Naval History Forums

Gentlemen, Just watched a documentary on the scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow, it stated that that after WW1 the US, France Italy and of course the UK all wanted a share of the ships particularly the British who actually wanted the lot! As it happened the agreement was for the ships to be...

back to Rodney versus Bismarck. Rodney was actually on its way to America to undertake a refit. Not withstanding the damage it had sustained (impacting it's speed, not it's armament), Bismarck was brand new. Bismarck had R.D.F. IIRC Rodney received her Type 284 set in July 1941. There was over 10 ye...

https://www.benjidog.co.uk/battleships/Rodney4.php about 1/2 way down the page is a complete copy or her Gunnery Action report against Bismarck. You'll note that one reply to the report is that Rodney scored no 16in hits for the first 20mins of the action: The last comment on Longley-Cook's paper, ...

OpanaPointer wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 1:54 pm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster

Hi OpanaPointer,
Thanks for posting that link it made for some fascinating reading, what an almighty ..... up - and cover up by the Russians!

Apparently some large pieces of wreckage has been located, I presume they will be salvaged to find out exactly what caused the failure. I believe that the Magallen sub is being shipped from the Channel Islands by the US air force, this is apparently capable of lifting the wreckage to the surface. On...

Hi Michael, All this is becoming a bit confusing, are we actually discussing whether or not Tovey would have engaged Bismarck with KGV & Repulse and hope to slow her up enough for other heavy ships to come up and if so what the outcome might have been? If this is the case, I think that without d...

DOUBLE Post!

Hello Paul and Byron. I note your contributions. IIRC, when Bismarck broke contact early on 25 May, the ship put on a burst of speed to 27 knots as it did its lazy circle to the west, north and then east. I agree that in a tail chase action, with 10 RN heavy guns v 4 for Bismarck, there would have ...

Hello Mr dunmunro. True enough. 'The Admiralty was taking calculated risks when it ordered RN ships to maintain the hunt for Bismarck despite their fuel state, as the Admiralty had provide options to refuel ships at sea.' But I think you have forgotten the last piece of information/advice the Admir...

Hi Michael, Sorry about the first post, I had assumed that Bismarck had already been crippled. Re the rest you posted: b) KING GEORGE V and REPULSE were closing from the eastward and would, if the enemy held their course, make contact about 0830, half an hour after sunrise. REPULSE was short of fuel...

It's a lot of question! Bismarck was doomed from the moment her rudder was jammed, if she was supposedly zig-zagging and losing oil, but was in fact was turning in a circle, it would infer that her rudder had already damaged by the swordfish torpedoes, so with all those RN ships converging on Bismar...

Hi Mustang, Take a look at an old thread called Practical Ranges that I started in Naval Weapons in may 2012 where on very experienced contributor posted (amongst others) this answer: "The problem is the hit ratio at long range. As we know, even late 1944/5 RDFC had it\s limitations, and that's...

If that's the case then the gun accuracy was the sole issue and nothing else, if everything worked to spec then bismarck would easily win all engagements. That doesn't follow. KGV and PoW had very modern FC systems and PoW seems to have performed well during her engagements except for the failure o...

I regret starting this thread, I think we ended up more confused than we started. But my question is answered, in that it is unknown what the issue was. Hi Mustang, There's no reason to regret starting this thread at all, it has produced from our experts on the subject (as always) some very interes...

I regret starting this thread, I think we ended up more confused than we started. But my question is answered, in that it is unknown what the issue was. Hi Mustang, There's no reason to regret starting this thread at all, it has produced from our experts on the subject (as always) some very interes...