Fleet Review: Spithead 1937 [Archive] - World Naval Ships Forums

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kookaburra

19-11-2008, 16:06

Well, I hope people get a nostalgic kick out of this one, and that there are not too many pics seen before. It's a spin-off from my recent Illustrated London News thread, with some other sources added in, including Wolfgang Harnack's German website and a person named Michael Yates's contribution to a Spanish journal/website I cannot read.

I may have to try to edit the names of some of the foreign ships in, in stages.

I am also going to add at the end a couple of the 1935 'The Fleet's Lit Up' review, as that was legend with us during my young reporter's days in Oz - we used to play a recording of the BBC broadcaster who, a bit hit and missed, staggered to the wrong side of his host ship and thought that the fleet had disappeared. I'm sure many of you will have heard of that story!

1. Left hand ship columns, ships labelled.
2. Righthand ship columns, ships labelled.
3. Plan of all ships present as moored.
4. HMS Revenge
5. Partial overview
6-9 Admiral Graf Spee, captioned.
10. Fleet Air Arm Diagram
11. HMS Rodney foreground, HMS Queen
Elizabeth right, HMS Malaya left, two County Class cruisers behind.
12.+ 13, posted before, and I've just corrected myself
that these two are 1935, not 1937: HMS Rodney with 1/4 scale model of Drake's Golden Hind,
HMS Nelson with 1/4 scale Elizabethan Ark Royal - they did a re-enactment of the whole Armada
brouhaha in 1935.
13. Admiral Graf Spee, HMS Resolution
guarding her.
14. HMS Repulse guns, HMS Hood astern.

15. Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert may be a
ring-in from 1922, picked up from unintelligible
Spanish journal site.

16. Japanese cruiser Asigara.
17. Canadian destroyer HMCS Saguenay
18. Canadian destroyer HMCS Skeena
19. Argentinian Moreno
20. USS New York
21. Vianomonen -sounds Finnish, but search me.
22. Burza. You beauty. Don't know where she's
from.
23. Averoff. Wog ship.
24 + 25. 'The Fleet's Lit up!' 1935. "One moment it was there, and the next moment it was gone.'

There, I've done it. Hmmm. 25 captions for 27 pictures. I resign. (there are 2 additional Graf Spee near the start) Enjoy all.

kookaburra

19-11-2008, 16:18

Dunqurque was there too

Batstiger

20-11-2008, 15:12

These pictures never cease to amaze me.

Bob.

herakles

20-11-2008, 19:03

An extraordinary view of a bygone age!

astraltrader

20-11-2008, 20:27

Not so extraordinary - we have a thread full of Spithead and other reviews/fleet gatherings!

http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1511

herakles

20-11-2008, 20:32

This lot are far and above the best though.

astraltrader

20-11-2008, 21:07

If you say so.

alanbenn

20-11-2008, 23:32

well I agree with Terry, the naval review thread is as good as this, it has good decent sized photo's and has already covered some of the photo's in the postcard postings....

Just to revitalize the thread I have just added another good photo of the carrier squadron and Home fleet.

Regards
Alan

DCRanger

20-11-2008, 23:45

Great photos.:cool:

Ermm... I don't suppose you have any of the FAA aircraft involved, particulary the Swordfish?

astraltrader

20-11-2008, 23:46

Thanks Alan much appreciated. Gerry [SCRG1970] in particular has put in a lot of time and effort posting a lot of the older and rarer Spithead photo`s/postcards which are really interesting.
These here that Jeff [Kookaburra] has posted are interesting as well and provide a useful printed record. It is good that the forum benefits from both types.

kookaburra

11-12-2008, 16:37

At the start of this thread I mentioned recalling hearing tapes of a famous (infamous) BBC broadcast of the 1937 lighting of the fleet. It turns out the incident was the subject of a stage revue by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge called The Long Weekend , and was recalled in an August 1975 issue of Ships Monthly: 'The Fleet's Lit Up!' (attached).

What the article doesn't tell you is that the broadcaster, an RN officer and little lit up himself, then staggered to the dark side of the ship he was on and started repeatedly declaring the fleet had disappeared! 'Gone. As if by magic.' It was hilarious.

Ah well, here's the article.

BTW, I see looking at this again that the posting of this thread stirred some , aah ...debate... by (quite inadvertently) overlooking the existence of one already extant of fleet reviews and review postcards. I apologise to the other thread posters (Edit: just gone back and seen that it was Terry's thread, but with others making major efforts too) , and if it can be managed would be quite happy to see the two threads merged, with the other of course taking precedence.

I have added this post here simply because it refers back to the earlier discussion.

astraltrader

11-12-2008, 16:41

Thanks for your consideration Jeff - i am happy to leave things as they are.

metallian666

27-03-2009, 13:20

I found an interesting photo from FR-1937 showing Graf Spee and Hood (see photo bottom of page here (http://www.simplesite.com/axisbattleships/23904494) )

Does anyone have any idea where to look for more photos and a list of all major ships attending?

metallian666

28-03-2009, 14:10

Rookie mistake, I see there is an excellent thread on this already

http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2875&highlight=fleet+review+1937

But does someone know if its possible to find a comlete list over ships?

spruso

28-03-2009, 19:14

Hers's a diagram of the ships that participated in the 1937 Review.
Cheers
Bruce

metallian666

28-03-2009, 19:34

Great thx a bunch :)

Interesting to see ships from Argentina and Cuba as well as many others there. That must hav e been i mighty sight...

JohnMGD

20-05-2009, 19:09

Interesting thread !!!

Since a while I'm looking for pictures of IJN Cruiser ASHIGARA when she visited Europe in 1937 (Britain and Germany), there must be a lot of pictures of her been taken during her visit. Like to collect them, does anybody know of the excistance of these pictures and how to get them ??

