Bruships 67: Cruising on through with Questions & Bru

Her technical problems made another immediate fight risky, so she tried to keep Bismarck within radar range and maintain contact instead.

Similar ships make logistics, command, and coordinated manoeuvre easier.

It could serve as a first rate, but extensive rebuilding would leave little of the original ship beyond its identity and perhaps decoration.

She could combine convoy escort with cruiser hunting, particularly against raiders in the South Atlantic.

It resembled an enlarged Italian PPA, but he regarded it as provisional until the Navy placed an actual contract.

No. The islanders should choose their own status, and their stated preference is to remain British.

They were battleships by design and structure, even though they initially carried 11-inch guns.

They might be scrapped or also converted, but a surface-ship alternative would be to rebuild them as 9.2-inch proto-heavy cruisers.

Her unusual combination of speed and heavy armament would make her devastating unless the Dutch managed to capture her.

Keep building ocean-going battleships, but add destroyers and fast-firing guns to defeat the torpedo craft that support the rival strategy.

Few ship weapons were excluded solely on ethical grounds, while chemical and biological agents were operationally awkward and vulnerable to seawater washdown.

Promising options included workable quadruple turrets for Edinburgh and Belfast, 9.2-inch heavy cruisers, and an enlarged Dido-style ship on a Town-class hull.

They improve the German force, but also prompt the Royal Navy to raise ship speeds and pursue heavier 9.2-inch cruiser designs.

They could finish damaged opponents and provide a backup strike weapon when guns were inadequate or the ship was itself damaged.

The Royal Navy is the strongest candidate because its organization is conventionally dated to Henry VIII and has remained in continuous service.

No. Navies complained about the risks but still adopted shells, torpedoes and submarines because the capabilities were too important to concede.

Sixteen 16-inch guns in four superfiring quadruple turrets would give the ship the scale and broadside weight implied by the label.

Saltburn received Type 79X in 1936, followed by ships including Sheffield, Rodney, Curlew, Dido and Prince of Wales.

The comparison credits the Dutch with consistency, distinguishes French tactical invention from German implementation, and notes important British and American contributions.

Furious was already a carrier conversion, and Beatty's decision assumed that the fleet would need relatively few carriers.

Yes for some ships, but extra turret protection was constrained by its effect on topweight and stability.

They concentrated thick armor around the fighting center, although Warrior itself also used a strongly protected central zone with lighter ends.

Some could help with local duties and training, but SSNs remain the more versatile priority for the main attack-submarine role.

It was fairly good; they were not especially wet and could perform better in rough weather than some contemporary British battleships.

They served through the Royal Naval Air Service, its armored-car units, and the Royal Naval Division, which put many naval reservists into ground combat.

They likely received Type 79Y sets around 1940, similar to the equipment fitted to Sheffield.

Its optics, rapid 14-inch guns and speed make it extremely dangerous, even if maintaining its radar proves difficult.

They would add large carrier capacity, encourage larger or different air groups, and alter the scale of British carrier operations.

Their speed could let Jellicoe send them around the German flank, threatening Scheer's withdrawal with a powerful 15-inch-gun squadron.

It could maintain three large fleets of roughly eleven capital ships each, leaving no single opposing navy able to match British strength in its theater.

The RNAS needed protected, armed vehicles that could retrieve downed pilots from contested ground before the enemy captured them.

Refit the Upholders and spread them among regional bases, while concentrating most Astutes in Britain and possibly a seven-boat squadron in the Falklands.

It was a workable crane-based system much like its contemporaries, but a helicopter deck and hangar offered a simpler later solution.

They would add battle squadrons, deepen Jellicoe's firepower advantage and make the High Seas Fleet's night escape more difficult.

The newer classes could, provided they received turbines, more speed and enough treaty tonnage for a major reconstruction.

Testing submarines at wartime risk was dangerous, so exercises could not reproduce every condition that affected wartime contact and false positives.

