List of monitors of World War II

Ships of World War II
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
aircraft carriers battleships battlecruisers cruisers coastal ships monitors destroyers frigates corvettes minor warships mine warfare amphibious warfare submarines auxiliaries classes

A monitor is a class of relatively small warship that is lightly armoured, often provided with disproportionately large guns, and originally designed for coastal warfare. The term "monitor" grew to include breastwork monitors, the largest class of riverine warcraft known as river monitors, and was sometimes used as a generic term for any turreted ship. In the early 20th century, the term "monitor" included shallow-draft armoured shore bombardment vessels, particularly those of the Royal Navy: the Lord Clive-class monitors carried guns that fired the heaviest shells ever used at sea and saw action against German targets during World War I. Two small Royal Navy monitors from the First World War, Erebus and Terror survived to fight in the Second World War. When the requirement for shore support and strong shallow-water coastal defence returned, new monitors and variants such as coastal defence ships were built (e.g. the British Roberts-class monitors). Allied monitors saw service in the Mediterranean in support of the British Eighth Army's desert and Italian campaigns. They were part of the offshore bombardment for the Invasion of Normandy in 1944. They were also used to clear the German-mined River Scheldt by the British to utilize the port of Antwerp. The German, Yugoslav, Croatian, Romanian, Hungarian and Czech armed forces operated river monitors that saw combat during World War II.^[1][2][3][4]

The List of ships of the Second World War contains major military vessels of the war, arranged alphabetically and by type. The list includes armed vessels that served during the war and in the immediate aftermath, inclusive of localized ongoing combat operations, garrison surrenders, post-surrender occupation, colony re-occupation, troop and prisoner repatriation, to the end of 1945. For smaller vessels, see also list of World War II ships of less than 1000 tons. Some uncompleted Axis ships are included, out of historic interest. Ships are designated to the country under which they operated for the longest period of the Second World War, regardless of where they were built or previous service history.

Click on headers to sort column alphabetically.

Ship	Country	Class	Type	Displacement (tons)	First commissioned	Fate
Abercrombie	Royal Navy	Roberts	monitor	7,850	5 May 1943	Scrapped 1954[5]
Drava	Royal Yugoslav Navy	Enns	river monitor	536	15 April 1920	sunk 12 April 1941
Erebus	Royal Navy	Erebus	monitor	7,300	2 September 1916	Scrapped July 1946
Lascăr Catargiu	Romanian Naval Forces		river monitor	680	1907	Built at the Galați Shipyard in Romania,[6] armament during World War II consisted of 3 x 120 mm guns in armoured turrets, 1 x 76 mm AA gun, 2 x 47 mm guns and two machine guns, 75 mm of armor protected the sides, deck, and turrets[7]
Morava	Royal Yugoslav Navy	Körös	river monitor	448	15 April 1920	scuttled 11 April 1941
Parnaiba	Brazilian Navy		river monitor	620	9 March 1938	in service
President Masaryk (monitor)	Czechoslovakia  Kriegsmarine		river monitor	214	1 August 1932	captured 1938 by Germany renamed Bechelaren, scrapped 1978
Roberts	Royal Navy	Roberts	monitor	8,100	27 October 1941	scrapped June 1965
Sava	Royal Yugoslav Navy	Temes	river monitor	440	15 April 1920	paid off 1962
Terror	Royal Navy	Erebus	monitor	7,300	6 August 1916	Sunk 24 February 1941
Vardar	Royal Yugoslav Navy	Sava	river monitor	580	15 April 1920	scuttled 11 April 1941

References

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