Naval History Forums

German guns used the sliding breech blocks usually associated with quick-firing guns. Because the tenon block wasn't gas-tight, the rearmost cordite charge had to be enclosed in a brass cartridge. When the gun fired, the cartridge expanded radially to complete the needed seal. My question involves d...

I too think that the US wouldn't invade. They would probably do what they actually did historically; let the Russian Army defeat the Germans. I think, if Great Britain had fallen, Stalin would believed his spies and not discounted the immediate German threat. If the troops on the Russian had thus be...

Theoretical endurance also often doesn't take into account power used to drive auxiliaries or to generate electricity to run other equipment. German ships were known for spending an unusual amount of their horsepower powering auxiliaries; I have seen data which says that it was up to a third of the ...

Djoser,

Great Britain got most of its oil from the Caribbean (Venezuela and Trinidad/Tobago).

Djoser, I think that your alternative history using Syrian oil for the Axis needs another change in history. Your map of oil production is for now (close, 2009). However, back at the time of WWII, little of middle-eastern oil had yet been developed. I believe that only Iran/Iraq was producing oil at...

I have recently reread Lundstrom's "The First Team" and noticed a communication method. I wonder how unique it was, how long it lasted, and if other navies did the same? Early in the war, if a plane was near the carrier and didn't want to break radio silence, it dropped a message in a bean...

I agree, the main problem was oil. It got so bad that they couldn't send out all available forces so that the ships that they did send were often outnumbered. However, they couldn't do anything about the oil so there was no chance of improving the situation. They got the oil via Germany and Germany ...

bgile, as a general rule, the percentage by weight of burster explosive is fairly uniform across the various navies. The reason for this is the relative weight of steel versus explosive. Thus, a hollow shell of thin steel filled with explosive still has a weight of 40% steel and 60% explosive even t...

While generally I agree with bgile, I wouldn't have used the term "tremendous structural damage". To do this, the bombs would have to penetrate better than the commonly used bomb sizes, types, and drop heights typically did. Also, trying for penetrating hits and damaging near misses was ba...

Siegfried Breyer in his book "Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970" has drawings of this ship. Of the 1913 design, there are cross-sectional armor, profile, and top-down views. There is also a profile of the subsequent 1914 design. The design was very close to that of the Queen Elisabe...

Japan's policy was unquestionably brutal and ultimately much less than optimal. However, I believe that you are whitewashing British policy which was definitely better than that of Japan but fell far short of your description of "benevolent liberal rule". Great Britain too stepped on nativ...

I doubt if this story is true. I read it in a book but find it very unlikely although very funny. Supposedly, during WWII, among the lend-lease items requested by the Russians were condoms. For intimidation purposes, they requested that the condoms be twelve inches long. The US complied but shipped ...

The best book that I know on the subject is Norman Friedman's book called "Naval Radar". It is especially useful in that it is divided into two parts. The first part is theory. A list of the chapter headings gives some indication of its breadth of discussion. They are: The basis of radar s...

Wasn't the Mark IV the Hazemeyer mount that the British copied from the Dutch after the minelayer Willem van der Zaan escaped to England? If so, that mount, according to Campbell, was first issued to Whimbrel in November 1942.

I agree. Opium was introduced because they needed something that the Chinese would buy. That, in fact, is my point. The outside powers maintained outposts because they wanted access to Chinese markets. However, they couldn't find anything that the Chinese wanted so they turned to opium. This had the...