feet (86.56 meters) | Flank Speed: 33 Knots

In this replay battle, I highlight some of the strengths and weaknesses of the ship and the Russian light cruiser line, and include a little History of the ship itself, and my recommended captain skills for her. Enjoy, and thanks for watching !

So, seeing as they lowered (sort of) most of the shop prices, gave me a 30% coupon and I could free up the cash, I bought myself Ark Royal - something great to have especially as the ship that helped sink the Bismark. Which of course I thought meant a bit more care and attention would be paid to it but of course - why we would do that? The lengths to get other ships right, but disregard it for CV's. I just can't understand some of these decisions in balance and history. The Balance - Seriously, what the hell tier are these planes supposed to be? The Skua is tier 5 it seems, as the starter on Furious, but the Swordfish is, for whatever insane reason, the bomber on Hermes. Further adding to this quandary - the HP. You wanna say Hermes uses tier 5's, or Ark Royal uses tier 4's - fine. The Skua is the same at least but the Swordfish has around 300 less HP. On a group level, yes, they have more HP than Furious's, but are slower and even less agile meaning more time in AA, and more hits. On the subject of speed - 100 knots? As it is that can be slow and painful on the tier 4 maps, that are actually close in small maps. 100 knots on maps meant for tier 8 ships - it takes that much longer to get anywhere - and is even more 'fun' when you have tier 8 CV's to deal with as well. 40 lb bombs - So, lets even forget for just a second, that the RP-3 actually had almost double the explosives than these, and that actually even the common shells of USN DD's with the 5/38 guns that we call HE had 1-2 pounds more, with some of the same filling but I'm assuming 'Balance' is why these magically do 500 more damage per hit than those rounds and nearly double the RP-3's - Why are these even back in the game? They were removed from Tier 4 because they are ineffective. So because you added another plane per strike you thought that'd fix the issue? BB's still shrug this off like it's nothing, hell, some of the cruisers this thing sees do. A lower tier battle with tier 5's, some low AA tier 6's - yeah, 7 hits have put a pretty good hurting on a cruiser. The amount of bombs, decent for ensuring at least a hit on a DD, though not what I'd call 'effective' against them. Now if the idea were that this is a cruiser hunting ship - great, I'm all about CV's having something in particular they hunt better - but the key is actually giving it tools to do so regardless of tier. That means planes that can actually withstand tier 8 cruiser AA decently, with somewhat better speed and y'know, bombs that against some of the higher tier cruisers don't shatter against deck plating. The History - I don't really have a way to sort this one because a lot of it loops together. Case in point - The ship, as completed, only had 4 of her 8 barrel cannons, the other 2 were added later - the rough date seems to point to around May 1941 - when she hunted down Bismarck - a fact that I suppose goes with her getting the camo options she does. But here's the problem - the Skua was pretty much pulled from service in 1940, with a handful staying around in early 1941 in places - but by the time of getting those added cannons and going to hunt the Bismarck - she was operating Fulmar's alongside the Swordfish, not Skua's. But if the idea is 1939/40 Ark Royal, well, you have a couple extra guns it shouldn't actually have. And really, taking them away won't hurt as the AA in general is pretty pathetic anyway, I doubt there would be a truly noticeable change. Also, as I said, the Skua was pulled in 1940 - it never saw usage of the RP-3 at all, it wasn't even in actual service at the same time. Now - actually finding accounts of the Fulmar using them, again, seems to have not been a thing but it was operational when they were introduced at least - and the Firefly was basically a modified Fulmar and it did carry them so far less of a stretch. If your team even just wants to copy/paste the firefly and just call it a Fulmar and not edit it/build it from the ground up - I'll even take that at this point. But then there is even what it has. While we finally get the Swordfish as a TB, it is again a level bomber, while the Skua, one of the only real DB's the Royal Navy actually had and used, least that they made themselves, is again a rocket armed plane. Look, if you gave the Skua all those 40 lb bombs yeah, you'd be wrong historically - but your already wrong with the rockets this at least makes it a bomber, better yet if you actually have it being a DB. While the Swordfish did in fact carry rockets and could fill that role. But the bigger sin here is I think missed opportunity. You have SAP shells in development - why not bombs, especially as the Skua was armed with a 500 lb SAP bomb? Doubly so cause that's actually the type IJN used other than HE, especially as the AP bombs you have in game weren't used on DB's they were limited to the TB's and B7A, with the TB's acting as level bombers, jury's out on the B7A. Make it actually unique to the game and as a test bed for something new that can add more flavour options because there are more CV lines we can and should add once we get the rework fixed up more.Maybe it's like Italian SAP rounds, maybe it's like an HE bomb with IFHE, maybe something else - like a British AP shell but with a small fire chance. A (more) historically accurate ship, testing a concept that can be used for others. And it's not like the Fulmar is a high performance plane for the tier, if anything fits around 5 a bit better than 6, especially as the Hurricanes replaced them. And look, I'm not here saying the ships bad, a weak AA cruiser on it's own - it's gonna have a bad time those bombers start hammering it. The 3 TB's are nice, again, when you have targets with not that great AA. It's one of the few CV's that actually feels comfortable because of it's shorter time to replace those losses it takes, still can feel them pretty hard in higher tier fights though. Against tier 5 and some 6 ships, pretty terrifying stuff, against other 6's and 7 and 8's..... not quite as much. But at this point - that's a frustrating 'par for the course' when it comes to tier 6 CV's and well, CV's in general. Against the lower tier ships and some same tier, you may as well be the grim reaper, against higher tier and some same tier, banging your head on things trying to actually damage a ship sometimes taking 10+ minutes of constant attacks to kill it. I'm glad to see it finally added, even if I think it should still be in the tech tree maybe around tier 7 but hey more reason to toss in a "what if it had survived further" version just have to think up a name unless we wanna call the premium version Ark Royal 1939 or 1940 or whatever. While it seems 'fine' short term I have concerns long term, especially cause some AA still needs buffing even if others it see's need a nerf. And while yes, the current NA stats look amazing at under 300 battles, I know part of that is skewed by dropping in 10+ point commanders, and the other is that other than people that got it RNG from a box, maybe some collectors, that most of the people who have it are likely those of us that play CV's a lot, and are actually kinda good at it or better, and can take a ship that has issues but work around them and do well in them making it look better than it really is (though a rocket hit detonating I think it was a Nurnberg from around 70% hp certainly helps too). And that if we ever get to a point where it's not us few specialists or stubborn fools and is actually a class played by a larger group - that it's going to have quite a few issues. @Umbaretz - any insight you can give why these choices were made? Especially some of the history stuff because honestly - it's really starting to get irritating that the new norm is seemingly "Any surface ship, especially premiums, as absolute historical as possible with all the right modules and all" while CV's is "screw it just throw whatever planes on it and screw history and all too even if it's not for gameplay or balance".

