I think that figure is 5% of raids *designed to provoke firestorms* did so successfully. 5% of all city raids would mean there were a couple every month.
Except for both ships being in the Far East at the time, that's an interesting match-up. I think both on paper and in reality the odds favour the RN; the state of training of the Russian fleet was appalling, they'd be heavily overloaded with coal and other supplies, and the Canopus-class mount...
Atlanta has more, more reliable and quicker-firing guns albeit in far less favorable firing arcs, not much to choose between the two for speed (lots) or armor (minimal), and both have in 1942 fairly primitive fire-control radar. All things being equal Atlanta should take it by weight of metal...
Monitor's crew was 49 with a secondary armament of a few pistols, Warrior's 700 including marines and all the weaponry appropriate to landing a substantial shore party. Not sure how easy it would be to secure the decks though.
Should be Warrior - bigger, faster, heavier armour, more guns - but they both have issues protecting the ends, they're both experimental designs nobody really knows how to fight effectively, so you could definitely see it going either way.
Monitor's best chance is to bait the monsters into...
Race between PE managing to mission-kill Marat before taking one 12" hit and having to leg it at high speed. I think my money would be on a tactical victory for PE - heavy damage to Marat but he can still steam and fight.
Danton has a lot more firepower than a Regina Elena, 4x12" and 12x 9.4"...
I somehow missed this when I read your other Doctor Who stories. I really liked it (despite not liking the OTL Cushing movies; I think you're right that they probably made sense in their time) - the production background feels very true to life as well as being very funny. Thank you!
You could argue Britain could have held on to India, yes. But they already had local power structures in place and onside, a century plus of rule behind them, and at least the passive acquiescence if not active enthusiasm of most of the population. Japan didn't have that (outside to a limited...
In 1940 - early '41 the Luftwaffe isn't doing a lot else that they would have to stop doing in the short term.
Losses are going to be higher than in the OTL Blitz, you're sending more sorties a lot further. Let's assume the Luftwaffe are not stupid enough to send the daylight raids of summer...
Japan can defeat Chinese armies and even governments as long as the oil holds out. That's a far cry from conquering China. Japan trying to occupy the whole lot (bearing in mind that at their OTL peak they had what, 1/4 the land area and 1/2 the population of China behind their very tenuous...
I can't see it making a massive difference in general, but there have been historical cases of teams losing track of what the score was and e.g. not pushing for a winner because they thought they were ahead, you might get more of those.
Shipping capacity is shipping capacity. If the British are going to ship stuff to the East Indies, and they are, there is a vital US interest in their doing it efficiently, because that frees up ships to do things the US does care about. All those ton-miles saved by opening the Med go directly...
Well there were relatively few instances of the US Army and Navy assassinating one another's officers or deliberately sabotaging operations, and people who did either would be court-martialled rather than e.g. promoted.