Recent content by Proctol

A Chicago tennis court meltdown was discussed before https://www.alternatehistory.com/discus/messages/4/5305.html

In January 1972, British Red Berets blew away 20 Catholic Hooligans and Colleens in Derry, N.Ireland, with many ramifications. WI the Paras had really lost it and gone medieval and shot dead 200, with liberal use of FN SLR bayonet-work on the wounded? UN sanctions and troops? Brits pull out in...

In 1945 the UK Labour government's Attlee & Bevan implemented something new in world history:the first welfare state in the world (originally a Conservative plan), that promised to give NHS health care, state housing, schooling, dole and pension: caring for society's members from cradle to...

Much of western law is of Judaic origin. In the UK, the British courts have deferred to the London Beth Din (London Jewish Law Court) when defining if the offspring of a mixed couple is Jewish or not. In Israel, although the Law of Return gives even a gentile who has just one paternal...

Half way down the list at this link is an interesting video clip from the suspiciously cancelled after only 13 episodes "Lone Gunman" series presaging a conspiratorial radio controlled takeover of a 727 flying into the WTC at night, made six months before 911 http://www.freedomfiles.org/movies

The sabotage of the German Heavy Water plant in Telemark, Norway, set whatever German A bomb ambition there was right back. WI the sabotage had failed, & the Germans really had been able to make 3 bombs and nuked London in early 1945. Threatening to use more on the UK, would Churchill (if he had...

Rodney cannot afford to run, because with no rear X or Y turrets, and being 7 knots slower, she is doomed in a stern chase. No doubt the crew know this, so they would be compelled to slog it out or close, where she would be in with a chance, as the inferiority of the British optics and...

1. If Bismarck had not been damaged or not brought to battle, how much damage could she have done to the convoys? Were there any convoys at sea at the time? How far west would she have dared to sail? 2. If Prinz Eugen had stayed with Bismarck, would her extra flak have been enough to beat off...

Bismarck as not so good, but she excelled in initial accuracy and rate of fire. The initial shots can be the most telling. The first German salvoes were very accurate against Hood. Accuracy & ROF will of course quickly fall off, which is why the initial punches can be decisive. Note 2 here...

The ROF of Bismarck's guns was 3 per minute vs Rodney's 1. 24 rounds in the air vs 9, means the odds are with the Nazi.

Speed is as important as armour, and with Bismarck being a whole 7 knots faster, with engines producing 138,000 shp over Rodney's 45,000 shp, the Brit will soon be overtaken and overwhelmed, unless she gets a lucky long range hit. Despite Yamato having heavier guns & armour than an Iowa...

The trouble with three close together turrets is that one well placed shell could take out the Rodney's entire main suite. With all its secondary armament at the rear, Rodney would be disadvantaged in a stern chase. Bismarck's 38cms had the fastest ROF of any large naval gun and one on one...

Hood had a "glass jaw" which doomed her. Bismarck was a whole 7 knots faster than Rodney and had better fire control, accuracy and rate of fire. Due to hull stress from its unique lay out, Rodney could not fire broadsides. Its 16" guns, although slightly more powerful than Bismarck's, were not...

If the Bismarck had surrendered, Hitler could have been so scandalised that he would have ordered his Furehrdirektiv 53 in July 1941 instead of December 1943 as in OTL, ordering the scrapping of all surface ships and their conversion of the Kriegsmarine into a U boat force only. The result:100...

WI Lutjens seeing that his case is hopeless actually surrendered?! What would be the effect on German morale at having Bismarck escorted by the RN into Portsmouth? Could it actually break Nazi morale? Would the Allies have put her to subsequent war use eg on convoy escort duty out of Scapa Flow...