Bruships 92: New Books, Naval Chat and Late 19th Century Warships...

A brief reading exchange pairs The Jutland Scandal with a published naval staff appreciation whose diagrams were redrawn by John Jordan.

Beatty wanted the newest major ship as his flagship, unlike Jellicoe, who was willing to keep an older flagship.

Britain often spent reluctantly when it believed it had to, whereas the United States was more likely to leave even treaty-permitted construction unfunded.

Probably the United States Navy, whose designers put unusually strong effort into crew accommodation.

They promise space and stability, but their combat value is poorly demonstrated and even possible ancient precedents are difficult to interpret.

The eight planned ships become Renown-like battlecruisers with nine 15-inch guns in three triple turrets.

Ian Valentine's updated paperback HMS London is recommended for its illustrations and coverage through the Type 26 frigate.

A reading from a study of HMS London places the cruiser at Shanghai as the Amethyst Incident unfolded on the Yangtze in April 1949.

A survey of the Trafalgar Chronicle shows how the collection connects Georgian naval warfare with engineering, gunnery, navigation, medicine, natural history, and biography.

Thomas C. Hone's Battle of Midway guide links interwar U.S. Navy strategy to the Second World War.

Probably little during the Second World War, but his leadership could have influenced how the Navy learned from submariners and developed the postwar service.

A brief aside remembers Lieutenant Edna Morrow, a terminally ill nurse travelling home aboard the flight that killed Robert English.

The closest counterpart is a commando-trained Royal Engineers formation that supports Royal Marines while remaining institutionally part of the Army.

Technically perhaps, but imported machinery would cost money abroad and fail to support France's own industrial base.

No. It was qualitative as well, because Germany had no operational ship able to match the Queen Elizabeth class at that point.

Not usually; merchant crews were often paid off on arrival and rehired before sailing, so sailors could go ashore or take another berth while cargo was handled.

They were very capable; a French capital fleet rebuilt around them would have been sufficiently dangerous to provoke a much stronger British response in 1940.

It meant retaining a minimal caretaker complement while a naval dockyard and maintenance staff preserved the ship for possible recommissioning.

Yes, but as part of a broader transatlantic exchange involving passengers, books, and other people aboard ships rather than as the sole channel.

Town-class cruisers, Yorktown-class carriers, Bismarck or Tirpitz, and the Yamato class respectively, each illustrating a different balance of capability, complexity, and concentration of force.

Failures around France and Singapore show that intelligence must be assessed and paired with forces capable of acting on it.

A preview of German heavy-cruiser policy distinguishes the ideal Plan Z force, intended employment of ships already available, and actual wartime operations.

A Cressy-class tactical example shows armoured cruisers reinforcing a superior battle line and helping envelop an enemy from both van and rear.

Lawrence Freedman's Strategy is the immediate recommendation.

It would probably have been smaller and different, with an Anglo-German technology competition replacing much of Tirpitz's destabilizing race in fleet numbers.

For an efficient cruiser, nine 8-inch guns; for a treaty-stretching pre-dreadnought replacement, nine 11-inch guns.

There was no universal best: Gato suited the Pacific, while smaller boats such as the U class could be preferable in confined seas such as the Mediterranean or Baltic.

A speculative gun-calibre hierarchy reserves 20-inch weapons for one or two prestige super-battleships while 16- and 18-inch ships perform most fleet work.

His career ran from Bismarck operations and Eastern Fleet staff work through command of Gambia and Illustrious to Third Sea Lord, and his papers are at the Churchill Archives Centre.

Yes, but British studies above 15 inches more often concentrated on a 16.5-inch calibre.

The classes organized ships by capability and duty, while the shared cruiser label carried useful political and diplomatic weight.

It would probably build more County-class cruisers and might add a third Nelson-class capital ship.

Ian Valentine's HMS London for the County class and Neil McCart's Town-class cruiser history for the Towns.

It would probably carry nine 15- or 16-inch guns; the historical 14-inch battery would be unlikely to win an earlier design contest.

The United States by the end of the war, but Britain's Rainbow class is a strong candidate at the beginning because of its exceptional range.

They were generally decent boats, but France left the war before they had much opportunity to prove themselves.

They are a strong start, with Andrew Lambert added to the list.

It depends on the variant: the A and B were less convincing, while the C and especially the F were strong designs.

Yes. British support is described as massive.

Yes. France, Britain, and others showed interest, although it is often unclear whether particular projects represented governments or private inventors.

A counterfactual fleet program connects earlier King George V construction with armour production, selective Queen Elizabeth refits, and faster follow-on battleship building.

Probably not; six 14-inch guns in three twin turrets would better match the weapons then in production.

It cannot be quantified without a protection scheme; designers could use equal thickness for stronger local protection or thinner plate to cover more area at the same weight.

Yes, especially if practical railguns return; electromagnetic naval-gun concepts have already explored calibres larger than six inches.

HMS Nubian, HMS Illustrious, HMS Warspite, the pre-dreadnought HMS Renown, and a well-preserved Black Swan-class sloop.

Corvettes emphasize merchant construction, sloops are naval-standard low-speed escorts, and destroyer escorts are intended to be larger and faster, though wartime designs overlapped.

A book review recovers the late nineteenth-century gas tram as a low-capital alternative to horse, steam, and electric street transport.

A book on gas-powered tramcars prompts a counterfactual in which earlier gas-turbine development changes British fuel supply and frees weight for a much heavier King George V battery.

Harry Plevy's Destroyer Actions and Commander J. A. J. Dennis's memoir In Action with Destroyers 1939-1945.

Start with broader design histories such as The Pre-Dreadnought Revolution, D. K. Brown's Warrior to Dreadnought, and Norman Friedman's works.

Possibly, especially in later designs, but reactor power is only part of the answer because the hull form may limit the speed that can be used.

He would build roughly eighteen Type 82 or Bristol-class destroyers instead of the Type 42 class.

More robust machinery added weight, and treaty-limited destroyers lacked margin; the problem eased when later ships were no longer designed so tightly to treaty displacement.

Probably either a U.S. carrier or a nuclear submarine, with Soviet Akula- and Papa-class boats mentioned as candidates depending on whether raw speed or speed plus power is emphasized.

Only in a limited sense: she was not operationally used, although some defensive guns were fitted while the priority was keeping her safe.

A recalled effort to repatriate a Black Swan-class ship from Egypt shows how escalating sale demands can defeat preservation even before scrap economics take over.

Ark Royal, the Illustrious-class armoured carriers, and the Tribal-class destroyers.

It is close and has the required components, but still needs greater quantity and more experience integrating and sustaining them.

Quintin Barry's Battle of Lissa 1866, especially because it points readers toward further sources.

They are very fast, but a carrier can remain fast in a much wider range of sea conditions.

It varied, but barbettes were tied into the hull and often formed part of the armoured bulkheads at the ends of the citadel.

Very alarming as a global counter-raider and mobile heavy unit, though its pressure on Germany itself would be limited once British blockade had already cut German trade.