Bruships 91: New Books & Cruiser Books

The sale happened, but the dramatic meeting story remains unproven without corroborating sources.

It can, especially with off-center weight, but builders design the hull supports and structure to carry those loads.

A claim that most of the First World War was invented to conceal an Allied attack on Turkey, based largely on one newspaper item.

A broad base and successively smaller levels make pyramids stable structures that ancient builders could construct with the technology available to them.

No; the story is attributed to other people rather than Togo himself.

Mackensen is the better basis; Bayern carries design choices that make it a poorer fit for a fast battleship.

Yes; HMS Bristol served as a command platform, and another Type 82 would have been valuable for task-force command in 1982.

Their fleets could probably defeat the French navy, but British reinforcement, difficult terrain, and coalition politics make a decisive victory over France unlikely.

Both mattered: the government already leaned toward the Central Powers, and the seizure strengthened the war party.

Hood was a battlecruiser, while the King George V class had a different hull form and Vanguard was a distinct one-off fast battleship.

Probably a balanced 28-knot development of G3 and N3 ideas with nine or possibly twelve 16-inch guns.

They have much longer range and a higher rate of fire.

Radar-directed long-range fire would be overwhelming at first, but the number defeated would ultimately be limited by the modern ship's magazine.

If it enlarged the dry docks substantially, the King George V class, Vanguard, and probably the carriers would be larger.

Possibly; the yard's claimed carrier expertise makes that hull the best fit, though the evidence remains circumstantial.

Probably an evolutionary, faster Nelson-class development retaining 16-inch guns.

An enhanced Type 83-style general-purpose combatant, perhaps using a large and unconventional hull form.

Some connected to Underground tunnels, making connections through the network possible.

The concept is attractive, but its value depends on producing enough missiles to fill and sustain it.

Not revolutionary, but fast and heavily armed enough to be a major threat and a powerful status asset for Japan.

Increase the plan from fifteen ships to at least sixteen, or preferably eighteen, to give Canada balanced Atlantic and Pacific forces.

Capital-ship repair capacity would expand dramatically, and infrastructure would impose fewer limits on ship size.

The proposed response is four new British ships, four American completions in total, and probably two Japanese completions.

General Hal Moore's autobiography is the recommendation.

Potentially, given enough time and support, but unreliable early engines would fail in significant numbers.

It would require rebuilding nearly the entire ship and is rejected as impractical.

Poland's coast, because its defenders were especially alert.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine supplies a warning against assuming that Taiwan's defenders would simply lay down their weapons.

Corruption and war exhaustion in the Nationalist state of 1949 make its collapse a weak analogy for predicting Taiwan's military response in 2022.

The French Fleet: Ships, Strategy and Operations 1870-1918 brings French naval history and warship design into one volume.

It is conceivable, but narrow landing space and complicated routing make a conventional flat deck and lifts much more practical.

Bretagne's five twin 340 mm turrets gave a ten-gun broadside within a hull constrained by French graving docks.

Different boiler types and counts complicated support for three nominal sister ships despite their common Parsons turbines.

Different belt, deck and turret thicknesses show how Bretagne's protection depended on location and the weight the hull could carry.

The machinery differences make that misleading: similar exteriors conceal different boiler and piping arrangements.

Several engine types are easier to justify across mass-produced tanks than across three individually different battleships.

No; the gearboxes are associated with the turbines, but piping, fuel supplies and internal arrangements would differ.

No improvement is expected for its intended role, and the engine would require an airframe redesign.

Yes, and the Dutch submarines are rated highly.

The joke is that British engineers would replace almost everything, perhaps retaining only the nameplate.

There is no single sufficient book; readers need several accounts because each offers a different interpretation.

No combined equivalent is recommended in 2022; battleship studies exist and cruiser work is separate or forthcoming.

Through extensive maintenance and changes to the square window frames.

The proposal is considered suitable for the Baltic, and British production capacity could have supplied several boats.

Both matter; a durable design balances a credible initial fit with enough margin for later upgrades.

The allowance probably would not apply to a new battleship, but a hypothetical 38,000-ton Nelson might achieve 28-30 knots or carry an additional turret.

Renown and Danish modular frigates are suggested as good examples.

They were probably quarried.

Artifacts become more informative when dated written sources can guide interpretation, test identities, and expose uncertainty about names, titles, and peoples.

Only about one or two thousand tons larger, rather than as large as the later Albion class.

A compact tour of Harry Bennett's books points readers toward Royal Navy policy, Bismarck and Tirpitz, disguised raiders, naval aviation, and German admirals.

Longer barrels and a different operating environment are the reasons given for avoiding that method of handling the gases.

Carthage and lost East Asian collections, especially those that might preserve fuller accounts of Zheng He's voyages.

Its existence in the familiar form is uncertain; memories of several flooded coastal cities could have combined into the legend.

A large effect on Irish history and a smaller wider effect, with the assessment qualified by uncertainty about recalling the incident.

Ian Ballantyne's HMS London connects the County-class cruiser's refits and wartime operations with earlier and later ships carrying the same name.

