King George V

Maybe are Internet King JC could throw some light on this one, after all JC knows his way around google.

 

JC IS google!

 

I don’t think we are going to get a response. Just so we have an idea of what kind of confusion we can have on flagships, I have gone through the OoB for the Battle of the Philippine Sea. I know the thread is of a British battleship, but I’m much more knowledgeable on the USN than the RN so please forgive me. AFAIK both Navies use the same format. So, this battle placed the US Fifth Fleet up against the Japanese.

In Charge of the US Fifth Fleet was Admiral Raymond Spruance who hung his Flag on the USS Indianapolis (CA35).
Under Spruance was Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher commanding TF 58 and flying his flag on the USS Lexington (CV16), Note a subordinate is in a larger ship so any ship can be claimed as the flagship in the Fleet, Task Force, etc.
Under Mitscher was:
Rear Admiral Joseph J. Clark commanding TF 58.1 with the USS Yorktown (CV10) flying his flag
Rear Admiral Alfred E. Montgomery commanding TF 58.2 with the USS Bunker Hill (CV17) flying his flag
Rear Admiral John W. Reeves commanding TF 58.3 with the USS Enterprise (CV6) flying his flag.
Rear Admiral William K. Harrill commanding TF 58.4 with the USS Essex (CV9) flying his flag
Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee commanding TF 58.7 with the USS Washington (BB56) flying his flag.

Also under Lee were three other flag officers. Rear Admiral E. W. Hanson, Rear Admiral Glenn B. Davis, and Rear Admiral O. M. Hustvedt. So as you can see in just this one fleet there was ten flagships. There was also destroyer squadrons in each task force but none of them were commanded by a flag officer.
Hope this helps with some of the confusions

 

I know this is off subject a little and i will put this in the "Today in WWII" thread but i thought the naval buffs on this thread might like this little peice of Aussie naval history. As is so often the case i give credit to the Australian War memorial for this info.

Ordinary Seaman Edward (Teddy) Sheean

Date of birth: 28 December 1923
Place of birth: Barrington, TAS
Date of death: 01 December 1942
Place of death: Arafura Sea


Edward "Teddy" Sheean was an ordinary seaman serving on HMAS Armidale whose death during a Japanese aerial attack on his ship has become a well-known episode in Australian Second World War lore.

Sheean was born at Lower Barrington, Tasmania, on 28 December 1923. He received his education in a Catholic school at Latrobe in Tasmania and, having completed his schooling, worked on farms in the area where he grew up. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve in April 1941 and began his initial training in Tasmania. In February 1942 he was sent to the Flinders Naval Depot at Westernport in Victoria to continue his training, and the following May he was posted to Sydney.

At the end of that month, the vessel on which he was billeted, the former ferry Kuttabul, was sunk during the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour. Fortunately for Sheean he was in Tasmania on home leave that night. He returned to Sydney 11 days later to begin his service as an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gunner on the newly commissioned corvette, HMAS Armidale. Armidale spent her early months on relatively uneventful convoy escort duties along Australia's east and northern coasts.

In October 1942 Armidale's captain, Lieutenant Commander David Richards, was ordered to Darwin and, on 29 November, the corvette began her last operation. Along with two other vessels, she was to undertake a resupply and evacuation mission to Japanese-occupied Timor.

Having been seen by Japanese reconnaissance pilots shortly after leaving the port, Armidale was destined for a dangerous journey. She and the other corvette on the operation, HMAS Castlemaine, missed the rendezvous with the third ship, in Timor's Betano Bay, but met her later some 100 kilometres off-shore. The plan having gone awry, Armidale was ordered to return to Betano the following night. Facing a long day in enemy waters and the certainty of attack, the crew waited.

When in the mid-afternoon she was hit by two aircraft-launched torpedoes, Armidale began to sink fast. Sheean was wounded and, rather than abandon ship, he strapped himself to his Oerlikon and began to engage the attacking aircraft even as the ship sunk beneath him. He shot down two planes, and crewmates recall seeing tracer rising from beneath the surface as Sheean was dragged under the water, firing until the end. He died on 1 December 1942 aged just 18. Only 49 of the 149 men on board survived the attack and subsequent ordeal on rafts and in life boats.

Many consider that Sheean's actions deserved the Victoria Cross, an award for which he was not recommended at the time although he was Mentioned in Dispatches. He has subsequently been honoured in a well-known painting at the Australian War Memorial and by having a Collins Class submarine named after him in 1999 - the only vessel in the Royal Australian Navy to be named after an ordinary seaman.

