Bruships 71: Hobbs on the Fleet Air Arm in Europe & Other cool books

The livestream is framed as a seminar where questions and discussion complement faster lecture-style teaching.

They were developed at a similar time around related ideas, but their internal designs differ enough that Tiger should not be treated as a copy of Kongo.

Some destroyers experimented with larger guns, but a weapon above five inches needs a clear purpose because it imposes major design costs on a destroyer-sized hull.

Oil firing could have made Tiger much faster, and a later rebuild might have made her useful, but Hood still embodied the battlecruiser concept rather than escaping its limits.

The number of ships a navy can afford changes the balance between individual protection, speed, and fleet flexibility.

Their capability could force negotiators to recognize Dominion capital ships in an additional treaty tier instead of fitting every navy into the historical ratios.

The central error is treating one eventual outcome as inevitable and assuming that contemporaries who anticipated another outcome were simply wrong.

Different geographic commitments make superficially different British and American design choices rational for each navy.

It is sketched as a Tiger with 15-inch guns and small-tube boilers, probably capable of about 30 knots and more if the design used additional boiler power.

It improved energy efficiency by letting low-pressure turbines provide cruising power while high-pressure turbines supplied top speed.

Calling it World War I junk mistakes its biplane appearance for its design context; biplanes were still widely useful when the Swordfish was developed.

It is extremely unlikely because the target area and shell trajectory demand exceptional alignment, unlike a deliberately aimed diving attack.

Portsmouth and the Cammell Laird area on the Mersey offer a useful combination of naval access, existing industry, and long-term resilience.

Australian forces, the Royal Navy, and other Allies disappear when the war against Japan is reduced to an American-only story.

The recollection is that many Manx people joined the war effort and that the island produced an unusually high concentration of Royal Navy captains, behind only Cornwall in the cited comparison.

Not as a sensible modern arrangement, because a twin turret costs only modestly more and provides essential redundancy.

The spacing accommodated the boiler, turbine, and propeller-shaft arrangement inside the hull, and moving the turrets would require rebuilding much of the ship.

The Revenges were valuable in World War I, but additional Renowns would have offered the speed and mobility the Royal Navy needed more in World War II.

It would generate formidable volume of fire, but the comparison shown still makes twelve 16-inch guns the stronger main battery.

Continued reinforcement favoured Russia numerically, but the visible buildup also made withdrawal politically costly and pushed any attack toward a much larger operation.

A proposed comparison method combines kinetic and explosive energy with range, rate of fire, and realistic hit assumptions.

Goodall has the stronger claim by a narrow margin, especially for his carrier work and professional engagement with naval design debates.

No. Initial ready ammunition can be expended quickly, after which the supply cycle and the depth of trained personnel govern the sustainable rate.

To an extent: Hood and Prince of Wales held a major paper advantage, but the battle's result made Bismarck appear more formidable than that matchup suggested.

It is intended to protect machinery and magazines from penetrating fire, preserving mobility and reducing the risk of catastrophic loss.

It inherited Graf Zeppelin's rigid design logic, including rail-based aircraft handling that locked in future operating and hangar constraints.

Yes. Its design continued to answer a threat that had disappeared, while the likely Japanese and American opponents did not clearly require so costly a ship.

They remained handy for signalling, deterring small craft or aircraft, and supporting troops ashore.

They would transform island operations through precise vertical lift and give Allied anti-submarine forces a highly flexible new weapon.

They could have resembled enlarged Renowns with three triple 15-inch turrets, creating a nine-gun evolutionary design.

No. They were conceived for global mobility and commerce warfare against the next plausible naval powers after Germany.

Insufficient practice and inexperienced crews rushing the loading process can turn an ordinary procedure into a disaster.

Because only Britain and Japan had battlecruisers, while the treaty's other principal negotiators had little reason to preserve a separate category.

Against its actual requirement it was a reliable, stable, easily maintained torpedo and reconnaissance platform optimized for daylight scouting and night attack.

They could operate in hunting pairs or as fast leaders and heavy escorts for carrier task forces, with major consequences for carrier speed requirements.

Not necessarily; survival and wartime condition would determine retention, and older capital ships could emerge too worn for economical postwar service.

