Shipyards of the Major Powers

Discussions on the economic history of the nations taking part in WW2, from the recovery after the depression until the economy at war.
gregorius
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Shipyards of the Major Powers

#1

Post by gregorius » 13 Jul 2006, 19:10

I am trying to put together a compliation of shipyards for the major powers in World War II namely, Great Britain, France, United States, Soviet Union, Germany, Japan, and Italy.

Currently I have the following and would appreciate any information that forum members could provide, in particular if anyone could quantify size, and more importantly production capability, not necessarily a real metric like tons of shipping built but a relative metric if a yard could handle major warships (i.e BB, CV, CA).

For Britain I have the following yards

John Brown and Company at Clydebank
Cammell Laird Shipyard at Birkenhead
Vickers-Armstrong at Walker's Naval Yard Newcastle upon Tyne
Swan Hunter at Wallsend
Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. at Govan
Harland & Wolff at Belfast

for Germany I have the following (mostly from U-boat.net)
AG Weser at Bremen
Blohm & Hoss at Hamburg
Bremer Vulkan at Bremen-Vegesack
Danziger Werft at Danzig
Deutsche Werft AG at Hamburg
Deutsche Werke at Kiel
F. Schichau at Danzig
Flender-Werke at Lubeck
Flensburg Schiffsbau at Flensburg
Germaniawerft at Kiel
HC Stulcken at Hamburg
Howaldstwerke at Hamburg
Howaldstwerke at Kiel
Kreigsmarinewerft at Wilhelmshaven
Neptun Werft AG at Rostock
Nordseewerke at Emden
Oderwerke at Stettin
Seebeck at Bremen
Vulcan at Stettin

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Re: Shipyards of the Major Powers

#2

Post by Bronsky » 30 Jul 2006, 11:11

gregorius wrote:I am trying to put together a compliation of shipyards for the major powers in World War II namely, Great Britain, France, United States, Soviet Union, Germany, Japan, and Italy.
A very interesting topic. If you do, please make sure to post the results here as some of us will be interested ;-)
gregorius wrote:For Britain I have the following yards

John Brown and Company at Clydebank
Cammell Laird Shipyard at Birkenhead
Vickers-Armstrong at Walker's Naval Yard Newcastle upon Tyne
Swan Hunter at Wallsend
Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. at Govan
Harland & Wolff at Belfast
The capacities evolved over time, and you will have the same problem - squared - for the United States and Canada.

From a discussion on the Usenet group soc.history.war.world-war-ii and specifically this message, I had noted the following (all the bits in italics are lifted from that post):

As a general point, the UK has a lot of shipyards capable of building large ships. In 1945, Harland & Woolf in Belfast had five slips capable of accommodating up to 60,000 tons, John Brown in Glasgow had three 70,000 tonner slips, Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth naval dockyards had two 55,000 tonner slips each, and so on. (this is the point made by another poster and quoted by the author of the post)

So the answer goes:
So let me understand this, the claim is the UK had 14 slips capable of building at least a 55,000 ton ship. So what were
all the big ships built? Liners and warships. After all there had to be a commercial need for the slips, they must have been
used. Also note the length and beam of the ship matters, not just its nominal tonnage.

The King George V class, 5 different builders, the Lion class used 4 of the same builders, and the first 2 KGV class were
launched before the Lion class was laid down, but not the second two. Indicating John Brown and also Fairfield both had 2 battleship capable building slips. So we are up to 7 naval slips of the right size, then add Harland and Wolff building the post war Eagle at 36,800 tons.

Meantime the 3 Malta class, at 46,900 tons was allocated to the builders of King George V, Prince of Wales and Duke of York. And only one laid down before all the class was cancelled.

(some bits edited out for space - LC)

In terms of the bigger warships builders (35,000 tons plus)

Vickers-Armstrongs (Walker) King George V, then Lion, then Eagle plus Gibraltar (never laid down), so in theory 1 slip.

Cammel Laird (Birkenhead) Prince of Wales, then Temeraire, then Ark Royal (II), plus New Zealand (never laid down), so in theory 1 slip.

John Brown (Clydebank) Duke of York, Conqueror laid down before DoY launched, then Vanguard, then Malta, so in theory 2 slips.

Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson (Wallsend) Anson, so 1 slip, but only used for this ship.

Fairfield (Govan) Howe, Thundered laid down before Howe launched. Africa (never laid down), so in theory 2 slips.

Harland and Wolff (Belfast) Audacious, so 1 slip.

So maybe 9 slips actually used.

Can it be explained why so few of the big 55,000 tons plus building slips mentioned above feature in the real construction list?

One point, please note the original second Eagle was cancelled and scrapped on slip, Audacious was then renamed Eagle.

>>Then add the ability to build the relevant steam turbines as opposed to the engines actually fitted to the smaller craft.

>Well, one might think that Parsons could handle that...

No, this is the point, such turbines and associated gearing took time to build, even the US had real problems in providing the necessary supply. Look at the propulsion methods of the various Destroyer Escort classes.
Hope this helps.

Regarding other countries, there's a book about Stalin's blue water navy that lists shipyards, I have this data somewhere and may even find it some day but you may want to look up the source yourself. France had major shipyards in Marseilles, Saint-Nazaire, Cherbourg. Brest was also a naval base but had no shipbuilding capability (it did have a repair capability).

Italy's main yards were IIRC in La Spezia, Genoa and there must have been at least one in the south as well. Looking up WWII capital ships, you will often find their builder mentioned. Again, I guess I could do the work myself instead of telling you how to go about it, but there you go... :oops:


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Andy H
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#3

Post by Andy H » 02 Aug 2006, 20:48

The link below will give you a list, for several countries of shipyards that were involved in the construction of aircraft carriers. Obviously they may well have carried out other work, and likewise other shipyards not listed would have carried out none A/C building work. The site also lists several links to individual shipyard sites which may well give you extra data concerning ships built and there infrastructure.

http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/ships ... yards.html

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#4

Post by Andy H » 02 Aug 2006, 21:16

The site below lists the shipyards that built nearlt 700 military vessels for the USN etc

Ships Built Under Maritime Commission Contracts by Shipyard: January 1939 through August 1945* Scroll to over halfway

http://www.usmm.net/shipbuild.html

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#5

Post by gregorius » 03 Aug 2006, 14:38

Thanks guys, I had given up on anyone replying to this topic. I will check out the links, and don't worry I will share any and all information that I uncover. I like this forum, and the members, for most tend to be extremely helpful.

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#6

Post by JamesL » 04 Aug 2006, 16:39

This is certainly a formidable task. I wish you the best of luck.

You could look at the 39 shipyards in New York Harbor. Several of them had 1,100' drydocks. They produced everything from patrol boats to battleships and carriers. They also serviced foreign warships like HMS NELSON and FNS MONTCALM. One day NY harbor had over 500 ships at anchor.

Camden NJ - Philadelphia PA also had a host of yards which produced battleships, carriers, battle cruisers, heavy cruisers, etc.

FWIW, there are plans afoot to move the USS INTREPID to the Bayonne NJ drydock for extensive repairs. The move will probably take place next year.

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German Shipyards during WWII

#7

Post by JohnWinston » 09 Aug 2006, 12:59

Hi Everyone: I am a new member and trying to finish a book on the German Navy during WWII. I saw this forum and was wondering if:

Detailed photographs, diagrams, and building capacities (size of ship) for the major German shipyards, Bremen, Wilhelmshaven, Kiel, and Hamburg are available? Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thank you all very much,

Alan

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#8

Post by Andy H » 11 Aug 2006, 17:47

FIVE-YEAR PLANS AND SOVIET SHIPBUILDING

Stalin’s ultimate determination to go ahead at full speed with his big-navy program must be understood against the background of available shipyards, material, naval architects, and skilled labor. This background, in turn, requires an evaluation of the Soviet Union’s First Five-Year Plan (1928–32), as well as a brief overview of the Soviet shipbuilding industry in the Second Five-Year Plan (1933–37), when modernization of the principal old shipyards in Leningrad and Nikolaev resumed.

The most interesting initiative in the shipbuilding industry, however, was the construction of entirely new yards in remote areas of the Arctic and the Far East. Shipyards were built also in the interior at important industrial centers that could be reached by canal from the open sea.

