Bruships 34: Random History

British commitments against Napoleon qualify Roosevelt's criticism of early naval performance, while reinforced squadrons and revised frigate orders explain the reversal in 1813.

The blockade disrupted ordinary merchant trade while leaving narrow opportunities for fast privateers and exposing towns along navigable rivers.

A hypothetical fleet of twenty ships of the line connects the losses under blockade to Roosevelt's case for naval investment and training before war.

In this interpretation, American leaders expected to seize Canada while France defeated Britain.

Yes. It covers the Great Lakes, takes particular interest in their commanders, and combines high-level history with close detail.

An isolated American gunboat loses its long gun during a British boat attack, after poor powder has already frustrated the flotilla's gunnery.

Asp's surviving crew reboarded their burning gunboat after the British withdrew, although the claim that she was ready to fight again is questioned.

Surveyor's fifteen-man crew resisted a much larger boarding party fiercely enough for the victorious officer to return William Travis's sword.

Alligator's small crew beat off British boats after dark and captured one of the attacking craft.

High-explosive ammunition is expected to destroy L'Orient very quickly; armour-piercing rounds might pass through its wooden hull with less destructive effect.

With high-explosive ammunition, Gearing could stay outside Victory's range and destroy her with a few hits, especially if it struck the powder.

A comparison of Victory, Alexandra, Camperdown, Lord Nelson, Dreadnought, and Nelson shows battleship costs rising faster than displacement.

The book relates the purpose of a battle fleet to opposing battleships and distinguishes capital-ship construction from the quicker expansion of smaller forces.

Armour, machinery, hull length, and gun power complicate the claim that several smaller ships can replace a large battleship at equal cost.

A qualified recommendation treats the book as evidence of interwar naval thinking despite substantial disagreement with its conclusions.

Possibly not if the coastal battleships were alert and ready to fire immediately.

Serbia faced a choice between outright rejection, acceptance followed by negotiation, and carefully qualified concessions.

The Serbian reply combines claims of peaceful conduct with denials of responsibility, conditional prosecutions, and a promised declaration against anti-Austrian propaganda.

Promises to punish hostile publications depend on later changes to the press law and constitution, illustrating the qualifications within Serbia's concessions.

Yes, and it is worth reading. Ponting's account is preferred here for its treatment of the Serbian side.

Thomas C. Hone's Midway anthology combines specialist scholarship with participant accounts, including Spruance, Layton, and Jimmy Thach.

Yorktown's scarce Wildcats accompanied the vulnerable TBD Devastators because Thach expected Japanese fighters to concentrate on the torpedo attack.

A late cut to six Wildcats forced a four-plus-two escort arrangement, while S-turns kept the fighters beside the slower TBDs without sacrificing manoeuvring speed.

Adopting two-plane sections and adopting the weaving manoeuvre were separate steps; Flatley's reported comparison supported a four-aircraft division.

The suggested reason is that the Bf 110 faced different opponents and performance relationships, making the same crossing mutual-support tactic less attractive.

An Arethusa-class cruiser is the preferred choice in this counterfactual because its six-inch guns add heavier shells while British destroyers already supply rapid 4.7-inch fire.

Pairing Roosevelt's own writing with a study of his diplomacy allows his stated naval ideas to be compared with decisions made in office.

Hendrix's account connects a private ultimatum and Dewey's fleet with German acceptance of arbitration during the Venezuela crisis.

A British memorandum linked limited fleet availability with dependence on Canadian and American food supplies during a possible Atlantic war.

Hendrix separates the uncertain origins of Panama's revolt from the documented American contingency plan to defend a new republic.

The canal negotiations stalled over Colombian sovereignty and additional payments after the United States had accepted several changes to the original terms.

James Cable treats sea control as the ability to use maritime communications, with practical limits set by time, geography, opponents, and available forces.

Cable argues that German planning expected a close blockade, while British planning underestimated the submarine threat to trade.

Cable questions the resources committed to the expeditionary army and bombing, while admitting that the outcome of his proposed maritime alternative cannot be proved.

Cable distinguishes decisive control, such as stopping an invasion, from a temporary enemy passage that humiliates a navy without deciding the conflict.

Psychological pressure and diverted Argentine fighters were the strongest benefits identified; continued Hercules flights undermine the claim that runway damage severed the air bridge.

Replace outdated ships with modern Type 22 and Type 23 frigates, consider the preferred Type 43 alternative, and preserve the ability to fight wars beyond the central NATO scenario.

The broad-beamed Type 22s were a good design.

Britain's Naval Future and Gunboat Diplomacy provide recommended reading beyond the familiar Corbett and Mahan pairing.

Their reconnaissance work was useful, but they are judged to have contributed little beyond it.

Brian Lavery's Landing Assault Craft relates the LCA's hull shape, grounding battens, bow ramp and seating to beaching and landing troops.

The LCA gave its coxswain adjustable protection and indirect engine control, while armour, communications and removable seating supported assault and cargo duties.

