Naval History Forums

Gentlemen, Just looking up the main armament of the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano it states that she carried no less than 15 x 6" guns, i can only find a very indistinct photo of the ship, so I wonder how these guns were distributed on what was described as a 'light cruiser' of only twelve a...

Gentlemen, Looking back over the topics we have discussed many times the 'what if' factor in the Denmark Strait battle, including what would have happened if Hood had made her turn earlier and not been hit and what would have happened after. I have often wondered what the result would have been had...

Byron Angel wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 26, 2020 3:34 am

Trust you are having a happy Christmas/Boxing Day weekend.

B

Yes, thanks, and I hope you are too.

cheers and Merry Christmas.

OpanaPointer wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 25, 2020 1:56 pm

Wondering if radar-equipped ships called target bearing for less well-endowed units?

Sending range information would have been more useful since optical bearing accuracy was typically better than radar could provide.

This is from: New Eye for the Navy: The Origin of Radar at the Naval Research Laboratory Records do not show the exact situation on December 7, 1941. However, a complete survey of what equipment had been installed and what delivered was made less than 2 weeks later. It was summarized in an internal ...

Hood rebuild/If Hood had survived video:

https://youtu.be/Vqnk2-noeUY

And additional commentary regarding Hood's loss.

The Mk4 on USS Roe was a prototype which may have been removed. AFAIK no production variants were installed on destroyers until after 7 Dec 1941: Initially, from want of experience against an enemy attacking with the persistence demonstrated by the Japanese, our antiaircraft batteries were inadequat...

An in-depth review of the various theories regarding Hood's loss:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/CLPeC7LRqIY[/youtube]

"But what of their accuracy, on a mill pond, all fine and dandy I’m sure, however in heavy seas, crewmen man handling shells, gunnery officers trying to judge ranges, while the ship must have been pitching and rolling about, it couldn’t have been good." Accuracy would have been all over the landsca...

The 2nd photo look like a paravane, which were used to sweep for mines.

The problem with penetrating armor into her engineering spaces was that it's very difficult to get underwater hits at close range. At low trajectories the shells tend to leave the water again after initially hitting it. Also, the Bismarck armor combination of belt and scarp is theoretically almost ...

Thanks Steve. I' m still not sure of how anyone is going to actually check whether or not any extra tonnage had been added, it seems the both Bismarck and Tirpitz as well as the two Yamato's were constructed way over the Treaty limits - as I believe were the French, Italian and US ships without any...

Mostlyharmless wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 03, 2020 5:13 pm

dunmunro wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 03, 2020 4:35 am

Well something was causing Bismarck to have an increasing list to port, that was clearly visible to RN observers.

Did Rodney hit Bismarck with a torpedo exploding amidships on the port side?

it seems unlikely based upon survivor accounts and wreck surveys.

The problem with penetrating armor into her engineering spaces was that it's very difficult to get underwater hits at close range. At low trajectories the shells tend to leave the water again after initially hitting it. Also, the Bismarck armor combination of belt and scarp is theoretically almost ...

Well something was causing Bismarck to have an increasing list to port, that was clearly visible to RN observers.