The new Shipyard 402 at Molotovsk (renamed Severodvinsk after 1957) can serve as a chilling example of these efforts. An estimated 120,000 slave laborers were brought here in the 1930s to construct the shipyard. Stalin envisaged it as becoming the largest shipyard with covered building ways in the world. The construction shed measured some 1,100 feet in length and 450 in width; it could accommodate two super-battleships of the Sovetskii Soyuz class side by side. It remains today the only major shipyard in the world above the Arctic Circle capable of building the largest warships, now mostly nuclear submarines. During World War II the unfinished yard completed submarines laid down in Leningrad and at the new Krasnoe Sormovo Shipyard 112, near Gorkii on the Volga River, and brought to Severodvinsk through the canal-river system. After the war several Sverdlov-class cruisers were built there.

Another Stalinist creation of this period was Shipyard 199 at Komsomolsk, about 280 miles up the Amur River, started in 1932. Since the Amur is not deep enough, larger ships must be towed downstream after launching to be fitted out at coastal shipyards. Nonetheless, its location had the advantage of being out of range of Japanese aviation and out of reach by warships. This shipyard would later become a major shipbuilding facility for the restored Pacific Fleet. Like the yard in Molotovsk (Severodvinsk), the Komsomolsk yard was to be capable of constructing two battleships side by side in a covered building. In 1935 a large iron and steel mill, known as Amurstal, was begun about five miles from Komsomolsk. Complete self-sufficiency was not regarded as possible, however; components were sent in from the European factories and shipyards. No battleships were built at Komsomolsk, but in 1938 the keels of two heavy cruisers, Kalinin and Kaganovich, were laid down. These cruisers, commissioned only after the end of the war, were the first and last cruisers built and finished here; surface ships built at Komsomolsk were mainly destroyers and frigates. During the war the shipyard had a workforce of five thousand, half of them women, and six building ways in two large covered halls. In the 1960s Komsomolsk became, after Molotovsk, the second Soviet shipyard to construct nuclear submarines.34


Battleship Sovetskii Soyuz, 1938
Although the Soviet Union had a longer coastline than any other nation, over sixteen thousand nautical miles (by comparison, the U.S. coastlines without Alaska total just under eleven thousand nautical miles), naval facilities and shipbuilding industries were historically confined to certain areas. The St. Petersburg/Leningrad area and Nikolaev in the south were particularly important, though the Black Sea shorelines (867 nautical miles) and the Baltic coast (988 nautical miles in pre-1991 borders) accounted for only a fraction of the total maritime frontier.

Thus the history of Russian shipyards on the Baltic Sea is inextricably linked with the history of St. Petersburg. The oldest shipyard, the Main Admiralty Yards, was founded in 1705 but closed in 1844; shipbuilding soon shifted to the New Admiralty Shipyards about a mile downstream on the left bank of the Neva (during the Soviet period renamed for A. Marti and referred to as No. 194). In 1908, the New Admiralty Yard merged with the second-largest shipyard in Russia, on Galernyi Island. The enlarged New Admiralty Yard built two Gangut-class dreadnoughts and two of the Borodino class. In 1939 the keel was laid down here for the first of the Kronshtadt-class battle cruisers (never finished) of Stalin’s big-fleet program.

Next in size was the Baltic (Baltiiskii) shipyard, founded in 1856 (in the Soviet era the Ordzhonikidze Shipyard, No. 189), also capable of building the largest warships. It was located across the Neva from the Galernyi Island yard. The Baltiiskii yard launched two cruisers of the Kirov class (1935–39) and two of the Chapaev class (completed only after the war); in 1938 it saw the laying down of the first Soviet super-dreadnought, the Sovetskii Soyuz, meant to be the mainstay of Stalin’s big-fleet program. After World War II Baltiiskii built six of the Sverdlov cruisers.

The Putilov Works (renamed in 1935 for A. A. Zhdanov and designated No. 190), divided into two separate plants, was the largest among the prerevolutionary private firms. Its original engine plant opened a second location as a shipyard in 1911, operated by the leading German shipbuilder, Blohm & Voss of Hamburg. Putilov was in charge of the construction of the innovative Novik-class destroyer.

