Naval History Forums

Europe is a trading block established to restrict the flow of goods and artificially jack up prices. I am an internationalist who believes in the unity of peoples world wide I do not believe in nationalism, the supremacy of Britain etc, but Europe is not the way forward and to my mind it would be a ...

I can give you a few titles. 1903, The Minutes of the Second Congress of the RSDLP which gives a blow by blow account of the democratic struggles within the party and which mark the birth of Boleshvism. Lenin's stand against Bourgeois tendencies actually drew out all of the opposition to him and the...

During the past week I have been able to run down the figures for Bismarck's speeds over given time periods between 1700 on the 24th of May until 2130 on the 26th when she was crippled by a torpedo. I have been able to use these figures in conjunction with a consumption graph for Bismarck which I pr...

Well errors and errors...... Contact was not lost by Suffolk at 0306. That was her last sighting of Bismarck. It was only after Suffolk turned onto the inward leg of the zig zag that she found Bismarck to be missing - at 0400. So that could not possibly have occurred at 0306 (British time). In Bisma...

Correction. The photo previously mentioned did not appear in the HMSO publication "Coastal Command" but in another publication "Fleet Air Arm" which came out in 1943. The photo held in Jason Spurr's album (the second of those shown below) is actually different to the one in the ...

To Thorsten Wahl. I have converted chart positions taken from the Mercator's Atlantic chart which would have been used in Bismarck, in order to get a clearer more accurate idea of what the ship did on the actual globe, so the projections I have presented here are definitely not Mercator's. The probl...

I present below the full track chart as calculated on Google Earth and here are the times, speeds and distances steamed; 0306 (0206 in Bismarck) 56*20' N by 37*40' W - AK42 0206 - 0700 5 hours 140nm 28kts 0700 - 1300 6 hours 154nm 27kts 1300 - 1620 3hrs 20m 80nm 24kts 1620 - 1920 3hrs 40m 94nm 30kts...

This and the next post are linked, so please take account of both. I hesitate to publish my findings here, because anything which conflicts with what the history books have said seems to garner hostility. However I will present my work, but ask everyone to be aware from the start that it is not perf...

I have been able to make fairly good use of the Grid Map Calculator provided by Tommy and have produced some new information regarding Bismarck's track after contact with her was lost. I have used the positions contained in Bismarck's survivor's diaries and they do match up and have produced a track...

Ark Royal's pilots and observers attacked Sheffield which has a similar outline at this angle to a KGV. Sheffield, against whom they had exercised many times was a ship of their own Force H. Victorious' guys may easily have gotten identification wrong on this occasion too. Photo's are developed some...

You would need to study the Life of Lenin and his work in the RSDLP to see how he struggled to democratise the movement and keep it democratic. The fight against the puppet Duma set up by the Czar was a totally democratic process and the basis of the revolution. It should be remembered that there we...

To Pandora. Northern Spain Was recommended by Group West because Franco was was a Fascist and although ostensibly neutral was friendly with Hitler. U-boats often made for Vigo to oil and their depot ships often oiled and resupplied there. Under Maritime Law, ships from belligerent nations could oil ...

I don't know if people are ahead of me on this, but it seems the grid calculator does work if you just put the grid square number in and let it give a position lat' and long' on Google earth. I have plotted 3 separate grid squares and they match the positions at which given events and sightings are ...

One might carry an Elephant gun around just in case, but it would be a lot to lug around on the off chance of finding one at the supermarket. With a few exceptional events they were waste of time. I don't think battleships should ever attempt to sink aircraft carriers, the range of a carrier extends...

The problem of condenseritis may have been due to the inability for sea water to circulate properly around the tubes of the condensers. Warspite passed too close to a sand bank on one occasion and silted up her condensers, but it seems she suffered condenser problems continually. If there is no vacu...