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.

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.

U.S. Navy ONI recognition manuals -- and as U.S. government documents, they are public domain -- they are 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.)

that I am posting scans 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.

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.

NOTE: a "##" to the left of the ship class's name means I have designed a 3-D cardstock model of it.

And now the ships:

Royal Norwegian Navy ships:

Destroyers ## Sleipner class Destroyer - 2x1 Bofors 3.9" guns, 2x1 21" torpedo tubes - A lucky and famous little ship!

Wartime and postwar Norwegian warships from ONI200, 1950

See also Norwegian-crewed British-built ships, such as the Hunt types 2 and 3 escort destroyers.

Britain's Royal Navy ships:

Italian Regia Marina ships:



Russian Red Navy ships:

French Navy ships:

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.

And now, 5Jan12, I have at some expense acquired an original ONI 203, French Naval Vessels, Feb43. Although I finally have the ONI plans for both battle cruisers Dunkerque and Strasbourg and heavily armored heavy cruiser Algerie, ONI 203 is disappointing: the only deck and side plans for destroyers were for the Simoun class, and I was hoping for finally having some for the Mogador/Volta and LeHardi heavy and late construction classes. I suspect the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon in Nov42 removed the need for a more comprehensive coverage in Feb43. Fortunately, there are such plans for the Suffren and Tourville heavy(?) cruiser classes in the 1950 ONI 200, but still ....

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17Apr15, rev. 20Jun16