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  1. Use of incendiary and oxygen projectiles and minimal use of shrapnel and explosives prior to offensives in World War I - what would the results be and

    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.

  2. What If These Two Warships Met In Combat

    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...

  3. What If These Two Warships Met In Combat

    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...

  4. "Sanity options" 2.0 - RAF, 1935-43

    These calculations were by the same geniuses who thought 2x Vulture was going to be a better heavy night bomber than 4x Merlin on the Manchester.

  5. What If These Two Warships Met In Combat

    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.

  6. What If These Two Warships Met In Combat

    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...

  7. What If These Two Warships Met In Combat

    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"...

  8. The Gentleman in the Blue Box, A Doctor Who Timeline

    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!

  9. Was Japan really in an "unwinnable" war?

    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...

  10. WI: Luftwaffe focused on Liverpool docks

    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...

  11. Was Japan really in an "unwinnable" war?

    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...

  12. WI: No "score bug"?

    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.

  13. Sir John Valentine Carden Survives. Part 2.

    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...

  14. The PANAVIA Tornado is still born?

    Mind, the French definition of "multinational project" is "we will do the building and they will do the paying".

  15. Sir John Valentine Carden Survives. Part 2.

    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.

  16. What if the Western Allies launched Operation Unthinkable?

    I think if Churchill tries to do this, there will be a General Strike in the UK and much of the armed forces are likely to mutiny. As you say, Stalin has been an ally for four years, he's still popular, the Royal Artillery are marching along singing "Viva Joe Stalin", the war is over at long...

  17. Sir John Valentine Carden Survives. Part 2.

    abbreviation for "machine", so V8 machine, the old machine, with machine guns?

  18. 40 years since the Stanislav Petrov incident - where were you on Sept. 25/26, 1983? Would you have survived if the nukes were launched?

    I was not born until 88, my parents knew each other but weren't dating. My father was either in Libya, where there's a decent chance he was nuked by the Americans, or in Trinidad in which case he was probably fine. My mother was a student at the University of Liverpool so was probably killed by...

  19. Torbeau With Flap and Spoiler Wing as higher speed Avenger?

    If the Sea Mosquito was highly borderline off a WW2 British carrier, I think it's pretty unlikely that the heavier and less powerful TorBeau can be made to work reliably and safely. The FAA were desperate for a modern torpedo fighter, if they thought a Beaufighter derivative would be remotely...

  20. Alternate Bristol Engine Development (Mercury & Pegasus)

    Alvis buying Napier feels like a match made in heaven, the sort of thing that's so obvious you wonder why it never happened. From a cursory Google it looks like Alvis wanted a sure thing and figured a proven design for a biggish radial was it; if you have the Air Ministry develop its case of Not...
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