Free, public domain U.S. Government ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) ID recognition manual book plans drawings of World War 2 II ships warships naval vessels -- and more to come.
Note:
- All these drawings are scanned by me from original U.S. Navy ONI recognition manuals -- and as U.S. government documents, they are public domain -- they are not from privately published reprintings and videodiscs.
- Please note that I am posting scans I made here -- the scans are mine, even if the original drawings themselves are in the public domain -- and I do not want my scans re-posted by anyone else anywhere else. Of course, if you get your own copies of the original manuals, you can do anything you like with your own scans of them.)
- You are free to download my scans of the drawings and print them off for your own personal use.
If you are a naval miniatures wargamer like I am, trying to fill in missing classes of models at whatever scale -- 1:4800 (CinC), 1:2400 (CinC and GHQ), 1:1800 (Axis & Allies), 1:1200 & 1:1250 (AlNavco/Superior, Hansa, Neptun, Delphin, etc.), 1:700 & 1:720 (Tamiya, Revell, etc.) -- you may want to print off the side plan drawings to scale and in reverse (to be cut and pasted on both sides of a piece of cardboard), so that you can have some very nice stand-up 2-D models, like these.
And/or you can use the deck plans -- the deck plans for Bismarck, Hood, and Prince of Wales were provided with the old AlNavCo Seapower rules.
- Because of computer graphics, some drawings may appear to be over-shaded and difficult to look at on the screen, but they should print out much more nicely at their real size. (Except in the case of the British "minors," for example,) Download them to your own computer first, trim away what you don't want, and rotate them so that they are vertical, for maximum length/size in printing.
- The United States Naval Institute -- USNI -- (privately) republished the ONI manuals for U.S., Japanese, and German ships in 1986-1993. They are beautiful books.
First, here is the ONI Range Table, to help you make sense of the horizontal lines on the ONI drawings of enemy ships.
And now the ships:
Royal Norwegian Navy ships:
U.S. Navy (USN) ships:
- Battleships (BB)
- Old Battleships, as of 1943
- Arkansas class Battleship - 6x2 12" guns, see notes for secondaries
- New York and Texas class Battleships - 5x2 14" guns, see notes for secondaries
- Nevada/Oklahoma class Battleship - 2x2, 2x3 14" guns, 8x2 5" dual purpose guns
- Pennsylvania/Arizona class Battleship - 4x3 14" guns, 8x2 5" dual purpose guns
- New Mexico, Mississippi, and Idaho class Battleships - 4x3 14" guns, see notes for secondaries
- California and Tennessee class Battleships - 4x3 14" guns, 8x2 5" guns
- Colorado and Maryland (and WestVirginia) class Battleships - 4x2 16" guns, 18x1 5" guns
- New Battleships
- Aircraft Carriers (CV)
- Cruisers (CB, CA, CL, CLAA)
- Alaska (and Guam) class Large Cruisers (CB)/Battle Cruisers - 3x3 12" guns, 6x2 5" guns - with photos
- Northampton class Heavy Cruisers, 1942 and 1945 (CA) - 3x3 8" guns, 8x1 5" guns - with photos
- Astoria (and Minneapolis, New Orleans, Quincy, San Francisco, Tuscaloosa, and Vincennes) class Heavy Cruisers (CA) - 3x3 8" guns, 8x1 5" guns - with photos
- Wichita, Heavy Cruiser (CA) - 3x3 8" guns, 8x1 5" guns - with photos
- Baltimore (and Chicago II, Pittsburgh, Quincy II, Helena II, Canberra II, etc.) class Heavy Cruisers (CA) - 3x3 8" guns, 6x2 5" guns - with photo
- Cleveland (and Montpelier, Denver, Columbia, Houston II, Pasadena, etc.) class Light Cruisers (CL) - 4x3 6" guns, 6x2 5" guns - with photo
- Prewar Omaha (and Richmond, Marblehead, Detroit, etc.) class Light Cruisers (CL) - 2x2, 6x1 6" guns, 8x1 3" guns - with photo
- Atlanta and later Juneau II classes of light antiaircraft cruisers (CLAA) - 8x2 and then 6x2 5" guns.
