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My Minecraft WW2 Fleet
Nathan
Community Connector Posts: 3,100 Boards Guru
So, as you might know, i have made a lot of ww2 minecraft ship models. And i've decided to post most of them here, with a brief rundown of each ship, and it's fate. If you have any questions, or are curious about any of the ships, maybe wanting to see what there internal layouts are, or you want to see anything in particular or know something about the ships not mentioned, ask away! The way i'll do this is i'll pick a ship daily, or you can recommend one, I'll show my in game minecraft make of it, and then write about it and it's service history after.
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Today, I'm doing HMS Repulse.
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So, these are some screenshots of HMS Repulse I made in Minecraft. Tell me what you think of it. I took them in night and day, rain and clear weather, and from different angles.
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The Minecraft Build
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Probably the funniest thing is that it's so big, it actually takes 3 maps just to fully display it.
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Historical Information about Repulse
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HMS Repulse, built in 1916, was one of two renown class battlecruisers, and was the fastest battlecruiser in the world, with the heaviest firepower. She came in at 32,000 tonnes, and wielded 6 15 inch main battery guns, and could reach a speed of 32 knots. Completely outclassing her counterparts, Repulse took part in World War One, during the second battle of the Heligoland bight, served in 1st battlecruiser squadron, and oversaw the surrender of the German high sea's fleet. In the interwar years, Repulse took part in the Empire tour, visiting all corners of the empire, and finally took part in the weapons blockade of Spain during the Spanish civil war.
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By the outbreak of WW2, Repulse whilst incredibly old, was still a powerful unit, and one of the most important ships the royal navy possessed due to her speed, and the firepower she could bring at those speeds. Her WW2 service began with the home fleet, patrolling the North Sea, and the North Atlantic. Repulse served during the Norway campaign, and then attempted to hunt two German battlecruisers loose in the Atlantic, with no success. Following this, Repulse took part in the hunt for the Bismarck. This marked the end of her Atlantic service, and within months, the admiralty would deploy her to the far east to challenge the increasingly aggressive posturing of Japan.
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Escorting a convoy on route to the far east, she arrived at Singapore, alongside the newest and premier battleship of the Royal Navy, HMS Prince of Wales. Japans movements became even more aggressive around the region however, with Japanese landing force convoys sighted from the air, and submarine patrols nearby. Repulse's planned cruise to Australia, nearby in the region was cancelled. Overnight, Singapore came under a long range Japanese bomber attack, and Commander in Chief of the Eastern fleet Admiral Tom Phillips learnt that Pearl Harbour had been bombed, Japanese forces had advanced on Hong Kong, Japanese forces were landing in British Malaya, and that Britain was now at war with the empire of Japan.
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Forming up the naval units he had into a single strike force unit, Phillips brought to bear 4 destroyers, and battleships Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse. With the RAF losing the air war meaning no air cover, and the British Army pushed back at the landing zones, Phillips sent force Z out, intent on launching a surprise attack on the Japanese landings in progress. Tragically, Force Z was sighted by a patrolling submarine nearby, which reported it's location. A follow up scout aircraft sighted the force once again, and the Royal Navy realised it's hopes of launching a surprise attack on the convoy was slim to none now. Turning back, force Z took a detour after reports came in of a Japanese landing in Kuantan, and when they arrived, it was realised to be a false report, with destroyer Electra reporting "complete peace".
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As force Z moved to return to Singapore, Prince of Wales detected a squadron of japanese aircraft coming towards them on it air search radar. Crews were called to action stations, and Repulse accelerated to 25 knots, to keep formation with Prince of Wales, and was the first to be targeted. A squadron of high level bombers, carrying 500lb bombs, focused on the battlecruiser, rightly assuming it had thinner armour. The majority of the bombs missed repulse, but one struck her directly amidships, blowing up in it's port spotter plane hangar. No critical damage was done thankfully. Repulse's captain, William Tennant, then began to manoeuvre repulse sharply. A squadron of torpedo bombers moved in towards Repulse and released there payloads. Tennant's swung repulse around, between the tracks of the incoming torpedoes, causing every launched torpedo to miss. A second wave then came in, once again, going for Repulse, and once again, Captain Tennant manoeuvred repulse sharply, causing all torpedoes to miss the battlecruiser. Repulse, a 32,000 tonne capital ship was being manoeuvred around like she was a light cruiser. Most of the crew couldn't believe it nor could the Japanese, that a battlecruiser of Repulse's size was pulling off such insane evasive manoeuvres.
