Sensor Range Question and Naval Strategy links

the links are at the end, with some annotations.

> At 7:25 AM -0700 4/29/99, Thomas Anderson wrote:

s'okay, I wrote my reply at about 6:30 this morning.

> This happens even when the objective is

Yup, in all cases a fleet is going to or coming from somewhere (going to
Vladivostok for Tsushima, coming from Kiel for Jutland), more important is
that the objective is a fixed point. I think we better agree to agree.

> i was afraid it might not. history has a tendency to do that to me :-).

happens to the best of us

> At Jutland the Germans were intercepted on a sortie from a fixed

the entrance from the Baltic to the North Sea is a 50 mile wide straight
called the Skagerrak. That simplified the job of the Royal Navy enormously.
The North Sea is pretty big to hunt fleets in, even with zeppelins and scout
groups with wireless, at least without radar. I've played Jutland (Avalon
Hill) and can appreciate the task.

> Although, due to the

"... at a fixed point."

> but i take your point. tsushima is certainly an example of combat at a
and
> your point holds, as that was fought in, well, leyte gulf, a restricted

Leyte was a whipping, even with Halsey's misjudgement. The battleships went
into it at Surigao Strait (oops, I've been mispelling it) where the USN set up
in advance and caught the Japanese with, in order PT boats, destroyers,
cruisers and then battleships crossing the Japanses T. Only one DD escaped (
see "Japanese Destroyer Captain", Hara, Ballantine Books, 1961 for the
autobiography of the man who wrote the book on torpedo combat for the IJN, he
also went through the first round of the Solomons campaign without losing a
single crewman. Get Cutler's "The Battle of Leyte Gulf" (Pocket books, in
paperback) for the whole story. And for why commanders in the field *must* get
some sleep.

And given the scale of the Pacific war, aircraft ranges (~200nm for USN, ~300
for IJN) drop back down to the (nearly) tactical scale.

> At the Battle of Britain, the

Ah, I was thrown by the generalism of "a gigantic piece of sky." Once we get
down to definitions, we've agreed in principle. A good Battle of Britain game
uses area movement anywas, see R.A.F. from West End for the best of the breed
(IMO)

> In all cases in air combat. the defending fighters tried to intercept

Excatly, although I'd term it (and I'm as picky as a dragon when it comes to
Names) "combat occurs in reference to a fixed point." Intercepting away from
the target is either good tactics or common sense, take your pick.

Binhan Lin sums it all up nicely, I must be losing my touch. No, I think it's
my mind...

Links (generated by Sherlock from my set of General search engines). List is
slightly edited, and in descending order of relevance. I have annotated where
I saw fit to visit the site (and didn't remove it from the list).

The first link (plus the Farragut bio later) is the closest I could find
online to the text of Mahan's works. I own a copy of a Naval Institute Press
collection. Try this Amazon link for a search on "Alfred Thayer Mahan"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/generic-quicksearch-query/002-9755753-
0313 044 (IIRC, the last link is the excelelnt collection I have (can't find
it right now)).

http://nsa.nps.navy.mil/Courses/NS-3252.html

visit this first, it's the course outline for the Joint and Maritime Strategy
postgrad course. Links to a very nice set of.pdf files on current doctrine.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0313256446/thetheodorerooseA/00
1-11
88927-7683549
http://www.clausewitz.com/CWZHOME/Bibl/ALFXBIBL.html
http://www.history.navy.mil/biblio/biblio1/bibli1aq.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~ldmiller/Lesson_58_Notes.htm
http://www.mnsinc.com/cbassfrd/CWZHOME/Bibl/ALFXBIBL.html
http://www.barnesreview.org/nov94contents.htm
http://www.spanam.simplenet.com/puertonaval1.htm
http://www.csbs.utsa.edu/users/jreynolds/spanam.txt

"U. S. History Survey: The New Imperial Power" lecture notes. Interesting

http://www.civilwarbks.com/cg_ref.htm
http://www.thehistorynet.com/AmericanHistory/articles/1997/0297_cover.ht
m
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/spanam/people/pers-wbd/pers-wb
d.ht m
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun1996/b062896_bt400-96.html
http://www.spear.navy.mil/ships/ddg72/index.htm
http://www.press.jhu.edu/press/books/titles/f97/f97suin.htm (Beware of
Java!)
http://www.stratisc.org/pub/PN1_BIBLIOGJOM.html (good bibliography,
rest of site in French)
http://www.libarts.sfasu.edu/history/134-Unit5D.html (American
Imperialism, see Tuchman's "The Proud Tower" for more on this)
http://wwics.si.edu/organiza/affil/wilson/WWICS/WHATSNEW/NEWS/newbooks.h
tm
http://www.stratisc.org/pub/PN1_COLSONSAME.html (long article from that
French page again).
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/destroyers/mahan/christen.txt
http://www.ih.navy.mil/navy.htm (pre-dreadnaught and other photos)
http://www.school.is/handbook-nofrms.htm
http://pc-78-120.udac.se:8001/WWW/Nautica/Bibliography/AN54.html
http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/letter.html (First Contact with the
Japanese)
http://alldirect.com/section3.cfm?CartID=276539390021798&subject=HIS0270
60+
(tasty list of books)
http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/letter.html
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/2spamwar.htm
http://www.uq.net.au/~zzddelli/navyhome.htm

"Naval History On-Line" website. Articles, references, database and
discussion board

http://www.encompass.net/ctyson/civwar/farmain.htm

Read Thayer's "Admiral Farragut" Online

http://www.nwc.navy.mil/library/default.htm

Navy War College's list of links,

excerpt or summary, I'm not sure.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/feros-pg.htm is the prof's
homepage. Ridiculously long list of, what appear to be, excellent links.