I was doing more research on the Bismarck, and I was taking a look at the swastikas on the deck of the Bismarck, and I was wondering, how were they put on the decks? Were they painted? Were the teak boards dyed? Were the swastikas made with metal sheets that were colored or dyed? If someone could answer my question(s), I’d really appreciate it!

I know that during the World Wars, there were some cases in which the British government requisitioned ships for military service. One that comes to mind is the HMHS Britannic (the Titanic's sister ship) that was requisitioned by the Royal Navy for use as a hospital ship. This particular ship was sunk by a mine. I believe some other larger passenger ships were also requisitioned for carrying troops. Did the British government pay the companies for these requisitions? In the specific case of the HMHS Britannic, it appears that the British government did pay £75 000 to the White Star Line, but that was to cover some required modifications. I don't see anything on the internet about whether or not the government paid for borrowing any of the requisitioned ships, let alone paid when the ship was lost. I would find it highly unlikely that they didn't, since some of these requisitioned ships were freshly built ships that would have cost the shipping lines a ton of money to make. But, then again, the war was important, so many the government didn't pay them.

I have been ready an anthology of naval alternate history stories, Those in Peril, from Amazon kindle shop. A lot of fun stories. USA joins ww1 on Germany's side and see what Jutland looks like? Or 1928 off New Jersey and HMS Hood and HMS Nelson and the rest of a british squardron are sunk by USN defenders including first successful flattop actions. Have a look and enjoy. Tony

