At the end of World War II, the mighty fleets of the Axis powers lay shattered — and the victors wasted no time dividing the spoils.
From Germany’s once-feared Kriegsmarine, to the battered remnants of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the proud vessels of Italy’s Regia Marina, war prizes were shared between the Allies for evaluation, experimentation, and sometimes active service.
For Britain, the postwar years brought an influx of enemy vessels, though many were in poor condition after years of hard use and neglect. Kriegsmarine heavy units like Prinz Eugen, Nürnberg, and Hipper-class ships were examined for technology and engineering insight, while smaller craft like E-boats and U-boats offered valuable submarine and fast-attack design lessons. Italy’s surrendered ships were either integrated temporarily, used as training platforms, or broken up when they proved uneconomical to operate. From Japan came a very different set of prizes — destroyers, cruisers, and even carriers like Kaiyo, tested for aviation handling and endurance before meeting the scrapyard torch.
Across the Atlantic, the United States received its own share of captured warships. The Americans were particularly interested in German engineering, taking ships such as Prinz Eugen across the ocean for trials. Prinz Eugen’s propulsion and gunnery systems were studied in depth before she famously met her end as part of the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests. The U.S. also took possession of Japanese warships, studying their unique high-speed designs, torpedo technology, and metallurgy — all invaluable for Cold War naval planning.
For the Soviet Union, war prizes were more than just testbeds; they were often pressed directly into service to bolster a navy still recovering from the war. German cruisers, destroyers, and even incomplete hulls were taken as reparations, repaired, and renamed — ships like Nürnberg becoming Admiral Makarov, and the unfinished Seydlitz partially rebuilt as Poltava. The Soviets also obtained Italian and Japanese vessels, which were refitted for patrol, training, or fleet duties. This influx of foreign ships gave the USSR an eclectic but capable force during the early Cold War years.
While many of these war prizes had short postwar careers, their value lay in what they taught. They offered Allied engineers direct insight into enemy design philosophy — from the compact yet powerful layouts of German cruisers, to the long-ranged, fast-firing nature of Japanese destroyers. And even when the ships themselves were scrapped, their influence lived on in postwar shipbuilding programs.
This is the story of how the end of one global conflict shaped the fleets of the next era. The ships that once fought bitterly against the Allies found themselves wearing new flags, serving former enemies, and, in many cases, ending their days far from home. It’s a fascinating and often overlooked chapter of naval history — where the victors didn’t just take the spoils of war, they studied them, sailed them, and in some cases, relied on them.
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Intro 0:00
American War Prizes 0:31
Soviet War Prizes 21:32
British War Prizes 51:24
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