Spectre
eternal servant to the Fire/EMS gods
- Location
- NY
so in other words she's still screwed because said moron is likely still commanding her.Glorious is thus out of position to be sunk by the Terrible Twins because her Captain was a moron
so in other words she's still screwed because said moron is likely still commanding her.Glorious is thus out of position to be sunk by the Terrible Twins because her Captain was a moron
In other words, they have to have a direct correlation, not just be something happening at random. At least at first, before the butterflies start really adding up.
NOT true, not really. Generally, (still true today, in fact more obvious), you pretty much do your branch (service pin) and staff work. Where it breaks is when you are a commander. Generally, commanding a battleship is the mark of an Admiral potential pre war (though carriers were the same, btw, in fact, that's why King and Bull GOT their stars.) the same as a carrier, or a boomer today. (Side note, Spruance's 'cruiser' man view, is actually inaccurate, hilariously, never commanded one directly, never served on one pre stars)A few things to note:
- Many USN admirals have served on a wide variety of ships. Having experience from serving surface and carrier, or surface and submersible (I cannot recall anyone who did surface, carrier, and submarine at this moment) is a pretty common thing. Spruance was known for commanding cruisers before Midway and yet he made many correct calls during Midway, Hailstone, and the Philippine Seas. He went down in popular history as having gutted the carrier arm of the IJN and for helping prove that a carrier task force can overwhelm land-based air.
Some things just require a little thinking. Musing. Just stuff that others (Hey, Bill, captains of Sara and Lexy, or Little E, et al) have noticed, or even their CAG's)
- Thompson has to deal with the fact that he is the only one with hindsight and future data. His peers of similar rank do not have the statistics nor the experience. This means that he will get demolished academically and be discredited when the other admirals ask him for proof. This is especially so if Thompson is coming in with mathematical equations and data that have a lot of war and post-war experience baked into it.
He's got a CarDiv as his command, one of 2. NAS's are paying attention to his and Hasley's reports. And note: A LOT of 'suggestions' and 'ideas' can be floated as 'musings' to other fellow officers. Ie, instead of being a official report writer/suggestor... toss it around in bull sessions, meals with fellow officers when you have a few beers/glass of wine/scotches. This is what James' biggest problem is, he's not doing the SOCIAL stuff he's expected to do. Could be a reason King hates him.Thompson is not in charge of the shore-base institutions nor is he an advisor to them. Thus construction, munitions, training, etc. are not within his purview. What this means is that he can at most impose changes on the small squadron of ships under his command and at most make suggestions that his changes correlate to a better fighting force. If he cannot cough up the hard numbers, then any changes he make will likely only stay within his squadron.
And then of course there is the matter of technology (both breakthrough and incremental), doctrine, and management simply not being there in the first place! Vague recollections and suggestions don't really help as much since there are many assumptions that Thompson would have to methodically write down before the people he's asking miracles from can even come up with a workable idea given contemporary constraints.
And would be a good extra side reason for trimaran hulled destroyers, landing pads.Some tech, the stuff that CAN be done _Right_ now (angled flight deck, moving ALL elevators to the outside on the Essexes) purging the airlines...
yeah.
Most of the other stuff, no. Pushing HELOCOPTORS, faster, yes, can be done. Part of Siskory's problem pre war, is that he didn't get lots of money, and it took time to build up the factories
My suggestions pretty much boil down to this:
Outside elevators complete (possible to put on the Essex.), Angled flight decks (not possible at this point on the Essexes, in their design, since they're already laid down, likey, but the Midways?)
Purging the gas lines
Pushing helos (tech's there, infrastructure ISN"T) He can EASILY push this "Better SAR for our pilots and we can put them on DD's and Battleships as spotters, I think... might work, wouldn't it?)
Developing rockets (see helos)
Tactical planning (and the marines would get behind the rockets on planes, and helos, they're NOT dumb!)
Might I suggest you look at the Crystal Radio page?MOST tech stuff, he really doesn't NEED to push. It's either coming and honestly, about as fast as it can as is, or frankly, cost/reward isn't worth it
The ONE thing that'd radically be worth it, REALLY worth it, is if he remembers how to make a TRANSISTOR.
They're not that difficult to produce (not IC, basic transistors), but wasn't til 1955 they were commercialized.
