The interwar period saw a number of naval treaties that limited the overall tonnage of
naval ships and fleets. With these restrictions, many of the world’s navies sought to build small,
fast ships that adhered to the treaties while still offering significant fighting
power. Because of this, many World War Two ships – especially early in the war – ended
up with fatal design flaws such as weak armor and haphazard designs. In this video,
we're going to look at some of the worst fighting ships of World War Two.
In 1922, the US, the UK, Japan, Italy, and France enacted the Washington Naval Treaty, which limited
the overall tonnage of the signatory navies. After building USS Yorktown and Enterprise, the US still
had 14,700 metric tons available and decided to build a small aircraft carrier – USS Wasp.
First laid down in 1936 and commissioned in 1940, USS Wasp was doomed from the start.
With 43% – or almost 10,000 tons – less displacement than her Yorktown cousin,
Wasp had no torpedo protection, almost no torpedo protection, and cruised at a modest speed of 29.5
knots. Additionally, neither her boilers or internal aviation fuel stores were protected,
putting her at a higher risk for fire and explosions. The builders recognized
these problems early on, but due to the size limitations, they were unable to rectify them.
Despite this, Wasp was involved in a number of successful operations in the
Mediterranean. These included Operation Calendar and Operation Bowery, where Wasp successfully
launched Spitfire and Wildcat aircraft over Malta for additional air support.
Then, in 1942, she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet, where her luck ran out.
In September, while escorting Marine transports, the Japanese submarine I-19 struck her with
three torpedoes. The torpedoes hit the gasoline tanks, and fires quickly spread across the ship,
causing ammunition stores to explode. Within five hours, the crew abandoned her.
This was the doom the builders had foretold.
Funnily enough, the Navy later concluded that with heavier armor,
the ship would likely have survived the torpedo attacks.
The Giussano subclass of Condottieri cruisers consisted of four light cruisers, all laid down
in 1928 by the Regia Marina. The vessels were built to catch and sink French Fantasque-class
large destroyers. As such, speed was their highest priority. The Giussano-class cruiser was designed
to reach speeds of 30 knots, but the government incentivized builders to increase this by offering
them bonuses for every knot above 30. They reached 42 knots during trials, but this proved
unreplicable in the sea. The final top speed the Giussano-class cruiser achieved was 37 knots.
To do this, the cruisers had to be light. With a displacement of just 6,842 tons fully loaded,
these ships had virtually no armor. Instead, the Italians relied on firepower and speed
to outrun torpedoes. They equipped the Giussano with eight 152 millimeter guns,
six 100 millimeter guns, eight 37 millimeter, 54 caliber guns, and eight machine guns.
Four Giussano class cruisers were launched between January 1931 and
February 1932. They saw limited combat in the 1936 Abyssinian Crisis and the Spanish Civil War.
When World War Two broke out, the British Fleet went on the offensive in the Mediterranean.
In July 1940, a British reconnaissance plane spotted two of the Giussano ships – Bartolomeo
Colleoni and Giovanni delle Bande Nere – heading toward Leros in the
Aegean Sea. The HMAS Sydney appeared, quickly sinking Bartolomeo Colleoni.
In December 1941, four British and Dutch destroyers blew up two more of Giussano
cruisers near Cape Bon, off the coast of Tunisia. The final cruiser, Giovanni delle Bande Nere,
saw minor success in the war, but she too succumbed to torpedoes on the 1st of April 1942.
After the Giussanos disastrous run, Condottieri subclasses slowly improved,
especially with respect to defense and armor.
The HMS Courageous was the lead ship of the Royal Navy’s Courageous class
battle cruisers. First laid down in 1915, she was 234 meters long and she displaced
22,922 metric tons at full load. During trials, she proved to be structurally weak,
buckling under harsh weather and suffering fuel tank leaks. She still served in the
First World War, mainly patrolling the North Seas, albeit with little impact.
After signing the Washington Naval Treaty, the Royal Navy had to scrap or convert
many of their older battleships and battle cruisers. HMS Courageous would be converted
into an aircraft carrier due to her large hull and high top speed. Once converted,
she could carry up to 48 aircraft at once.
