Naval History Forums

Hi All, That is indeed a beautiful piece of modelling (Brit spelling), although it does look a teeny-weeny bit like the pointy finial on a Great Western Railway signal. Back at the Acheron of Master and Commander, her construction is covered thus: You see, Will here, he seen her being built. (Will) ...

Hi All, exactly how one might define a "battle-cruiser" in the first place... :D I nominate USS Constitution (1797) as the best battlecruiser, being ahead of her time and designed by Joshua Humphreys to be superior to all competing vessels in her class built by any navy in the world. Like ...

Hi All, (and Happy New Year), William Green in Famous bombers of WWII suggests some of the problems with B-29 engines was down to climbing hard at maximum boost for lengthy periods with full bomb loads to the thin air needed for long range and "safe" bombing altitudes for daylight raids. R...

Hi Fatboy, It would appear likely A290 was similar to 291 ie a fixed forward pointing Yagi, mounted on top of the foremast, presumably with longer range than the lower bridge mounted Type 271 lantern. A modeller called Vladi K has posted nice pictures of his rendition at https://www.flickr.com/photo...

Hi TTTT, In wild weather, published specs on the performance of ships doesn't mean anything. (Hundreds of pages have been wasted here proving what speed Bismarck could theoretically achieve). Power delivered to the propellers is balanced against highly variable drag as the hull form interacts with t...

Hello All, There is a danger of this thread diverting off into a discussion of Plan Z and its purpose. There are other threads devoted to this. Raeder was required to carry out the transport and support of an army invasion of Norway using what would be a barely adequate naval force force, and would ...

Hello TTTT, Hans and all, This from Hans, Also, Prager states that decision to employ Lützow in Oslo area (despite initial decision to send her to northern Norway) was taken following her Captain suggestions, because she was required back to Germany as soon as possible after the invasion, to repleni...

Hi Hans and all, I must correct my earlier post. You are quite right. Pol III was not rammed, but the "rammer", creating a "grazing impact" which dented her bow a little. There is an excellent photo on the Wikipedia Action in the Oslofjord page showing very minor dent in the uppe...

Hi Hans, The timing issues are that Norwegian time 04:00 is German time 05:00. Koop and Schmolke Heavy Cruisers of the Hipper Class have an extensive quote of the combat report for Blucher created by her XO Erich Heymann. The preliminary highlights how little weapons training had been possible durin...

Hello Hans and all, Excellent input Hans. We must check timings to make sure everybody is on the same zone. So with some light available a bombing raid to disable Oskarborg's open air gun mounts was perfectly feasible, especially since aircraft were tasked with attacking Fornebu airfield prior to pa...

Hi All, Having disposed of the alternative "reality" sources Larry Johnson and Scott Ritter, alleged audio evidence falsifier and convicted sex criminal, respectively, we move on to the shoot down of David MacGregor and John Mearsheimer. After his appearance on Fox News (a well known sourc...

Hi All, Gullible types think that Putin just woke up on the 24th of February [2022] and decided to invade Ukraine and risk starting WW3 Nope, that's just the other shoe falling. He "woke up" much earlier. On 27 February [2014], Russian armed forces without insignias seized the building of ...

Hi RF A searchlight illuminated Blucher so Eriksen could fire on it. And searchlights make excellent targets - see Battle of Jutland. The Germans unaccountably thought they could sneak through without opening fire first, even though shots had been exchanged earlier. With Blucher and Lutzow they had ...

Hi All, that would basically be suicide, as the inlet to the fjord could easily be sealed off by powerful RN units. And Luftwaffe couldn't support Narvik until late April/early May - when a suitable airfield was built near Trondheim. Well, it would be suicide for General Dietl and his 2000 mountain ...

Hi All, Apparently, the wayward former popular TV historian Neil Oliver has also said on GB News (a non-mainstream news channel) On GB News, Oliver spoke on the subject of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying "I'll be honest. I don't know what's happening in Ukraine. I don't understand ...