Transistor radar and radio in 1943+?
YES please.
How good is Thompson in sketching?As such, trying to do something as radical as upgunning Hood or completely stripping her down (LEWD.Haruna.jpeg) to rebuild her from the ground up isn't going to fly. Everyone involved knows that. Everyone involved also knows that the Admirals aren't going there to actually make suggestions on refitting her, of which only Richardson is really qualified to do. And his engineering experience (remember his time on Delaware that let him see Utah) is tilted to boilers, turbines and all that than anything else.
3. Changing designs. There have been good points brought up before of monkeying around with the Essex design, and that is something that Thompson could suggest without being out of left field. But as I've said before, he can't do much more than suggest things. If I made him an engineer who could point at the Essex and say 'hey, angle the deck like this and do it this *insert engineering jargon here* way and you'll make a better ship!' then he'd be verging on Sue territory.
The man can make suggestions, but he can't do them himself. And the validity of his suggestions to anyone comes down on how much they are willing to listen. Tactics are one thing, engineering is an entirely different kettle of fish.
He could say that the ships need more anti-aircraft guns, and to fast-track Bofors production. This is reasonable.
He could say that the torpedo bulges that Sara and E historically got are needed, which would do a lot of good for Hornet and Yorktown.
He could even say that we need more escorts for the carriers, or more carriers in general.
But if Thompson starts going off on funky tangents and trying to push for things that don't make sense in the time period, he's going to run into trouble. One could say it would push people to look at the designs, and maybe it would. But it would also get our Admiral committed to a loony bin at worst, constantly looked at with suspicion and mistrust at best. Going out of your way to try and do a bunch of radical things and only being able to say 'umm...well...this may work...?' when pressed is not a good thing.
In other words, don't expect him to start sprouting random things that don't make sense with the '40s tech base. Even if theoretically, and I emphasize the theoretically, possible.
Now, this is WoG on the subject.\
And would be a good extra side reason for trimaran hulled destroyers, landing pads.
It also gives him a job for Lex & Sara, if they manage to survive the war, Helo-carrier, for Marine and Seal teams Helocopters.
Might I suggest you look at the Crystal Radio page?
Look up Crystodyne, can do the same thing, invented in 1920, in Russia.
Yes, a shortcut.
Or at least a way to get two different development tracks going, that pull off the same thing.
How good is Thompson in sketching?
Because if he is reasonable in it, he could make a sketchbook to give to Richardson (while the other admirals are there, can Richardson talk about it with King, for one), with the stuff in it.
Thus sketches and explaining texts next to them.
Like how the the more modern and highly swept back version of the 'Tumblehome' style bow (that is being introduced in todays world), cuts true water like a knife true paper, jello (or so), using gravity as a form of cutting power, besides the speed of movement.
Comparison sketches between current ways and the proposed one, might also work, like how the waves break on the various bow types.
This could help in explaining the ideas and get them considered more serious.
The Submarine Branch might find it useful, since it is a hull shape that has a good change to flow well both above and under water.The Tumblehome hull isn't gonna happen. Too radical.
MABYE the crystal radio (though transistors have LOTS of benfits, and in a lot of ways are far superior)
Work within, not push outside.
A Extreme Radical destroyer with a trimaran hull, might thus sport a single big gun (the side outriggers provide extra stability).Stop trying to make trimaran hulls happen. They aren't going to happen.
Because it's a goddamn daft idea.
Even if he could draw a picture, he's a carrier Admiral, not an engineer. And simple sketches of designs that are ugly as I'll get out aren't gonna be worth jack if he doesn't explain the-Sky, can Thompson sketch anything worth the money it is drawn on?
Else the above is garbage can value, a pic says more then a thousand words, but if you cannot draw...
Article: Despite Captain Nagumo's daily interest and encouragement, I failed to pass the Staff College entrance examinations. Instead, in September 1932 I was appointed an instructor. This may sound puzzling, but such a development was not unusual in the Imperial Navy. My choice of this program meant that I was giving up the chance of a career as a headquarters staff officer to become a specialist.
In the three years following my marriage I had been tackling a private project. I did not discuss its details with anyone, knowing too well the audacity and the possible impact of my studies. I knew, too, that the reaction of my colleagues would be to scoff if they learned of my intentions.
