File:British first-class Battleship HMS Victory 28th August 1945. (49135041612).jpg

installation of a main-beam rack of the British first-class Battleship HMS Victory, the flagship of Admiral Horatio Nelson, after the end of the war 28th August 1945.Since the Germans knew the exact location of Victory, no serious attempts were made to disguise it. We limited ourselves to dismantling the upper masts and most of the rigging during the war. The ship was closed to the public. However, at that time he received many visitors, including King George VI of Great Britain, other members of the royal family, and Allied leaders who visited England. In a way, Victory returned to active duty: the ship was used as a floating barracks for privates from the Royal Naval Barracks and anti-aircraft artillery crews. In April 1941, Admiral William James (William Milbourne James), the commander of the Portsmouth Naval Base, transferred his department aboard the ship when a German bomb hit the Admiralty House (Admiralty House). After one of the raids in 1941, the Germans announced the destruction of the ship. This statement was soon refuted by the British, but in March 1941 the ship barely escaped the unenviable fate: a German 500-pound (226 kg) bomb fell into a dry dock and exploded on the left under the nose of the battleship. The explosion made a hole in the hull measuring 8 x 15 feet (2.5 x 4.5 m) and a pothole of 20 feet (6 m) in the masonry of the dock. Some steel support blocks flew hundreds of meters.