Convention calls D-Day amphibious, but because it launched from land and crossed water to another shore, it can technically be compared with a very large river crossing.

The compartment was not fully covered, but troops on the outer benches could shelter beneath the side decks.

Heinemann recalls how Northrop's 3A design package passed to Chance Vought and later to Japan, while rejecting the claim that it became the Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

A thousand-pound bomb, nine-g pullout and 250-knot vertical dive made brake design and structural strength central to the Navy's new carrier bomber.

Heinemann's surprise at a rapid $64,000 estimate becomes a recollection about the practical judgment acquired through years of aircraft development.

Separate landing and dive-brake modes required synchronized flap movement so deployment would not upset the XBT-1's trim.

Repeated dives and onboard photographs revealed two-foot tail-tip movement, leaving the XBT-1 unable to use its brakes safely.

Three-inch holes broke up the vortices behind the dive brakes, curing flutter while raising a separate concern about carrier landing speed.

The tanks followed the troops much later and arrived in very small numbers.

Dumbarton Castle's record connects working up, an uncertain gap in movements, eight successful convoy escorts and postwar reserve service.

A commissioning memoir pairs specialist officer training with Broadhead's proposal to improve the corvette's speed by changing propeller pitch.

Emergency drills, surprise night visits and enforced retraining tested whether escort officers could respond and make their crews think.

Gibraltar escort work combined a wide Atlantic route, carrier flying support, tanker movements and recurring boiler maintenance.

Squid and ASDIC depended on a small specialist team, while awkward external sonar-dome handling could delay the ship's departure.

A passenger doctor vaccinated Dumbarton Castle's crew after a smallpox warning made recent vaccination a condition for going ashore in Gibraltar.

Conwy was part of Edward I's extensive castle building around north Wales.

The class history lists 39 entries across British, Canadian, and Norwegian service; the apparent fourteen-ship total came from overlooking additional tables.

Royal Navy operational use is documented at Alexandria in 1882, while the U.S. Navy appears to have experimented with fittings around 1881.

Eight bow torpedo tubes and midget-submarine fittings gave Japan's C1 boats a concentrated attack role, before supply conversions reduced their armament.

The C1 boats combined distant midget attacks and commerce raiding with supply missions before all five were lost or went missing.

Beyond the Spitfire reveals Supermarine studies for naval service, including a twin-engined biplane intended to answer the same requirement that produced the Swordfish.

Whittle's company attachments remain uncertain as his RAF service is compared with the history of Power Jets.

R. J. Mitchell developed biplane and monoplane studies in parallel, using Rolls-Royce evaporative cooling and early wind-tunnel work before the F.7/30 requirement formally appeared.

It sounds appealing, but reliability and the ability to produce enough aircraft are suggested reasons for the Fairey choice.

Classified work and abandoned drawing-board studies can leave gaps even in apparently complete aircraft-design inventories.

A history beginning in 1912 introduces Marine aviation through the Corsair and the Royal Navy's contribution to its development.

Swept wings turned the Panther lineage into the Cougar, whose Marine roles included reconnaissance, attack, and forward air control.

A Marine squadron's move from Corsairs through Panthers to FJ2 Furys sits within the Navy's wider introduction to carrier jets.

Wartime submarine development balanced improvements against disruption to construction, with the A class and small special-purpose craft making different demands on designers.

Welding improved S-class hulls and made external fuel stowage practical, helping adapt a confined-water patrol submarine for longer voyages.

U-class production benefited from simple machinery, while revised bows and quick-diving tanks addressed handling and firing problems.

The T class combined patrol capability with revised torpedo arcs, while wartime demand for numbers limited construction of the larger boats.

Detailed builders' plans expose the Black Swan class's internal arrangement, weapons, depth-charge gear, Hedgehog mortar, and ship-to-ship differences.

Norman Polmar's fifth edition records the Soviet Navy near the end of the Cold War and introduces a reading on amphibious ships.

The Ivan Rogov-class entry shows a Soviet landing ship designed to beach vehicles, operate landing craft from a well deck, fly helicopters, and defend itself with missiles, guns, and rockets.

A 1991 fleet assessment separates ship numbers from short-range lift and explains why berth counts can understate troops carried on brief crossings.

Introduce close-in defenses earlier, build larger British and American surface combatants, and retain quiet diesel submarines for chokepoint and barrier operations.

Stalin's purges weakened the Red Army's experienced leadership before its fighting against Germany.

Their cost and priority as submarine targets receive greater emphasis, alongside the possibility that larger Western ships could stimulate further Soviet spending.

Begin mass-producing versatile sloops much earlier, match them to destroyer construction, and prepare merchant hulls for rapid escort-carrier conversion.

The concept discussed is the Littoral Strike Ship, or LSS, initially intended for special operations and about a company of Marines.

The proposal receives a sceptical response without a technical comparison. Ship numbers remain uncertain, and an LHD is suggested as one possible outcome.

Royal Marines and SBS are identified, SAS is possible, and Parachute Regiment involvement is doubted.