Using surplus pre-dreadnoughts away from the battle line
Older battleships could guard ports and convoys, freeing modern ships while deterring cruisers and raiders.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Complete directory
Browse all time notes.
Explore every watch point in reverse video-date order, then in timestamp order within each video.
Germany without capital ships
German capital ships mattered strategically because they forced Britain to retain expensive counters.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Glorious's lone .50-calibre machine gun
The carrier's unusual one-gun fit appears to have been an acquired one-off, probably mounted on a bridge wing.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
The F3 design against Bismarck
A fast F3-style battleship could present Bismarck with more guns and a difficult chase in heavy weather.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Small-tube boilers with low-grade German coal
Inferior coal would reduce performance but would not erase the advantages of a properly designed water-tube boiler.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
A German carrier war in the North Sea
German carriers would trigger a British carrier response shaped by land-based air power and armored decks.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
The theoretical velocity of a railgun-launched heavy shell
A working railgun could drive a heavy projectile to several times the speed of sound, with the exact result set by the launcher and projectile.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
A British 14-inch step before the war
An earlier 14-inch British gun could cascade into 16-inch battleships and different treaty-era survivors.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
E-class cruisers as interwar test beds
Emerald and Enterprise took time to complete because the Royal Navy used them to develop the next generation of light cruisers.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Yamato-class ships at Guadalcanal
The Yamatos' guns would magnify damage, but radar timing and American logistics still govern the decisive night-fighting problem.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
An American-held Taiwan after World War II
Taking Taiwan instead of returning to the Philippines could create a very different political destination for Chiang Kai-shek.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Rotating submarine torpedo launchers
An external rotating launcher could complicate anti-submarine tactics but creates a formidable engineering problem.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Doubling German dreadnought output
A larger German building programme would trigger British yard expansion and strain Germany's army-centred economy.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
If Midway ends without decisive losses
A non-decisive Midway would likely produce another carrier showdown and change the timing of British support.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Giving cruisers a battleship-sized treaty ceiling
A common ceiling would either permit oversized cruisers or force unlike ship types into an unhelpful shared tonnage pool.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Why an Italian Savoy front would not guarantee Paris
Alpine geography, weak Austro-Italian cooperation, and Allied imperial manpower make a direct march on Paris unlikely.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Who drove numbers and technology in the dreadnought race
Germany pressed Britain to build more hulls, while other fleets helped push calibre and design development.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
What pre-dreadnoughts did in the First World War
Obsolete battle-line ships remained useful in secondary theatres, port defence, escort, transport, and bombardment.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Why a 14-inch Scharnhorst is not a simple option
A nine-gun 14-inch Scharnhorst would require a German gun programme that did not exist.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Why the King George V class kept its bow
A more pronounced Atlantic bow promised better seakeeping but imposed weight, time, and redesign costs.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
The case for the King George V class's 14-inch guns
Ten modern 14-inch guns and strong armor remained effective even when rival ships carried larger calibers.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
More Deutschlands instead of Admiral Hipper-class cruisers
Continuing the Deutschland line would give Germany raiders, but not cruisers as dangerous as the Admiral Hipper class.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
King George V against Littorio
A King George V could fight a Littorio, but the Royal Navy would seek local superiority rather than a neat duel.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
A larger Indian National Army commitment
A larger Indian National Army could deepen unrest in India and widen the war without rescuing Japan's position.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Reliable British shells at Jutland
Better British shell performance could turn Jutland's damaged German survivors into decisive losses.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
The Nelson class's three forward turrets
Concentrating all main turrets forward shortened the armored citadel, but the superfiring arrangement imposed awkward compromises.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
How naval treaty displacement limits were bent
Italian and Japanese cruisers were conspicuous offenders, but many navies treated treaty figures as flexible ceilings.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Littorio-class battleships at Denmark Strait
Two Littorios would be formidable on either side of Denmark Strait, but their presence would also change the forces sent to meet them.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
How quickly a 16-inch naval gun can fire
The mass of a 16-inch shell and charge keeps practical rates near one round every thirty to forty seconds.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Anti-colonial choices between violent empires
Opposition to European colonialism did not make Japanese occupation benign or erase local agency under coercion.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Tribal-class destroyers with 4.5-inch dual-purpose guns
Eight true dual-purpose 4.5-inch guns would improve Tribal air defence and could reshape later British destroyer armament.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Audacious-class carriers in the Falklands War
Large carriers with airborne early warning and long-range aircraft could deter the invasion or dominate the air campaign.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
If the United States stayed out of the First World War
The war might end somewhat later, but the larger change would be a postwar order without the same American authority or treaty system.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Where Furious's 18-inch guns went
The calibre is corrected to 18 inches and the removed guns are traced to monitor service, with the exact recipient class left unresolved.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
America joins a fast-battleship race
Earlier British and German fast battleships would push the United States toward faster successors to the Colorado class.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Why battleships carried their own spotting aircraft
A dedicated aircraft could track one ship's salvos and targets without confusing them with the rest of the fleet's fire.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
A 1921 Royal Navy strike on the U.S. fleet
The counterfactual exploits the Panama Canal, British bases, submarines, and superior carrier numbers to divide the U.S. fleet.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Was D-Day history's greatest gamble?
D-Day was terrifying for the people landing, but overwhelming preparation reduced the strategic gamble.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Early radar changes Japanese night doctrine
Reliable 1930s radar would shift Japanese night tactics toward gunfire and away from stealth-dependent torpedo attacks.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Midway-class carriers instead of Essexes
More survivable armored carriers would cost the U.S. Navy the production tempo that made the Essex swarm possible.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Revolver mechanisms for rapid-fire naval guns
Revolver-like feed systems appeared on very small naval guns but did not scale into a durable main-gun solution.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Could the early U.S. Navy match Royal Navy construction?
American industrial potential required years of maritime investment before it could become wartime shipbuilding power.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
A Royal Navy night-strike answer to Operation C
Britain's plausible route to defeating the Japanese carrier force in the Indian Ocean depended on repeated night attacks and withdrawal.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Holding northern Norway after 1940
An Allied northern Norway would threaten German access to Swedish ore and narrow U-boat and Arctic options.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
How railways sustained Royal Navy dockyards
British port railways moved the people, stores, and heavy material required by merchant harbours and naval dockyards.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Battleships and a dedicated CAP at Midway
Keeping battleships close and fighters on patrol could speed Japan's response without removing the surprise that doomed its carriers.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Why Japan could not bypass the United States
Japanese planners treated American entry as inevitable even if the opening attacks avoided U.S. territory.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·
Funding British global military capacity
The United Kingdom retained useful military capacity in 2021, but global reach depended on sustained funding and disciplined procurement.
From Bruships: A Special - Questions/What If's till the Bru runs out? (4) ·