WI: Britannia still ruled the waves?

Sachyriel

Banned
Uhhhm, someone invents the aeroplane in Britain, sticks a boat to it and makes a million dollars, starts the boat-plane craze before the land-plane fad and soon enough the military is taking note and then you've got boats with RN insignias being loaded up in ports to fly around the world and the vast Empire. We will call him James. Good English name that guy, James.... Blond. Now, James Blond is intelligent, he knows that the key to people continuing to buy his boats so he can continue to upgrade his designs to live the high life is to sell more boats. So, in a daring stunt he flies round the world, visiting the various British dominions and allies and selling these boat-planes to these nations for their governments makes his even richer, and Britain's Allies all have boat planes, though they're not as good as Britain Boatplanes because they're always being upgraded (at a reasonable price) into better, faster and more shiny boatplanes!

By the time James Blond retires, he's practically the "INVENTOR OF THE SKY" to most, and the British government is lauding praise on him, knighting him and all that. He takes off from public life around 1912, so it's not too implausible that there would be materials to make boatplanes. With the British at their height (give or take a few colonies?) and their navy powerful in surface ships when they start developing combat doctrines involving Surface, Submersed, and Sky units they could be literally unstoppable.

But only if you take it for face value that boatplanes are boats and not planes. ;)
 
Uhhhm, someone invents the aeroplane in Britain, sticks a boat to it and makes a million dollars, starts the boat-plane craze before the land-plane fad and soon enough the military is taking note and then you've got boats with RN insignias being loaded up in ports to fly around the world and the vast Empire. We will call him James. Good English name that guy, James.... Blond. Now, James Blond is intelligent, he knows that the key to people continuing to buy his boats so he can continue to upgrade his designs to live the high life is to sell more boats. So, in a daring stunt he flies round the world, visiting the various British dominions and allies and selling these boat-planes to these nations for their governments makes his even richer, and Britain's Allies all have boat planes, though they're not as good as Britain Boatplanes because they're always being upgraded (at a reasonable price) into better, faster and more shiny boatplanes!

By the time James Blond retires, he's practically the "INVENTOR OF THE SKY" to most, and the British government is lauding praise on him, knighting him and all that. He takes off from public life around 1912, so it's not too implausible that there would be materials to make boatplanes. With the British at their height (give or take a few colonies?) and their navy powerful in surface ships when they start developing combat doctrines involving Surface, Submersed, and Sky units they could be literally unstoppable.

But only if you take it for face value that boatplanes are boats and not planes. ;)

Meh, sounds reasonable. :D
 
That's... going to be difficult. First off we need to decide what it means by 'rules the waves' - are we talking a navy that's more powerful than any other country's or simply one that's large and powerful on par with say the US Navy?

The three main problems I can see are money, doctrine, and political will. After WW2 the country had been trashed to such an extent that they just didn't have enough to keep funding the military at a level they had been. IIRC post WW2 a number of the up and coming leaders of the Royal Navy were still very much in favour of battleships over carriers even with the recent examples of the past conflict, plus they kept way too many ships in the reserve fleet eating up resources and manpower which should have just been scrapped. The third part is political will, why would they want to? Granted into the 50s the various British governments still tried to be a great power but after Suez that was pretty much finished, plus with no Empire the vital need for a massive navy is gone.

You're going to need a PoD that seriously changes or butterflies away WW2 and Britain's participation in it just for a start, then hit some of the senior RN types over the head with a clue-by-four to get them to drop the battleships and embrace carriers.
 
I strongly doubt it, if you are talking about the 20th century without any changes. As Simon mentions it comes down (among others things) to money. Britain would need to keep its economic edge in order to keep funding its navy - or at least struggle to maintain the Two Power Standard which it effectively dropped by the 1900s. The biggest threat to the military budget are the social programs that were starting to appear in the early 1900s.

Britain can adopt doctrine that will allow her to switch from quantitative to qualitative control of the seas, but over all extensive rule of the waves is hard. Another problem, a fairly large one IMO, is getting the colonies to pay their share.
 
That's... going to be difficult. First off we need to decide what it means by 'rules the waves' - are we talking a navy that's more powerful than any other country's or simply one that's large and powerful on par with say the US Navy?

The three main problems I can see are money, doctrine, and political will. After WW2 the country had been trashed to such an extent that they just didn't have enough to keep funding the military at a level they had been. IIRC post WW2 a number of the up and coming leaders of the Royal Navy were still very much in favour of battleships over carriers even with the recent examples of the past conflict, plus they kept way too many ships in the reserve fleet eating up resources and manpower which should have just been scrapped. The third part is political will, why would they want to? Granted into the 50s the various British governments still tried to be a great power but after Suez that was pretty much finished, plus with no Empire the vital need for a massive navy is gone.

