As the title says, are there any ships built before or during WW2 still in active service with any navy? I don't want to know about training ships (USCGC
Eagle, HMS Caroline, etc.) or commissioned museum ships/memorials (e.g. Arizona), just active warships. The last ones I know of are the Brazilian carrier NAeL
Minas Gerais (ex-HMS Vengeance, decommissioned 2001) and the Taiwanese Chao Yang destroyers (US Gearing class ships, of which the last went out of service in
the late 2000s).
Any WW2 ships still in service?
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 Alexius55 |
Any WW2 ships still in service? |
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Posts: 141 ( 1-Dec-2007 20:42:53) |
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AegisFC |
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Posts: 189 ( 1-Dec-2007 22:23:09) |
Mexico has a couple.
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Alexius55 |
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Posts: 143 ( 1-Dec-2007 22:35:59) |
AegisFC: Thanks. Wiki says 2, both destroyers- 1 Gearing commissioned a couple of months before VJ day, and one Edsall-class DE which saw action as a convoy
escort.
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JBren1 |
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Posts: 144 ( 2-Dec-2007 04:43:00) |
The Philippines also has a, DE, several PCE/R's and a couple of AM's. Mexico also has several Auk class AM's in addition to vessels mentioned.
South Korea hasn't finished decommissioning all its WWII LST's, nor Taiwan and latter has a WWII LSD also. Thailand and Vietnam also have WWII landing
vessels, or at least their decommisioning hasn't been recorded by standard naval annuals. Several of Dominican Republic's main ships are WWII vintage
but borderline 'warships'; net tenders, buoy tenders, minesweepers. Brazil, Paraguay, and Peru all have pre WWII river warships. Some of the navies
mentioned and others still employ ATA's or ATF's as patrol vessels.
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Alexius55 |
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Posts: 144 ( 2-Dec-2007 12:56:48) |
Thank you. One more I just found out about is the command ship of the Serbian Navy, the river barge Kozara- built in 1939 as a supply ship for the Germans in
Austria, used as various things including a floating hotel and a presidential yacht, currently a river command ship and minelayer. Could this be the last
commissioned Axis vessel?
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deamy |
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Registered Member
Posts: 3 (10-Dec-2007 00:10:57) |
Well there's the dutch cruiser De Zeven Provinciën laid down in -39, captured by Germany and renamed KH1, completed for the dutch after the war and renamed
De Ruyter, sold to Peru in -73 and renamed Almirante Grau and still in commision as that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAP_Almirante_Grau_(CLM-81) Last gun cruiser commisioned. |
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Mark F |
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Posts: 2361 (15-Dec-2007 06:49:23) |
Combat vessels are pretty much gone. There are 2 FRAM Gearing's left in active service - one in Mexico and one in the Pakistani Coast Guard. A
considerable number of war-vintage LST's survive in various countries as do PCE and ex-minesweeper (Auk, Admirable) type patrol ships, tugs and other
support craft. Pretty much everything extant is of U.S. type and manufacture.
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junkmailnotread |
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Posts: 9 (29-Dec-2007 19:58:18) |
Might ex-HMS Hermes / INS Viraat qualify? Definitely a WW2 hull, and still in commission today.
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bager1968 |
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Posts: 2718 (30-Dec-2007 08:34:35) |
Ex-HMS Hermes / INS Viraat was laid down 21 June 1944. Construction was suspended in 1945 but work was resumed in 1952 to clear the slipway. The hull was
launched 16 February 1953 and Hermes commissioned 25 November 1959.
~75% of Hermes was built post-war, and she was not completed until 14 years after the end of WW2, so I don't count Hermes at all. |
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Psilander |
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Posts: 719 (19-Jan-2008 01:33:43) |
Sweden decommisioned their last ww2 minesweepers HMS M21 and HMS M22 last august. They where built in 1941 and served as navigationaltraningships for cadets
the last decades of their life. But would have served as clearencediver vessels in case of war.
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seasick |
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Posts: 4315 (19-Jan-2008 03:39:02) |
Mexico has a former USN Fletcher and a former USN DE. Both ships comissioned in May 1945 but are not fully operational. Mexico has four ex-USN Knox class
Frigates and two ex-USN Bronstein frigates that are their main surface force.
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Gunnersmate04 |
Is the Minas gone? | ||
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Registered Member
Posts: 43 (20-Jan-2008 01:16:48) |
Did the Brazilians finally decomm the old carrier?
Recall when in Chile in 86 and 89 seeing the Crucero O'Higgins, a Brooklyn CLass CL. Thing looked brand new. I assume she's gone too. GUNNER |
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seasick |
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Posts: 4318 (20-Jan-2008 05:30:40) |
Chile kept the O'Higgins in excellent shape until she was decommissioned. I read an article about her some time back. She was retired in good material
condition. A smaller navy with a good budget and a willingness to maintain her, every warship's wet dream.
-- Able-22
Nicotine: America's number one mind altering chemical.
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bager1968 |
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Posts: 2758 (20-Jan-2008 10:01:19) |
Minas Gerais was decomissioned on 16 October 2001, and was scrapped in India in 2004-2005.
The Fletcher class destroyer of the Mexican Navy (ex-USS John Rodgers DD-574, BAM Cuitlahuachas) has been decommissioned (16 July 2002), and a US-based museum organization (Beauchamp Tower Corporation) took possession of her on 30th December 2006. As of 21 Nov 2007, however, she was still in Mexico, as government bureaucracies kept up their attempt to justify their existence by creating ever more hoops for BTC to jump through in their quest to bring her to Mobile, Alabama. This was the last Fletcher serving anywhere in the world. Ex-USS Steinaker (DD-863), now ARM Netzahualcoyotl (D-102, "Netza"), is a Gearing class destroyer, and was built during WW II, modernized under the FRAM Mk I program during 1964 and finally transferred to Mexico in the early 1980s. This is the last Gearing serving anywhere in the world since Taiwan retired the last of theirs in December 2005. Ex-USS Hurst (DE-250), now ARM Manuel Azueta (D-111), is an Edsall class destroyer escort still in service. Ex-LST-602 USS Clearwater County, now ARM Manzanillo, is an ex-USN LST of WW2 vintage, and is still in service. |
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