Naval History Forums

I didn't check Groener, but Campbell agrees pretty much with Breyer.

To expand some on what Bgile is saying, the USN used Ammonium Picrate as a filler while the Germans used preformed TNT/wax blocks. Ammonium Picrate, being a heavier compound, required less volume per weight than TNT, resulting in a smaller explosive cavity; it was also less prone to concussive shock...

Hi Tiornu, Apparently not losing a wingman is true. In fact, in one mission, when he and his wingman tangled with six P51s over Hungary (i think), Hartmann had his wingman break for home while he engaged the enemy to give him time to make good his escape. His wingman escaped unscathed, although Hart...

Hi Karl, The Admiralty Fire Control Table or AFCT, was essentially a whole new design since the last mark Dreyer, as in Hood, had taken Dreyer's original design to its mechanical limit. The AFCT in its successive marks provided for important automatic input, thus minimizing operator errors. If I rec...

The Germans, during the battle of Jutland, used a system inferior to the Dreyer system in use in Britain. It was in fact a manually operated system based on a Range Clock and a German version of the Dumaresq calculator, and a director pointer, whereas the Dreyer fire control table combined the range...

The round which hit the tripod mast platform above the compass platform might have disrupted the fire control from the foretop although I am not aware of any primary source which states that the foretop was put out of action (though any hit in that area might well have done so, either by severing ca...

Prinz Eugen had loaded nose fuzed shells during the passage down the straits in case they got into a skirmish with light forces. These were still in the barrels at the start of the action with Holland's force and perforce had to be fired off before the guns could be loaded with the base fuzed HE Jas...

Karl, I know of no hit on Hood's conning tower. The best of my knowledge, the first hit was by Prinz Eugen's second salvo which ignited ready-use 4-inch and /or UP lockers on the shelter deck. This shell was reported by Able Seaman Tilburn as not being a major calibre shell as it would otherwise hav...

Ok. Buendnisfaehigkeit, in the context of Stosch and Bismarck was the ability of Germany to attract allies--in Stosch's case primarily maritime allies who would otherwise perforce have to side with major naval powers such as Britain and France--i.e., if you cannot be number 1 then attract enough all...

Hi Tiornu, In what context is the word used? Normally it means the quality or qualities necessary to be a worthy ally (as used by Chancellor von Bismarck). Hitler on the other hand used the term as the ability to conclude or force international agreements on the strength of military preparedness wit...

I presume you mean J. Edgar Hoover.

There was little scope for the USN battleships in the Pacific as much more than support ships and air defence vessels for the carrier groups. How vessels were used has little bearing on technical superiority questions. One should add that the USN's Old Battle line, many of which were sunk at Pearl, ...

Was not Mikasa in Japan built in the UK from the plans of Sir William White?

Tiornu is essentially correct, but to add a little more to the explanation he gave, the flat area of the protective deck had an extension over the slopes in the way of the magazines; this flat extension was carried all the way to the ship's side when a test in 1920 showed that a 15in shell could pen...

Tiornu, I think you might have a point about the all-purpose classification. In many military applications einheits has that meaning. Within the capital ship category Einheitsschiff would tend to mean a capital ship that could serve as both line of battleship as well as battle cruiser equally well--...