Naval History Forums

Marcela Malara wrote: "AFAIK there were this and the two French" Hi Marcelo, yes, however the forth French "Richelieu" ( Gascogne ) would have had the 2 quadruple turrets one fore and one aft. Also the following French Type 1, 2 and 3 proposed super-dreadnought of the French Navy would have been bu...

Hi Alberto, You posted the other day: No, we don't, because no data is available for KGV ordered shots (you have assumed them, without any evidence supporting). In addition, KGV fired for 20 minutes from shorter distance at a significantly slower Rate of Fire (1.7 salvo per minute vs 1.9 average for...

It is a liability: -dead astern arcs can not be covered -a single impact that would affect the forward magazines (supposing the ship survives that) would disable 100% of the primary artillery Hi Marcelo I may be wrong, but I thought we had covered this point in another thread and came to the conclu...

Gentlemen, I'm a little puzzled, As far as I can tell it appears that it has been suggested that PE was not using AP shells and so may not have been capable of penetrating Hood's armour, if that is the case surely the flash seen on Hood's deck would suggest that it was actually an 8" shell from PE, ...

Thanks for the reply, Presumably as most other ships were a 2+2 arrangement they were considered to be better for some practical uses, but I have often wondered whether for actual battle conditions on say a one to one the three forward turrets might be an advantage

Gentlemen, In many of the other threads there have been references to ships having some of their guns 'masked' by a turn. I realise that the standard position is to have two turrets forward and two aft which in the case of Hood approaching Bismarck would not have her rear turrets available until she...

Hi alecsandros, Are you suggesting that there is now doubt whether it was a hit from Rodney or KGV that knocked out the forward turrets, I thought that it was generally accepted that it was a 16" hit that did the damage - or did one shell from each ship arrive around the same time and almost at the...

As a matter of fact, KGV was the first one to obtain a hit (ca. 5 minutes after opening). It is another myth that the first hit was the Anton/Bruno silencer by Rodney. If memory serves correctly, KGV obtained a hit at the base of the forward superstructure first. German reports mention that the fir...

Thanks for that Dave.

Gentlemen, Another quick question for you. When a ship weighs out at a certain number of tons 'Deep Load' am I right in assuming that this included all fuel,armament,(including shells) stores etc? If so, would the 'Treaty' limit of 35000 tons for battleships include all the above -or was it just for...

Gentlemen,
A quick question, why was Hood's gunnery considered to be OK, she was firing at the wrong ship and according to some points of view, did not actually get near Bismarck before she blew up? What she did in the past regarding gunnery has no bearing on what happened at Denmark Strait.

Gentlemen, Whilst looking up the subject of Churchill's order for the RN to sink the French fleet at Oran, one writer claimed that this was done primarily to impress the US, he later put this claim ((under an assumed name) that: I too, am doing a paper on the Fall of France but from the perspective ...

Gentlemen,
As always, many thanks for your replies.

Gentlemen,
Did any of the 'Tallboys that hit Tirpitz go right through the ship and out of the bottom?

Gentlemen, As this debate is like others before it, in danger of spiraling out of control despite the best efforts of our moderator to 'calm down' some of the statements, would it be fair to agree that while PoW was 'ready for service' , she was not really 'ready for battle' and then move on to ano...