Bruships 198: Naval History Questions Answered Live...

A preview of an alternate Admiralty staff reform uses David Lloyd George to show that general spending restraint could coexist with support for battlecruisers assigned to commerce protection.

It converted many into infantry landing ships for amphibious warfare, with some also considered for minelaying.

Useful technical and survival references should sit alongside recreational books, with the mix changing by period and crew literacy.

A few boats used attached or built-in cameras for intelligence and target records, but the capability was uncommon until after the war.

Probably, but towing her would have slowed the force into daylight danger, so Cunningham ordered the disabled cruiser sunk.

The disabled cruiser could reveal exact Italian design data and perhaps return to service, with crew availability, political trust, and repair infrastructure making Australia the most plausible recipient.

Supporters campaigned for her, but they could not secure the government funding required to preserve the ship.

Possibly, but the fit remained open and later Sea Dart and Sea Wolf combinations may have been more likely.

Use the bibliography in Andrew Lambert's Admirals as a guide to the wider literature.

Campaigns sought to preserve carriers, landing craft, and other Falklands War material, but only scattered aircraft and smaller artefacts survived without sustained government backing.

Not at the moment of seizure; they lacked the time, fuel, ammunition, and readiness needed to get away.

HMS Bristol's was about the right size, although CVA-01's combined, separated, and ready-use storage remained unsettled.

Many were towed, but recovery was abandoned when time, distance, tow speed, and air or submarine threats made it unsafe.

Her engineers and Britain's mining and industrial specialists would use them to accelerate technology, while the ship's immediate combat value would be harder to exploit.

Most were useful, especially modern cruisers, destroyers, Dunkerque, Strasbourg, Richelieu, Jean Bart, and even Béarn in a support role.

A Far East fleet must be chosen around ammunition production, bases, spare parts, and shipping routes rather than speed alone.

Not very useful before the base network collapsed, because destroyer tenders and established facilities already supported the craft Britain preferred.

American plans crossed the central Pacific with mobile support, while British plans advanced from the Indian Ocean through an existing Asian base network.

Restricted contingency planning and careful classification let naval procurement preserve capabilities that ministers did not want openly discussed.

It is cheaper, easier to reload at sea, and can carry many more engagements in the same magazine space.

They could tow, but the loss of maneuver made a valuable ship vulnerable, so it was often better used to protect a smaller towing vessel.

It may be close, but specialist notes should be checked before treating the range as confirmed.

Not much; earlier fleets carried small torpedo boats, but modern bases and communications made a vulnerable general-purpose carrier unnecessary.

War plans favored all-round fast battleships, while Vanguard retained a fully armoured battlecruiser lineage in layout and contemporary terminology.

No; the size is plausible for a swivel gun, although the precise lineage of the observed piece remains uncertain.

Schlesien, Schleswig-Holstein, or the 1925 Emden would use real ships before the game goes still deeper into paper designs.

Yes, they were connected, and a surviving contract probably explains completion, though its exact terms remain unclear.

It is preferred as a compact counterfactual concept, although the design has not been fully calculated.

They could have fought her if she passed the carriers, but capture was implausible and the attack would use every available surface and air asset.

There is no simple winner; Chinese pirate fleets fielded large ships, but most pirates preferred smaller, faster, and more manageable vessels.

Japan gains a stronger short-term advantage, but it must still find the battle line and cannot eliminate America's surviving carriers, reserves, or industrial replacement power.

There is no single record-holder; badly outmatched forces often surrendered before a large action, and technology alone does not measure tactical competence.

A discussion of technological mismatches turns to Norwegian A-class submarines that had entered service before the First World War and remained active in the late 1930s.

It would concentrate several third-rates and perhaps a first-rate, turning the pirate from a patrol problem into a priority target.

No; third-rates were roughly 60-82 guns, second-rates about 84-98, first-rates 100 or more, and smaller ships fell into lower or unrated categories.

Ernest King was a major advocate, using his General Board position to push the Navy toward new carriers.

It would probably grow substantially, because both men emphasized preparation and King would redirect his fierce institutional loyalty toward the Royal Navy.

A simultaneous air attack and landing offers the best chance, but overcoming and sustaining an invasion of Hawaii would be much harder than the historical raid.

Responsibility extends above Admiral Kimmel because war-plans officials controlled intelligence and withheld warnings from field commanders.

Hawaii likely becomes a British colony while American expansion shifts toward Central America and the Spanish Caribbean.

The ships gain a major ballistic advantage, but heavier designs and tougher British and Japanese treaty demands likely follow.

The Soviets could field modern battleships and perhaps battlecruisers, forcing Germany to cover both the Baltic and a much stronger Black Sea fleet.

Possibly, if Congress funded it; Pennsylvania might carry eight 16-inch guns and trigger a larger British response.

He would still build to the brief, but Britain might gain larger experimental ironclads and order them in greater numbers.

Delivery remains the bottleneck, so use likely waits for modified aircraft and tested bomb hardware and might occur against Germany in late 1944 or early 1945.

Japan would expend valuable trained aircrew against a dispersed fleet whose armored carriers and Mediterranean-tested defenses limited the payoff.

Yes, greatly, but their cost and complexity would reserve them for the most valuable ships and specialist jobs.

The guns themselves were the same 15-inch/42 type; Vanguard's turrets and fire control were much newer.

