During World War 2, the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) made up recognition/identification manuals of Allied and Axis warships, using drawings. The originals of these manuals -- I have most of them -- are U.S. government publications and therefore in the public domain with no copyright/re-publication restrictions.

I have been posting many of the drawings on my webpages at http://www.coatneyhistory.com and http://LCoat.tripod.com

You might be interested in how the Navy saw many Allied and Axis warships in the midst of war. For that matter, you might want to print off the drawings for the models you own (or don't yet own).

It should be noted that (because of enemy secrecy) the drawings of Allied -- and Italian Wink -- ships are more accurate than for those of the Germans and Japanese, and superbattleships Yamato and Musashi (as well as the wartime construction Agano and Oyodo light cruiser classes and all wartime Japanese aircraft carrier classes) just aren't there.

I have used these drawings -- especially the Allied ones -- in designing my cardstock models.

Anyway, enjoy.

Lou,
Thanks for highlighting this series. I have the Japanese Naval Vessels (ONI 41-42) and Japanese Merchant Ships (ONI 208) and use them regularly for reference.

The whole series is available on CD - see website

http://www.history-on-cdrom.com/id115.htm

Jim S

Welcome to Model Shipwrights Lou and thank you for sharing this information!

Kenny

Thanks, guys.

I know about the CDs -- they have the one manual I don't have in original form -- and, again, I only scan my originals.

What is the date on your ONI 208, Jim? The later editions seem to have more drawings ... although by that time most of the Japanese merchant fleet was on the bottom. We just couldn't be sure which ones.

My Uncle John was on the USS Moray, SS-300, which didn't make it over to the war zone until late in the war. I think he was 16, when he enlisted ... to my mom and grandma's acute distress.

Hi Lou... looks like we're doing somewhat similar work.

Just as a FYI, your note about not wanting people to repost your scans.... good luck. I know I can't keep people from reposting the text and photos I post so I essentially just claim copyright on the HTML code used to format the documents I post.

Thanks for the work you've put in!

There is a code you can put on your page that will stop people from right clicking and saving the images. My wife uses it on her pottery page. This of course only keeps the casual image thief from taking things.

You can also place watermarks on the face of the image. In the end people will still take things off your site.

But, thank you for spending the time to post what you have so far

Well, I do want people to be able to download and print off the drawings, so I won't prevent them from doing so, even if someone could repost my scans contrary to my "scan-rights."

(Actually, many years ago now, someone at the Army Center for Military History did get into trouble -- maybe even lost his job -- for re-posting parts of a private publisher's CD-ed government publication, even if the original papercopy was public domain.)

Thanks again for the encouragement, guys. MORE COMING ... of course.

That's not a term I'm familiar with....