- Postwar Worcester (and Rochester) class Light Antiaircraft Cruisers (CL) - 6x2 6" dual purpose guns, many twin 3" guns - with photos
- Destroyers (DD)
- Minor Combatants (DE, PF, etc.)
Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ships:
- Battleships
- Aircraft Carriers
+ Shokaku class Fleet Carriers -
- Cruisers
- Kako (and Furutaka) class Heavy Cruiser - 3x2 8" guns, 4x1 4.7" guns, 2x4 24" torpedo tubes
- Atago (and Takao) class Heavy Cruiser - 5x2 8" guns, 4x1 or 4x2 4.7" guns, 4x4 24" torpedo tubes
- Mogami (and Mikuma, Kumano, and Suzuya) class Heavy Cruiser - 5x2 8" guns, 4x2 4.7" guns, 4x3 24" torpedo tubes
- Yubari, Light Cruiser - 2x2,2x1 5.5" guns, 2x3 21" torpedo tubes
- Natori class Light Cruisers - 7x1 5.5" guns, 4x2 21" torpedo tubes
- Destroyers
- Minor Combatants
- Merchant Ships
Britain's Royal Navy ships:
- Battleships
- Aircraft Carriers
- Cruisers
- Destroyers
- Minor Combatants
German Kriegsmarine ships:
- Battleships
- Aircraft Carriers
- Armored Ships (also known as "Pocket Battleships")
- Cruisers
- Destroyers
- Minor Combatants
Italian Regia Marina ships:
- Italian Navy Camouflage
- Battleships
- Cruisers
- Trento class Heavy Cruisers - 4x2 8" guns, 6x2 3.9" guns, 4x2 21" torpedo tubes
- Bolzano class Heavy Cruisers - 4x2 8" guns, 8x2 3.9" guns, 4x2 21" torpedo tubes
- Cadorna class Light Cruisers - 4x2 6" guns, 3x2 3.9" guns, 2x2 21" torpedo tubes
- Montecuccoli class Light Cruisers - 4x2 6" guns, 3x2 3.9" guns, 2x2 21" torpedo tubes
- Duca degli Abruzzi (and Giuseppi Garibaldi) class Light Cruisers - 2x2, 2x3 (10) 6" guns, 4x2 3.9" guns, 2x3 21" torpedo tubes
- Capitani Romani class wartime Light Cruisers - 4x2 5.3" guns, 2x4 21" torpedo tubes
- Destroyers
- Minor Combatants
Russian Red Navy ships:
French Navy ships:
- Battleships
- Cruisers
- Destroyers
- Minor Combatants
Swedish Navy ships:
- Battleships
- Cruisers
- Destroyers
- Minor Combatants
NOTES:
I have the basic FM 30-50/NAVAER 00-80V-57 Recognition Pictorial Manual of Naval Vessels volume, of course, as well as its Supplement No. 1 which contains the large scale plans for the British cruisers and destroyers.
The late war German destroyer and torpedoboat and (all the) Soviet plans were found in the July 1, 1950 ONI 200 manual. (Many of the lighter German ships had been awarded to the Soviets and French as war reparations.)
I finally found a good quality plan of the SIMS class destroyer in my recently acquired copy of ONI 54, although that may have been inserted as a supplement, in which case I have no idea when or where it was distributed.
I also have the late war ONI manual for ALL the Japanese merchant ships -- most having drawings. (The early war edition I interlibrary loaned from MIT lacked drawings for most ships.)
I have the presentation version of the ONI manual for Japanese warships, having photos of models taken from different angles, to facilitate recognition by aviators as well as gunnery officers. Those would be much too space-consuming, though.
I have gotten a complete copy of the 1943 ONI manual for Italian warships. Unhappily, it omitted the Trieste/Trento heavy cruisers and early/weak Colleoni class light cruisers: they had already been sunk! However, an ONI page for Trieste/Trento popped up in an otherwise incomplete set.
I also have the little 1941 War Department recognition booklets for the U.S., British, and French, but those appear to have been little more than reprintings of Jane's drawings which weren't sufficiently accurate.
I also picked up a Luftwaffe August 1940 Englische und franzoesische Kriegsschiffe identification book produced by Mittler and Son in Berlin. It too only used Jane's drawings, although presciently cited Hood's weak armor the year before Denmark Straits.
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21May10