London's convoy screening duties continued under German fleet pressure while the cruiser urgently needed repairs.

Some were lost, but the great libraries at Oxford, Cambridge, and York Minster were elsewhere, and London's major collections were less affected.

It would create a major logistical and maintenance burden.

It would take the P.1154s, but changing the fighter would not solve the lack of airborne early warning.

It would help with storage, but the different types would still demand extensive spares and nearby logistical support.

It would have to be nuclear-powered, and the United States would likely try to buy or share the British technology.

Uruguay is suggested as another possibility, but previous wars and the geography of neighboring states make every option difficult.

The preference for retaining the A-6 Intruder rests on strike range and payload, while replacing Phantoms with Hornets is easier to justify.

Likely F-14 Tomcats, a modernized Buccaneer, E-2 Hawkeyes, and possibly S-3 Vikings.

The Tomcats are expected to destroy many Zeros with missiles before the older fighters can identify the threat, then use shorter-range weapons against survivors.

Its specialized salvage function still worked, and the ship was used relatively little.

No. Exeter's name and crew are admired, but a reduced County is less attractive unless the saving buys a larger fleet.

Probably the Hawker Sea Fury, with the Fairey Swordfish as the close alternative.

Probably, according to the tentative answer, but launch and recovery limits differ.

With the Carriers in Korea is suggested, although the recommendation rests on an older reading of a library copy.

A heavily armed F-15 is the initial choice, but proposed B-1B and B-52 missile loads make magazine capacity the deciding assumption.

It is described as tolerant of 23 mm damage, rather than proof against it.

A November 2022 assessment favors further Ukrainian advances while acknowledging Russian nuclear risk and uncertainty about a successor leadership.

The Falklands War itself brought serious trouble and backfired on the junta.

A documentary collection opens a window onto Royal Navy planning during the Abyssinian crisis, Spanish Civil War, and approach to war.

Pound's 1937 criticism of Scheme Z connects submarine detection to air coverage and the convoy system's immediate counterattack advantage.

A plan for twelve destroyers continuously on patrol required reliefs, maintenance cover, and additional Home Fleet ships.

Pound distinguishes killing submarines from intimidating their crews, then judges Scheme Z too dependent on luck.

Printed document collections support initial research and writing while leaving a role for checking the complete archival originals.

Usually not; destroyer development comes in production waves rather than hinging on one prestige ship.

A capital ship represents national power, so conspicuous economies can weaken its deterrent effect.

To a degree, but their planned numbers and 15-inch guns softened the loss of capability; more Queen Elizabeths would have been preferable.

A fast, twelve-gun Queen Elizabeth counterfactual drives larger battlecruisers and suggests a nine-gun Revenge as the cheaper alternative.

Yes, in the counterfactual they could retain three triple turrets and gain speed through a longer hull with more machinery space.

Nelson would first need to match the 28-knot battle line, making that speed the minimum for King George V as well.

They already had relatively small-tube boilers, and the machinery changes considered were expensive because space was more restricted than in the Queen Elizabeths.

Treaty definitions based on the Hawkins class interrupted the older hierarchy of cruisers and help explain the argument for treating Alaska as a large cruiser.

Probably, because designers would still want to explore a faster ship, although additional Renowns would be a plausible alternative.

By building equivalents with somewhat lower speed and heavier armament, potentially twelve 16-inch guns.

Yes, and the larger fast force would also change deployments and interwar modernization decisions.

G3 and Iowa illustrate how classification changes when a fast ship is compared with the battleships intended to serve alongside it.

Their reputation had a basis in Hood's early superiority: ships able to catch her could not outfight her.

One ship is vulnerable to refit cycles, while three or four hulls turn a design into a dependable operational capability.

Several small ships duplicate expensive machinery and combat systems, while tightly packed wartime designs can be difficult to modernize.

Furious's installation leads into an unresolved reconstruction of Agincourt, with six 18-inch guns proposed against nine or twelve 15-inch guns.

At long range and in the right protected areas, yes; at ordinary ranges or outside that coverage, not reliably.

Because only Hood was completed, making that eventual outcome easier to remember than the original four-ship plan.

They would pursue faster ships and heavier turret arrangements, escalating machinery, armament, and infrastructure costs.

That helped shape the American position, but most navies also lacked an in-service battleship above the proposed limit.

A paper proposal is recalled, but its calibre remains disputed. It would not by itself demonstrate the ability to build a triple 15-inch turret.

The planned H-class guns were 16-inch, while their development status remains uncertain.

Royal Sovereign, because the oldest ship was the normal candidate for reassignment to training duty.

War to about 1920 could yield the Admirals, while a settlement delayed to roughly 1924 could permit G3s and perhaps initial N3s.

There is no single recommended book, but Phil Weir's Exeter thesis on naval aviation exercises is a useful starting point.

Some probably could, but several major powers would face growing strain, and the war lasts only if the Allied ground advance stalls.

Bismarck's quoted low-elevation firing cycle and ammunition-hoist capacity were much faster than its average ammunition expenditure at Denmark Strait.