AdBlock Detected

It looks like you're using an ad-blocker!

Our team work realy hard to produce quality content on this website and we noticed you have ad-blocking enabled.

Canadian Aircraft Carrier HMCS Magnificent

HMCS Magnificent

Canadian Aircraft Carrier HMCS Magnificent

HMCS Magnificent was a Majestic-class aircraft carrier operated by the Royal Canadian Navy from 1948 to 1957.

Towards the end of the Second World War, Canada anticipated the need for additional and larger aircraft carriers to operated in the Pacific against Japan. At this time it crewed two British Royal Navy escort carriers (HMS Nabob which was heavily damaged and HMS Puncher). Negotiations led to Britain offering the Colossus-class carrier, HMS Warrior (HMCS Warrior in Canadian service) and The Majestic-class HMS Magnificent (HMCS Magnificent in Canadian service).

Warrior entered service in 1946, but was considered unsuitable for Canadian conditions, as she had been built to operate in the tropics and lacked heating. In 1948 she was replaced by Magnificent. The carrier was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 21 March 1948.

Following the Suez Crisis, the Canadian Government agreed to send a peacekeeping for to Egypt. HMCS Magnificent transported 406 Canadian troops and their vehicles along with 4 Royal Canadian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otters and a single H04S helicopter. For this trip, she had her guns removed and complement reduced to 600. She unloaded her cargo in Port Said in January 1957.

The increased in size, weight and speed of jet aircraft made Magnificent unsuitable for their operation. On 14 June 1957, she was decommissioned and replaced in RCN service by HMCS Bonaventure, another Royal Navy Majestic-class carrier (HMS Powerful) that had not been completed at the end of the war. The ship was broken up at Faslane, Scotland, in July 1965.

Menu to Photos of HMCS Magnificent

Photos of HMCS Magnificent

Transporting Canadian Air Force Sabres

Transporting Canadian Army Equipment

Aircraft Operations

Douglas A-1 Skyraider (US Navy)

Fairey Firefly

Grumman Avenger

Hawker Sea Fury

Danish Coastal Defense Ship Olfert Fischer

Olfert Fischer

Danish Coastal Defense Ship Olfert Fischer

HDMS Olfert Fischer (1903) was a Danish coastal defense ship. The second of her class of three ships (including Herluf Trolle and Peder Skram), she was launched on 9 May 1903 and commissioned on 31 May 1905.

She had an uneventful career, as Denmark remained neutral throughout World War One. Herluf Trolle and her sisters patrolled Denmark’s coast, enforcing her neutrality. Post war, with reduced naval budgets, she was often laid up or used as a training ship. In 1936, it was decided to scrap her, but after she had been used to evaluate aerial bombing. With most of her useful equipment removed and additional armour added to protect a skeleton crew, army and navy bombers dropped a total of 386 small, practice bombs on her from 5 to 17 October October 1936. Only twelve of the 12 kg (26 lb) bombs hit Olfert Fischer.

Olfert Fischer was broken up for scrap from 1937 to 1938. Her main guns were added to the coastal defenses of Holmen Naval Base, where they remained until 1948.

Italian Battleship Giulio Cesare

Giulio Cesare after her reconstruction

Italian Battleship Giulio Cesare

Completed on 14 May 1914, Giulio Cesare was a Conte di Cavour-class dreadnought battleships built for the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy). She saw little service during the First World War, spending most of her time in port, ready to sortie if the Austro-Hungarian battlefleet sought a decisive engagement.

During the inter-war period, she was heavily rebuilt. Her main 305mm guns were re-bored to 320mm, her machinery upgraded and additional armour added. The result was an increase from 23,000 tonnes to 29,000 tonnes. Despite this, the new machinery increased her speed from 21.5 knots to 27 knots.

Early in the Second World War, Giulio Cesare took part in the Battle of Calabria (also known as the Battle of Punta Stilo) during which she was struck by a shell from HMS Warspite. This damaged her funnel and reduced her speed, forcing the Italians to break off the engagement.

She was present at Taranto on the night of 11 November 1940, when the Royal Navy launched an air attack. During the attack, her sister ship Conte di Cavour was sunk, Duilo badly damaged and run-aground and Littorio severely damaged. Giulio Cesare however remained undamaged.

For the remainder of her active duty, she escorted convoys to Africa. From January 1942 she was reduced to a training ship. After the Italian surrender she was interned at Malta, where she stayed until 17 June 1944.

Post war, she was allocated to Russia as part of war reparations and renamed Novorossiysk. On the night of 28/29 October 1955 an explosion ripped a 4-by-14-meter (13 by 46 ft) hole in the forecastle forward of ‘A’ turret. The flooding could not be controlled, and she capsized with the loss of 617 men, including 61 men sent from other ships to assist. The most likely cause of the explosion was determined to be a World War Two German mine.

Menu of Photos

Giulio Cesare Under Construction

Giulio Cesare Before Reconstruction

Giulio Cesare After Reconstruction

Giulio Cesare at the Battle of Calabria

Giulio Cesare As Novorossiysk