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Which was the proposed RAF design with a jet engine for take-off & cruise, but an actual liquid-fuelled rocket motor for interceptions ? IIRC, it could climb even faster than a Lightning on steroids, make road-kill of those Russian Bears... But why bother when ground-based missile batteries...

FWIW, the British Interplanetary Society developed a practicable design for a Moon mission in ~1938 using solid-fuel rockets. Yes, it had a seriously 'steam punk' look about it, but the math was sound... There's even a chance it would have worked given that, in OTL, NASA re-invented many of...

Um, attacking such a dam is classed as 'Crime against Humanity' and Iraq loses its Western supporters. Iran subsequently stomps Iraq. ( I don't think anyone really considered big dams as vulnerable until Barnes Wallis armed the Dam Busters. After that, sane people recognised the 'Mutual...

IIRC, you must start from Columbus' belief and total confidence that there was land at that precise distance, that latitude. Perhaps he got it from perusing the Viking Sagas, Brendan Voyage etc. Perhaps he had portolans etc from the Basque fishermen shovelling Cod off the Grand Banks. Perhaps a...

Given the USAAF was working its way down a lonnng list of cities and towns to be razed by traditional incendiaries, nukes were almost an 'out of context' problem. IMHO, the Japanese High Command & Courtiers took a while to realise the rules had changed. As I understood it, they still felt there...

Not my preferred period but, IIRC, the Russian fleet's *total* debacle at hands of Japanese was less of a surprise than the IJN's scary competence. "They did WHAT ? Are you SURE ?? They'll bear watching..."

"You do know Hitler never lived in Britain and that this is just a popular myth in Britain for some weird reason..." No, I don't know. Though close to urban legend, with waters muddied by both a fictional account and a screen-play, there were several credible witnesses. And he did have...

Would he pop over to Liverpool to visit the half-cousins he stayed with for several years when 'non-grata' in Germany ?? { It's a curious what-if; had he fallen for a sassy Scouse Lass, could there have been little vans scooting about with 'A. Hitler & Fils, Painter & Decorator' ? And a...

Does this POD mean the Poll Tax doesn't get introduced ? That was probably the very worst notion Thatcher had, and caused financial chaos for several decades... ( Buildings can't run away, people did... )

I gave a tales' heroine a classic, bolt-action Mannlicher with three-round mag and modern optics. She used it in 'Game Trail' to 'take out' AK-armed poachers. A gun for rogue heffalump proved well-suited for raking their fleeing truck lengthwise. Decades later, she took that weapon through the...

Um, given the Merrimack & Monitor famously beat upon each other until the light failed and a draw ensued, I don't think flame-bombs would make much of a difference. But, given the results when any iron-clad tackled a *wooden* warship on river or coast, you didn't need flame-bombs... { Hasty...

Although it's veering towards a geological POD, hence ASB, the Nile Flood used to regularly rise high enough to feed Fayum depression to West of the Valley. Google searches show the ancient lake there used to be much, MUCH bigger than as currently fed by canal. Similarly, if there was a seasonal...

About the only way to do it was rocketry, with 'Congreves' per 'The Rockets' Red Glare'... Snag was the tech was heavy and clumsy. As a shore-bombardment system, it complemented the RN's Bomb ketches, famous from a Hornblower tale. IIRC, the British Army did make use of such in Afghanistan...

Mussolini also had a problem with bad luck. His 'me, too' attack on Southern France stalled in the Alpine Passes, which were very, very well fortified. IIRC, even with crack German Alpine troops joining the attack, those forts easily held out until France fell, had to be ordered to surrender...

IIRC, many developments were scooted through by the South to offset the North's industrial advantages. The North's logistics folk refused a lot of potentially good stuff for the extra complexity it would cause-- And the lead time !! The South held to a similar logic when they could... So, you...

"when tanks equipped with bulldozer blades simply buried the infantry alive in their trenches" Former colleague rode one of those trench busters. As he said, with a shudder, the AKs didn't stop firing until they were completely buried...

Been reading 'The Silk Roads', which mentions this. Reaction by any .gov through much of recorded history to 'winning the lottery' thus was to spend, spend, spend, while every-one who could 'work an angle' on the flow of loot pocketed as much as they could. The usual consequence was galloping...

Uh, wasn't the southern attack meant to capture the excellent Ukraine harvest en-route to the Caspian oil-fields ? IIRC, after the division of Poland, the Germans bought a lot of oil, grain and other ag produce off the Russians. But why buy when you can *own* ?? But the retreating Russians did...

IIRC, there are still attempts to build a practicable liquid-fuelled cannon. It would revolutionise tank weaponry, for starters, removing combustible propellant from the turret thus doubling shell storage capacity. And no shell-cases to eject... It would also benefit rapid-fire guns in that...

Sorry, I've just had this awful vision of a battle out of a 'D&D' or 'GoT' scenario, with pike-men, shield walls, catapults hurling huge fire-balls, archers' flaming arrows and 'grenadiers' tossing incendiaries, these horrors concocted by mercenary 'Weapon Wizards'... Sorry, got an essential...