Britain could base several carriers and about six battleships in Ceylon, creating a much stronger Far East Fleet before Japan attacked.

The heavy cruiser provided insurance against an Italian counterpart when commanders could not risk discovering that the favorable paper matchup was wrong.

Yes. They could let escorts attack while preserving contact, reducing the need to divide tracking and attacking roles.

No. Britain could trade heavy-cruiser numbers for light-cruiser strength, but capital-ship parity was non-negotiable.

Their upkeep would overwhelm Spain's budget and likely bankrupt the government.

The newer arrangement offered better control and more efficient use of wind, and it could be fitted to existing ships during refits.

Pearl Harbor, because the battleships were present together at one time rather than rotating through a larger campaign deployment.

About fifteen nuclear carriers, rapid Type 83 construction, large Type 26 and Type 31 programs, and many more auxiliaries - at enormous cost.

Fix the shell problem and sideline Beatty, build more carriers, and distribute 40 mm close-defence guns across the fleet.

Use Ark Royal R09 as the model because its bridge best represents the Royal Navy's preferred mature arrangement.

German surface raiders face a much larger Allied naval net, while early American troops and aircraft greatly strengthen France, Britain and Norway.

The Italian navy is likely defeated, forcing withdrawals from East and North Africa and possibly toppling Mussolini.

She was shielded inside the harbor by other battleships, so most attack approaches required aircraft to fly over easier targets first.

No. They were viable in the First World War, but large destroyers could perform the role more efficiently by the Second.

It would likely convert all five Lexington-class battlecruisers, producing a large, uniform carrier class before the Second World War.

Hood was probably next, with Nelson, Rodney and the remaining Queen Elizabeths following in a yard-dependent sequence that needed about four more years.

The jump from a small US force in 1940 to wartime mass mobilisation was driven especially by the personnel appetite of ground forces.

Probably fewer, because Britain had more conversion experience and the unfinished Admiral hulls left much more freedom above the lower strength deck.

Dropped near cloud height, they burned for minutes, silhouetted ships and made the shift between bright and dark areas especially disruptive to night vision.

Yes, but with different tactics: range, heavier loads and air-defence suppression could offset the loss of the Swordfish's slow manoeuvrability.

The same manpower could provide two independently deployable cruiser presences, which was often more useful than one much stronger battleship.

Apparently some did; aircraft that did not survive the war no longer created the same Lend-Lease return obligation.

Her chances improve because Bismarck faces much more firepower, although the same fatal hit could still occur.

The gunnery result would be similar, but Vanguard's speed would prevent Bismarck from escaping.

It can cause severe corrosion, deposits and component damage, dramatically shortening machinery life depending on operating conditions.

Yes. The first ship with an operational railgun could create a comparable step change and provoke a new naval arms race.

Yes. Treaty limits made the US fleet seem attainable to Japan, while unrestricted US and British construction might have produced stronger deterrence.

Yes. With even one quadruple 14-inch turret, she could act as a flagship and deliver heavy gunfire across much of the islands.

All are useful, but Jellicoe is the most restrained, Scott the most technical, and Beatty the one whose self-serving claims need the closest scrutiny.

A great deal is accessible, and the larger opportunity often lies in synthesizing records that have been read separately or for different purposes.

More than a small escort list suggests; multiple fast oilers and replenishment ships are necessary to sustain a large force at sea.

Japan and America would pursue larger replies, treaty limits could rise to 20-inch guns, and 16-inch weapons might become the new battleship baseline.

Expand suitable yards and turn Fisher's concept into a better-armored fast battleship, possibly with six or eight 20-inch guns.

They were planned Regia Marina special operations, while covert sabotage and German frogman attempts are described as unsuccessful.

A nuclear plant is the most plausible option; an oil plant would be enormous and a gas-turbine solution would require many turbines.

They would build very large ships with many guns, such as a British twenty-gun battleship using five quadruple 14-inch turrets.

