Naval History Forums

Hi LWD It might be as well to read what is written before rushing to comment. The hit on Dora's barbette sent fragments of armour - not shell into the turret. Penetrations of heavy armour in ships may be observed occasionally as a dull red glow, which in target practise might be visible at range, bu...

Hi LWD. Take a look at the wreck photos of Bismarck's forward gunnery control and you will see that the shells have in fact burst on the armour, but have failed to penetrate. The back of Bruno may have been blown off, but a strike on the faceplate would not penetrate at that short range. Penetration...

Hi to everyone. In a naval battle where AP and SAP shells are employed against a heavily armoured target it is not usual for shells which pentrate and do the most damage to be observed doing so. Their path of destruction is limited to the interior of the ship, so any observation of bits of ship flyi...

Hi LWD. It has been suggested in the past that a single shell knocked out both A and B turrets. however, what I think is missed, is that the forward and foretop gunnery control positions had been hit and damaged by this time, so probably the forward guns were being fired in local control. If this is...

Hi to all, Sometimes it is very difficult to correctly judge the size af a large structure like a ship, if there is nothing to compare it to. I have seen the Queen Mary in dry dock from a railway bridge at Southampton and thought she was not as big as I had been led to believe. I think the fact that...

You need to get at least 2 bearing estimates that are as close to simultaneous with the range estimates as possible. The problem is more in integrating the information than it is in getting it. I don't remember hearing that the Germans had anything like an automated system for combineing the data. ...

And you don't think the gunnery optics would give accuracy for bearing?

Hi Bill.

Fair enough. I had to ask though.

Cheers Vic

Hi Bgile. I don't think they were acting as a giant range finder, but may have been using a known distance between themselves to correct errors which would be expected from the instruments of a single ship. It would be a form of flank-marking, though with too fine an angle to spot fall of shot. This...

Hi Bill. I think it was Ballard who said that a magazine had gone off making the hole, which was too large to be a shell hole, but as we know there is no magazine there to go off. I forget where the idea of the torpedo strike came from, but to me it has been the most logical explanation until now. Y...

Hi Dan. I don't believe for one moment that the delay was down to lack of fighting spirit on the part of Lutjens and nor do I believe the tail, about Lindemann throwing his teddy out of the pram. I believe the delay in opening fire was down to a question of target selection and the need for exchangi...

Hi Bill I hope you are feeling better. I never saw this testimony from Junack, so until now I have been ignorant of any pentrations to the machinery spaces. I did attempt some while ago to see if any of the belt pentrations had a chance to make it through to the machinery spaces, by simple location,...

if we do not take account of what the survivors told us how are we to know what went on inside the ship? .... We can't make liars out of the survivors and idiots of those who made detailed forensic examinations of the wreck simply because what they say doesn't accord with what you think. That's qui...

As far as I know, Bismarck was only hit by torpedoes from Dorsetshire after she was already sinking. Apparently, the only torpedo from the Swordfish attack which hit her amidships hit her armor belt, which indicates the torpedo malfunctioned. We don't know what fully functioning torpedoes would act...

TO LWD if we do not take account of what the survivors told us how are we to know what went on inside the ship? Oddly their testimony matches exactly what the likes of Bill Jurens discivered by actually visiting the wreck and closely examining it through the eyes of an expert in his field. Perhaps w...