High School Class Reunion

USS Kidd was a Fletcher class destroyer named after Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd who died on the bridge of his flagship USS Arizona during the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. She was commissioned 23rd April 1943.

Her armaments:
5x single 5inch batteries
14x 40mm AA guns
12x 20mm AA guns
5x 21inch torpedo tubes
6x k-gun depth charge throwers
2x depth charge racks

The Kidd saw heavy action in World War II, participating in nearly every important naval campaign in the Pacific after her 1943 commissioning, as she fought gallantly during the invasions of the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, the Philippines at Leyte Gulf, and Okinawa.She would be recommissioned in 1951 as a result of the Korean War. During this she patrolled Korean waters bombard enemy positions and joined hunter-killer group.Eventually being decommissioned in June 1964 she is now a museum ship in the Louisiana Naval War Memorial Commission.(wiki info)

HMS Glorious was one of 3 Courageous class battlecruisers and was completed in late 1916 and spent most of the First World War patrolling in the North Sea. It was later decided Glorious would be renovated into an aircraft carrier and was recommissioned in 1930 and could carry up to 48 aircraft.

Her armaments:
16 x single 4.7 inch dual purpose guns.

Fate:
While returning from Norway after the unsuccessful Anglo-French campaign in Norway she and her inadequate es**rt of two destroyers (Acasta and Ardent) were spotted by German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. All three ships were sunk with the loss of 1519 lives although Ardent did manage to damage the Scharnhorst considerably with a torpedo before she herself was sank. The circumstances of the sinking of these ships has been has been debated often with claims that Glorious’ captain left Norway early with an inadequate es**rt as he wanted to get back to supposedly court marshal his air commander J.B. Heath, aswell as heavy cruiser Devonshire had passed within 30-50 miles of the battle and heard a transmission but was reluctant to engage as it was carrying the Norwegian Royal Family. The sinkings and the failure to mount an effective rescue was a huge embarrassment to the Royal Navy.(wiki info)

German heavy cruiser Blücher was the second of five Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers of N**i Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was commissioned on the 20th of September 1939 shortly after the outbreak of war. Immediately upon entering service, Blücher was assigned to the task force that supported the invasion of Norway in April 1940. The ship led the flotilla of warships into the Oslofjord on the night of 8 April, to seize Oslo, the capital of Norway. Two old 11 inch coastal guns in the Oscarsborg Fortress engaged the ship at very close range, scoring two hits, as did several smaller guns in other batteries. Two torpedoes fired by land-based torpedo batteries struck the ship, causing serious damage. A major fire broke out aboard Blücher, which could not be contained. The fire spread to one of her anti-aircraft gun magazines, causing a large explosion, and then spread further to the ship's fuel bunkers. Blücher then capsized and sank with major loss of life. (Wikipedia information)