Were Deutschland's guns intended to shock other powers?
Germany's retained gun industry offers an explanation for the eleven-inch battery without making intimidation its main purpose.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Complete directory
Browse all time notes.
Explore every watch point in reverse video-date order, then in timestamp order within each video.
Museum interpretation depends on knowledgeable staff
Museum staff's knowledge and enthusiasm shape visitors' experience, illustrated by a personal account of North American museum visits.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Canada's specialist influence in peacekeeping
Canada's repeated contribution of staff and forces underlies the description of it as a peacekeeping superpower.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
A twelve-gun Scharnhorst counterfactual
Four triple turrets offer a preferred alternative to a proposed sixteen-gun German battleship.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Why treaty battleships used three turrets
Treaty limits forced designers to trade turret count against protection, speed, and anti-aircraft armament.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Corbett's reassessment of Admiral Byng
Corbett's account challenges the image of Byng as a tactically inert commander trapped by rigid fighting instructions.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Cruiser performance and design efficiency
More suitable armament and higher speed can improve a cruiser's usefulness without making its design efficient for its displacement.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Graf Zeppelin's guns and the destroyer-attack argument
A proposed justification for Graf Zeppelin's six-inch guns raises the question of how a carrier could become exposed to an entire destroyer flotilla.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
A third shaft could turn Deutschland into a stronger raider
An enlarged Deutschland design with another shaft and four more diesels could gain speed, fuel capacity, and room for more guns.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Hawke, sea control, and the decision to attack Belle Île
Corbett contrasts winning command of the sea with using it, then follows the reconnaissance and failed first landing at Belle Île.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Belle Île: adapting an amphibious assault
Pitt reinforced Belle Île despite competing demands, and a diversion became the opening for a successful landing.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Start Corbett with Some Principles of Maritime Strategy
Some Principles of Maritime Strategy provides an accessible introduction to Corbett, with lesson plans included in the edition used here.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Long range cannot cure a surface raider's weakness
A surface raider operated by the weaker navy will eventually be located and confronted by a superior concentration.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
The Bearcat arrived too late for wartime fame
The F8F Bearcat's late arrival left an advanced piston fighter overshadowed as naval aviation moved toward jets.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Maritime theory prepares judgment
Corbett's Principles of Maritime Strategy presents theory as education for judgment and shared understanding.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Rodney's signal needed a shared tactical understanding
Corbett uses Rodney's misunderstood signal in 1780 to show why commanders and captains need the same tactical vocabulary.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
The Codex Astartes as a doctrine analogy
The Codex Astartes illustrates how shared doctrine can support flexible action when its users understand the principles behind it.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Why naval teaching must explain the fundamentals
Definitions and basic system explanations help readers enter a specialist subject and remind experienced readers of assumptions they can overlook.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
How historians bridge gaps in evidence
A short account of historical method shows how inference should be tested against surrounding evidence.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Russian planning before the Russo-Japanese War
Rozhestvensky's case for fleet parity differed from a staff proposal to destroy Japanese naval power, connecting naval requirements with Russian ambitions in Korea.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Rozhestvensky waits at Cam Ranh Bay
Rozhestvensky's wait near Cam Ranh Bay involved uncertain motives, preparations for battle, orders to await reinforcements, and French neutrality.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Archive access set the limits of a destroyer history
Inability to visit Canadian and Australian archives constrained the coverage of their ships in a destroyer history.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Could the Dauntless bridge the Barracuda gap?
Earlier delivery might have made the SBD Dauntless a temporary option if it improved on the Albacore in the Royal Navy's strike role.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Graf Spee avoided single British heavy cruisers
Graf Spee's movements show that the pocket battleship was not eager to fight every eight-inch cruiser it encountered.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Reading Mahan and Corbett together
Corbett remains relevant alongside Mahan, whose advocacy of sea power can reach readers accustomed to peace.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Resilience requires clear command succession
Prepared successors, suitable communications, and established seniority keep command functioning after senior officers become unavailable.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Why Canada did not join the American Revolution
A question about Canadian independence opens a comparison of colonial origins, religion, imperial ties, and Indigenous alliances.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Religious divisions shaped British political culture
Disputes over Catholic practices and Protestant reform influenced British institutions, naval naming, and colonial relationships.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Archive access limits Russian warship history
Restricted archive access and the small number of naval specialists able to use it offer a possible explanation for gaps in Russian warship history.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Francesco Caracciolo as a fast battleship
The uncompleted Francesco Caracciolo class is classified as a fast-battleship design.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
British changes helped the Wildcat mature
American suppliers expected British requests for aircraft changes and sometimes welcomed the results.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Engine, pilot protection, and wing changes to the Wildcat
British changes exploited the Wildcat's capacity for development after its initial comparison with the Buffalo.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
British Wildcat armament matched boom-and-zoom tactics
Six guns delivered a heavier burst for a short firing pass, matching British boom-and-zoom tactics and fighter control.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Shipyard accents formed local 'yard tunes'
Distinctive speech in neighbouring shipyards could tell visiting naval constructors which workforce they were hearing.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Why design ships a navy may never build?
Wartime design work keeps improved battleship proposals available if changing conditions permit construction.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Soviet battlecruisers could have revived Montana
A postwar Soviet capital-ship launch could have driven the United States to complete Montana and Britain to revive Lion or another Vanguard.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Policy choices shaped Britain's postwar naval limits
Britain still had meaningful industrial capacity in the late 1940s, while later decline also reflected transition and government choices.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Government decisions and competing interests
A criticism of British policymaking compares accommodating every interest group with favouring a selected few.
From Bruships 112: Julian Corbett ·
Why the G3 battlecruisers were more likely to be Admirals than Saints
The proposed G3 names open a wider argument: Royal Navy naming choices reflected a ship's status and intended role.
Why a small ship might be HMS Daisy
Flower names suit small ships partly because they deny an enemy a prestigious trophy to boast about.
Spanish admiral names reflect Spain's own measure of honour
A commander remembered for losing to Britain may still represent honourable and successful service from a Spanish perspective.
Admiral Duncan as a signal of naval standards
Repeated names such as Duncan and Blake remind sailors and informed outsiders of the standards attached to Royal Navy service.
Nelson, Rodney, and Hood: the message a ship name sends
Capital-ship names can project strength, while a ship sent abroad on a diplomatic cruise needs associations suited to that mission.
Match a ship's name to the task it must perform
A disputed name should be judged against the vessel's expected employment and the associations it carries.
Tribal-class names linked martial reputation to imperial recruitment
Royal Navy Tribal-class names balanced martial reputation and imperial recruitment against the likelihood that a destroyer might be lost.
U.S. ship names tie naval service to national support
Names drawn from service, politics, and battles associate the fleet with the values and national backing it seeks to represent.
Japanese mountain names portray the fleet as a protective wall
Mountain names present Japanese warships as a steel barrier guarding the home islands.
Bearn's raised lifts obstructed flight operations
Bearn's three raised lifts disrupted airflow and presented rigid obstacles on a working carrier's flight deck.
From What were the 'Bearns' of the other Major Navies? RM, IJN, USN, RN & Kreigsmarine ·