A deterrent meant to reset naval competition
Fisher hoped Dreadnought's superiority would discourage competitors, but it instead became a model for their own new battleships.
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Weight of fire forces every navy to catch up
Dreadnought restored a powerful long-range volume of fire and made catching up an urgent problem for other navies.
Nuclear weapons still need a reachable target
The opening counterfactual separates possessing an atomic weapon from delivering it, using B-29 range and the relative geography of Germany and the United States.
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Could a warship engage several targets at once?
An early audience question explains why multiple fire-control computers did not necessarily let every turret engage a different ship effectively.
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Keeping the diesel counterfactual to naval propulsion
The deliberately narrow counterfactual gives German warships diesel propulsion without assuming an entirely redesigned German war economy.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Germany already had useful diesel-warship experience
The Deutschland class, submarines, torpedo boats, and the diesel-and-steam Königsberg and Leipzig classes make an all-diesel fleet less speculative than it first appears.
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A German nuclear breakthrough still would not guarantee victory
Even if Germany struck Britain with a nuclear weapon, likely American retaliation and fear of technology transfer to Japan would prevent a German strategic victory.
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Britain could answer nuclear escalation with chemical warfare
In this escalation thought experiment, 1939-40 Britain lacks earthquake bombs but possesses chemical weapons that could be used in retaliation.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
A diesel Königsberg could free space for a better cruiser layout
Removing the combined steam-and-diesel plant could shift machinery and superstructure aft, potentially making room for a fourth turret or a more useful minelayer-cruiser design.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Bremse as a practical diesel benchmark
The 1932 minelayer Bremse is used to show that Germany could already combine diesel machinery, useful speed, range, armament, and mine capacity in a substantial hull.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
A twelve-gun Königsberg could ripple through cruiser treaties
A more heavily armed German light cruiser matters less as a direct British threat than as pressure on France, Italy, and the treaty limits shaping later cruiser programmes.
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Destroyer speed traded against a radically larger radius
A German diesel destroyer might trade a small amount of maximum speed for materially greater cruising endurance than contemporary steam designs.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Z51 shows the intended three-shaft diesel architecture
The unfinished Z51's planned six diesels and three shafts provide a late-war German model for combining high speed with long-range diesel cruising.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Scaling 1932 diesels into an earlier three-shaft destroyer
Using Bremse's smaller engines and Z51's shaft layout, an early-1930s German diesel destroyer might approach 35 knots while retaining long range.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Maturity and gearing matter more than first invention
The video distinguishes a technology's first appearance from the point at which it can be reliably operated in a saltwater warship.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Deutschland provides an intermediate diesel benchmark
The Deutschland class links Bremse's early diesel machinery to the larger engines later planned for Z51, showing how much power Germany had already installed in a surface combatant.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Why the scenario keeps geared diesels
Diesel-electric drive was technically plausible, but the exercise retains mechanical gearing because German surface-warship designers pursued that path.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Scharnhorst as a potentially global-range raider
The three-shaft Scharnhorst class is the point where a diesel conversion could turn an already fast capital ship into a much longer-range strategic problem for Britain.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Why navies were slow to adopt marine diesels
A question about slow diesel adoption separates technical power density from institutional preference for the machinery every major navy already understood.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Could distributed diesels improve battle-damage resilience?
An audience question asks whether separately compartmented diesel engines could keep a damaged warship moving after one part of the plant is hit.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Would diesels require a new hull form?
A brief design question separates modest changes to the outside of the hull from the more important rearrangement of machinery inside it.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Hipper as the heavy-cruiser step toward a diesel fleet
A diesel-powered Admiral Hipper class would replace a notably inefficient steam plant with the endurance needed to join Germany's other long-range surface raiders.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Scaling a diesel plant to Bismarck
Bismarck's roughly 150,000-horsepower requirement is demanding, but a twelve-engine, three-shaft plant becomes conceivable after a decade of sustained marine-diesel development.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
An early Königsberg decision reshapes the treaty environment
Choosing the Königsberg class as the starting point moves diesel development back to the mid-1920s and gives later German designs far more time to mature.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Long-range destroyers enable German task forces
Longer range lets German capital ships, cruisers, and destroyers operate together as offensive groups at oceanic range.
