Women as essential naval wartime personnel
Women's naval service supplied essential personnel for administration, shore support, and technical systems during the Second World War.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Complete directory
Browse all time notes.
Explore every watch point in reverse video-date order, then in timestamp order within each video.
The U.S. Navy's 1897 coastal-strategy problem
An 1897 naval annual reveals a U.S. fleet shaped by coastal defence, shallow harbours, battleships, torpedo boats, and a changing strategic outlook.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
USS Iowa's protection and mixed battery in 1897
An 1897 description of Iowa explains the balance between armour coverage, mixed gun batteries, and machinery.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Early submarines as submersible torpedo boats
The earliest submarines normally operated on the surface and used diving chiefly for action or concealment.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Frigates, destroyers, and modern cruiser roles
Wartime frigates specialised in anti-submarine escort work, while destroyers had broader duties and usually heavier torpedo armament. Modern labels vary between navies.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
B-24 Liberators and procurement inertia
Bureaucratic inertia and difficulty coordinating Air Ministry requirements with American procurement plans are the suggested explanation for the B-24E gap.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
The uncertainty around the earliest naval battle
Archaeological images suggest very early naval conflict, but the evidence cannot securely identify the participants, date, or event.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Why modern escorts perform cruiser missions
Modern frigates and destroyers perform peacetime cruiser missions with different warfare specialisations.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Why Poland would need a foreign-built cruiser
Poland could acquire a cruiser-sized warship only through a foreign yard until its own shipbuilding infrastructure could handle the design.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
The cost of converting old destroyers for missiles
A missile conversion could turn an older destroyer into an anti-submarine escort, but systems such as Sea Slug would consume major space and money.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Royal Navy wrecks from Jutland
Several Royal Navy wrecks from Jutland have been located.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Why a globally deployed Type 83 grows toward cruiser size
A Type 83 designed for regular worldwide deployment and genuine general-purpose capability could grow well beyond a North Atlantic air-defence destroyer.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
How foreign cruiser labels can reshape procurement
If China or Russia formally calls a large combatant a cruiser, political pressure could quickly revive the label in American and European procurement.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Carrier catapult space, lifts, and aircraft flow
A hypothetical Malta conversion for F-4s needs at least two aircraft lengths between lift and catapult, plus room for jet-blast deflectors.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Why modern navies need people in every role
Modern naval effectiveness depends heavily on technical competence, judgement, and the ability to identify and solve problems.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Why a future Type 83 may avoid another City class
Royal Navy class names normally remain distinct while ships overlap in service, making an E-class Type 83 a possibility rather than another City class.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
What an Australian Skyhawk equivalent would require
An Australian Skyhawk equivalent is treated as feasible if the industrial and political conditions exist.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Samuel Pepys and the Royal Navy's foundations
The eighteenth-century Royal Navy rested on administrative foundations laid in the previous century, especially those associated with Samuel Pepys.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
A carrier lift failure in the Falklands
A deck-level lift failure would hinder HMS Hermes but could be managed; a lift jammed below deck would be a much more serious operational problem.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
The Bank of England, public finance, and naval power
The Bank of England organised government finance, which in turn helped support greater naval capacity.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Mahan's influence on capital-ship treaty categories
Selective reading of Mahan is linked to a combined capital-ship category, with a hypothetical alternative showing the effect on fleet composition.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
Treaty speed limits for different capital ships
Different speed limits could keep battleships and battlecruisers distinct under an equal displacement allowance.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
A tentative estimate of Type 83 fleet size
The suggested six to eight Type 83 ships depends on future economic and strategic conditions.
