Naval History Forums

. Vic, I do not know where you getting your info, but it is mostly rubbish. The RN was NOT in the habit of just making these sort of decisions off-the-cuff, nor would they even think of doing such a thing. The U-Boat sighting was regarded as genuine - once that happened there was NOTHING that could ...

.

Totally irrelevant.

"King's Regs" are what you are after.

( Plus, of course, CAFOs, AFO, HFOs, CBs and BRs - PLUS any standing orders from the Fleet or Squadron commander. )

.

.

. Vic, The destroyers were there to protect the big ships and even so had to leave to refuel The Dorsetshire was there to pick up survivors - the U-Boat alert put an end to that. NO other ship would be sent to the area once a U-Boat was suspected. THIS WAS NOT SOME SORT OF BIAS - it was as a result ...

. Vic, I am not talking down to you, merely pointing out the falseness of your position, IF you choose to ignore war experience then you are free to, but you will be criticised for it. A cruiser does NOT hunt a U-Boat, and no "hunting groups" existed. Re. scrambling nets - you do know how ...

. You live in a fantasy world where ships are immune to torpedoes and destroyers always kill U-Boats. The RN had MORE than enough bitter evidence of the fallacy of such beliefs. Once the captain received the report of the periscope he near-enough had NO choice about his actions. Ships do NOT get rid...

.

Vic,

Why should the cruiser lose her life-saving gear with a U-Boat in the area ? The captain's first responsibility is to his own men.

The state of the survivors was NOT disciplined and "the baron" himself was in a near hysterical state.

.

. There were instances of ships rescuing survivors from ships having been sunk in a convoy themselves being sunk (NOT as an anti-humanitarian act, merely as a continuation of the attack on the convoy). As a result of this the Admiralty ordered that ships ought NOT be hazarded to save survivors (this...

No kidding? I thought the offset of the center gun was sufficient to address in-flight interference between shells? When was it found necessary to provide further timing delay? I am assuming this coil was for the center gun, am I correct? Thanks in advance, Dan There are contradictory remarks in bo...

. Thanks for that, I didn't know they were also in the "WO" files. The "proper" copies (and maybe more ????) are in the SUPP 6 files. Th solution was in the driving bands, not the differences in rifling. Also note ; Normal firing was is "salvos", i.e. half the guns at a...

My opinion that 2 8” cruisers and 1 6” cruiser with 4 destroyers not enough to deal with 5 light cruises and 11 fleet destroyers even during daytime. They have advantage in the case of long range fire but for decisive result they must to close range where the enemy in turn had advantage. However th...

. A smokescreen is an artificial tactical device of limited size and duratation (unless renewed). It was a tactic that navies knew about and practiced both using and defeating (there are pictures of Italian's doing so). Vian believed that the Italians had three viable options ALL of which could be s...

. Dave, you are mixing up the Arctic with the Med. --------- Serg, The British Destroyers were going into. out of and through the smokescreen - which had a major effect on visibility, Vian did actually state the possibility of all three Italian options succeeding. The RN heavy ships firing procedure...

Bringing this back to the effectiveness of Littorio and escorts at 2nd Sirte: bad weather usually favors the convoy defender -not the attacker. The danger to heavy ships from destroyer attack under cover of bad weather and/or darkness is much greater. Why should bad weather usually favour the defen...

This is the level of your modern knowledge. But what was known to Italians before the battle? For example what was exactly in the order which Iachino recieved before the battle. Who can confirm that Italians have correct data about condition of Valiant and QE and that they faced almost all Eastern ...

......... Bagnasco p221: "Things went even worse for the British. Iachino's tactic to delay the arrival of the convoy in Malta by exposing them to air arrack was not without effect and the air attacks throughout the 22nd, although unsuccessful, had caused a high expenditure of ammunition. Cont...