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At this stage, Prince of Wales was critically damaged, and repulse was almost entirely unscathed. Now, Repulse was once again the primary target, and the Japanese split into several attack formations, coming in from different sides so captain Tennant couldn't manoeuvre his way out of them. Repulse's AA, designed in an era of biplanes was not able to put up an effective defence, and so repulse suffered two torpedo strikes to her aft. In an instant, Repulse, being built in an era before torpedo protection belts, had her steering motors jammed, and she was then stuck turning in a circle. As repulses crew desperately tried to defend it with it's AA, they were able to shoot down a small handful of aircraft, but it was a small consolation. 2 more torpedoes struck directly from her starboard side, smashing her engine rooms and causing catastrophic flooding. Repulse listed to port and and looked done for. 6 more Japanese torpedo bombers moved in against the now dead in the water and critically flooding battlecruiser whilst it couldn't move, and landed one further torpedo strike, sending shockwaves through the ship.
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All the Japanese torpedo bombers had now completed their attack runs, but several squadrons of high level bombers remained, carrying a single huge, 1000lb armour piercing bomb. The final attack runs on repulse began, but thankfully, all missed well off target. At this stage, the destroyers Electra and Express appeared on the horizon, finally coming to the aid of the catastrophically listing ships. Captain Tennant gave one final order, ordering a complete abandon ship. Despite her amazing performance, Repulse was still a WW1 era battlecruiser, built in an era of bi-planes, facing the most well trained anti naval bombers in the world in world war two. Most of the ships power was lost, so most of the loudspeakers were not working, and most of the crew never heard the order to abandon ship. As repulse listed even more, many crew managed to jump into the waters around the battlecruiser, and within minutes, the Repulse, a 32,000 tonne battlecruiser, a 25 year veteran of the first world war, and once the most powerful battlecruiser in the world, slipped below the waves.
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Of HMS Repulse's 1236 man crew, 513 were killed in her sinking. The loss of Repulse, 1 of two remaining battlecruisers, along with the loss of HMS Prince of Wales, was called by Churchill, the single greatest shock of the entire war. Two capital ships lost in a single day, let alone, it's greatest battlecruiser and it's premier battleship. It also marked the destruction of the British eastern fleet, and the first time ever that capital ships had been sunk by airpower alone out at sea. Singapore would fall in the worst defeat in the history of the British army mere weeks after this loss, and the Malaya barrier would collapse entirely. Captain Tennant survived the sinking, co-ordinated rescue efforts of crew from the water, and went on to never command a ship again, instead taking charge of the logistics on D-Day. Surprisingly, If you've ever seen the movie Dunkirk, the admiral played by Kenneth Branagh, is actually inspired by Repulse's captain, William Tennant.
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Comments
@Nathan Thank you so much for all of this, I think sharing pictures of your ship creations and information about them is a brilliant idea!
The HMS Repulse designs that you have done are amazing as always, especially the ones in the dark as I imagine the lights are difficult to make? Maybe I'm wrong, but either way they're all brilliant models!
It sounds like HMS Repulse was a strong and successful ship in her prime and throughout the second World War. It's a shame to read of it's eventual fate with all of those bombings and it sinking, that must have been such a shock at the time. It sounds like it still holds a legacy in the marines today, I'm wondering whether it's inspired any modern-day ships?
@Callum Thank you so much. It was really hard to build at scale, cause it sits at around 250-300 blocks long, and the lighting was a bit of a tricky one.
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Repulses sinking was a catastrophic shock. The entire british eastern fleet was based around Prince of Wales and Repulse, so when both capital ships were sunk in a single lengthy air attack, it marked a turning point in naval history. The end of the British Eastern Fleet in the Pacific. It also marked the first time in history that a battleship/battlecruiser was sunk in the open sea's by airpower alone, cementing the end of the era of the battleship/battlecruiser, and bringing in the era of the aircraft carrier. And even though Repulse was a WW1 design, in ww2, it was still a powerful unit, which made it's loss even more tragic. After 1946, no more battleships/battlecruisers were ever constructed as a result, with carriers taking precedence, and carrier escort ships like cruisers and destroyers taking priority.
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The Royal Navy's remaining units in the pacific region would go on to sink in the battle of the Java Sea mere months later, and the British would not return into the pacific until the very final years of the war. As i say, churchill called it the worst shock of the entire war.
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And in term of inspiring other ships, no modern day ships are inspired by her sadly, due to the changes in naval warfare that resulted from her sinking. But doctrine did change as a result. Before, battleships could operate independently. After Repulse was lost, never again would battleships venture out without air cover for the rest of WW2, and it became clear that carrier aviation would become the dominant form of naval warfare from that stage on, something that holds true to this day. So mass doctrine changes are the biggest change inspired by it's loss.
Also wanted to hype up these models and just say… WOW - the detail and stuff is insane 😮😊
@Nathan Thanks again for sharing all of this. It must have taken so much time and effort to do this with the scale of the ship as well as the tricky lighting too.
It sounds like the Repulse was a powerful unit of a ship until it's unlucky ending at the same time as the Prince of Wales, I can imagine that was a huge day in naval history. It's a shame that no ships today are based off of the Repulse, but I suppose that makes her even more unique, the last of her kind if that makes sense. Is that something you'd agree with @Nathan?
Looking forward to seeing the next ship and learning more about it!