Naval History Forums

Come on chaps, i suppose we all get a little too enthusiastic in our replies sometimes, look at some of the debates we've had on the merits of one ship over another! Its time to let it go, we've all had our say and a bit of fun whilst saying it, shall we leave it at that? You need to lure us all aw...

I see there are twenty plus posts in which the poster unable to mount a rational argument or rebuttal on the political issues or associated scientific issues, has resorted to labeling, ridiculing, and attempted discrediting those with whom they disagree. ...snip... I am slightly baffled by your pos...

Ah, the anti-AGW conspiracy theorists have arrived. Sorry but I don't understand you. I tend to believe the "consensus" estimates of the likely future global warming. I don't know enough to evaluate the scary possibilities with large positive feedbacks. However, my point was that politica...

It is fun to see everyone's political biases. I came in to defend Nelson's statue partly because I tend to believe that the RN in Nelson's day was the best equal opportunity employer of its time. You could be the son of a slave like Perkins or you could start as a seaman and rise to admiral like Ans...

As a poster to this site and a retired white Englishman to boot, I am naturally not very enthusiastic about removing Nelson’s Column. However, I would be quite happy to have a monument to Captain John Perkins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perkins_(Royal_Navy_officer) somewhere in London to anno...

On further reflection to explain the damage in the double bottom, could the shell from Prince of Wales have hit the bottom of Bismarck’s belt, possibly aided by a wave trough, and deflected downwards?

There is a frequently quoted article “The Battle of the Denmark Strait” by José M. Rico http://www.kbismarck.com/denmark-strait-battle.html which states “The first shell hit Bismarck amidships below the waterline in section XIV, passed through the outer hull just below the main belt, and exploded ag...

If Der Fuhrer escapes from the RN in May 1941, we could imagine that he flees to the Southern Oceans, either immediately or after being driven from Brest by British bombing. Thus we can imagine that Germay’s most powerful battleship ends up joining the Japanese fleet. Naturally, shortages of all sor...

Snip.... Even if the quality was up to German standards, it protected much less of the ship's hull than the German protection scheme . It not only provided a shorter citadel in terms of protected length but it was also shorter in terms of depth and height. The French main armoured deck, which cappe...

At the time when both ships were afloat, it is easy to predict a victory for Bismarck. The critical advantage is that Bismarck’s guns had much less dispersion and Bismarck had radar for ranging and a good fire control system as judged by comparison with that of contemporary RN battleships. We can ad...

John Moffat, who may have been the last survivor of the Swordfish crews who attacked Bismarck and who was often credited with dropping the decisive torpedo, has died. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Moffat_(Royal_Navy_officer) or http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/13/veteran-pilot-helped...

Steve - Re tactical employment of the Type 93 at 2nd Guadalcanal: DD WALKE - sunk DD PRESTON - sunk DD BENHAM - sunk BB SODAK - sailed right through a mass launch of approximately Type 93s, which miraculously missed her despite the fact the she was totally unaware of the attack. BB WASHINGTON - nev...

One problem in assessing the Type 91 diving shell is that it was rarely used under optimal conditions. Kaigun by Evans & Peattie has on page 263 that the optimal angle for entry into the water was 17 degrees, which allowed hits from up to 80 metres short of the target (I assume for Nagato's 41 c...

Hi, I am an engineer by education and used to enjoy reading a great deal of technical literature and stats about WW2, both planes and ships. Firstly welcome to the board!! I recall reading a book titled Axis & Neutral Battleships of WW2 back in my school days. The author was not very flattering...

There was a general problem in the KM that radar was regarded as too secret for officers to be told about its capabilities. There is an amusing story in Louis Brown's “A Radar History of WW2” https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uYgsr3exvS4C&pg=PA122&lpg=PA122&dq=brown+radar+hipper&so...