Weapons and Warfare throughout history and the analysis of doctrine, strategy and tactics.
Weapons and Warfare throughout history and the analysis of doctrine, strategy and tactics.
Weapons and Warfare throughout history and the analysis of doctrine, strategy and tactics.
The HMS Queen Mary launched in 1912 was the last British battlecruiser built before the outbreak of the First World War. Being the sole member of her class, the HMS Queen Mary shared most part of features with the battlecruisers of the Lion class, including her eight 343 mm guns; she differed from them in […]
Read moreIt was just now that the Fifth Battle Squadron reappeared on the scene, finally overtaking both Beatty and Hipper. It was a timely intervention for Beatty: while there was something approaching parity between the lighter German guns versus the thinner British armor and the heavier British guns versus the better-protected German ships, Hipper’s battlecruisers could […]
Read moreThe square-rigged Dutch bertone depicted above slicing into an oared galley. The pirates owed much of their success to new technology. They brought with them into the Mediterranean high-sided sailing ships that the Italians called bertoni. They looked fairly similar to the galleons that were coming into fashion in the Spanish and Venetian navies, but […]
Read moreAkagi leaving Celebes Island for the attack on Colombo, 26 March 1942. In the background are other carriers and battleships of the carrier striking force. Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi in April 1942 during the Indian Ocean Raid as seen from an aircraft that has just taken off from her deck. A Grumman Martlet fighter about […]
Read moreThe Japanese strike force advancing to the Indian Ocean. Ships shown from left to right are: Akagi, Soryu, Hiryu, Hiei, Kirishima, Haruna, and Kongo. Churchill was very nearly right in his own panicky assessment of Japanese intentions and capabilities. As historians H. P. Willmott and Hans-Joachim Krug and his team have demonstrated, the warlords of […]
Read moreAerial view of the damaged Austrian cruiser Novara following the Battle of the Otranto Straits, 15 May 1917. Generally the term Austro-Hungarian navy refers to the navy of the Hapsburg Empire, even though the dual monarchy of Austria and Hungary did not exist until 1867. Previously equipped only with small gunboats, the Austrian Empire became […]
Read moreClaimed effectiveness: Artist’s conception of a U-boat commander’s periscope view of a merchant ship in dazzle camouflage (left) and the same ship uncamouflaged (right), Encyclopædia Britannica, 1922. The conspicuous markings obscure the ship’s heading. On 1 February 1917, Germany announced a full resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, not only in the war zone around the […]
Read moreAll the hard work proved a worthwhile investment. By the end of September some eighty-three inward convoys had arrived, totalling 1,306 merchantmen. Only eighteen ships had been sunk, eight of which had been lost after dropping out of their convoys. Similarly just two ships were sunk in the fifty-five outward-bound convoys. There was a further […]
Read moreA painting depicting the final moments of U-15. 9 AUGUST 1914 On 8 August 1914, the First Light Cruiser Squadron, part of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet based at Scapa Flow, had set out on a patrol. Comprising HMS Southampton, HMS Birmingham, HMS Liverpool, HMS Falmouth, and the recently joined HMS Nottingham, the First Light […]
Read moreIt was time for MacArthur to take the initiative once again in New Guinea. On 1 September 1943 the US VII Amphibious Force under the command of Rear-Admiral Daniel Barbey left Milne Bay on the extreme southeast coast with three brigades of Australian troops in a convoy of ninety-seven vessels escorted by nine destroyers. He […]
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