Challenge: battleship world
- Thread starter SAVORYapple
- Start date
RamscoopRaider
Donor
My ideas
- Slow down the development of planes a few years
- Wreck the alliance system, say have a bunch of smaller wars, Austria Hungary against Italy, Germany Against France where Battleship clashes are shown to be decisive and occur often
- Slow down Torpedo Development
- Speed up Rocket and Electronic Development
- Get rid of WWII
- Have one or two early aircraft carriers suffer unfortunate accidents
Of course nukes will change this as a single missile can now kill any battleship but enough point defense can do wonders
Getting rid of WW2 will be difficult….perhaps the USSR is weak and japan manages to expand upward? Electronic development might happen sooner if the utility of the transistor was realized earlier, having aircraft carriers suffer accidents is not difficult, and maybe whitehead is never born before inventing that aweful self propelled projectile…..
BlondieBC
Banned
Extending the dominance of the Battleship.
1) A horrible accident like the Hindenburg, but by aircraft carrier. Imagine an carrier sinking due to a fuel/bomb accident in New York Harber. Over 1000 sailors die.
2) Carriers banned by interwar Naval treaties. The major powers already had Battleships and Battlecruisers. Money can be save by not developing the new Carriers.
3) No WWII. Without WWII, the replacement cycle on ships is at least a decade slower.
Combined, the dominance of the Battleship could be extended by a few decades, but all the Battleships are still retired by present.
1) A horrible accident like the Hindenburg, but by aircraft carrier. Imagine an carrier sinking due to a fuel/bomb accident in New York Harber. Over 1000 sailors die.
2) Carriers banned by interwar Naval treaties. The major powers already had Battleships and Battlecruisers. Money can be save by not developing the new Carriers.
3) No WWII. Without WWII, the replacement cycle on ships is at least a decade slower.
Combined, the dominance of the Battleship could be extended by a few decades, but all the Battleships are still retired by present.
Later WW1: Airplanes aren't as developed, German fleet is bigger so more surface engagements involving dreadnoughts. Naval planners still hang on the value of the battleship.
David S Poepoe
Banned
Fairly ridiculous since more battleships have been lost thru coal dust combustion or their magazines exploding and that didn't stop the development of the battleship.
Pangur
Donor
love a challenge but!
I just dont see how you keep the batteship supreme however reading the posts has raised a question in my mind. Post the attack on Pearl Harbour they US navy kept building battelships which seems rather weird to me after all the had all the evidence needed in regards to the outcome of aircraft carrier V battleship on their doorstep. As an aside does any know how many say Essex class carriers could be build from the metal used for an Iowa class BB?
I just dont see how you keep the batteship supreme however reading the posts has raised a question in my mind. Post the attack on Pearl Harbour they US navy kept building battelships which seems rather weird to me after all the had all the evidence needed in regards to the outcome of aircraft carrier V battleship on their doorstep. As an aside does any know how many say Essex class carriers could be build from the metal used for an Iowa class BB?
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Those battleships were already on order and Pearl Harbor was an ambush against a moored fleet with unmanned guns, essentially the best possible case
Remember at this point there had been no open sea pure carrier vs battleship battles and you had the example of the Glorious (I believe) sank by German Pocket Battleships
Lookupshootup, getting rid of WWI like I plan would get rid of WWII, this would slow aircraft development and with some butterflies speeding up SAM development, Germany had prototypes by 1944, you could make Battleships virtually impossible to kill with air attacks, or have that be the dominant theory
Light shipping actually does reasonably well against nukes at modest ranges.
To counter nukes battleships would have been designed with streamling in mind, with water spray systems, and maybe graphite sheet or ice for radiation shielding.
50s era nukes could be defeated quiet easily by flying a radar guided helicopter in their path. An early nuke probably won't initiate properly after going through one of those. Missiles would also work.
I can see a ALT!70s battleship with guided missiles mounted on UAV helicopters kept permanantly on station by microwave beamed power supplied via a nuclear reactor. The big guns have shrunk as missiles take over, and analysists predict the iminant arival of laser guided smart shells. As symbols of a nation's power the battleships are the natural and rightful home of the ICBM silo.
To counter nukes battleships would have been designed with streamling in mind, with water spray systems, and maybe graphite sheet or ice for radiation shielding.
50s era nukes could be defeated quiet easily by flying a radar guided helicopter in their path. An early nuke probably won't initiate properly after going through one of those. Missiles would also work.
I can see a ALT!70s battleship with guided missiles mounted on UAV helicopters kept permanantly on station by microwave beamed power supplied via a nuclear reactor. The big guns have shrunk as missiles take over, and analysists predict the iminant arival of laser guided smart shells. As symbols of a nation's power the battleships are the natural and rightful home of the ICBM silo.
RamscoopRaider
Donor
All good ideas, probably what my suggestions would eventually evolve into though with added SAM batteries to keep those pesky planes away
BlondieBC
Banned
Earlier development of radar could also help. With better radars and radars actually being used properly, there would be more warning for both Taranto and Pearl Harbor.
Also, by the 1950's, there was radar controlled naval artillery fire. If this is developed earlier, the threat from small torpedo boats is lessened.
Also, by the 1950's, there was radar controlled naval artillery fire. If this is developed earlier, the threat from small torpedo boats is lessened.
RamscoopRaider
Donor
True, but there was no viable other option at the time and they were already firmly entrenched
As for Magazine explosions, in combat ships sink, has been happening for thousands of years and won't change as long as there are wet navies
Early Carriers will be considered auxiliaries to the Battleship and lack an entrenched lobby, a few accidents and they could be massively set back, long enough that with proper butterflies other technologies could render them impractical
I think Pearl Harbor, followed by Coral Sea and Midway, are what really pushed the carrier to the forefront. Prevent the first, and that could go a long way.
On another note, I don't think BB (of BBG) are all that obsolete. Swords and other melee weapons are seldom used not because they aren't deadly, the problem is getting into range. In trenches or room-to-room fighting, they are very deadly (but can still be countered with a sawed-off shotgun. To have a Battleship World, you need a means to allow the battleships (assuming you don't have BBGs, in that case, just launch missiles) to use their guns. If Yamato had descent air cover, it might have made it to Okinawa and shown just how effective 453 (is that the right number?) millimeter guns are against smaller ships.
On another note, I don't think BB (of BBG) are all that obsolete. Swords and other melee weapons are seldom used not because they aren't deadly, the problem is getting into range. In trenches or room-to-room fighting, they are very deadly (but can still be countered with a sawed-off shotgun. To have a Battleship World, you need a means to allow the battleships (assuming you don't have BBGs, in that case, just launch missiles) to use their guns. If Yamato had descent air cover, it might have made it to Okinawa and shown just how effective 453 (is that the right number?) millimeter guns are against smaller ships.
BlondieBC
Banned
I was thinking more of late 1945/1946 when the USA burned all the PT boats since the PT boats were no longer combat effective. Radar controlled naval fire could sink them before they were in range to launch torpedo's. If this level of radar control exists in sat 1935, the the battleships perform much better in WW2