Thanks for a great link!
It has a good summary & visualizations of those events, along with some analysis. 
Posted on 05/21/2016 6:33:24 AM PDT by C19fan
Barrel life on the 16”/50’s had its limits and the guns had to be fired for training and testing of the powder charges as the powder aged. They weren’t making this barrels anymore, nor the powder (left overs from WW2).
Without those guns dialed in there wasn’t much point. And besides they we fantastically expensive to crew and operate. Finally they were out ranged by missiles so their utility in a surface action had long passed.
Yes, Jutland mattered. The German Navy spent the rest of the war in harbor - a useless waste men, money, and material.
I know little about dreadnaughts but is the replacement difference what they would refer to? Clearly they are not carriers, but they were heavy.
The only reason I knew was after he passed away I was going through some of his Navy journals about the war and saw a large black and white glossy of four very gaunt and sad looking Japanese men sitting at a table. On the back it was inscribed, "Civil officials of Nagasaki surrendering the city in the Commodore's ward room".
Sad at the individual human level, I got that.
I was a kid in Japan 1956-58. We played baseball with Japanese kids. Hadn’t a clue about Pearl Harbor until later. People were just people at street level. Our WWII Dads didn’t talk about it. The model airplanes we flew had red suns on the wings.
Mom & Dad hosted sukiyaki parties in our quarters. We read “The Magic Listening Cap” in school. Took field trips to Kyoto and the Buddha of Kamakura.
Learning about the Bataan Death March and the Rape of Nanking came much later. Knowledge about Japanese human experimentation came even later than that.
Japan still avoids teaching about their militarism and atrocities from WW2. Maybe out of shame and denial.
I believe the New Jersey was used effectively in Lebanon, but there might be issues with collateral damage.
And there aren’t with aircraft?
Or to do, either.
I’m sure there are, but I’d think they could be much more precise. Shifting winds could probably impact the trajectory of a shell over the 20+ miles the shells would fly, as opposed to more precision from at least a lower-altitude plane/helicopter.
Thanks for a great link!
It has a good summary & visualizations of those events, along with some analysis.
The First Moroccan Crisis was in 1905, seven years after Germany began its navy buildup programs, in 1898.
And, that German buildup was not based on any particular event, but rather on Germany's overall desire to be recognized as a Great Power with global reach.
They thought a ratio of 2/3 German to British battleships would be sufficient for that purpose.
Nor did the Brits immediately respond to German naval production, so long as it appeared relatively small, and with other priorities focusing British attention.
But by 1909 the German threat did seem foremost, and Brits did respond with a naval buildup of their own.
It is said that sometime after 1912, Germans gave up their efforts to match British battleships and instead switched to U-boat production, of which there were 48 in service or under construction in August 1914.
And by early 1914 the German Navy's biggest enemy (as is so often the case) was not the British Navy, but rather the German Army, which needed funding for its own buildup, thus reducing the Navy's budget.
That was huge. For centuries, there was no love lost between Britain and France, and Germany forced them to become Allies. Germany didn't want to end the British Empire, they wanted their own Empire. Would we have been better off if Britain wasn't allied with France?
The problem with Versailles is not that it was too "harsh" -- it was after all, well within limits established by Germany itself in its treatment of defeated Belgium and Russia.
The problem was that Germans did not feel defeated militarily, and so did not think they deserved any punishment for the war.
Nor did average Germans even know their own national leadership had started the war in the first place.
They believed the "war guilt" portion of Versailles was totally unjust.
Germans had hoped they would be treated by President Wilson according to his "peace without victory" promise and "14 Points".
When that didn't happen, it was a major grievance.
Nevertheless, as the German economy slowly recovered during the 1920s, Hitler's appeal was very minor.
Only with the coming Great Depression in 1930 did Hitler's words begin to gain traction amongst Germans.
But that sam epriod overlaps the rebellions, then the Duma, then the re-emergence of the Russian czar; and thecontinued failures of the Turkish “sultans” to run their country as it fell apart.
Place a dying Russian empire north of Turkey, a split and warring Balkans next to it between Germany-Austria and the Mediterranean ...
The world had a short fuze. Or a long fuze - I believe that is the history of the last 20 years before the war from the Balkan (NOT German-British!) point of view.
Let’s go back a bit earlier and look at the pre-Dreadnaughts
In 1889, Britain laid down 3 battleships, Germany 0
1890 Britain 6, Germany 4
1891-94 Britain 7, Germany 0
1895 Britain 3, Germany 1
1896 Britain 2, Germany 1
1897 Britain 3, Germany 0
1898 Britain 5, Germany 3
1899 Britain 7, Germany 3
1900 Britain 1, Germany 2
1901 Britain 2, Germany 2
1902 Britain 7, Germany 3
1903 Britain 1, Germany 1
1904 Britain 2, Germany 4
1905 Britain 2, Germany 1
1898 - 1905
Britain 27, Germany 19
Dreadnaughts
Program year
1905-06 Britain 1, Germany 0
06-07 Britain 3, Germany 2
07-08 Britain 3, Germany 2
08-09 Britain 1, Germany 3
09-10 Britain 6, Germany 3
10-11 Britain 4, Germany 3
11-12 Britain 4, Germany 3
12-13 Britain 5, Germany 1
13-14 Britain 5, Germany 2
While the British did authorize a large number of battleships in the 09-10 fiscal year, it was still below the numbers laid down in 99 or 02, and does not seem to match up with any similar increase in efforts from the Germans.
Either Robert Massie or Robert Lacey wrote the book “Dreadnaught”, it is a great book on the arms buildup before W.W.I. A must read for people really interested in that.
Massie - it’s where I got the numbers on the Dreadnaughts (appendix, page 909 and following).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.