Naval History Forums

There are 2689 submarines in the database from 25 different navies. 110 of the 488 battles had submarines among the participants. In some of these, of course, they didn't play a combat role, maybe acting as scouts outside an enemy base. 66 of the battles had a primary battle type as convoy; another ...

This question doesn't really involve hypothetical naval scenarios but none of the other forums fit it either. Since this forum has the most posts, I thought that I would add it here in hopes of getting replies. I have recently added functionality to the battle finding capability of my naval database...

RF - I wasn't claiming that German "destroyers were useless". I was merely providing a somewhat off topic fact that I thought was interesting; I was making no judgements. I merely found it unusual that a complete type of ship in a particular navy didn't manage to sink any subs despite havi...

Francis - The C.R.42 Falco was used as a fighter-bomber and, on those missions, carried two 220 lb bombs under their wings. The damage to Formidable was done by the Falcos and Stukas. However, those German built Stukas were flown by Italian pilots so I consider their damage to be done by the Italian...

RF - As someone already pointed out, I specified British subs lost to German destroyers . Seahorse and Starfish were sunk by minesweepers; Sterlet by an ASW trawler; Tarpon likely by a "Q" ship; Undine by auxiliary minesweepers. Two other subs were also lost in the September 1939 to May 19...

Soft kills are the generally accepted term for damage that eliminates the ship as an effective fighting ship but in no way threatens to sink her. Soft kills became increasing more prevalent as technology improved and navies depended more on that new technology. Unfortunately, much of that new techno...

Francis - The worst ASW was the Germans. Incredibly, not one German destroyer during the whole war destroyed an enemy submarine with depth charges. The closest they got was a probable kill on the Russian sub K.22 I realize that DDs are not the prime ASW weapons but they did carry 50 DCs in two racks...

Yes, "soft kills" could have been a problem for VV. However, to get the soft kill, the two British BBs would have to be getting hits on VV, doing so while taking damage from VV and doing little in return as they tried to close the range. That is why I mentioned that ammo supply would preve...

I inadvertently slighted the Royal Navy in a previous post. Someone had claimed that the Germans had done most of the sinking of RN ships and that the Italians contributed far less. I pointed out that the Germans sank 84 British Commonwealth warships while the Italians had nearly as many at 74. Ther...

Francis - Who's Greg? I think you were addressing me and I'm Keith. Anyway, to your points. I agree that the roads and railroads were better in French North Africa than elsewhere. However, to reach the Italians in North Africa, the French would have to leave those roads and railroads behind and cros...

Since Havock was temporarily disabled by the 15" shell, that is one potent near miss.

dunmunro - There were two more 15" hits on DDs. At 17:20, Havock was hit at 14,700 yards and temporarily left dead in the water. At 18:40, Kingston took the hit at >7300 yards. At 18:51, Lively was hit too (9300 yards). Under the dreadful conditions (rolling, pitching, spray, and smokescreens),...

Francis - While I agree that France had a better army and economy, I contend that they couldn't bring them to bear in the conflict considered because the better North African ports that they had were too far from Libya. Moving enough of the army to Libya without Mediterranean sealift would have been...

Nobody hits much at very long range. Actually, VV could shoot pretty well. In the Second Battle of Sirte, fighting in a full gale which severely hindered gunnery, she managed to hit destroyers with her 15" guns.

dunmunro - I didn't overlook the battle for Crete nor Operations Harpoon/Vigorous. We are talking about a single battle with "hundreds" of planes. I take that to mean a battle that lasts a single day and, more likely, a fraction of a day. Both Crete and the convoy battles lasted several da...