Naval History Forums

Regarding the photo discussion, I would approach the greatly enlarged and highly modified images, and their associated interpretations by Mr. Bonomi (and others?), shown in Mr. Bonomi's posts on 09 September, with considerable skepticism. They are screened and highly modified images. The screening p...

As anyone who has studied these things to any depth will attest, captions to photographs are notoriously unreliable. I would place only the smallest credence on the original caption to the photograph in question -- which at best could only reflect what the photographer THOUGHT he saw -- and virtuall...

It is often quite difficult to establish the "frame rate" used to film during World War II, as cameras varied from country to country typically driven by spring wound mechanisms which were subject to (sometimes considerable) error. The situation is rendered even more complex when conversion from fil...

For what it is worth, having studied this particular subject for years, I have always felt that POW's gunnery during Denmark Strait was indeed rather poor. In the USN, anybody who fired as many ranging salvos without crossing the target would have been heavily criticized. After getting on for line, ...

In the interests of attempting to move things forward, one might put forth the hypothesis that the historical reconstruction(s) put forward by Mr. Bonomi -- whom I assume is the generator of the 'cover-up hypothesis, merely supported by Mr. Virtuani -- is not being 'denied' as much as it is being mi...

I will be out of town on vacation for the next week or so, and probably away from computers, meaning a complete response is, at least at this stage, not really practical. Regarding statements made by various individuals, however, I don't really consider that any, taken in and of themselves, are of g...

Regarding the chart of the Glorious action: This particular map was produced during the regular course of my duties as an editor for Warship International. Vernon Howland, the author of the piece, had done a good deal of research into this particular incident and supplied me with copies of the vario...

I am confused. Exactly who is the shepherd to which you refer?

Surely you yourself could be the shepherd and begin to lead all out of the woods by telling us more about the 'silver bullet'.

Bill Jurens

It would be difficult for me to try to reconstruct the source of the error in chart plotting without having at hand full numerical information regarding exactly what was sent to the British ships at sea. I don't have that. Presumably British practices in interpreting such signals is (or, strictly sp...

Insofar as my name has been mentioned a few times recently in this thread, I thought it appropriate to clarify and perhaps somewhat elaborate upon my opinions on these discussions. First, regarding mapping. (I taught cartography, by the way, and was for years a member of the Canadian Cartographic As...

Regarding the so-called 'silver bullet', and taking it for the purposes of the argument as read that for whatever reasons it is felt desirable to withhold it for now, I cannot on the surface of it see why the general nature of the bullet could not be revealed whilst it's detailed content remains -- ...

I visited the wreck of Queen Mary some years ago, and made diagrams of the distribution of the wreckage on the bottom, but I did not record the direction of north on the sketches, so I really don't know the orientation of the debris field. McCartney's recent book should cover that, though. One might...

A few quick comments: The painting is, to put it mildly, highly imaginative. It would be physically impossible for the bow to have been raised in the air that much. Although there are admittedly few (if any) full-scale tests of how battleships might slow down after their sterns have been removed by ...

I find it somewhat unlikely that the interpretation of the photo as shown on this thread is correct. First, it seems unlikely to me that the cartridge cases from main battery fire would, in action, be lined up so neatly along the side. My recollection -- which may be incorrect -- is that the empty c...

Although it is true that the condition (and position) of the wreck precludes any definitive examination of the lower hull, there remains some evidence that scuttling charges were fired and that various and sundry hatches and doors were probably left open as the crew abandoned ship. The wreck is nota...