...
My project was completed in mid-1932. It had involved thousands of complicated calculations. In short, I had proved mathematically the faults of Japanese torpedo doctrine and established a new manual. The published results created a sensation in the Imperial Navy.
It is very hard to establish new doctrine in a military organization. Most career officers trained in an old theory are conservative-minded and react unfavorably to anything new. I was exceptionally fortunate. There was practically no objection to my new theory, and the Imperial Navy torpedo manual was in fact scrapped and replaced with a manual based on the results of my work. Thus it was that I came to be assigned to teach my theory at the Staff College.
I still take more pride in my achievement of correcting Japanese torpedo doctrine than in any other activity of my naval career, including my accomplishments in World War II. It is not easy to explain my theory in detail without using many calculations involving algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. Simply told, however, it evolved in this way.
Article: After graduating from the Yokosuka Specialist School in 1923, I was generally assigned to destroyer duty, and usually as torpedo officer. I studied and trained religiously on the subject of torpedo firing. For almost three years the torpedo manual was my bible. Every week our squadron would go out on torpedo-firing maneuvers. The torpedoes were fired without warheads, as an economy measure, but were set to run just below the target to simulate a direct hit. After three years of intense training and practice, my score was such that I began to have doubts about my marksmanship. I seldom scored any direct hits.
My early reaction at the failures was to berate myself and work harder to improve. I trained frantically until I could tell at a glance through binoculars the distance and speed of the targets. After checking my judgment with instrumental measurement and finding that I was accurate, and still not scoring hits in practice, I began to be suspicious of the Navy's torpedo doctrine.
...
My destroyer was, thus "sunk" many times while I could only stand on the bridge, watch my "fish" miss the target, and grit my teeth. When I observed that other destroyer torpedo scores were as poor as mine, I gradually came to the conclusion that direct hits were little more than pure chance. I began to doubt the basic formula.
The accepted doctrine was to cover a total spread of 20 degrees in firing the eight torpedoes. After careful analysis of all the many factors concerned, I concluded that the 20-degree spread resulted in hits only if my destroyer, describing a hyperbolic curve at 30 knots, released its torpedoes at the peak of the hyperbola, at a target 2,000 meters distant, starting to draw away on an evasive curving course at 20 knots. Over a period of many weeks of maneuvers I discovered that the opposing squadron was apt to start its evasive turning before my ship was ready to release torpedoes. Also I discovered the necessity of considering every element of computation anew, including the 2-second interval between each of the eight torpedoes.
Realistically, they can fix the structural battle damage, overhaul the engines and the rest of the ship's installations, install British radar sets and most importantly, add an ice cream fountain or two in the ward room and galley.Hood will be refit, but it won't be as dramatic as some of these suggestions.
Bad example.To whit: Vice Admiral Ralph Christie, USN (may the fucking bastard forever burn in hell).
1. Pushed forward the Mark 14 Torpedo.
2. Pushed forward the Mark 6 exploder (magnetic).
3. Outright ignored, later censored, any wartime reports on just how bad #1's & #2's service was.
4. Outright canned veteran/seasoned wartime captain(s) that tried to publicly argue the point.
5. Ignored orders(!) and even had orders reversed that were to see the Mark 6 exploder removed and replaced by the older model (which actually worked great) on all submarines under his command.
No, he can't actually declare bureaucratic war on BuOrd in general and the Newport Naval Torpedo Station in particular. Not without a hell of a lot of data backing him up. Which he doesn't have.Thompson could easily go toe-to-toe with Christie at this point, and not only either countermand him, but also put forwards his *OWN* R&D requests.
I thought we ended the tank discussion. But you are demonstrating a level of knowledge of tanks that would correlate with seeing "Death Traps" as a valid source and German tank ace kill counts as not, like, inflated by an order of magnitude.The Sherman tank was the cheapest tank the US Government could buy, at that time, there where better designs that could do the same thing, if more costly in production.
Thus I would expect most of such a sketchbook, only to be looked into, from 1947 onwards.
If it happens to also cover late WWII BB AA suits...
Or maybe the final design look of the Montana class.....
Be of good cheer. Looks like it's Lady Lex Sky.
And the pic isn't trashy either.
I kept trying imgur without success so I just linked the twitter.