Yes, if Vanguard could take them; otherwise an available King George V-class hull such as Howe might be modified instead.

Because 1918 aircraft could not yet defeat battleships reliably; the navy could invest in carriers and submarines while still hedging with a battleship.

Only to a point; increasing hydrodynamic resistance soon consumes the available power, and a large ship must also remain maneuverable.

Yes, but mechanical stokers became viable at the same time oil firing offered a simpler and more useful transition.

Jellicoe moved quickly by imposing new handling rules and insisting that ships follow the required practices.

Large carriers have the best chance because of their mass, but survivability still depends heavily on where the missile hits.

It could exhaust its main battery, but it would carry many rounds and still use speed, secondary guns and torpedoes against smaller pursuers.

A modernised ship could guard home waters, while an unmodernised but extremely long-ranged vessel might operate in the Far East.

Yes, but neither air-lubrication nor hovercraft-like variants have yet proved practical for normal warship operations.

Naval guns were generally too heavy to move as practical field artillery, so mobility outweighed ammunition commonality.

They were better than lattice masts, but remained awkward to protect and carried weight high in the ship.

Probably the two Lions, because they were more adaptable and would create a divisible six-ship battlecruiser force for global deployment.

Likely 14-inch main guns, improved engines and armor, and 4.5-inch dual-purpose secondary mounts.

Rarely, because the shot reveals the ship and naval combat usually does not place unseen opponents at such short effective ranges.

They could move Royal Marines during landings and provide dependable staff transport during visits ashore.

They would be demanding, especially in loading arrangements, but improved post-Jutland fire control could make them useful by around 1920.

It strengthened close defence, damage-response systems and subdivision, and stopped using aluminium in British warship hull structures.

She would probably protect the carrier group and move to the naval gunfire line at night, while heavier battleships supported the amphibious force.

A mapped narrow-gauge route was plausible and would improve supply, although mountain geography and limited capacity would constrain it.

Either was possible; remaining hull life could justify an Indian purchase, while exhausted ships would be scrapped.

Probably neither side decisively; the Italians have more firepower, but the faster British battlecruisers can dictate range and disengage.

Russian weapons favor very large effects per hit, Western weapons favor smaller and more numerous accurate hits, and Chinese systems blend Western influence with local design choices.

It could cause major damage, but a battleship's vertical and horizontal subdivision would make sinking much less likely.

It showed that air power had become an important component of sea control, rather than proving ships no longer mattered.

An older edition of British Warships of the Second World War combines strong text with detailed plans and shows why researchers should record the edition they used.

A South Korean carrier proposal opens a wider survey of how the number of carrier-operating navies is growing rather than disappearing.

The choice depends chiefly on ammunition supply and logistics, and some navies still prefer multiple-gun arrangements.

Yes. Her large hangar would let her accept newer aircraft with comparatively modest modification.

Anson's Navy covers the admirals, ships, dockyards, deployments and logistical system behind an eighteenth-century world fleet.

It fails when no practical armor can withstand the first hit from contemporary weapons, leaving firepower greater than protection.

Visits to Canadian and Australian ships and archives could add primary-source coverage to a later edition without merely repackaging other historians' research.

No. The jets existed, but carrier landing capability and saltwater durability were not ready until after the war.

Yes, but likely with heavier 14- or 15-inch guns so the ship retained a decisive advantage over the larger cruisers.

Because the Soviet Union could treat sea power as optional offense, while Britain and America depended on it for defense and communications.

It could be just as fast and maneuverable, though the rig might require more crew depending on how its sails were arranged.

That is a later historian's label; the Royal Navy itself classified them as fleet destroyers, alongside large fleet, war-emergency and escort types.

A full refit could integrate radar and gunnery upgrades, recondition machinery and turrets, and improve protection around known vulnerabilities.

Some did, but the 10th Destroyer Flotilla intercepted most E-boats before they could reach the main Allied force.