Through 1917 the number of shipyards in the St. Petersburg area grew to thirteen. Nine of them also built steam engines, and two of them, Izhora and Putilov, also produced armor plate. Moreover, the Putilov and Obukhov works produced heavy artillery pieces as well.35

The second major center of Russian shipbuilding was the old port of Nikolaev on the Bug River and the Black Sea. The Andre Marti Shipyard (No. 198) was once the largest private Russian shipyard on the Black Sea. Before the Bolshevik Revolution it built many warships, including two of four Russian Black Sea dreadnoughts. In the 1930s the Soviets initiated the construction here of such warships as cruisers of the Voroshilov and Frunze classes, work that culminated in the laying down in 1938 of the battleship Sovetskaya Ukraina of the Sovetskii Soyuz class and in 1939 of the battle cruiser Sevastopol. (Work on the two capital ships stopped in October 1940 and never resumed.) The Nikolaev yard was to witness in 1949 Stalin’s capital-ship “swan song,” when it started under direct orders of Stalin in 1949 the only Soviet postwar battle cruiser, the Stalingrad. The ship is said to have been about 60 percent complete and ready for launching when Stalin suddenly died in March 1953 and all work on the last Soviet dreadnought ceased. The other large shipyard in the area, “The Sixty-one Communards” (No. 200) yard, began in the eighteenth century as the major Admiralty facility on the Black Sea. Most of the battleships for the Black Sea were built here. In 1910 the government decided to close it, but it was reopened in the following year as the French-owned Russian Shipbuilding Corporation (RUSSUD). Since 1930 the yard had built light cruisers, destroyers, and submarines.

Owing to the severity of the Russian winter, all Russian building berths (with the exception of those on the Black Sea) were covered. If construction was to continue year round, it had to be done in a roofed shed with solid walls, with an end that could be opened when the vessel was launched. Because domestic shipbuilding potential was so limited and Stalin’s expansionist dreams were so big, Soviet diplomats were ordered, paradoxically, to purchase from “capitalist enemies” what was needed for the “Big Navy Program”: latest blueprints, parts, weapons, engines, even entire battleships.
http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/Review/20 ... 4-sp04.htm

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#9

Post by gregorius » 14 Aug 2006, 18:46

Andy H good stuff.

I have gathered that for Japan most of the capital ships were built within the following shipyards

Kawasaki Heavy Industries
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Kure Navy Yard
Yokosuka Navy Yard

I have wondered if the 'Navy Yards' above are analagous to the public shipyards in the United States, that are basically government owned and operated facilities.

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#10

Post by Windward » 12 Sep 2006, 17:20

gregorius wrote:Andy H good stuff.

I have gathered that for Japan most of the capital ships were built within the following shipyards

Kawasaki Heavy Industries
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Kure Navy Yard
Yokosuka Navy Yard

I have wondered if the 'Navy Yards' above are analagous to the public shipyards in the United States, that are basically government owned and operated facilities.
Japanese naval yards were owned and operated by the navy, or you can say by the government.

major Japanese shipyards:

naval yards:

呉海軍工廠 Kure Naval Yard: est. 1889, had built 5 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, 3 carriers, 5 cruisers, 16 destroyers and a lot of submarines, submarine tenders, minesweepers, mine layers and seaplane tenders
横須賀海軍工廠 Yokosuka Naval Yard: est. 1867, had built 4 battleships, 2 battlecruisers, 5 carriers, 11 cruisers, 30 destroyers, 30 submarines, and all kinds of other warships (including two sumbarine tenders which was refitted as carrier Shoho and Ryuho)
佐世保海軍工廠 Sasebo Naval Yard: established in the 1890s, had built 11 cruisers, 27 destroyers and 36 sumbarines
舞鶴海軍工廠 Maizuru Naval Yard: est. 1901, the main builder of destroyers. it had built 65 destroyers, ans some escort vessels


civil shipbuildings:

三菱重工業長崎造船所 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki Shipyard: had built 2 BBs (Hyuga and Musashi), 1 BC (Kirishima), 3 CVs (Junyo, Taiyo, Amagi), 12 cruisers (4 heavy cruisers and 3 light cruisers which were later refitted as heavy cruisers), 21 DDs, 31 DEs, and most of Japan's ocean liners, and 4 sumbarines for Siam (Thailand). During the WWI, Japan also built a dozen of destroyers for France, I forget the name of the builder, but maybe Mitsubishi.
三菱重工業神戸造船所 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Kobe Shipyard: had built 54 submarines, 10 DEs, some transports and gunboats
三菱重工業横浜造船所 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Yokohama Shipyard: had built one carrier (Ryujo), 4 light cruisers, 1 destroyer, and some minelayers, gunboats, minesweepers, transports
三菱重工業下関造船所 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Shimonoseki Shipyard: only had built one transport ship