Unfortunately, the conversion was less than ideal. As a battle cruiser, she had light armor,
and during the conversion, little protection was added. Additionally,
with nearly 5,000 tons of added displacement, she was less stable than most purpose-built carriers.
When World War Two began, Courageous was assigned to a hunter-killer group tasked
with destroying U-boats off Ireland’s Atlantic coast. On 17 September 1939,
a pair of U-29 torpedoes slammed into her port side. The torpedoes
knocked out the carrier’s power, and her compartments quickly filled with water.
She capsized and sank within 15 minutes.
Because many World War One-era ships lacked effective torpedo protection
and the Royal Navy never rectified that, Courageous was the first Allied ship the
Germans sunk during the war. Later aircraft carriers improved upon Courageous’s design,
including stronger armor and improving stability.
The Königsberg class (or K class) was a type of German light cruiser built between 1926 and
1930. On paper, these three ships had the perfect balance of weight, speed, and firepower. But due
to tonnage limitations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles and the Washington Naval Treaty,
they were designed with lighter metals. Additionally, nearly 100% of the hull
was welded – as opposed to riveted or bolted – which meant that the hull was weak and unstable.
During the 1930s, before the war began, K class cruisers took part in non-intervention patrols
in the Spanish Civil War. Throughout that decade, the cruisers suffered due to their light hulls.
Fractures and tears along were common in harsh weather or when the ships’ guns were fired.
In 1939, after the outbreak of World War Two,
these cruisers were sent to lay mines in the North Sea. In April 1940,
all three ships participated in Operation Weserübung, Germany’s invasion of Norway.
On 9 April, the first K-class cruiser – Karlsruhe – sunk after being struck by a pair of torpedoes.
The ship lost power and the crew scuttled and abandoned her.
A day later, a second K-class cruiser – Königsberg – was damaged by shore batteries,
then went down after the Royal Air Force bombed her to hell while at anchor.
The last K-class cruiser – Köln – fared much better, surviving until March 1945,
when she finally succumbed to American bombs. Ultimately,
major design flaws made these ships incredibly vulnerable to torpedoes and air strikes.
Designed to be the third battleship in the Yamato-class, the Shinano was
first laid down in 1940 However, during the first years of the war,
most navies realized that battleships were no longer as practical as aircraft carriers. In 1942,
after the US destroyed four Japanese fleet carriers in the Battle of Midway,
the Japanese Navy converted the Shinano into a carrier support ship.
Shinano was designed to support other aircraft and
act as a refueling station for planes during battle.
Shinano was 266 meters in length and had a displacement of 73,000 metric tons at
full load. While she was built with plenty of anti-aircraft and surface protection, Shinano
lacked dedicated anti-submarine protection, which would ultimately lead to her demise.
She was supposed to launch in 1945, but this was expedited after Japan’s defeat
at the Battle of Philippine Sea in June 1944. Instead, she was launched on the
8th of October but before making it out of the harbor, she encountered issues. A problem with
the caisson that held the water back in the port damaged the bow structure and required repairs.
They tried again in November 1944, despite Shinano being incomplete. Her watertight
doors had not been installed, many cable holes remained unsealed, and the fire mains and bailing
system were inoperable. She was also missing boilers, which limited her speed to 25 knots.
On 29 November 1944, USS Archerfish – a submarine – approached Shinano. Zigzagging
and constantly moving 2 knots faster than the submarine, Shinano maintained
a safe distance. That was until a bearing overheated. This forced Shinano to slow down,
making her an easy target for the enemy submarine, which fired four torpedoes. The
ship’s inferior anti-submarine armor, combined with her crew’s failure to mitigate the damage
caused by the torpedoes, led to the Shinano sinking seven hours later.
Many of these ships were terrible because of limitations imposed by the interwar treaties.
Others, while looking good on paper, simply didn’t fare as well in practice. None of
the ships we covered today survived the war. They were far from the only poorly
designed ships of the war, but they were certainly among the very worst.
But what do you think? Did we present a fair assessment of the ships? Did we miss
any especially horrible vessels? Let us know in the comments.