Bruships 95: Science Fiction, Including Paddle 'Corn Oil' (Aka BioDiesel) Battleship Twist...

Adversaries were already confronting Washington, while allies depended on American security; France also had its own hostility toward the Viet Cong.

Because biplanes offered strong lift and easy takeoff, while a monoplane's extra speed brought little benefit to an aircraft flying local spotting patterns rather than long-range reconnaissance.

A paddle-wheel icebreaker battleship becomes a design exercise in balancing icebreaking efficiency against manoeuvrability, access for repairs, and ocean-going usefulness.

Its members faced competing superpower pressures and the risk of American- or Soviet-sponsored coups, which complicated such a policy.

Yes. Hood's escorts and Tribal-class destroyers were intensely angered by her loss, even though they were not her sister ships.

The fictional paddle battleship runs on corn-oil biodiesel, despite the initial steamer label.

Coral keeps a successor behind Icebreaker's armour and places the tankers furthest from the approaching threat.

Icebreaker's range advantage depends on intelligence that reached command late, while political restraint prevents Coral from simply firing first.

Probably quite strongly at the level of crew spirit; Renown's feelings after Hood's loss are suggested as a similar case.

They would improve air-defence capability, but the wider effect depends heavily on what overall force ABDACOM has available.

Mechanical fire-control tables remained useful into the 1960s and lasted longer for large guns, where replacing them required a new system that nobody had funded.

It might prefer to let Vietnam absorb American and Soviet resources that would otherwise be available elsewhere.

Cost pressures can delay practical responses to environmental change, just as competition for naval funds can squeeze out sloops and tankers.

It would make long-range gunnery usable and could bring about a dreadnought-style gun layout in the 1890s, even without dreadnought-style machinery.

In that counterfactual, it could choose this cruel option to preserve the US alliance, avoid war with the Soviet Union, and gain freedom of action elsewhere.

Domestic petroleum and Canadian supplies limit the oil-pressure argument in the Vietnam discussion.

A battleship in harbour could engage over the hill while von Spee could not effectively reply, probably forcing him back to sea and turning Sturdee's operation into an ocean search.

British and Commonwealth support for a Vietnam peace settlement was closely conditioned by the American position in this assessment.

Probably around the 1900s, though the date is given from memory and needs further verification.

Britain could have roughly sixty more escorts in service, while German peacetime submarine production would grow much less, creating a major anti-submarine advantage for the Royal Navy.

A Canadian Air Force officer's reported experience links restrictions on low-level flying to the danger geese pose to fast jets.

No. German submarine production was even lower in 1938, despite Britain also lacking its later escort-building programmes.

Hood had only basic radar and was awaiting a planned refit with better radar and fire-control equipment.

A fictional admiral's worldview illustrates how service and regimental identity can divide insiders from the civilians they protect.

Dramatically, although the proposed priority is to keep carriers under construction and pause battleships first.

Tentatively, improved accuracy and more data inputs; the technical comparison remains provisional.

A 1938 war would confront Germany with fortified Czech mountain borders while denying it the factories acquired after Munich.

Political leadership mattered, and a planned twelve-gun 14-inch battery promised a strong volume of fire; the logic became weaker when the ship ended up with ten guns.

A tactical victory can still leave a worse strategic position through destruction, proliferation, and lasting hostility.

Stand Defiant links the placement of a fighter screen to missile shortages and delays in reports from widely spread sensor drones.

Uncertain reinforcements make a likely tactical victory too costly for a fictional commander whose fleet must survive the wider war.

No. Britain would build if the United States and Japan did, but the race would probably emphasize ship quality and size rather than the numerical rivalry seen against Germany.

The fit reflected when the ships entered service and when they were upgraded.

Possible solutions were to prepare positions without installing every gun or to remove weight elsewhere.

The battle in Stand Defiant combines incomplete battlefield information with knowledge of other powers and the limits of a fleet that has no reserve behind it.

Britain occupied Iceland to prevent a small German seizure from creating an air and naval base that would endanger Atlantic convoys and require a costly amphibious recovery.

A completed Graf Zeppelin could make a German Atlantic task force dangerous enough to draw several British carriers and a fast capital ship into a dedicated hunt.

Ships could use duplicate tables and control positions or shift to local control at shorter range, with officers observing fall of shot and directing corrections.

The force would be difficult to deliver and reinforce, while the attack could bring Ireland into the war and open its airfields and Atlantic ports to Allied convoy and anti-submarine forces.

Officers needed enough practical knowledge to recognize when a fire-control table or computer was giving an implausible result.

Plan Kathleen lacked Irish government involvement, while cooperation with Nazi Germany offered the IRA a hazardous course.

Irish access could permit convoys to assemble while underway and place escort groups closer to their Atlantic operating areas.

The personal preference is for neither design.

Such closely spaced losses are considered rarer, and a flotation problem in one ship normally prompts modifications to its sisters.

Five fictional destroyers must match a missile swarm's velocity before their limited counter-missiles, lasers, and shields can protect a planet.

Fictional stealth raiders lose their advantage when attacking fighters brings them within reach of a prepared escort squadron.

The Battle off Samar supplies a historical model for fictional destroyers protecting civilians while the main fleet is out of position.

Successive jammer bursts disrupt a fictional missile screen while a four-second command loop prevents timely targeting corrections.

Sustained fire damages a fictional squadron's launchers, forcing shield sweeps on courses that remain safe after propulsion failure.

Stuart Crawford recalls the 4th Royal Tank Regiment's Scottish identity, relations with other armoured regiments, and disappointment over its eventual amalgamation.

Because cruiser historically described a broad cruising role as much as a fixed size, making it a flexible label for the largest non-capital surface combatants in a fictional fleet.

A very large pre-dreadnought could exploit an exemption from dreadnought limits, using four 18-inch main guns and 16-inch wing-turret secondaries to retain a mixed battery.

Yes; the deployment would help bind Anglo-American strategy and foreign policy together, beyond the number of troops strictly needed for defence.

A fictional combat patrol raises a force-composition question: whether to field one war suit, a coordinated group, or an armoured vehicle.

No. Single 16-inch mounts lack the long-range volume of fire Fisher wanted; an earlier adoption of 14-inch guns could instead have led to twin 14-inch mounts.

Have Italy stay outside the naval treaty.

The gunship is bigger; the cruiser is the preferred choice for flexibility.

Later classes would need to escalate sooner, potentially moving the Orions toward 16-inch guns and forcing the Queen Elizabeth class toward triple 16-inch mounts or 17- to 18-inch weapons.

Stacking has been tried, but groups of three are preferred because they are easier to manoeuvre and can support one another.

An us-or-them outlook made solidarity important, with anti-communist paranoia and the rise of McCarthyism offered as an explanation.

A December 2022 assessment describes a temporary operational pause while Russia trained and equipped conscripts and Ukrainian logistics were stretched after an advance.

They escort the larger Battlestars.

When working properly and well maintained, it was excellent, especially for its road and obstacle clearance.

A Victorian project is considered possible despite its cost and danger; it could simplify Western Front supply and later serve as a withdrawal route before being destroyed.

Large space warships may need to perform several jobs, making a combination of battleship, carrier, and assault-ship roles plausible.

Ships could be completely blacked out, but convoys generally tried to retain very dim navigation lights so vessels could avoid colliding with one another.

An actual blockade is considered unlikely; an embargo remains possible, although trade across the Atlantic and back would complicate it.

Wargaming is useful as a research aid, and the choice of game depends on the problem being examined; Harpoon is one example.