Naval History Forums

Gentlemen, I read in the paper today that the co founder of Microsoft supported by a company called Blue Water Recoveries have been given permission by the British Ministry of Defence to recover one of the bells from the wreck of HMS Hood ( at no cost to them) and if successful will be displayed in ...

Gentlemen,
I know we are all supposed to be on metric nowadays, but for an oldie like me, what would the biggest gun be in inches?

GS wasn't nearly as impervious to 6-8 or even 5" shells as some here would like to believe, one Japanese Kongo class battlecruiser with far more armor and much heavier weapons along with an escort was dissabled by these same weapons, I see no reason for the GS to fare better than that ship. Ge...

Thanks for that info. As to my other question, would the uprated (and faster) Rodney & Nelson have tipped the balance in favour of the RN? The reason I left out Repulse & Renown was because the twins would have had 15" guns which I think might have been too much for the two elderly batt...

The keeping of the carriers out of harms way in what would be a 'slugfest' (is there such a word?) would be a good idea. Do you think the twins armed with 6 or 9 15" would make a decisive difference? If we have a slightly different senario where Gt Btitain sticks to the Wasington Treaty and do ...

Iwd, Just a thought. If we leave out Nelson, Rodney and the other WW1 battleships because they are too slow for a modern engagement as well as Renown & Repulse because of their weak armour and concentrate on the modern WW2 ships and we had for the RN, one Lion, and the five KGv class + a carrier...

I think some people must only have one book on the Bismarck and it has been written by the British. To reflect on some of your comments lwd, what does a report in US papers about battleship X sinking a Japanese ship have anything to do with the Bismarck. If the history of the Bismarck was written h...

This is getting even better!
Would the RN or US have a carrier or two and if so how would they be deployed?
Of course, now comes the 64 million dollar question, what do all you experts reckon the result would be, after all it would be the biggest fleet action since Jutland?

Gentlemen, Forgive me for intruding on this discussion, but when Bismarck was cornered and unable to steer with her company in a fairly demoralised state, did she not make some pretty impressive shooting against Rodney (who was able to manouver) before the combined weight of shells destoyed her offe...

... So we have a potential order of battle: 1 H-39 Bismarck and Tirpitz 1 large aircraft carrier converted from H-39 class hull 1 Graf zeppelin ... We can also work out a likely meeting place for the engagement(s). I would assume a similar Atlantic commerce raiding expedition as saw the demise of t...

Gentlemen,
In documentaries on WW2 we often see the heavy guns deployed for coastal defence on the 'Atlantic Wall' and occasionally see pictures of massive rail mounted guns, what calibre would they have been?

Gentlemen,
Another question on aircraft engines I'm afraid.
Could you please tell me what engine the Hawker Sea Fury had and what engine the Seafire had? (With it's long nose it looks as if the Seafire may have had a Griffon), but it would be interesting to know.
Thanks once again for your help.

Gentlemen, Thre have been reports of ships firing their heavy guns into the water against low flying aircraft, presumably trying to get the splash to bring them down, if this is true, would those shells have exploded or just skipped accross the water like a stone on a pond due to the low angle at wh...

Gentlemen, I'm sure this thread has been debated before, but I cannot find it so I will bring it up again. In your expert opinions were the British justified in firing on the French Fleet, personally I think they were as they could not risk it being taken over by the Germans, but I am afraid I am no...

Gentlemen,
On this theme, which was the best aircraft engine in WW2 the in line or the radial and what were their merits (or otherwise)