HMS Thunder Child "Star Vikings", shows the influence of the Jeff Wayne image of the ironclad, combined with a 19th-century image of the Martian war machine. Details also appear in the TNE products "Path of Tears" and "Reformation Coalition Equipment Guide". A novel by Nick Pope, concerning the UK's response to UFOs, is named "Operation: Thunder Child". There is an adaptation novel set in the Victorian UK of 1898. It is called, "The Last Days of Thunder Child" by C.A. Powell. HMS Thunder Child HMS "Thunder Child" is a fictional ironclad torpedo ram of the Royal Navy, destroyed by Martian fighting-machines in H.
HMS Thunder Child with a ram or torpedoes, or both, intended for use where it was possible to approach an enemy ship without being sunk; for example, at night or in poor visibility, or where the enemy ship was stationary or disabled, or lacked support by nearby ships. As late as 1896, the United States commissioned a ship whose only effective weapon was a ram: the harbour-defence ram USS "Katahdin". The Royal Navy's only example was HMS "Polyphemus", which entered service in 1882. Its primary armament was torpedoes, with four side-firing tubes and one forward-firing tube in the centre of the bow-mounted ram,