ive seen that the U.S.A converted some cruise liners for battle/convoys. ive also seen that Australia did the same. I have read that the Royal Navy converted smaller boats some from Dunkirk into coastal defence boats...but i cant find anything on Q ships. What was the RN'S standard spec for converting the Boats / ships. has anyone got any photo's info or links on British WWII converted Vessels. many thanks.
Hi raf, can I just clarify what you're looking for - are you interested in Q ships (which were warships disguised as civilian ships) or merchant ships that had been armed? The former were mainly raiders used against the enemies' merchant shipping, whilst armed merchant ships' used their armaments as self protection. As you can see from the wiki article, and from other sources on the web, Britain didn't actually use Q ships that often, as they relied on their Royal Navy. However they did arm a lot of merchant ships for defensive purposes. There was a third category - that of merchant ships that were converted into warships (but NOT Q ships because they weren't disguised). Examples of these would be: Merchant aircraft carriers (MAC ships): British, RN Aircraft Carriers, CAM and MAC-ships in WW2 Armed merchantmen: Armed merchantmen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
thanks all.. kyt i was interested in both.... still struggling to find any info on these older vessels such as the ones used in dunkirk that were converted by the RN. Theres some info on the small boats of dunkirk and a site regarding the ship building in the north east were it said the boats were strengthend with steel plates. i also wonder if these smaller vessels were fitted with Vickers or motars. thanks all
All the RN conversions come under the heading "auxiliary warships", and there were a number of different types. I'm afraid the only listing that I can fond at the moment is for the RN losses of auxiliries (no pictues I'm afraid) during the whole war (can't find any other complete listing or further info as yet) (all of these ships were conversions for the RN): British, RN, AMC, Andania, Carinthia, Comorin, Dunvegan Castle, Forfar, Hector, Jervis Bay, Laurentic, Patroclus, Rajputana, Rawalpindi, HMS
thanks Kyt. have to agree there isnt much info on this topic on Google thats why i posted. do you think this could be partly due to the restrictions of photography during the war.
Partly, raf. BUT if youfancy a bit of a slog try what I've just done. Using the link that I've just posted for losses, taking the heading for each category e.g. Armed merchant cruisers or Armed boarding vessels , then google it and then images. It's long winded but I'm starting to find images now. Rather than posting all the links, give it a go.
What were these 'aircraft transporters'? I had never heard of them. Mainly cargo ships that could carry dismantled aircraft. But during and after the war, the US converted some old aircraft carriers as aircraft transports - their flight decks were too small to handle the newer aircraft in combat conditions; but they could land and take off 9or be winched on or off) smaller aircraft for redeployment across the the US's land bases around the world. Used a lot during the Korean and early Vietnam wars. World Aircraft Carriers List: US Escort Carriers, S4 Hulls
