Naval History Forums

OK. Let´s see the contenders first: Great Britain, as long as she remains under Chamberlain or any pacifist would not move against Nazi Germany while she didn´t invade another country. Because of it´s own internal policies the Brits would be slow in their arms construction program, specially the ve...

RF: Warspite and Hood both had very long service records, Warspite was always in situations her commander and firepower could handle. Unlike Hood who was drawn against Bismarck. In every sense Warspite´s history is one full of commitments, action, danger and achievement. I agree that fate put Hood ...

The Yamashita case was one of victors revenge, which frequently happens to losers in war, if they are caught. Had Germany won, expect Churchill, Eden, Vansittart, Harris, Vian to be put on trial - Harris for bombing German cities, Vian for violating Norwegian neutrality in boarding Altmark etc. Vict...

To put it briefly and in very simple terms of what was a very complex case, Donitz was tried on the grounds that he ordered U-boats not to pick up survivors as part of ''no unnecessary risks'' under pressure from Hitler. The Allied prosecution tried to interpret this as an order to ''kill survivors'...

Is there an English translation facility here?

The content looks really interesting.

I think that it is ironic that he is described as a ''hunter'' when in fact he had a love of animals, rather than seek to destroy wildlife.

marcelo_malara wrote:This is called solid shot I think, blank is a cartridge without bullet.

Yes, that must be right, as blanks are used in the ceremonial firing of guns - we can't have people being hit by shellcases!!!

"It was his prevarication that forced the stand-off." No. It was his unwillingness to forake his duty and cowtow to British demands that forced the standoff. If he had been a good little boy and followed orders from a foreign service, then there would have been no standoff. The seizure of...

Is it not two watches per day per seaman? Would that make it one-third of a division at a given moment?

It would have been interesting if the two British ships had sighted Bismarck while POW was in the lead, as I would imagine Holland would have engaged immediately with POW not only ahead of Hood but also out of line as well, which would make German gunnery more difficult. I wonder how that would have...

hey.... as i think u are interested in Hilfkreuzer n all.... how would u assess the success of the surface riders (including armed cruisers, and pocketbattleships) in WW1 compared to WW 2??? which ships were outstanding? i do believe Pinguin had the highest tonnage sinking?? adios miro If you inclu...

One other important point about the Waffen SS - unlike the Kriegsmarine surface fleet it wasn't encumbered by ''no unnecessary risks'' orders - in fact quite the opposite it could take almost any risk, and it is this that made it such a successful tactical force.

Ostriker: Back to the french fleet. What you think is objective, for a country "supposed" to be threat by the french fleet. But have you ever imagined what the french could have think themselves? This fleet, was modern (main of the ship were built after WWI), and was the product of a big ...

Hitler never wanted a war with Great Britain, he even said that the Germans and English were never "natural" enemies as the French or the Russians. And he remembered WWI. Anyway his policies were the ones that threw the British into the war. Hitler screwed up in March 1939 when he openly ...

Karl in another topic has suggested that a sea-power savvy Hitler would have waited until 1943 to start WW2, with a far stronger German surface fleet, not to mention many U-boats. Was this a realistic proposition? Would a far stronger surface fleet have succeeded? And what about the Soviet Union wit...