USS St. George (CVE-17) was laid down on 31 July 1941 as a C3-S-A2 by Ingalls Shipbuilding, Hull 296 of Pascagoula, Mississippi, under Maritime Commission contract as the (second) SS Mormacland for Moore-McCormack Lines, Inc.,. She was renamed St. George (AVG-17) by the United States Navy on 7 January 1942; and assigned to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease as HMS Pursuer on 24 February 1942. The vessel was launched on 18 July 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Mary Ann S. Bartman. The escort carrier was reclassified ACV-17 on 20 August 1942, acquired by the US Navy and simultaneously transferred to Britain on 14 June 1943. She was reclassified CVE-17 on 15 July 1943.
HMS Implacable was the name ship of her class of two aircraft carriers built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Upon completion in 1944, she was initially assigned to the Home Fleet and attacked targets in Norway for the rest of the year. She was subsequently assigned to the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) where she attacked the Japanese naval base at Truk and targets in the Japanese Home Islands in 1945. The ship was used to repatriate liberated Allied prisoners of war (PoWs) and soldiers after the Japanese surrender, for the rest of the year. Implacable returned home in 1946 and became the Home Fleet's deck-landing training carrier, a role that lasted until 1950. She briefly served as flagship of the Home Fleet in 1950. During this time she participated in many exercises and made a number of port visits in Western Europe. She was placed in reserve in 1950 and converted into a training ship in 1952, and served as flagship of the Home Fleet Training Squadron. The ship was considered for a major modernisation in 1951–1952, but this was rejected as too expensive and time-consuming. Implacable was decommissioned in 1954 and sold for scrap the following year.
The Attacker class were a class of escort aircraft carriers in service with the British Royal Navy during the Second World War.
Operation Nordseetour was a raid conducted between 30 November and 27 December 1940 by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper. It was part of the Battle of the Atlantic of World War II, with the ship seeking to attack Allied convoys in the North Atlantic. Admiral Hipper left Germany on 30 November 1940 and entered the Atlantic after evading British patrols. She had difficulty locating any convoys and was plagued by engine problems and bad weather. While returning to Brest in German-occupied France, Admiral Hipper encountered Convoy WS 5A on the night of 24 December. A torpedo attack that night did not inflict any damage and Admiral Hipper was driven off by the convoy's escorts when she attacked on the next morning. Two British transports and a heavy cruiser were damaged. The German cruiser sank a merchant ship later on 25 December, and arrived in Brest on 27 December.
Operation Tungsten was a Second World War Royal Navy air raid that targeted the German battleship Tirpitz. The operation sought to damage or destroy Tirpitz at her base in Kaafjord in the far north of Norway before she could become fully operational again following a period of repairs.
HNoMS Draug was the lead ship of the three-ship Draug class of destroyers built for the Royal Norwegian Navy in the years 1908–1913. The four-stacked destroyer was kept in service long after she was obsolete, and took part in the defence of Norway during the German invasion in 1940.
HMCS Sioux was a V-class destroyer of the Royal Canadian Navy which fought in the Second World War and the Korean War. She was launched as HMS Vixen for the British Royal Navy before being transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy. She was then named for the Sioux people of Canada's western provinces.
The Use of Ashes was the fourth album made by American psychedelic folk group Pearls Before Swine, and the second on Reprise Records after their move from ESP-Disk.
HNoMS Nordkapp was the lead ship of the Nordkapp class of fishery protection vessels. She was launched 18 August 1937 at Horten naval shipyard, with yard number 123. She had one sister ship, HNoMS Senja. Nordkapp was named after the North Cape in Finnmark. As was typical of her class, Nordkapp was very unstable in rough seas and was viewed from the beginning as a second-rate vessel. Nordkapp sailed throughout the Second World War and saw service in several theatres.