Posting this for the interest and the History of the latest ship

Okay, compared to the overall massive balance issues, this is minor. But it is seriously annoying that with the focus shifted to planes as if they were our ships, that there are details about placement and all that are just completely botched and I can't fathom a reason why. For Starters "Lexington" and it's planes - Wargaming mounting of HVAR rockets - The worst part being if you look - the actual mount for the rocket is there on the wings. Which is where an HVAR rocket should be mounted. That is the proper instillation of HVAR's here. Then you have the SB2C DB's - I haven't gotten quite a good enough shot to confirm they are in fact 1000 lb M-65 GP bombs - but that part is somewhat irrelevant because the SB2C wing hardpoints for bombs were rated only for 500 lb bombs, the 1000 lb bombs would have been carried in the internal bay. And for the guy who wants to say "But Tiny Tim's weigh more and were carried like that" It used a different mount, and the weight distribution is different. Actually surprised the Corsairs with Tiny Tim's are actually right. Seeing the count of rockets on the F4U at tier 9 - already know it's wrong simply on count, and I'd take a guess that the 2 center mounts are used like above. But then we have this - the F8F Not the greatest shot I know - but the obvious center mount rocket is obvious unlike the extra rocket jammed on to the port wing more or less clipping with the inboard most rocket. Forgoing the fact the F8F was limited to 4, and there are plenty of aircraft options in the attack role that could carry 10 and that applies even to the F4U at 9, hell, the AD-1 you already have at 9 has the hard points for it, you haphazardly jammed 1 in and the other is mounted wrong - really, really wrong. Personally I say remove it for a plane that could carry that many or change the distribution of rockets and aircraft to match, but could you not at least go with a more believable and logical 5 per wing? No picture at the moment, brought it up elsewhere - Saipan's Tiny Tim's - the center mounting is wrong, didn't carry 3, just go to 3 planes with 2 rockets - it's fair on Lexatoga, and I will gladly trade the extra 3x2 for 2x3 as a Saipan owner. Granted at this point I don't think 3x3 would really put it over the top either cause it's not exactly stellar and still just puts it on par with Lex and still the same number of rockets. Also no picture at the moment but unless something changed - IJN torpedoes have the wrong stabilizer for single engine planes. The Box Type in this link is what was used for single engine planes - like the B5N. Those are the immediate glaring ones that have really kinda bothered me as it is from the start (The Lexington ones kinda put me over as I decided to take the Halloween camo off finally after wondering why I could only see 3 rockets per wing), aside from other certain ones pertaining to Kaga's uptiering. Something that would be a nice touch though would actually to also have right squadron markings, or closer, tied to the ships and planes. Especially if say we added a couple of the Essex classes, the other Yorktowns, etc. In Lexington by which I mean Saratoga's case while she never had Corsairs, These were the markings for the F6F fighters Saratoga had in February 1945. The current marking are, somewhat ironically given I'm the guy who's suggested it as a premium without them, the markings of F4U's of USS Shangri-La. You wanna focus this game play around the planes - fine. But then at the very least as much care and detail should be applied to their appearance and all as any ship in the game because especially with the longer flight times were going to be spending a lot of time looking at them. And while I'm sure say a Colorado player would appreciate the extra barrel per turret in terms of damage increase would be distracted and possibly annoyed by it being mounted on the roof of the turret if they weren't going after it cause history. This is arguably my biggest gripe with the rework - the seeming lack of care about CV's, their history, and details like any of the other 3 classes. Removing odd tiers, Kaga, and some of these feel like forcing ships to fit something easy for you guys, screw history and all that.

So I don't know if you are familiar with them or not, but there is a Sweedish power metal band called Sabaton that you simply have to hear if you are a history buff. Most of their songs are about military-related things like mayor battles, historical figures etc. Recently they have joined forces with Indy Neidell (Of the Great War and WW2 week by week fame) to create a youtube channel where they discuss the history behind their songs and the songs themselves. Needless to say if you know either Indy or Sabaton, the channel is one of the most amazing things ever created by mankind just behind battleships and memes. If this interest you here is the link to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaG4CBbZih6nLzD08bTBGfw If you don't know Sabaton here is what I would consider a (very short) beginners guide:

Interesting info on a turret damaged by a kamikaze, then nuked, and living in the Nevada desert.

