Honorverse ships and weapons ~ real life equivalents

saber964 wrote:

cthia wrote:The flechete guns remind me of modern day shrapnel and fragmentation weapons.

Actually there are flechette guns so to speak. What the are is shotguns firing special rounds. The rounds are filled with 2 or 3 mm steel darts instead of buckshot.

This is news to me. I googled it and found: 3 rounds Firequest® Flechette 12 Gauge 2 3/4" Shotshells.

Each Round contains 20 darts... the same kind used in Vietnam to flush out snipers hiding in trees and heavy brush! The high velocity of approximately 2,000 f.p.s. prevent deflection by limbs, twigs and grass.

And of course, I found the flechette rifle.

I think I've been off planet for a while. I'll check and make sure there isn't any unaccounted for time in my itinerary. LOL

Jonathan_S wrote:

saber964 wrote: Jonathan a slight nit pick the QE class top speed was 24 knots not 27 knots

Counter nitpick. I didn't mention their speed - I said they were "(27 ktons)", that is they displaced 27,000 tons. (Pointing out how much ch bigger they were than the earlier DMs and SDs)

Very true. The first true "fast battleships" didn't show up until the 1930's with Japan's rebuild of the Kongou class ships and the USN's new construction North Carolina class.

"Super Dreadnoughts" in comparison had been around since just prior to WWI with the aforementioned Brit Queen Elizabeth and "R" class ships as well as ships everyone else was building. Each succeeding class of ship was a bit bigger, heavier and better armed and armored than its predecessor or the original HMS Dreadnought though really not much faster. It's hard to pick out where the "Dreadnought" type generation ends and "Super-Dreadnought" generation begins.

robert132 wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote: quote="saber964"]
Jonathan a slight nit pick the QE class top speed was 24 knots not 27 knots

Counter nitpick. I didn't mention their speed - I said they were "(27 ktons)", that is they displaced 27,000 tons. (Pointing out how much ch bigger they were than the earlier DMs and SDs)

Very true. The first true "fast battleships" didn't show up until the 1930's with Japan's rebuild of the Kongou class ships and the USN's new construction North Carolina class.

"Super Dreadnoughts" in comparison had been around since just prior to WWI with the aforementioned Brit Queen Elizabeth and "R" class ships as well as ships everyone else was building. Each succeeding class of ship was a bit bigger, heavier and better armed and armored than its predecessor or the original HMS Dreadnought though really not much faster. It's hard to pick out where the "Dreadnought" type generation ends and "Super-Dreadnought" generation begins.[/quote]
About 1913-14 for most historians that is when the Queen Elizabeth New York Bayern and Fuso classes came out. The shell weight effectively doubled in most cases. From 800-1000 lbs to 1500-1800 lbs.

robert132 wrote:Very true. The first true "fast battleships" didn't show up until the 1930's with Japan's rebuild of the Kongou class ships and the USN's new construction North Carolina class.

I'd make an argument than RN Admiral-class (HMS Hood and her uncompleted sisters Anson, Howe, and Rodney) was effectively the worlds first "fast battleship"; laid down in 1916 and commissioned in
1920. B
attlecuiser speed, 31 knots, with (contemporary WWI) battleship armor, 1" thinner belt that QEs but thicker barrettes and turrets. Pretty impressive on 1916 technology. (And even after the Kongos were reconstructed HMS Hood was faster, carried bigger guns, and still had mostly thicker armor)

Yet by WWII HMS Hood was under armored compared to the post-war designs -- with well known consequences when she went up against Bismark. But for her time she really was more fast battleship than battlecruiser.


And the power-war G3 design (ordered in 1921 but almost immediately canceled due to the Washington Naval Treaty) would have retained that speed while increasing armor and weapons; it would have outclassed almost anything afloat short of their companion N3 slow battleship design - a 2nd generation fast battleship.