List of naval battles

This list of naval battles is a chronological list delineating important naval fleet battles. ;Note: "If a battle's name isn't known it's just referred to as "Action of (date)".

Ancient

Between the World Wars (1919-1939)

* 1919 - 17 June and 18 August British raids on Kronstadt during the Estonian Liberation War
* 1936 - September 29 Cape Espartel - during the Spanish Civil War
* 1937 - September 7 Cape Cherchell - during the Spanish Civil War
* 1938 - March 5-6 Cape Palos - during the Spanish Civil War

World War II (1939-45)

* 1939-45 Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945)
* 1939
**December 13 River Plate
* 1940
** May 10 and 13 May First and Second Battles of Narvik
**July 3 Mers-el-Kebir - British fleet attacks French fleet in harbour in Algeria
**July 9 Calabria (Punta Stilo) - British fleet attacks Italian fleet
** July 19 Cape Spada - HMAS "Sydney" sinks Italian cruiser "Bartolomeo Colleoni" off Crete
** September 23-35 Dakar - Vichy French fight off a British/Free French landing at Dakar
** November 1 Taranto - British air attack on Italians anchored at Taranto, inspiring the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
** November 27 Cape Spartivento (Cape Teulada) - British fight back an Italian interception
* 1941
**January 17 Koh Chang - French defeat Siamese
** March 28 Cape Matapan - British fleet defeats Italian fleet notably in night action
** April 16 - British ships attack Italian convoy "Duisburg". "Lampo", "Tarigo" and" Baleno" are sunk, as well as HMS "Mohawk"
** May 24 - Battle of the Denmark Strait - "Bismarck" and "Prinz Eugen" sink HMS "Hood"
** May 24- May 27 - Hunt for the German battleship "Bismarck" ends in her sinking
**December 7 Pearl Harbor
** December 10 South China Sea - HMS "Prince of Wales" and HMS "Repulse" sunk by Japanese air attack
** December 13 Cape Bon - British destroyers sink Italian cruisers
** December 17 First Sirte - Indecisive British-Italian fight off Libya
* 1942
** February 27 Java Sea - Japanese destroy ABDA fleet
** March 22 Second Sirte - "Regia Marina" obstacles a British convoy to Malta
** May 8 Coral Sea
* 1942-44 German U-Boats campaign in Gulf of St. Lawrence
** June 4-5 Midway - US fleet sinks four Japanese carriers in western Pacific Ocean
**August 8 Savo Island - Japanese destroy a US cruiser force
** August 24 Eastern Solomons - Japanese aircraft carrier "Ryujo" sunk
** October 12 Cape Esperance
** October 26 Santa Cruz Islands - USS "Hornet" sunk near Guadalcanal, but Japanese withdraw
** November 12-15 Guadalcanal - four days and nights of fighting
**November 30 Tassafaronga
** December 31 Barents Sea - British convoy escorts fight off German surface attack
* 1943
**January 29 Rennell Island - USS "Chicago" lost
** March 26 Komandorski Islands - US cruiser force turns back a Japanese fleet
** July 6 Kula Gulf
** October 23 - German light force defeats similar British force (details)
**November 2 Empress Augusta Bay
** December 26 North Cape - British ships sink "Scharnhorst" off northern Norway
** December 28 Operation Stonewall - British cruisers sink three German destroyers in the Bay of Biscay
* 1944
**June 19 Philippine Sea - US shoots down hundreds of Japanese aircraft in "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot"
** October 23-26 Leyte Gulf - Gigantic battle consisting of four main actions - the Sibuyan Sea, Surigao Straits, off Samar and Cape Engano

Later 20th century

* 1950 Battle of Incheon
* 1964 Gulf of Tonkin
* 1971
**December 3 - Pakistan Navy submarine PNS "Ghazi" lost with all hands off Vishakapatnam, in Bay of Bengal during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. The Indian Navy claims that the submarine was sunk by two depth charges from the destroyer INS "Rajput". Pakistan however has maintained that PNS "Ghazi" sank when the mines it was laying were accidentally detonated.
** Operation Trident (Indo-Pakistani War)
* 1973 - October 7 Latakia - Israelis defeat Syrians
* 1974 - January Battle of Hoang Sa - Chinese Navy invades the Paracels Islands, sunk South Vietnamese patrol craft.
* 1982 - May - Falklands War: British defeat Argentines to recapture the Falkland Islands. Argentine light cruiser ARA "General Belgrano" and British Type 42 destroyer HMS "Sheffield" sunk. (first sinking by a nuclear-powered submarine in war, one of 2 and last submarine kills since World War II).
* 1986 - Action in the Gulf of Sidra (1986) - US Navy engages Libyan Navy in a fleet action.
* 1988 - April 18 Operation Praying Mantis - U.S. Navy defeats Iranian naval forces in retaliation for the mining of the USS "Samuel B. Roberts" during a patrol mission.
* 1998 - February 23 - The Sri Lankan Navy and LTTE Sea Tigers clash off Sri Lanka, killing more than 60.

21st century

* 2002 - 2nd Battle of the Western Sea A South Korean naval patrol encounters North Korean intruders and force them to withdraw.
* 2006 - March 18 - U.S. Navy Ships USS "Cape St. George" and USS "Gonzalez" engage and defeat several pirate vessels off the coast of Somalia (details)
* 2006 - May 11 - The Sri Lankan Navy and LTTE Sea Tigers clash, leaving 18 SLN personnel and 4-30 Tigers dead
* 2007 - June 3 - U.S. Navy Ship USS "Carter Hall" intercepts the captured freighter "Danica White" and three pirate skiffs, destroying the skiffs but failing to recapture the freighter (details)
* 2008 - August 9 Russian Black Sea Fleet defeats Georgian Navy off Abkhazia, sinking one patrol boat and damaging another.

ee also

*Naval warfare

References

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/8088/warindex.html War index]
* [http://www.navy.ru/history/hrn4-e.htm Naval history]
* [http://www.naval-history.net/ Naval-History.Net] , Naval History of the 20th Century, World Wars 1, 2, post-war and Falklands War - navies, campaigns and battles