Re: [MV] Interesting tid bits about British military inventions

From: Jim Breneman (jimbre_7@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Apr 10 2005 - 15:15:31 PDT


--- "Mil-Veh Co." <milveh@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> On the whole, I think the UK turned out the most
> ingenious designs over the longest period than any
> other country since the 1700's.
>
> The British practically invented modern Naval
> warfare
> tactics, remember Nelson and the ships of the line?
> England's "HMS Dreadnought" made every other
> battleship of the time obsolete due to her
> firepower,
> armour and speed, that was around 1900.
  If I remember correctly I beleive the United Stated
laid the keel for it's...I can't remember the name
right now so I'll call it the Dreadnought class...
battleship (the USS Colorado I believe)before the UK
built the HMS Deadnought. This design was the first to
put it's main guns "in-line". The UK rushed
construction and it before the US could. The HMS
Dreadnought was only in service for three years.

>
> The Battleship King George, built around 1934 had a
> pretty remarkable record throughout WWII and many of
> it's design features was copied by several other
> nations. The King George was credited with sinking
> the German battleship Bismark.
  
I thought it was the HMS Prince of Whales that fired
the last shot against the Bismark. Im not doing to
good with names today so I could be wrong. You are
correct that the British did sink the Bismark. The
British fleet engaged the bismark after it had been
crippled by torpedo planes. According to the bismark
memorial website the main deck of the Bismark was
never penetrated by shells from the British ships. The
site also says that the death blow was delt by a
torpedo. The Bismark did sink the HMS Hood the French
Eugen before it was taken down.

> Even the famous hovercraft we consider a "state of
> the
> art" landing craft was invented by a British subject
> around the late 1940s, that was Christopher
> Cokerell.
If the british had hovercrafts in the 1940's, why were
they all driving DUKWs?
>
> The Ferret Mark 1, 2, etc., were without a doubt the
> best of the armoured scout cars for nearly 30 years.
>
> Landy's are probably the world most
> popular/practical/versitile military 4x4.
  The "landy" was based off of Willies- Overland's
"Jeep." Which all allied forces used during WW2.
> Backing up a bit to the American Civil War, did you
> know that it was Capt. Charles Ambrose McEvoy, a
> Brit
> who was the mastermind behind a lot of Confederate
> naval inventions, most notably was the first
> practical
> sea mine, torpedo and the first fuse for shells.
  
  Backing up a little bit more to the American
  Revolution...Democracy
>
> I might mention just a few more inventions with a
> military bent, like the telescope Isaac Newton,
> Steam
> pump Thomas Savery, Steam engine Thomas Newcomen
> Diving bell Edmund Halley, Marine chronometer John
> Harrison, Steam engine (with separate condenser)
> James
> Watt, Gas turbine John Barber, Hydraulic press
> Joseph
> Bramah, Smallpox vaccination Edward Jenner,
> solid-fuel rocket...but the point being is for a
> little country (size really doesn't matter) Britain
> had more than it's share of remarkable, history
> making, warfare changing inventions.
  
  I'll mention a couple American inventions. How about
electricity, the telephone, The assembly line, Nuclear
power, Nuclear powered naval ships, the space shuttle,
Global Positioning System, Computers, but the point
being is for a country that is only about 230 years
old the US has just as many inventions, if not more,
as the British. (age doesnt really matter)

> On balance I should mention that the American's had
> the Brewester Buffalo and petrol powered tanks they
> called flaming coffins... and speaking of flaming,
> ok,
> I'm ready have at it now. lol
>

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