Naval History Forums

..... but it would be a very very fundamentally different alternate history. Not necessarily, this is piled on to a lot of binary assumptions and ''alternate history'' does not necessarily follow a divergent course. Without Salamis history would have been different, we don't know what that would be...

Bismarck was still able to keep PoW under fire (and cripple her) from 15-18 km in a long lasting chase that would have lasted hours, with an (initial) delta speed of 0.5 knots (just 1 km in 1 full hour) and "Y" turret (only turret bearing) partially out of action at same time. hans How fa...

The evidence for a Lutjens vis Lindemann argument over pursuing PoW is very weak and was not mentioned by any of the 5 Bismarck survivors who made it back to to debriefed by the KM. Hence Raeder had no basis for such an assumption. There are nevertheless many and persistent reports about an argumen...

The Guardian is a British newspaper with its own political and social agenda. It isn't impartial and isn't ''free press.'' It has its own agenda which includes promoting the European Union and the banning of ''far right'' political parties it doesn't agree with. Recognising that I would never ever w...

Lutjens view, as overuled by Raeder, was to wait until Autumn, when Tirpitz might be available. Tanker Wiessenburg was stationed by Jan Mayen to provide full refuelling for both ships immediately prior to breakout. The breakout would be better with longer nights rather than shorter, which would favo...

Going somewhat off topic the SKL summary at point 4 shows some very limited objectives - revealing a lack of real strategic thinking.

What is interesting about the report as detailed in the first post are the questions that the Fuhrer DIDN'T ask. Lutjens view was to delay Rheinubung until either Tirpitz was ready or to the availability of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau to break out of the Biscay ports back into the Atlantic. That is a ...

Paul, don't you mean NASA spacesuits.... The tin hat is rather useless against a mushroom cloud.

This is an interesting perspective, focussing on the operation as seen from the lower deck, however if I may interpose some criticism it is fictional. To really understand the feelings and emotions of the crew you have to be one of them and undergo the experiences they had. This is particulary so as...

As an outsider from Great Britain looking in on the state of American politics I find what looks like to me to be a duopoly choice between two elderly, cerebally challenged men to be somewhat perplexing. Both Biden and Trump are in my view too old and cerebally challenged to be put in charge of the ...

The outline of the ship has some throwback element to the CSS Alabama and CSS Shenandoah, some 50 years earlier.....

My comment on the Moon was just an aside, I was thinking that a Moon that size takes back some 300 to 400 million years ago when the Moon's orbit was a lot closer to Earth, and a teleported sea battle back in the time of the dinosaurs, maybe an ichyosaur might surface to see what's going on here....

Nice video, but I would suggest some refinements. Whilst we have a clear view of the command position I think some narrative or audio explanation of what is happening would be useful, such as identification of the other ships on view so that we have a better understanding of the action. Perhaps not ...

As a general point looking at the chart it seems that iron and steel strengthen with small heat increases, so small fires would not be effective in unsettling the ship? However would the heat increase not expand the metal creating weaknesses there, such as bending or warping?

Using that analysis we can presumably say that Bismarck would have sunk anyway on 27 May 1941 without the torpedo hits in the final battle or scuttling charges laid by the crew. Whilst it is difficult to sink a heavily armoured ship by gunfire alone its not so difficult if the attackers have plenty ...