Search found 138 matches

by Keith Enge
Wed Jan 11, 2012 9:00 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Franco-Italian Naval War, 1940-41
Replies: 45
Views: 12387

Re: Franco-Italian Naval War, 1940-41

RF - You are overstating the effect of German efforts relative to Italian efforts against the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean. German ships and planes sank 84 British Commonwealth warships; Italian ships and planes sank almost as many, 74. That 74 included 1 CA, 5 CLs, 21 DDs, 3 DEs, 1 frigate, 4 co...
by Keith Enge
Wed Jan 11, 2012 8:23 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Action in the Med
Replies: 17
Views: 5042

Re: Action in the Med

Yes, in a battle of just those three ships, the two RN BBs have about a 31% advantage, not that much different from the 25% if all of the other ships are added. Valiant is a somewhat more powerful ship than Warspite because she got the prewar refit replacing the old 6" casement guns with ten 4....
by Keith Enge
Sat Jan 07, 2012 6:14 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Would Yamato with advanced AA gunnery survive air attack ?
Replies: 78
Views: 16599

Re: Would Yamato with advanced AA gunnery survive air attack

alecsandros - But imagine the Essex class in the Mediterranean, under attack by hundreds of torpedo bombers/high level bombers (well escorted) This sort of battle basically never occurred. The Mediterranean theater didn't have hundreds of planes attacking ships. The RAF and Luftwaffe considered it a...
by Keith Enge
Sat Jan 07, 2012 5:16 pm
Forum: Naval History (1922-1945)
Topic: Battleship speed
Replies: 27
Views: 9113

Re: Battleship speed

There was another factor. The British were quite conservative about employing the new high-temperature, high-pressure propulsion systems. This made it more difficult for them to achieve more power without making the power plant prohibitively large.
by Keith Enge
Fri Jan 06, 2012 9:00 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Franco-Italian Naval War, 1940-41
Replies: 45
Views: 12387

Re: Franco-Italian Naval War, 1940-41

RF, I really don't think that the British would allow belligerents to use ports like Valletta, Alexandria, Haifa, or East African ports. Furthermore, the port of Algiers is basically useless against the Italy; Italy has no interest in anything in that direction. Tunis was a marginal port, not a flee...
by Keith Enge
Thu Jan 05, 2012 7:18 pm
Forum: Naval History (1922-1945)
Topic: Washington Treaty & its effects
Replies: 9
Views: 3258

Re: Washington Treaty & its effects

Cruisers were growing anyway. The Kako, laid down in November 1922, was designed before the Washington Naval Conference (WNC). The US Omaha class was being completed just after the conference and was soon found to not be large enough. The Pacific powers were going to have to have large cruisers to g...
by Keith Enge
Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:50 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Franco-Italian Naval War, 1940-41
Replies: 45
Views: 12387

Re: Franco-Italian Naval War, 1940-41

Dguts1813 (Ed B.) - Having my database limit the ships of the two navies to whose completed on or before September 1940, I get the following list for Italy 4 old BB 2 new BB 7 CA 12 CL 59 DD 4 DE 43 TB 112 SS + miscellaneous smaller warships My database calculates their "power" as 107,412 ...
by Keith Enge
Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:33 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Action in the Med
Replies: 17
Views: 5042

Re: Action in the Med

paul.mercer - In the Battle of Calabria, the chances of a fleet action were hurt by the fact that both sides were covering convoys and were so more concerned with protecting their convoy than mixing it up with the other fleet. My database added the "powers" of the ships involved and gives ...
by Keith Enge
Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:29 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Surigao Strait alternative
Replies: 2
Views: 2690

Re: Surigao Strait alternative

Rick Rather - My database, by adding the "powers" of the ships that you listed, gives the Japanese about a 13% advantage (ratio is 1.129). If you add the six X-ray DDs, it drops to 8% (1.080). Adding thirty-three PT-boats (not 30), it drops further to about 5% (1.052). A lot of the Japanes...
by Keith Enge
Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:42 pm
Forum: Naval History (1922-1945)
Topic: Armor of the Admiral Hipper class cruisers
Replies: 67
Views: 26890

Re: Armor of the Admiral Hipper class cruisers

I don't think that it is some additional thickness of armor. I can think of two possibilities. The most likely is that it is the normal armor belt which did stand out from the skin of the ship. The reason that it appears to be only a patch is that a portion of the armor belt aft of it has been remov...
by Keith Enge
Fri Nov 04, 2011 3:21 am
Forum: Naval History (1922-1945)
Topic: Red Sea Forces
Replies: 14
Views: 4383

Re: Red Sea Forces

Hey guys - The last several post have gotten off topic; my question was the reasons for the Royal Navy's inaction, not the Italians. I feel that the reasons for the Italian inaction are self-evident. They were a "fleet-in-being", designed to tie up enemy forces by their mere threat. They c...
by Keith Enge
Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:04 am
Forum: Naval History (1922-1945)
Topic: Red Sea Forces
Replies: 14
Views: 4383

Re: Red Sea Forces

Byron Angel - I'm aware of what the RN did to protect the Red Sea convoys. However, I would think that a one-time attack would have used fewer resources than the continual drain of having to escort convoys. The Italians did attack two convoys with surface ships, BN.7 in October and BN.14 in February...
by Keith Enge
Tue Nov 01, 2011 1:08 am
Forum: Naval History (1922-1945)
Topic: Red Sea Forces
Replies: 14
Views: 4383

Red Sea Forces

I'm not sure which forum is the place for this thread but my best guess is that it belongs here. My question concerns the absence of any Royal Navy operation in the Red Sea to eliminate the Italian naval forces based at Massawa, Eritrea. The Italians had a handful each of destroyers, torpedo boats, ...
by Keith Enge
Wed Oct 26, 2011 10:37 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Graf Spee v Cumberland
Replies: 9
Views: 5994

Re: Graf Spee v Cumberland

Alecsandros, Actually, German fire control had an uneven record during the early war years. The Kriegsmarine was concerned because some of their surface raiders had needed to use an inordinate number of shells to sink merchant ship victims; these merchant ships should have been easy, basically defen...
by Keith Enge
Wed Oct 26, 2011 1:56 am
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Graf Spee v Cumberland
Replies: 9
Views: 5994

Re: Graf Spee v Cumberland

My database rates AGS as more than 50% more powerful than Cumberland; the County class were useful ships but combat wasn't really their forte. Actually, the weight of shell per minute favors AGS by a large margin. Cumberland had more guns and a slightly larger rate of fire but AGS's shells were almo...