Naval History Forums

Yeah I would echo the above comments. Read Friedman's book on 'Netcentric Warfare' Its clear that was the main justification for the Battle-cruisers design and was quite innovative concept.. Every thing evolved around the problem of how to protect imperial trade lines from enemy raiders and while th...

I would expect a few good days of heavy drinking, babbling, and finally jumping from a tall window... Bismarck back to Norway (and out of reach of RAF) , soon to be doubled by Tirpitz... would mean perpetual nightmare of a double-sortie.... necessiting quadruple fast-battlehsip force to engage them...

If BS had followed doctrine he should have doubled back to Norway when the gig was up....I'm guessing Churchill would only have had seizure if Hood was sunk and Bismarck escaped?

Surely Bismarck's mission was to break out into the North Atlantic, and if that fails - to release PE with its superior speed to escape and continue raiding?

We do know that Hitler forced the Twins to be altered from the original planned 6x14” guns back to the 9 x 11”C34 guns..... needless to say I have a different POV :angel: The original choice for the Panzerschiffe D & E before they became “the Twins”, was the “neuf” design based on the previous m...

The warship would have been 26,000 t max with 22cm belt armor plus slopes & 45mm torpedo belt; while the deck armor was 70mm MAD & 20mm weather deck..so I assume 70mm slopes. The options for propulsion was 110,000 hp diesel producing 30knots or 106,000hp turbines producing 29.6 knots. ...lo...

Looking through the protracted development that went from the Panzerschiffe D to Scharnhorst there were 19 steps each featuring design changes. One such change envisaged 9 x 13" guns [ Pzsch 1934 D3c] , which obviously never happened because no such gun was produced. However at the time of thes...

Twins were only built with 11" rifles because that's what Hitler demanded . The original plan was to build turrets that could handle triple 11" C34 guns but be upgraded to twin 14" guns. However the 14" gun was never developed and a 15" gun was pushed instead [to counter the...

Original Naval plan 1928/32 was for 6 improved PBS based on stretched Deutschland class with a third triple 11" gun turret. After Hitler & Raeder battled over this it morphed into 3 * 35kt BB with 6*14" guns -but Hitler changed that back to 11" guns and KM compromised with turrets...

under the 1936 treaty Germany could build a fleet 35% of commonwealth forces. Commonwealth fleet had 6 CV = KM could build 2 CV.... THE BUILT NONE. Commonwealth fleet had 15 BB/BC = KM could built 5 but they built 4 BB Commonwealth fleet had 15 CA = KM could built 5 but they built 3 CA Commonwealth ...

If the leadership didn't care about land wars then WW2 would never have started. With respect to cruisers I would expect emphasis on panzersciffe rather than the Hippers, with light cruisers and destroyers being constructed for long range Atlantic operations. In terms of timescale this would greatl...

If only Hitler was a compatent leader in Naval Warfare. The Batle of the Atlantic would've been different. But no, he didn't pay too much attention and his fleets gets mauled up by the end of the war. Yes ,It is of note that the KM poor status in WW-II was a direct result of their ties to the mutin...

Hitler crippled the KM by micromanaging it to failure. From the start he demanded it be no more than a coastal defense fleet that was able to dominate the Baltic Sea plus a limited ability to interdict the North Sea & Norwegian Seas. When he took over power that's all the KM was able to do. Ther...

How good would you rate the Deustchland class among the worlds cruisers, consdering age, role, statistics ect. Would you rate them; good, average or down right Courageous class BC bad XD Well its always difficult to compare things out of context. I'm assuming you meant the 'pocket battleships' and ...

I see the roles of the Atlanta and Dido/Belladonna classes as being long range ocean escorts/scouts for fast carrier battle groups in heavy sea. Historically this was the role of the Destroyers but they were sooo short range/speed and didn't have the sea keeping to keep station with bigger warships...