HMS Zealous was a Z-class destroyer of the Royal Navy built in 1944 by Cammell Laird. She served during the Second World War, participating in operations in the North Sea and off the Norwegian coast, before taking part in some of the Arctic convoys. She spent a further ten years in Royal Navy service after the end of the war before being sold to the Israeli Navy, which operated her as INS Eilat. She saw action during the Suez Crisis in 1956 attacking Egyptian ships, and was still active by the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967. She was sunk several months after the conflict by missiles launched from several small Egyptian missile boats; this made her the first vessel to be sunk by a missile boat in wartime. It was an important milestone in naval surface warfare, which aroused considerable interest around the world in the development of small manoeuvrable missile boats.
Shin'yō Maru was a cargo steamship that was built in 1894, had a fifty-year career under successive British, Australian, Chinese and Greek owners, was captured by Japan in the Second World War, and sunk by a United States Navy submarine in 1944.
HNoMS Honningsvåg was a naval trawler that served throughout the Second World War as a patrol boat in the Royal Norwegian Navy. She was launched at the North Sea harbour of Wesermünde in Hanover, Germany in February 1940 as the fishing trawler Malangen and was captured by Norwegian militiamen at the North Norwegian port of Honningsvåg during her maiden fishing journey to the Barents Sea. Having taken part in the defence of Norway in 1940 she spent the rest of the war years patrolling the ocean off Iceland. She was decommissioned in 1946, sold to a civilian fishing company in 1947 and scrapped in 1973.
Empire Arnold was a 7,045-ton cargo ship which was built in 1942 for the Ministry of War Transport. Launched in March and completed in May, she was torpedoed by U-155 on 4 August 1942.
HMS Badsworth(pennant number L03) was an escort destroyer of the Type II Hunt class. The Royal Navy ordered Badsworth's construction three months after the outbreak of the Second World War. Cammell Laird laid down her keel at their Birkenhead yard on 15 May 1940, as Admiralty Job No. J3260. After a successful Warship Week national savings campaign in March 1942, Badsworth was adopted by the civil community of Batley, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The ship was named after a fox-hunt in Yorkshire.
Operation Leader was an air attack conducted against German shipping in the vicinity of Bodø, Norway, on 4 October 1943, during World War II. The raid was executed by aircraft flying from the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Ranger, which was attached to the British Home Fleet. The American airmen located many German and Norwegian ships in this area, destroyed five and are believed to have damaged another seven. Two German aircraft searching for the Allied fleet were shot down. Three American aircraft were destroyed in combat during the operation, and another crashed while landing.
Empire Endurance was a 8,514 GRT steam cargo liner that was built in 1928 as Alster by Deschimag Werk Vulkan, Hamburg, Germany for the shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd. In the years leading up to the Second World War Alster carried cargo and passengers between Germany and Australia. After the outbreak of war she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine for use as a supply ship.
Operation Provident was carried out during World War II by the Home Fleet of the Royal Navy in the period 22–29 November 1944. The purpose of the operation was to carry out attacks on enemy shipping on the coast of Norway between latitudes 64° 30′ and 69° North. The operation took place under the personal command of the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, Admiral Sir Henry Ruthven Moore, flying his flag in the aircraft carrier HMS Implacable. It is remembered for the destruction of MS Rigel in Norway's worst disaster at sea.
Tjøtta International War Cemetery is a war cemetery on Tjøtta, Northern Norway, founded in 1970. The sinking of the Rigel claimed some 2,500 lives on 27 November 1944. On board were Soviet, Polish and Serbian prisoners of war, Norwegian prisoners and German deserters, German soldiers and Norwegian crew members. The wreck lay partially submerged off the coast of Rosøya island until about 1970, but has now been removed. The dead could not be identified any more. All the graves are anonymous, but a memorial stone in the form of a cross has been erected on the site.
Håkon Nilsen, Stavanger, Norway, popularly known as "Torpedo Nilsen", was a Norwegian war veteran and highly decorated allied naval torpedo commander of World War II.
Margit Johnsen Godø,, nicknamed Malta-Margit, was a Norwegian sailor in the merchant navy. For her service on a merchant vessel in convoy to Malta in 1942 she was awarded the St. Olav's Medal with Oak Branch and several other gallantry decorations. Johnsen continued her work in the Norwegian merchant fleet until 1960. Her story is told in maritime and wartime history as an example of Norwegian women's effort during World War II.
Norway