The SS Ourang Medan In 1947 the Dutch Freighter SS Ourang Medan sent a cryptic SOS in Morse code; "All Officers, including the Captain, are dead. Lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead. This communication was followed by a burst of indecipherable Morse code, Then a final, grim message: “I die.” I first read of this in Vincent Gaddis’s 1965 book “Invisible Horizons: Strange Mysteries of the Sea-True stories that defy logic…” Now many years later I revisit this interesting legend to see what new evidence the passage of time has revealed. The Ship transmitting the eerie SOS signal was the SS Ourang Medan. Radio directional equipment established the ships last position and an American merchant ship, the Silver Star, was sent to investigate and render aid. The ship was found adrift approximately 50 miles from her Indicated position. When the Silver Star arrived alongside the Ourang no signs of life could be seen, although the ship itself didn’t appear to have suffered any damage. All efforts to contact the crew failed, and the ship was boarded. The decks were littered with the bodies with wide-eyed horror and their faces twisted into sheer terror, arms trying to fight off something. The ship’s dog was found dead as well, in the midst of snarling at the cause. The Captain was found on his bridge, the remainder of the Bridge Officers were found in the wheelhouse and Chartroom. In the wireless room the young operator, who presumably sent the distress call, lay dead with his earphones on, hand at his key. The engineering crew was also found at their stations with the same expressions on their faces. In all 22 crew members were found dead. Interestingly one lifeboat was missing, as well as one member of the crew unaccounted for and never found (at the time.) The rescue party noticed several things that seemed strange. The local temperature was in excess of 100°F but members of the rescue party felt an ominous chill. All of the victims had suffered from something, but none had any injuries when examined. They also seemed to be decaying quicker than they should be. They decided to toe the ship to the nearest port and began making preparations. Just as salvage operations began they noticed ominous billows of smoke pouring out from Number 4 hold. Quickly they cut the ship loose just as the Ourang Medan exploded with enough force to briefly lift it out of the water before rolling over and sinking… disappearing for good. Like The Philadelphia Experiment, the story of the SS Ourang Medan has become something of a legend over all these 75+ years, with new “facts” added here and there. Did it really happen? Read the full story here; https://www.de173.com/the-ss-ourang-medan/ complete with detailed information, letters found in the CIA Archives, Original Newspaper clippings and more. This page is still in the process of research and editing but already provides a deep dive into the subject and I hope you find it Interesting.

So, if this is in the wrong section mods - please just move it to the right one. And a forward for any WG staff looking at the idea: This is meant as something to add to a sense of history to certain CV's in the game NOT to be used to correct historical gaffs like those now on Kaga. This SHOULD NOT be a substitute for putting THE RIGHT planes on a premium CV and where possible tech tree ones, the first bloody time, or if need be putting the ship down a tier or in the unlikely case of such a need, up a tier. That out of the way, in all my testing on CV's there is one thing I can't say I don't like - the Lex's Halloween skin. Much as I'm the history guy when it comes to CV's I'm not against fun things like a skin that changes the planes, that can be removed for normal camo's, and have the right planes. And it was nice to see that, while they need some tweaks I think to weapon placement (maybe even mess with the look of them), it still changes the planes. And that got me thinking, especially with UK CV's on the way. Plenty of people want Ark Royal and to send it against Bismarck, though we have no idea what Wargaming is going to do with it. Lexington, as some of us know, is really Saratoga and one of the older CV's, Shokaku was part of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Midway's served into the early jet age, etc. So - what if we applied this concept of the Halloween skins to more historical skins for the CV's? Sure things like AA and all would be wrong, unless things could be added/removed visually with no actual effect on gameplay. Example being a ship has 20x 20 mm guns, but the "historical" skin they were instead 15x .50 cal's, so visually - you only see the 15x .50 cal's, but from a gameplay standpoint the DPS/range/etc are still the 20x 20 mm's and still able to disable them hitting where you normally would. But you could actually make Lexington Lexington circa the battle of Coral Sea, Shokaku flying her planes she did on December 7th 1941, Depending where she is tiered Yorktown maybe runs her Midway look and planes, Ark Royal, has her aircraft from when she disabled Bismarck so now you two can attack one with swordfish torpedo bombers - without having to worry that they are tier 4/6 in the tech tree as they are still technically your normal tier 6/8 planes, but with the appearance of the Swordfish. Some of these CV's saw a bunch of different planes over 5, 10, 20+ years of service, and while sure there's some classes with 20+ ships you can cover them all, but most are 1 or 2. Just a random idea I had a few days ago. I think it could be neat, and great to have for anniversary events of these battles as mission rewards or maybe campaign rewards that people can earn first - and then later on if they weren't around or couldn't get it the ability to buy it. The satisfaction of disabling a Bismarck's rudder with a torpedo, without the possible rage of severely weak planes because game mechanics, a possible what if meeting of the Enterprise and Shokaku both as they were December 7th, or Lex and Shokaku as they were at Coral Sea.

Roma 1943