川崎造船神戸工場 Kawasaki Shipbuilding Kobe Shipyard: had built 1 BB (Ise), 1 BC (Haruna), 4 CVs (Kaga, Zuiho, Hiyo, Taiho), 9 cruisers, 2 seaplane tenders, 21 DDs, 49 submarines, 6 DEs and some other ships. It also built numerous gunboats, torpedo boats for China from 1900 to 1920, and built 2 destroyers, 2 coastal defence ships for Siam (Thailand).
川崎造船棚川工場 Kawasaki Shipbuilding Tanagawa Shipyard: built 5 Bo type sumbarines
川崎造船泉州工場 Kawasaki Shipbuilding Senshu Shipyard: built 4 DEs

浦賀船渠 Uraga Dock: built 2 light cruisers, 39 DDs, 11 DEs, 1 minelayer and some other vessels

東京石川島造船所 Tokyo Ishikawa Shipbuilding: established in the 1850s. had built 11 DDs, 5 DEs, 9 minesweepers and some others

藤永田造船所 Fujinagata Shipbuilding: had built 38 DDs, 4 DEs, 2 gunboats, 4 minesweepers and 2 torpedo boats

三井造船玉野造船所 Mitsui Shipbuilding Tamano Shipyard: 6 submarines, 11 escorts, 5 minesweepers, etc

日立造船桜島工場 Hitachi Shipbuilding Sakurajima Yard: 2 gunboats, 3 DDs, 15 DEs, etc
日立造船向島工場 Hitachi Shipbuilding Mukojima Yard: 11 transports
日立造船因島工場 Hitachi Shipbuilding Innoshima Yard: 4 submarine chasers
日立造船彦島工場 Hitachi Shipbuilding Hikoshima Yard: 5 minesweepers

川南重工業香焼工場 Kawaminami Heavy Industries Koyagi Yard: 4 sub chasers, 1 transport (postwar Antarctica observation ship Soya)
川南重工業浦崎工場 Kawaminami Heavy Industries Urasaki Yard: 22 transport ships

播磨造船 Harima Shipbuilding: 4 DDs, 10 DEs, 2 gunboats, 5 minesweepers, 5 sub chasers, 1 light cruiser for Chinese navy (Ning Hai), 4 gunboats for Manchukuo, etc

日本鋼管鶴見造船所 NKK (Nippon Koukan) Tsurumi Shipbuilding: 1 carrier (Hosho), 43 DEs, 11 sub chasers, 3 minelayers, etc

浪速船渠 Naniwa Dock: 1 minelayer, 4 DEs, etc

大阪造船所 Osaka Shipbuilding: 13 transports

日本海船渠 Sea of Japan Dock: 6 DEs

新潟鉄工所 Niigata Iron Factory: 4 DEs, 7 sub chasers

函館船渠 Hakodate Dock: 5 sub chasers



regards

Jasen

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#11

Post by Andy H » 12 Sep 2006, 22:40

Hi Jensen

Is there any difference between a Yard & Dock in regards to actual shipbuilding?

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#12

Post by Windward » 14 Sep 2006, 12:08

Andy H wrote:Hi Jensen

Is there any difference between a Yard & Dock in regards to actual shipbuilding?

Regards

Andy H
maybe a dock is smaller than a shipyard?

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#13

Post by Andy H » 19 Sep 2006, 18:15

J Samuel Whites shipbuilders in the UK

http://www.solentwaters.co.uk/Medina%20 ... page4.html

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#14

Post by Andy H » 17 Oct 2006, 23:07

Warships Launched or Completed by N.E.Shipyards 1939-45

http://www.bpears.org.uk/NE-Diary/Bck/Warships1.html

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Andy H

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#15

Post by Andy H » 31 Oct 2006, 20:05

This link may provide further information

http://www.boat-links.com/linklists/boa ... #shipyards

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Andy H

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