Naval History Forums

Hello Karl, What is the source of your quote? According to Rasenack, Langsdorf on sighting the British ships, identified them initially as a light cruiser and two destroyers, acting probably as convoy escorts for a group of merchant ships including a vessel called Highland Monarch, whom B-Dienst in ...

marcelo_malara wrote:I don´t think the Parana river would allow a ship so big to go beyond Rosario port, which is 200 nm upstream from Buenos Aires.

Fair enough, I did suspect that might be the case, otherwise a chess player like Langsdorf might have thought of doing it.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot. I would insist that my ship can steer on propellers alone!

Thinking about it my proposed ship is perhaps more like a smaller version of Yamato rather than an enlarged Scharnhorst - but I wouldn't want a ship as big as Yamato or any of the Hitlerian H-classe monsters.

I would go for an enlarged Scharnhorst classe ship, with three triple turrets of 16 inch guns. Secondary armament also triple turret 16 cm guns, with two turrets on either flank plus a fifth turret forward of Ceaser turret in superfiring position to it. Tertiary battery of 5 inch guns for targeting ...

One thing that stands out with the use of Warspite was that the British evidently had no fear of that ship being lost or disabled due to German torpedoes - which could have happened if at least the German torpedoes had functioned properly. Yes the Warspite had a massive destroyer screen and the Germ...

The Invergordon mutiny was down to the British government. They decided to save money by cutting the pay of every Royal Navy man by 10%. This same government also saved money by cancelling the upgrading of Hood's deck armour, and even upset King George V by proposing to scrap the ceremonial guard a...

RF: Thanks to Raeder´s traditional views and (I supposse) his desire to avenge the humilliation of the HSF in the WWI those BBs were built and no more U-Boats for the war effort. The big ships Raeder had built were 100% more useful than the dinosaurs of the High Seas Fleet of WW1, which couldn't ev...

Hello Karl, With hindsight we can all win any war! Tiger tanks - these weren't developed until 1943, based on experience gained on the Russian Front. The Heer and Waffen SS didn't need Tigers anyway prior to Barbarossa. Building the big ships had the consequence of the RN having to keep tabs on them...

Could somebody set up a translation facility for the Spanish sections of this forum/website, so that those people such as myself who are not proficient in Spanish can follow the dialogue.

I'm not complaining about people conversing in Spanish, I just want to understand what is being said.

The Argentine navy had A4s and used them against the British. They had retarded bombs, which had time to arm during low level attacks. That was a good thing for them. The really bad thing was they were painted white, which made them stand out against the ocean during the low level attacks and helpe...

Does anybody have the answers to either of the following: 1) Are there any pictures/photographs of the German embassy building available on the internet? 2) When the American occupation forces moved into Tokyo I gather that they seized all the papers/material held at the embassy, together with all t...

Looking at the history of the Artic theatre and the Allied convoys to the Soviet Union one observation I have is the apparent non-involvement of Soviet Navy surface fleet units in these operations, such as the provision of convoy escorts and air cover. Was this deliberate Soviet policy - per Stalin ...

Interestingly a fictional account of a successful ''Sea Lion'' operation taking place in July 1940 had Hood blown up by a Stuka approaching the Dover narrows from the North Sea. How big was the Japanese bomb that set off Arizona's magazine at Pearl Harbour? Presumably the Jap bombs were bigger than ...

Fighting their British allies? I've never before seen this event characterized as friendly fire. Oops! Sorry, France! [Hee!] The French retaliated immediately at Mers El Kabir by sending planes to bomb Gibraltar, however they did little damage. There was also the matter at Dakar a short while later...