What Australia might have called HMS Hermes
An Australian purchase might have retained Hermes, although familiar major-city names were plausible alternatives.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
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South American battleships were not bound to a 14-inch limit
The assumed 14-inch restriction did not bind South American buyers, which could order larger-gunned battleships if they wanted them.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Shellfire, torpedoes, and battleship sinkings
Gunfire sometimes sank ships outright, while torpedoes often delivered the final blow after decisive gun damage.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Finding a fugitive capital ship through fuel logistics
A search for Hood would begin with the few ports capable of berthing and fuelling such a large ship.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
The F3 as a fast Nelson-style favourite
The F3 is selected as a favourite unbuilt paper warship and characterized as a fast counterpart to Nelson and Rodney.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Choosing Minotaur over Neptune after the Tiger-class costs
With hindsight about Tiger-class costs, the more familiar Minotaur design is preferred to the Neptune alternative.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why capital ships still need guns before torpedoes
Heavy torpedoes are unreliable primary weapons at battle range, so guns provide the more dependable damage mechanism.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
The anti-ship missile gap on modern destroyers
A destroyer missile fit able to serve both anti-ship and land-attack roles is preferred to the existing offensive gap.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why component-only treaty limits are hard to enforce
Restricting only guns, armour, and fire control invites displacement to be hidden in nominally structural weight.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why the Admiral-class hull did not suit all-or-nothing armour
The Admiral-class battlecruiser hull was not laid out for an all-or-nothing protection scheme.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Different Soviet fleet theatres needed different ship designs
The Soviet Union's separated naval theatres should have produced stronger regional design differences than were consistently implemented.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Hood's value in Washington Treaty tonnage calculations
Even with three Renown-class ships available, Hood might survive because her tonnage remained useful in treaty bargaining.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
A British seeker for Tomahawk and the case for Mark 41
Buying the Tomahawk body and propulsion while developing a domestic seeker is presented as feasible and as a reason to fit Mark 41 launchers.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
An orbital shuttle bomber and prompt global strike
A successful shuttle-bomber concept would create a loitering global strike system and likely accelerate the militarisation of space.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
A well-funded postwar Commonwealth fleet
A debt-free integrated Commonwealth is imagined completing multiple Malta-class carriers and perhaps another Vanguard-type battleship.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why full museum-ship conversion depends on replacement income
Preserving President or Wellington as full museum ships is less a question of access than of replacing their existing funding streams.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Targeting a long-range anti-ship Tomahawk
Aircraft, satellites, and helicopters can support missile targeting, while route planning can conceal the launcher's position.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Renown and Repulse against Hood in a chase
Two older battlecruisers could bring a numerical gun advantage, though the chase would be costly and uncertain.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Limited naval impact if Sweden joined the Axis
Swedish entry on the Axis side would not seriously challenge the Royal Navy at sea, though the Scandinavian and postwar consequences could be significant.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
The small surviving group of First World War Royal Navy ships
Beyond Caroline, M33, President, and Result, no additional surviving Royal Navy ship that fought in the war is identified.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Soviet forces lacked independent lift for an invasion of Japan
Soviet troops could participate in a 1945 landing on Japan only if British or American shipping carried them.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Battle-class destroyers versus Fletchers for West Germany
Battle-class destroyers were technically viable, but West Germany had political reasons to choose American ships and strengthen its US relationship.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why the Westland Wyvern is often overlooked
The Wyvern's achievements are overshadowed because a turboprop entered service in a period culturally dominated by jets.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
A G3-based successor after converting the Admiral class
Converting the Admiral-class sisters into carriers would leave the next British battlecruiser following the G3 design line.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Finland's battlefield success and strategic defeat against the Soviet Union
