Sail
French Account of the Battle of the Nile
The Admiralty had to rely on this French account to see exactly how Nelson won his victory. It was written in captivity on board the British Alexander on its way to Naples. The letter frequently refers to âplansâ, probably the maps reproduced below. The Battle of the Nile posed French officials quite a problem. How could they break the news…
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EARLY USE OFÂ ARTILLERY
Bombard mortar and granite ball projectile of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, Rhodes, 1480â1500. Founded at the request of Pierre dâAubusson, the bombard was used for close defense of the walls (100â200 meters) at the Siege of Rhodes. It fired 260 kg granite balls. The bombard weighs about…
AVALANCHE in Italy I
Unmolested and apparently undetected, Kent Hewittâs armada of 642 ships steamed north in a thousand-square-mile swatch of the Mediterranean, bound for HARPSICHORD, as the Gulf of Salerno was now code-named. If the sea remained calm, the sun was searing. Little ventilation penetrated the packed troop holds, and few were as…
The Dark Ages of the Victorian Navy
Redoubtable was a central battery and barbette ship of the French Navy. She was the first warship in the world to use steel as the principal building material. Compared to iron, steel allowed for greater structural strength for a lower weight. France was the first country to manufacture steel in…
The Cold War â Financial Cost
âAll modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR-2 simply got the first three right.â The TSR-2 was planned to replace the Canberra light bomber from 1965. Although explicitly not intended to replace the V-bomber, the TSR-2 was designed to be capable of long-range penetration of enemy…
Kriegsmarine defeat UK?
Clay Blair has argued that in the early war years, Churchill and his colleagues constantly overestimated the U-boat menace, a mistake, Blair claims, that historians have faithfully reflected ever since. âIn a word, the U-boat peril in World War II was and has been vastly overblown.â As a consequence, contemporary…
HMS Indestructible: Unlocking the bloody history of the ship made famous by Turner, the Fighting Temeraire
Nationâs favourite: Turnerâs Fighting Temeraire can be found in the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square By Sam Willis Struggling to breathe in mouthfuls of air rank with choking gunsmoke, hundreds of men and boys crouched low on the gun decks of His Majestyâs Ship Temeraire. In that cramped space, where…