Complete directory
Explore every watch point in reverse video-date order, then in timestamp order within each video.
Long refinement made old cannon dependable, just as decades of incremental naval-aircraft development helped make the Fairey Swordfish stable and reliable.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
By 1914, fuzes, layered construction, aerodynamic form, and resistance to handling damage all shaped whether a shell behaved consistently.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Rifling imposed wear but gave crews a more controllable and predictable shell path when later computing and modelling tools did not yet exist.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
More powerful guns demanded explosives that could damage a target yet survive the forces of firing, making chemical control central to shell design.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Explosive chemistry depended on sustained research, repeatable production processes, trained specialists, and even improvements in laboratory glassware.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Naval fire control moved from a gun captain's visual judgment to coordinated teams and electronic operators who had to distinguish real targets from echoes.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Measured target and ship data entered mechanical computers that predicted where to aim, while standardised ammunition and guns reduced the errors crews had to absorb.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
A gun's theoretical reach mattered less than the range at which available fire control could deliver hits, helping explain the Royal Navy's preference for rapid-firing six-inch cruisers.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Engaging aircraft added rapid elevation changes and high target speed to the ranging problem, demanding faster connections between control systems and gun mechanisms.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Rammers, rollers, and below-deck turret machinery moved ammunition that crews could no longer handle efficiently by muscle alone.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Guns, engines, sensors, communications, control equipment, and crew support formed an interdependent network whose complexity shaped the entire warship.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Comparing USS Monitor's simple revolving platform with a King George V-class quadruple mounting shows how turret mass, armour, assembly, and dockyard demands transformed in less than eighty years.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Turret designers had to choose between independently elevated guns, common mechanisms, firing arcs, and the risk that one failure could disable a whole mounting.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Wire-wound barrels did not droop uniformly across manufacturers, so foundry quality and standardisation directly affected gun alignment and salvo control.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
High turret weight, low ballast and machinery, hull shape, and liquid-filled torpedo defence spaces all affected whether a battleship remained a useful gun platform.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Fears that HMS Agincourt's unusually large broadside might overturn her highlight the loads that battleship designers had to absorb safely in the hull.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Mounting a turret away from the ship's centre increased its movement, complicated salvo interpretation, and added damaging cross-deck firing risks.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
Practical battleship speed, hull proportions, wet bows, and clear deck space were constrained by the need to keep the main battery stable and able to fire forward.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
HMS Dreadnought combined existing technologies into a new type of battleship, but it also exposed the next problem: harnessing big-gun fire with adequate control.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
A closing clarification explains how centrifugal casting sought a uniform monobloc barrel and why industrial advances converged around the gun as the warship's primary system.
From Ranging & Stabilising: How Gunnery Evolved from 1860 to 1960 ·
The European and Mediterranean story begins with anti-submarine and torpedo duties, then shifts toward convoy fighting and rapid-fire guns.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
World War I coastal motor boats established the tiny torpedo craft's giant-killer reputation, but Britain chose not to retain a large peacetime force.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
Italian MAS boats carried their World War I torpedo-attack formula into operations against Soviet targets, including Lake Ladoga and the cruiser Molotov.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
The MAS pursuit of speed left too little reserve for rough-weather performance, heavier guns, night equipment, or escort modifications.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
R-boats greatly outnumbered German Schnellboote and ranged from small minesweepers to much larger torpedo-carrying variants, complicating Allied identifications.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
Minesweeping flotillas let the treaty-limited Reichsmarine preserve officer experience and prepare its organization for rapid expansion.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
R-boats served across Germany's maritime theatres, influenced postwar Bundesmarine designs, and reveal why Germany had to commit early to small-craft programs.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
Schnellboote were carefully made seaworthy for their size, but their light hulls and reloadable torpedo system still constrained operations in bad weather.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
The HDML was slow but long-ranged and adaptable, combining worldwide escort, anti-submarine, deception, and gunboat tasks.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
Vosper's varied MTB designs ranged from short private-venture craft to 70-foot torpedo boats, while dispersed numbering made British strength difficult to estimate.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
The Fairmile family began with a small, fast anti-submarine boat equipped with Asdic, a quick-firing gun, and depth charges.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
Fairmile B output was so decentralized that yards sometimes continued building in anticipation of orders, leaving the exact wartime total uncertain.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
Fairmile B crews treated the official weapons list as a baseline, circulating and adapting guns while retaining a dangerous pack-hunting anti-submarine role.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
The Fairmile C recast the earlier hull as a motor gun boat, rapidly accumulating 20 mm cannon and depth charges alongside its pom-pom armament.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
Italy's CRDA 60 combined torpedoes, guns, depth charges, and later modifications to restore flexibility that the older MAS concept had lost.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
Lightened or scraped areas in published service photographs can reveal where wartime censors concealed small but sensitive details.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
The Fairmile D sacrificed the pursuit speed of a Schnellboot for a formidable and highly variable gun fit, plus radar and radio intelligence for ambushes.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
Late-war British planning for close coastal work in East Asian waters helped return some motor gun boats to the motor torpedo boat category.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
The 73-foot Vosper makes the design compromise visible: gaining a six-pounder meant giving up two 18-inch torpedo tubes.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
By the late war, modifying existing coastal craft offered more value than investing resources in wholly new motor torpedo boat types.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
Light weapon mounts, close-knit crews, and urgent combat needs made wartime coastal boats unusually adaptable platforms.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
Coastal craft faced a fundamental compromise: bigger boats carried more guns and rode better, but became less agile and more exposed.
From Why WWII evolved Motor Torpedo Boats in Motor Gun Boats: European & Mediteranean theatres ·
A question on whether the Harwich Force reached Jutland leads to its late approach, Admiralty recall, and the extra light forces it might have supplied.
From Bruships 123: Naval History Questions and Books on Strategy & Tactics ·
CODOG uses diesel engines or gas turbines, while older diesel-and-steam plants are a separate machinery arrangement.
From Bruships 123: Naval History Questions and Books on Strategy & Tactics ·
The session is framed as an open naval-history Q&A with strategy-and-tactics book discussions.
From Bruships 123: Naval History Questions and Books on Strategy & Tactics ·
A stronger British Empire could not simply coerce Iceland if the island could play Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union against one another.
From Bruships 123: Naval History Questions and Books on Strategy & Tactics ·
Finland's representative at the 1937 review remains uncertain because the available references do not verify a specific ship.
From Bruships 123: Naval History Questions and Books on Strategy & Tactics ·
The discussion separates destroying naval power by overrunning its bases from defeating a genuinely superior fleet.
From Bruships 123: Naval History Questions and Books on Strategy & Tactics ·