Naval History Forums

Interesting and good work, Vic. I could go on and argue details, but I'd rather give a thumbs up for the overall picture.

If I had remembered the source I would have named it. Sorry. The Bofors managed to maintain about 150rpm per gun. That's not very good. A good 30mm cannon could do about 300rpm with 500g projectiles for about the same output as the Bofors. The Oerlikon had about the same rof as a good 30mm gun (none...

... i do not belive the 20 mm were very effective so i would prefer more 40 mm ... So did I, but in fact the vast majority of the 26 planes claimed by SD at Santa Cruz were shot down with the 20mm Oerlikons and late in the war the kills of the US BB's were about evenly distributed between the 5&quo...

The change from 35cm to 38cm increased the displacement by about 2000ts or 5%. I think it is reasonable to expect about the same again from an upgrade to 40.6cm.

I basically agree with lwd. A single engagement doesn't say anything. There are stories of inferior tanks defeating superior ones in almost all possbile combinations. The problem of the JS2 is the gun. In it not an anti tank gun. The tank carries only little ammunition, again only a small proportion...

Prussia in the 7 year war beat 1:17 odds, iIrc.

But the Finns were probably the most effective in WW2 in terms of using their resources.

A lot of folks can claim a lot. German individuals claimed the most. The Allies can claim a team victory, though.

The Tiger compares well with the JSII. In their AT capabilities, it is definitely a close call. As for comparing the Tiger to Shermans and T-34 as comparing them to their homologues. If you want to do that, compare the Sherman and the T-34 with the PzIV, which was the main German tank and also a med...

The author obviously has an agenda, which is to prove that the impact of air power was smaller than many think it was. Articles with an agenda very often go to far and appear biased. In this particular case, I'd consider the article a good deal of arguments, not the final word on the effects of air ...

WRT to the effect of air power against the supply columns and the effect against fuel supply, the article also shows some interesting facts and numbers as well. In case you haven't gone through it completely (i.e. just read my quote), I strongly recommend you do. Personally, I think that air power h...

Excuse me are you saying 8.5K ~ 15K? No, I'm saying that 6400@25kn is pretty similar to 6640@24kn. The slower speed differential is still considerable and important. I'm just not certain that the ranges are meant to cover the same conditions. Originally, Bismarck was meant to have about 14000miles ...

Yes, the abandonment of the tanks was to a large degree due to fuel issues. The lack of fuel became more problematic due to aircraft action, but by far isn't the only or the biggest reason for it. But the original point was that most Tigers were taken out by aircraft in a sense where it implies infl...

Excuse me are you saying 8.5K ~ 15K? No, I'm saying that 6400@25kn is pretty similar to 6640@24kn. If that's the case then you are basically saying all the modern BBs (with the possible exception of the twins, the Dunqurks, and the Yamatos) were the same. I guess on some level that is correct but ....

I keep linking to this article: http://web.telia.com/~u18313395/normandy/articles/airpower.html Evidently two of the main causes for losing Panthers were abandonment and destruction by the crews. These two categories accounted for nearly half the Panthers lost and during the period in August they co...

...SD wasn't a contemporary of Bismarck The were in commission at the samg time and SD was clearly operational before Tirptiz. I'd say that makes them contemporary. I think you have the wrong year, SD wasn't ready for action until June 1942, commissioned in March 1942. That's more than a year after...