 

You can check the various listings on the OoB page at Navweaps. Many of them note the various flagships present in a battle.
The Order Of Battle Page

 

Thanks LOL. Ill leave this one to you all. You guys seem to be doing pretty good. I had looked at this thread before and didn't feel the need to comment. Besides with the original poster's attitude why bother? It would be "Rubbish" anyway . LOL

 

OMG, it's Canadian?!?!? *pouts*

 

Well I am really a kid (18) but I do study History as a passion and WW2 Naval history is my love so let me tell you this NEVER in WW2 was there a SINGLE Command vessel for the ENTIRE BRITISH FLEET. Every fleet (grouping of vessels) had its own Flagship and this signified the vessel of where the Command officer (Admiral Rank) commanded his forces.

Now that being said HMS Victory is the ceremonial Flagship of the British Empire and not the Navy! That is what most people dont get. Now you might think " The RN is the British Empire" and my responce would be "Yes but she is a military wing of the B.E."

Thank you for the time.

 

It's really nice to see a kid interested in naval history. I'm afraid it's really rare, at least in the States.

 

Plumky, don't expect any respons from the thread starter, he seems uncapable of accepting the obvious.



(Well I still reegn as the youngest memberf WW2F at least.)

 

a flagship is a ship were the commanding officer usually commands from so you could have anything being a flagship from a submarine to an aircraft carrier generally these ships have a special flag flying over them signalling there is an officer in command on board. so there is no singal flagship HMS Hood was pride of the royal navy until it was sunk by bismark.

 

Is that correct? from earlier posts my impression was that a flagship is a ship that carries a commanding officer of flag rank (some sort of admiral). Is it correct to call a flagship also the vessel of the senior captain that is more likely to be in command of a small squadron (but is usually also the ship's captain) ? I remember the terms "admiral's flag" and "commodore's pennant" so I think at least in sailing ship times there was a distinction.

 

Wiki of course but pretty much spot on with the definition,

A flagship is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, a designation given on account of being either the largest, fastest, newest, most heavily armed or, for publicity purposes, the most well known. In military terms, it is a ship used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships. The term originates from the custom of the commanding officer (usually, but not always, a flag officer) to fly a distinguishing flag.
Used in this way, "flagship" is fundamentally a temporary designation; the flagship is wherever the admiral is flying his flag. However, admirals have always needed additional facilities; a meeting room large enough to hold all the captains of the fleet, and a place for the admiral's staff to make plans and draw up orders.
In the age of sailing ships, the flagship was typically a first-rate; the aft of one of the three decks would become the admiral's quarters and staff offices. This can be seen today on HMS Victory, the flagship of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, now at Portsmouth, England. HMS Victory still serves the Royal Navy today as the ceremonial flagship of the Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command[1] making her the oldest commissioned warship in service.
In the 20th century, ships became large enough that most types could accommodate commander and staff, and during World War II admirals would often prefer a faster ship over the largest one. Some larger ships may have a separate flag bridge for use by the admiral and his staff while the captain commanded from the main navigation bridge. Because its primary function is to coordinate a fleet, flagships are not necessarily more heavily armed or fortified than other ships. Increasing communications and computing requirements have resulted in the design of specialized command and control ships to serve as flagship.[citation needed]

Flagship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Thanks, this clarifies what a flagship is, ie the ship from which the commanding officer commands whathever his/her rank. On the other hand I believe Wiki is wrong about any modern ship being able to act as flagship, it can in an emergency but while ships grew staff and comunication requirements grew just as fast if not faster, the South Dakota gave up two 5' twin mounts in favor of more space for an admiral staff so she had only 16 5' instead of 20 like her sisters and she was over 35000 tonns. So the concept of a ship having special equipment to serve as flagships never died even before the CC and LCC types were introduced.

 

Yep. Too bad the originator of the thread couldn't handle the truth and stay around . But types like him who think that they are the end all of knowledge tend to slink away rather then admit they may have been incorrect.

 

"You can't handle the truth!"

​

 

LOL - I was waiting for that!

 

Good Old Tom Cruise quotes!!! AHHH Good sir you have my undying respect for the use of that quote! During the British Med. Operations began what ship was the flagship of that fleet? I always get different answer from different people!

Maybe you guys could give me hand!

 

When Cunningham took command of the Mediterranean fleet on 6 June 1939 he hung his flag from the HMS Warspite

 

Thanks I always thought it was Warspite and then some person told me Renown but I figured she would be in then Atlantice theatre rather than the med!

Thanks a million!