Finland's unexpectedly strong Winter War performance is separated from its eventual defeat after entering the wider war against the Soviet Union alongside Germany.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why West Germany would not have received Prinz Eugen
Keeping Prinz Eugen for the West German navy is rejected on political permission rather than on the physical survival of the cruiser.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Modernizing the unbuilt 1920 South Dakota class
The 1920 South Dakotas would still need new engines and air defences, but their heavy main battery would avoid a gun replacement.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Japanese resistance to Soviet landings in the Kuril Islands
A substantial Japanese force appearing in the Kurils could have put the Soviet assault in serious difficulty.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
British carriers in Operation Downfall's anti-kamikaze defence
The established carrier air-defence system remains central, with British carriers valued for their ability to resist attack.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why battlecruisers should not become makeshift carriers
A capital ship's own aviation conversion is less attractive than fielding enough purpose-built carriers.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why converting a Lion-class battleship into a carrier makes little sense
A Lion hull could physically become a carrier, but the expense would be wasted on an already worn-out ship.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why Japanese logistics still constrain an advance on Australia
Even a better Midway result would not solve the Japanese logistical problem of sustaining an advance toward Australia.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why drones reduce the case for a revived kamikaze weapon
A two-stage human-guided missile concept offers little enduring advantage when unmanned systems can fill the expendable role.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why the China-Solomon Islands agreement was too early to judge
Speaking in May 2022, the China-Solomon Islands security agreement is treated as an opening move whose strategic consequences could not yet be known.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
A practical way to research global pre-dreadnought numbers
The research question begins with defining the category, then tracing the sources behind a broad reference list.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Type 26 compared with the Leander rather than the Burke
Type 26 is compared with the adaptable Leander concept, while Australian development is moving toward something different.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
A stolen Hood could produce an F3-like HMS St Vincent
Hood's disappearance could trigger a fast Nelson-style replacement, probably bearing the high-status name St Vincent.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
An Anglo-French victory at Suez would not settle Egypt cleanly
American support might permit an Anglo-French victory, followed by continuing conflict in Egypt and possibly regime change rather than a simple settlement.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Large carriers under an aircraft-number treaty
A fixed aircraft allowance could produce very large carriers whose limited air groups contain much larger aircraft.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
How navies replaced damaged battleship armour
Replacement armour depended on stocked plates, damage size, and cutting out the affected hull section.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why the Royal Navy moved toward twin-engine carrier aircraft
Treaty limits favored compact single-engine air groups before the war, but twin-engine aircraft became more attractive as limits eased and engine demands rose.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Tools and methods for removing battleship armour plate
Dockyards could remove riveted plates directly or use cutting torches and powerful mechanical tools when damage crossed plate boundaries.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Why crane capacity did not set the maximum turret size
Large turrets were assembled from components, while dockyards built larger cranes as weapon systems grew.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
How Malta-class carriers might have sustained naval aviation
Completing Malta-class carriers could have made Royal Navy naval aviation larger, longer-lived, and cheaper to operate in the Cold War.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What ifs till the Bru runs out? (8) ·
Scapa Flow as harbour and energy port
Scapa Flow's sheltered anchorage has a history older than its world-war fame and remains useful for ship-to-ship energy transfers.
From Scapa Flow: A History & A Future? (Long Patrol for Patreon 52) ·
Why the loss of Royal Oak mattered beyond one battleship
Royal Oak was one of the Royal Navy's relatively few substantially modernised capital ships, making her loss more damaging than the label 'R-class battleship' suggests.
From Scapa Flow: A History & A Future? (Long Patrol for Patreon 52) ·
Why Scapa Flow matters in a North Sea war
The anchorage's northern position lets the Royal Navy meet a German breakout rather than chase it from England's east coast.
From Scapa Flow: A History & A Future? (Long Patrol for Patreon 52) ·
Håkon IV and Scapa Flow's medieval setting
Håkon IV's presence near Orkney places Scapa Flow within a medieval Norwegian-Scottish contest over islands and sea routes.
From Scapa Flow: A History & A Future? (Long Patrol for Patreon 52) ·