The boats add a niche threat, but their carriage complicates the fleet and encourages opponents to strengthen rapid-fire close defense.

No; it was technically feasible in large twin mountings, though it imposed a slower rate of fire and major design tradeoffs.

An extreme-caliber gun has political value only if rivals know about it, which could provoke even larger-gun programs.

They would be devastating against fixed positions and concentrated armour, although 16-inch naval gunfire was already capable of that mission.

Usually no; it rotated training through working-up, older, and escort carriers, training both pilots and ship crews.

By building larger, reinforced shell hoists and handling machinery rated for the additional load.

Japan would likely field more of the same kinds of ships, but pushing too far risked losing the treaty and facing greater Anglo-American construction.

Italy might keep building from political ambition, but France would face a sharper conflict between naval status, imperial commitments, war recovery, and unstable interwar government.

It would reduce German northern air and surface threats and alter U-boat and convoy routes, provided the Allies could keep Narvik supplied, defended, and covered from the air.

Buying high-grade Swedish ore through an Allied Narvik could deny it to Germany, improve British furnace throughput, and ease steel constraints on warship and merchant construction.

No; fixed fortifications can support much larger guns because they have far fewer weight, recoil, and stability constraints than ships.

The UNSC probably could not keep the ship, but a rapid exploitation team could remove systems, craft, and material samples that would reveal valuable enemy technology.

No; many survived, and modern batteries could be built at the necessary coastal site whether an old castle stood there or not.

Ships would sortie, radar and defenses would remain fully manned, and aircraft would disperse, making the Japanese attack far less effective.

A tangent on the 1940 draft links the Constitution to weaknesses under the Articles of Confederation in federal military capacity and taxation.

Usually a lieutenant acting in command of the vessel as master and commander, much like the commander of a brig.

The weather gauge conferred wind and initiative, while frigates dispersed or concentrated according to the enemy's trade pattern and prize opportunities.

It would cause serious cost and schedule problems, especially by removing the Virginia-class bridge, but British design sharing could keep an Australian nuclear-submarine path alive.

Submarines cannot protect trade alone, so Australia still needs surface escorts, shipbuilding skills, and enough independent strength to contribute to allied defense.

There are no exact figures because emergency loading and transfers were not recorded precisely, though repeated rescues certainly occurred.

Quite early, because iron hulls had already exposed similar metal-fatigue problems and navies designed around them.

They mostly agree, with some ship-specific disagreement, because both use a contextual rather than rigid classification system.

It would encourage more torpedo-bomber development and procurement because underwater damage is much more reliable for sinking ships.

The scale and control problem made drones unattractive, while manned support aircraft using jamming and chaff already performed the deception mission.

Prewar naval fuel planning covered Fleet Air Arm needs at overseas bases, but it did not automatically create stocks for the much larger Royal Air Force.

Not if it were made as reliable as the Python; with its historical vibration problems, it might have shortened the aircraft's career.

They were lightly armed compared with major warships but highly useful, autonomous vessels for worldwide patrol and presence duties.

Before the treaty era, the Royal Navy answered recessions with cruiser proposals that created shipyard work while expanding global fleet capacity.

The yard would struggle even to handle it, finishing it would be doubtful, and Britain would launch a major effort to build larger and more heavily armed ships.

Yes, some operated into the Baltic's edges, though not as a large or deep campaign.

Not necessarily; the Lincoln added little for coastal patrol, cost more to maintain, and might be retired on the same schedule.

A true revolt against the government could collapse the front, force Britain off the continent, and turn France toward civil war, unlike a narrower refusal to attack.

Further delay Imo so that she never meets Mont-Blanc in the Narrows and the collision that triggers the explosion does not occur.

HMS Venturer's submerged sinking of U-864 in 1945 is the only publicly recorded submerged-on-submerged kill.

It could have approached one with the developing 4.5-inch UD mount, though not a modern fully automatic system.

It seems not to have progressed beyond a poorly documented paper proposal, and cost plus available British alternatives made it unattractive.

Modern weapons make denial easier, but modern strike and mine-countermeasure forces also make reopening the strait more feasible.

Primarily as a reconnaissance aircraft from battleships and some cruisers, much like a float-equipped Swordfish.

Royal Navy mine-countermeasure ships would likely clear a route under carrier-group protection, with escalation depending on whether Iran attacked them.

Six twins plus heavier light AA would be practical and formidable; eight twins would create excessive topweight, stress, and stability problems.

Probably few before the war, because their screening role would keep most near carriers and capital ships in the principal fleets.

It provided logistics, gunfire, and anti-submarine support, while the main campaign remained a land operation.

Some lasted for decades; Giuseppe Garibaldi, begun in the 1930s, remained until 1971.

Navies did too little realistic testing across too few environmental conditions, allowing defects to survive into combat.

Yes, if Japan revealed Yamato's 18-inch guns; that threat would push North Carolina, Washington, and perhaps early South Dakotas toward the Pacific.

Analysts extrapolated the caliber from a grainy photograph and arrived at about 17 inches, give or take an inch.

Later histories often make the loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse the battleship's death notice, while contemporaries more often blamed the absence of carrier air cover.

Second World War escort labels reflected role and construction: merchant-style corvettes, full naval sloops, and frigates between them.