Hood cost about twice as much as Renown, so the Royal Navy could plausibly trade one highly ambitious ship for two proven fast capital ships.

A Fleet Air Arm history traces the Barracuda's difficult development to an ambitious airframe and an engine programme that never reached production.

The purpose is deterrence: credible, available forces should convince an opponent that war cannot deliver an acceptable victory, and that requires enough hulls and crews to survive routine disruption.

Hood was larger and more glamorous, while the dramatic losses of Hood and Repulse created stronger popular narratives than Renown's career.

Prinz Eugen would be in serious trouble, forcing Bismarck either to slow down or leave her exposed to the pursuing County-class cruisers.

Britain would be the likeliest power to fund a full replacement fleet, probably building about fifteen 28-knot Nelson-style ships while retiring older classes in stages.

A large fleet carrier or pair of armoured carriers would launch Mosquitos, with Ark Royal a possibility only if she were available.

Several ships of one proven class simplify logistics, training, and later modernization compared with four unique battlecruisers.

No. The Royal Navy could evolve a proven Renown design, while repeated Admiral-class redesign risked spending money without completing ships.

No. Standardizing the fleet around fewer designs would make modernization easier because solutions could be copied across sister ships.

They used radio broadcasts and, on larger ships, their own instruments and forecasters, with carriers especially dependent on local forecasts.

It would carry a small gun battery, extensive air-defence missiles, close-in weapons, and a large helicopter deck with provision for Harriers.

Saratoga, because her naval record made her the strongest single preservation choice even among other significant targets such as Nagato.

It was a major improvement over Bearn and a credible open-water carrier, although not an ideal Mediterranean design.

Probably, because a nuclear carrier would become a prestigious national industrial project whose cancellation carried a much higher political cost.

Reusing available turrets and guns let the Royal Navy pursue a fast battleship that could enter service sooner and make use of existing resources.

It would be a radically rebuilt missile-and-helicopter ship with new machinery and structure, and constructing a replacement would probably cost less.

Yes. South Atlantic conditions are especially punishing and can drive hull wear to several times the normal Royal Navy rate.

They were effective in the air, especially with radar direction, but their fragile landing gear made carrier recovery a serious hazard.

They opened ports and used fans when possible, but action required the gun position to be closed and secured.

The Swordfish attack during the Channel Dash is a close operational parallel, though the specific chain-of-command misunderstanding at Balaclava is rarer aboard ships.

A book passage connects an unresolved 1913 clerical death with Serbian church politics and tension in the Balkans before World War I.

Water conflict and desalination lead to a wider lesson about using surplus renewable power for fresh water, hydrogen, and stored energy.

Possibly under favourable radar-directed night conditions, but Hood would remain a battlecruiser facing 18-inch guns, so a Lion, Iowa, or paired Nelson and Rodney would be safer choices.

Not by itself. Infrastructure, construction, and the forces already available impose limits that leadership cannot simply wish away.

A warship should first be judged by how well it served its own navy's geographic and strategic requirements.

Secondary armament and speed reveal a battlecruiser's mission: destroy cruisers and trade while battleships engage enemy capital ships.

Once Graf Spee entered the River Plate, geography and the approaching Renown-Ark Royal force left almost no viable escape.

An imperial transport system optimized for coastal shipping lacked the inland redundancy needed when global war disrupted maritime movement.

They could anchor a long-lived carrier fleet, possibly support a five-carrier policy, and undergo major angled-deck modernization.

Yes. Britain would retain more strength in the Mediterranean and would not need to build the same emergency Eastern Fleet from other theatres.

It is well suited to anti-aircraft and anti-destroyer work, but a cruiser threat pushes the requirement toward six inches.

Not on favourable terms; Rodney's 16-inch guns and heavy armour make escape a better option for Scharnhorst than a close-range duel.

Britain feared Germany could seize undefended Iceland after taking Norway, while Icelanders objected and lodged formal protests.

The case for HS2 centres on spare capacity that would let Britain close and modernise heavily used main lines without paralysing the network.

A shelf question becomes a recommendation for Matthew Wright's illustrated account of HMS New Zealand, her service, stories, and myths.