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Convoys would face a mixed surface and submarine threat
German task forces would force Britain to redesign convoy routes and escorts because corvettes built for anti-submarine work could not stop battleships, cruisers, and destroyers.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Faster diesel cruisers challenge the Deutschland design
If German light cruisers already combine speed with 10,000-nautical-mile endurance, the slower Deutschland commerce-raider concept would need to be redesigned.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Denmark Strait becomes a task-force battle
Long-range escorts turn the Denmark Strait counterfactual from a four-capital-ship encounter into a larger fleet action involving cruisers and destroyers on both sides.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Diesel eases one fuel problem without ending German constraints
A diesel fleet could draw on Germany's synthetic-fuel and refining potential more readily than a fuel-oil fleet, but it still competes for limited industrial resources.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Britain needs faster capital ships for the raider hunt
A Royal Navy facing fast German task forces would need more carrier-backed hunting groups and additional capital ships able to catch them.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Britain could start an anti-destroyer sloop programme early
Long-range German destroyers could prompt a pre-war British and Canadian sloop programme armed with rapid-firing dual-purpose guns.
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Carrier aviation becomes central to finding raider groups
Britain would likely build more carriers because aircraft are the fastest way to locate, shadow, and slow dispersed German task forces.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
French, Japanese, and destroyer responses reshape treaty limits
More capable German cruisers could push France toward heavier ships, raise treaty displacement limits, and encourage Japan and Britain to build more large destroyers.
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The United States may build Alaska-style ships and more carriers earlier
German long-range cruisers reinforce established American interest in powerful cruiser-killers and could also raise interwar carrier allowances.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Diesel range does not erase Germany's numerical weakness
British attacks on diesel production and the Royal Navy's larger force would continue to constrain Germany even after the propulsion change.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Diesel endurance changes Narvik and Germany's opening deployments
Longer-ranged destroyers might escape Narvik without waiting for a tanker, while German heavy ships could begin the war scattered on distant commerce-raiding missions.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Could a 10-inch diesel cruiser work?
A question about a fast 10-inch cruiser leads to a discussion of cruiser-killers and a possible British six-14-inch-gun Vanguard variant.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
How Britain would support a global anti-raider campaign
Britain would rely chiefly on its global bases and reinforce vulnerable anchorages against raiders, rather than create a matching fleet of support ships.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Versailles-era infrastructure still caps German naval growth
Diesel engines improve the ships Germany can build, but they do not restore the yards, docks, workforce, or procurement priority needed for a much larger fleet.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Why escort carriers need not be fast
A question about faster escort carriers distinguishes convoy air cover from the fleet carriers needed to hunt a German task force.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Germany's land-power priorities keep the navy third
Germany's geography and continental security problems continue to place the army and air force ahead of the navy, regardless of propulsion efficiency.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Why longer range would not break the British blockade
A question about trade access clarifies that greater German endurance would complicate interception without making protected merchant convoys viable through British-controlled waters.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Could German refining sustain the diesel fleet?
A final fuel question tests the scenario's weakest practical assumption: whether refinery output and crude supply can support many diesel warships.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Would the United States still enter the European war?
An audience question asks whether the United States would fight Germany without Hitler's declaration of war after Pearl Harbor.
From Patreon Bonus: Reichsmarine & Kreigsmarine eschews steam and goes all Diesel(-electric) propulsion ·
Building a super Queen Elizabeth to face an improved Bismarck
The stream opens by turning a viewer's counterfactual into a design contest between a heavily modernized Queen Elizabeth type and the earlier super-Bismarck model.
From Still Trying to deal with the Inadvertently Created Super Bismarck ·
What the weight budget does to a fifteen-gun battleship
Fitting fifteen 16.5-inch guns forces compromises among armour, underwater protection, machinery, range, secondary guns, and hull balance.
From Still Trying to deal with the Inadvertently Created Super Bismarck ·
Fitting 4.5-inch, Bofors, and Oerlikon batteries around the main guns
Once the main battery and basic protection fit, the remaining displacement and deck space must accommodate the modernized ship's secondary and anti-aircraft weapons.
From Still Trying to deal with the Inadvertently Created Super Bismarck ·
How one main-tower hit erases a fifteen-gun advantage
The fifteen-gun Queen Elizabeth derivative has theoretical volume of fire, but an early hit destroys its main tower and leaves it unable to exploit that advantage.
From Still Trying to deal with the Inadvertently Created Super Bismarck ·