Greetings

John.

astraltrader

20-05-2009, 20:29

This is a fine picture of Ashigara taken during her European Tour of 1937...

JohnMGD

21-05-2009, 12:43

Thanks, but this is the picture I already had,(in Colour) but not in such a high resolution !!! Thanks again !!!

John.

astraltrader

21-05-2009, 15:31

Also that picture has been colourised and was not an original colour photograph.

MMM

21-05-2009, 17:11

JohnMGD

21-05-2009, 17:11

I Know, but it does look great, doesn't it !!!! I love those Livedoor site colour pictures.

Miro: Thanks a lot for the ASHIGARA pictures, never seen them before!!

John.

Angus MacSporran

05-08-2009, 19:25

I found this Pathe Newsreel of that Review - http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=7343

Boilers

06-12-2009, 19:51

Help with the identity of these would be greatly appreciated.
From the estate of ERA J.W.A Taylor DSM

Andy3E

06-12-2009, 20:03

2 and 3 are the Hood, (and its kinda scary that i know that lol) not sure on the first, if i was to guess id say its an R class battleship

spruso

06-12-2009, 20:09

Looking at the plan of the 1937 Review I would think photo 1: Closest ship Royal Sovereign, then Resolution, Ramilles, stern of Royal Oak.
Cheers
Bruce

Ednamay

07-12-2009, 11:07

Can't help you with identification, can tell you that the whole sea was 'lit up' with lights dressed overall and all the reflections. My parents, my brother and I watched from the promenade near South Parade Pier and the whole beach was packed with people as far as The Hot Walls (by Southsea Castle), and people on Southsea Common had binoculars and angled telescopes to get any sort of view they could. I'm pretty certain there were fireworks, too. Must be age affecting the memory!!

Edna

MMM

07-12-2009, 14:16

Looking at the plan of the 1937 Review I would think photo 1: Closest ship Royal Sovereign, then Resolution, Ramilles, stern of Royal Oak.
Cheers
Bruce

In the second row (from right to left):
Admiral Graf Spee (Germany)
Marat (USSR)
Moreno (Argentina)
Dunkerque (France)
New York (USA)

BTW. There is beautiful book The Royal Navy Reviews 1935-1977, by P. Ransome-Wallis. Highly recommended.
The Author "was fortunate to have been present at the last five Royal Naval Reviews at Spithead 1935-1942. By making on each occasion several voyages around the ships, mostly in privately hired boats."
During those "voyages" he "photographed in details most of ships present"

Polycell

09-02-2010, 14:20

I remember there were a couple of bars on the waterfront just up from Custom House steps in Malta that had a whole series of piccies of the 1937 Fleet Review.
Oh how I wished I had asked if I could have bought them.
So the question is does anyone know where I can get prints of those piccies?
Fred

Ednamay

10-02-2010, 11:28

""24 + 25. 'The Fleet's Lit up!' 1935. "One moment it was there, and the next moment it was gone.'""

Yes, indeed, we sat on Southsea sea front and watched - and listened, because, somehow, someone nearby had managed to bring a wireless (!!! in those days!) to listen while he waited for everything to start, and left it on! "The fleetsh lit up" became a catchword in our home.

Edna

BALTICSUBS

14-03-2010, 11:35

Hi All,

you will notice a little Estonian entry in the ranks of the 1937 review, the British built submarine Kalev, lost in WW2. A search will be made for her this year so fingers crossed. Her sister Lembit is the pride of place in the Estonian Maritime museum, the oldest British built submarine still afloat. Both submarines were taken over by the Russians in 1940 much to the Estonian's delight, so they have some Russian gear onboard. When the Russians gave Lembit back after independence they pinched one of the British built diesels, again much to the Estonian's joy.

SandraAmy

07-04-2010, 12:37

I have a small collection of negatives of photographs taken by my Grandfather, most of which are a mystery.
Among them is a series of ships which I think he might have taken at the Fleet Review in 1937.
Attached are three of the photos. Can anyone recognize them, and indeed perhaps confirm whether the ships were at the Review, please? I know absolutely nothing about ships and apologise if I have made any basic mistakes.

steve roberts

07-04-2010, 14:26

tonclass

07-04-2010, 15:23

alanandbren

07-04-2010, 17:40

Hi Sandra.Pic #1 is either Glorious of Furious or Courageous.All were very similar.Pic#2 could be any of the Battleships.I would hazard a guess at Royal Oak. Pic#3 is a Leander class Cruiser.
Regards Steve.

Hi Steve, pic #1 may not be British as she looks to be flying a foreign flag at the Jack, maybe Norwegian.

RNfanDan

07-04-2010, 18:09

Pic #1 Is HMS Furious, without question. Unclear however, is whether or not the photo was taken at Spithead.

Pic #2 is definitely HMS Hood.

Pic #3 is probably HMS Leander, herself---as I can find no other cruisers of her class listed on a 1937 Coronation Review map I have on file.

:)

alanbenn

07-04-2010, 21:09

Hi Steve, pic #1 may not be British as she looks to be flying a foreign flag at the Jack, maybe Norwegian.

I thought the same myself initially, but.......It isn't a foreign flag, if you look again at all 3 photo's they are all flying this flag which appears to be a pennant of some sort, afraid I don't know what particular flag/pennant it is.

Regards
Alan

SandraAmy

08-04-2010, 08:31

Thank you everyone, this is so interesting!
Any more information very welcome, please.

alanandbren

08-04-2010, 08:59

I thought the same myself initially, but.......It isn't a foreign flag, if you look again at all 3 photo's they are all flying this flag which appears to be a pennant of some sort, afraid I don't know what particular flag/pennant it is.

Regards
Alan

Looking again and noting what you said, totally agree with you Alan, your eyes are much better than mine.