You're going to need a PoD that seriously changes or butterflies away WW2 and Britain's participation in it just for a start, then hit some of the senior RN types over the head with a clue-by-four to get them to drop the battleships and embrace carriers.
I doubt a 'clue-by-four' to the head would be enough...
 
I think it would be difficult to retain the colonial concept beyond a certain point.
At one time, the colonial were dependent on the mother country for much of the technical side. As the colonies became more developed and began to interact with their neighbors (independently of the UK?) the need for the tight relationship with Britian would decline.
What made GB great, aside from the wide dispersal of their colonies was the imports from these areas.
As the colonies grew, more and more local resources would go the the local economy and the need for trade with GB would decline.
GB would need to pay higher prices for the resources of the commonwealth (competition from others).
Also, on the political/diplomatic side, the individual colonies would find that their immediate concerns in their regions might differ with the global approach of GB, creating internal conflict.
Some regions, like India, had their own religion and social structure that was not the same as GB. At some time they would seek more independence to follow their own customs rather than be shackled to GB.
 
Since Britains story in the 20thC was one of decline and underperformance there are millions of PoDs which could see the RN considerably more powerful than it is today. To make the RN well and truly more powerful the the USSR Navy at its peak is also possible with reasonable policial and considerable internal RN PoDs. Off the top of my head;

RN leadership was more innovative before WW1 the RN could have smashed the HSF at Jutland, opening the way for the forcing of the Baltic to provide direct aid to Russia. Without the HSF to cover the defensive measures close to Germany's coastline the GF would be able to go onto the offensive with negative results for Germany and positive result for the RN.

In the 20s a few things need to happen. The Hood needs to be suspended and after Washington needs to be made into a carrier, and a 3rd Nelson BB built. The RN also needs to get its shipborne FAA back in 1923 when it was proposed, a RN FAA would be more inclined to increase its own capability and power to the benefit of the RN. The RN also puts some small efforts into amphibious operations, learning for the WW1 missed opportunities.

In the early 30s Keynesian attempt to stimulate the economy are mixed with attempts to save money by rationalisation, with fortunate consequneces for the RN. The RNs large ships are given thorough rebuilds in order to increase employment in the shipyards, and as an economy measure the RN decides to make its 4.7" gun into a DP weapon and fit it to as many ships as possible. By 1936 all 15" capital ships and the 4 fast carriers have been rebuilt to modern standards.

In 1936, after the remilitarisation of Rhineland, the Brit govt secretly decides to build its new battleships and carriers to the escalation clause sizes being negotiated at the 2nd London Naval conference. The Brit govt also decides to discreetly increase appropriations for the military across the board, and with Anglo-German naval agreement in mind the RN put extra resources into sloops and corvettes.

Britain, and more specifically the much improved in detail RN, fights WW2 much better than OTL. The BEF escape France intact, Libya is taken in 1941 and Crete held, Force Z thwarts the invasion of Sumatra before being hunted and sunk by Nagumo, Sommervilles 4 rebuilt WW1 carrier conversions fight Nagumo in the Indian Ocean sinking 2 carriers for the loss of one. The European war becomes a land fight in 1943 and the RN moves into the Pacific and morphs into a long range striking force of carrier battle groups, subs and amphibious groups.

An economically healthier and politically more confident (from OTL) Britain pushed the development of technologies developed in WW2, most notably Jet aircraft. The RN is very powerful as a result of 2 years fighting in the Pacific and is able to sustain this power by amortising the WW2 building until the 60s. A stronger Britain, operating from a higher base than OTL is undoubtably the world 2nd largest navy, a fact maintained through the Cold War and after the 'peace dividend' until today.

Hows that for a slap up?
 
How difficult is it for Britain to be able to steal other nation ships? I know that many nations choose scuttling over giving away their ships, but say this can be stopped.

I'm just thinking, any war, with Britain on the winning side, a quick war, navy isn't used. Loser forced to hand over all naval assets to Britannia.
 
A quick victory in the Battle of France (which is possible were it not for the moronic Allied-particularly French-High Command.) That way, Britain isn't Blitzed repeatedly, its industry is largely intact, and so whilst its Navy may not be THE greatest Navy, it's still an extremely powerful fleet which has a purpose: guarding a British Empire which hasn't been demoralised by Singapore or completely bankrupted.
 
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