From Bruships 109: Mahan, an inspiration & a Reflection + Bonus ·
A naval air arm retained in 1918
The alternate-history premise keeps the RNAS fleet units under Royal Navy control, changing carrier operations, interwar choices, and the pace of aviation development.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Douhet's apocalyptic air war did not abolish limited conflict
Douhet's city-destruction vision and later nuclear weapons show how extreme arsenals changed the ceiling and ambiguity of conflict rather than ending war.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Why naval air power cannot be treated as placeless
Air-power theory overlooks a practical naval problem: aircraft must land, rearm, and remain close enough to sustain reconnaissance and combat air patrols.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
The Admiralty expected a free naval air service from the RAF
Some naval leaders assumed the RAF would train every pilot and make every aircraft carrier-capable, or that Admiralty influence could reverse the arrangement later.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
The RNAS already had a global naval role
The wartime RNAS supported fleets, anti-submarine patrols, air defence, and overseas stations, giving the Royal Navy an experienced aviation organization to preserve.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
The Fifth Sea Lord puts aviation at the Admiralty table
The wartime Fifth Sea Lord demonstrates that the Admiralty already treated aviation as a senior institutional responsibility, offering a leadership model for a retained fleet air arm.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Naval logistics as an aviation advantage
The Royal Navy's experience supplying small motor craft offered a ready-made model for contracts, engines, spare parts, and overseas aviation support.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Engine accounting shaped the case for a unified air force
Different treatment of spare engines and components made the RFC expect a surplus for strategic bombers while the RNAS saw only enough production to sustain aircraft already planned.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Aircraft advocates were decades ahead of their machines
Calls to scrap battleships for aircraft in 1916 mistook long-term naval aviation potential for the limited torpedo and strike capability then available.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Aircraft as an anti-submarine patrol tool
World War I seaplanes could search for surfaced U-boats, force dives, and reduce submarine endurance even when they did not score a confirmed kill.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Jutland's missed air-reconnaissance opportunity
Aircraft at Jutland mattered most as radio-linked scouts and artillery spotters, but failed communications and Campania's absence limited their effect.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
A politically plausible fleet-air compromise
The proposed settlement retains a small ship-operating aviation core, including scouts and Cuckoo torpedo aircraft, while leaving most aviation to the new air service.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Bases, squadrons, and navalized aircrew
A retained naval air arm would build a network of fleet-supporting stations and use squadrons sized around sustained patrols, maintenance, and carrier damage control.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Separate naval procurement creates competition
A Royal Navy able to buy aircraft directly could preserve naval priorities, but would also clash with Air Ministry control of factories and designs.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Treaty space for a scout-carrier fleet
The alternate treaty scheme pairs larger fleet carriers with a separate class of roughly Hermes-sized scout carriers, multiplying the Royal Navy's carrier options.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
The archival clue behind an Admiral-class carrier theory
An Admiralty reference to Cammell Laird as a large-carrier specialist supports a tentative theory that the yard studied converting an unfinished Admiral-class battlecruiser.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
How scout-carrier quotas reshape other navies
The revised treaty arithmetic gives Japan, France, and Italy new scout-carrier allowances, while likely Japanese under-declaration makes paper tonnage an imperfect guide to the ships built.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
More carriers create an industrial reserve
A larger interwar carrier force would expand pilots, engineers, squadron commanders, training capacity, and the industrial base available for wartime growth.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Treaty limits became a political funding floor
Interwar British governments resisted extra defence spending but usually funded the Royal Navy to its treaty allowance, making authorized scout carriers politically plausible.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
A scout-carrier fleet changes HMS Unicorn's support role
With numerous small carriers already distributing aviation support, the Navy might omit HMS Unicorn or build a scout-carrier-hull auxiliary instead.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
A roomier armoured fleet-carrier compromise
A higher treaty limit could let the Royal Navy combine more of Ark Royal's air-group capacity with the protection sought in armoured-hangar designs.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Carrier experience reshapes fleet air defence
More naval flying and dive-bombing practice would expose weaknesses in anti-aircraft weapons earlier and push the fleet toward better elevation, fighter cover, and air-defence doctrine.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Naval procurement could accelerate jets and gas turbines
An independent naval research customer might support jet-engine work earlier, with possible consequences for both carrier aircraft and postwar gas-turbine warships.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Scout carriers for reconnaissance and raider hunting
The torpedo-spotter-reconnaissance aircraft anchors a scout-carrier concept built to find surface raiders, support cruisers, and sustain fleets across imperial stations.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·
Why naval aircraft needed stronger engines
Carrier aircraft carry structural and survival weight that raises their power needs, giving a naval purchaser reason to pursue more capable engines and specialized dive bombers earlier.
From Royal Navy retains the 'Fleet Units' of Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 - an Alternate History ·