Iron Duke was a well-designed ship, capable of outgunning its German (if not its American) counterparts.
Here s What You Need To Remember: HMS Iron Duke and its sisters perfectly captured the “super dreadnought” concept; their large guns, tripod masts and balanced appearance made them look both stout and deadly. Iron Duke seemed singularly well named for its role as flagship of the Grand Fleet, although it is odd that the greatest collection of Royal Navy capital ships was led by a ship that took the name of a British Army commander.
HMS Iron Duke was the second battleship named after the Duke of Wellington. The first, scrapped in 1906, had the distinction of ramming and sinking HMS Vanguard, another Royal Navy battleship. The second Iron Duke was the name ship of the last class of dreadnoughts to enter Royal Navy service prior to the beginning of World War I. It and its sisters were considered “super-dreadnoughts,” an ill-defined term that distinguishes the second generat
Displacing 44,500 tons (standard) and capable of thirty knots,
Vanguard was the largest battleship ever built by the Royal Navy, and was only exceeded internationally by the Iowa and Yamato classes. However, many of its foreign contemporaries carried a heavier main armament.
Here s What You Need To Remember: The Royal Navy’s first post–London Treaty battleships were the five ships of the King George V class, which served with honor in every theater of World War II.
In an effort to take advantage of the superiority of the Royal Navy in World War I, First Sea Lord John “Jackie” Fisher developed a scheme to land British troops in Pomerania, thus directly threatening Berlin and forcing the Germans to withdraw troops from the Western Front. To this end, Fisher authorized design of a group of shallow-draft “large light cruisers” that would carry guns heavy enough to support the landings. HMS
David vs. Goliath: Israel is the Middle East’s Military Superpower
Built on a foundation of pre-independence militias, supplied with cast-off World War II weapons, the Israel Defense Forces have enjoyed remarkable success in the field.
Here s What You Need To Remember: When considering the effectiveness of Israeli weapons, and the expertise of the men and women who wield them, it’s worth noting that for all the tactical and operational success the IDF has enjoyed, Israel remains in a strategically perilous position. The inability of Israel to develop long-term, stable, positive relationships with its immediate neighbors, regional powers, and the subject populations of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip means that Jerusalem continues to feel insecure, its dominance on land, air, and sea notwithstanding.
These types of contingencies point precisely to the reason why the U.S. nuclear triad exists.
Here s What You Need To Remember: The Air Force is now moving along with efforts to build as many as 400 new, high-tech, more capable ICBMs intended to bring U.S. nuclear weapons capability into a new era.
Imagine if America’s land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch silos were destroyed, its nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines have been found and neutralized, and its nuclear bombers cannot get over enemy airspace. All the while, during this nightmare, the continental United States itself is suffering a catastrophic nuclear weapons attack. This scenario is highly unlikely, but not impossible.
The casualties number in the tens of millions.
Here s What You Need To Remember: The scars of the war remain, not least in the absence of the populations exterminated during the conflict. The states occupied by the Soviet Union at the end of the war (including Poland, the Baltics, and Ukraine) remain deeply suspicious of Russian intentions. For its part, memory of the war in Russia continues to condition Russian foreign policy, and Russia’s broader response to Europe.
The war between Germany and the Soviet Union officially began in late June 1941, although the threat of conflict had loomed since the early 1930s. Germany and the USSR launched a joint war against Poland in September of 1939, which the Soviets followed up with invasions of Finland, Romania, and the Baltic states across the following year.