Naval History Forums

The 28cm C/34's were capable of penetrating 335mm of belt armour at 15 km at a 30 deg impact angle right? Hence I assumed they would be able to penetrate the KGV's belt below 16 km. Either way it would be the HE shells that would do most of the damage anyway, and the Scharnhorst enjoyed a noticable ...

The 280mm C/34's packed a lot more punch than PE's 203mm guns though, which would've allowed them to reach the 14" magazine at distances around 16 km, whilst the 203's couldn't. 280mm HE shells would've also been more damaging. That coupled with the high RoF and accuracy and I think that a Scha...

With fully functioning radar and top director, I'd expect Scharnhorst to outshoot the KGV class as well due to her higher rate of fire and more accurate guns. (Esp. considering what she managed to do with just 3 guns vs DoY) Now whilst the 11" AP shells lacked the power to penetrate the belt, t...

alecsandros wrote: Which 6 ships ?

The 6 ships mentioned in the title :)

I also think a little too much emphasis has been put on the cavity magnetron. It seems like it is all too often forgotten that this wasn't the only part of a radar, and that other important parts were developed during the war. Btw, how far did the Japanese come in regards to using radar for their FC...

I suppose the dispersion of the 150mm guns would be noticably greater at long ranges as well, the shells being a lot more affected by wind and weather than the much heavier main caliber shells.

The point I was making in my previous post is that the Germans would be unaware of the state of POW gunnery and POW in company with Norfolk and Suffolk would therefore be some deterrent to Bismarck attack. The role of Norfolk and Suffolk was to shadow Bismarck. Disengaging means contact can be lost...

The point I was making in my previous post is that the Germans would be unaware of the state of POW gunnery and POW in company with Norfolk and Suffolk would therefore be some deterrent to Bismarck attack. The role of Norfolk and Suffolk was to shadow Bismarck. Disengaging means contact can be lost...

But POW's speed was hardly impaired, even with the under water hits, while the actual shell damage above waterline was superficial. The POW's speed and lack of obvious damage was given as Lutjen's reasons for not continuing the action. POW did drop some speed to join up with Norfolk and Suffolk. Ha...

How close were the various countries really in terms of radar technology during the war?

The common story is that the Allies leapt far ahead once they started using the cavity magnetron and stayed ahead, but was this really the case?

If it's just these six ships, then IMO the Germans get the edge due to advantages fire power and protection. Also it does seem to me the more I read about it that the German fire control systems were a little more accurate than those employed by the British (although I'd emphasize "a little&quo...

But POW's speed was hardly impaired, even with the under water hits, while the actual shell damage above waterline was superficial. The POW's speed and lack of obvious damage was given as Lutjen's reasons for not continuing the action. POW did drop some speed to join up with Norfolk and Suffolk. Ha...

Do you believe PoW would've come back to help considering her state? I mean she was in pretty bad shape after the hits recieved by Bismarck & Prinz Eugen, and her turrets were malfunctioning pretty badly.

Death of Scharnhorst: With its radar out, Scharnhorst was caught by surprise as the British attack developed. Using radar-directed fire, Duke of York scored hits on the German ship with its first salvo. As the fighting continued, Scharnhorst's forward turret was put out of action and Bey turned nor...

Btw, from where is the information that SH was straddled with 31 of the 52 salvos? If they couldn't see the SH on anything but radar, and if said radar couldn't spot the fall of shot properly, how could they then claim 31 straddles? Just curious :)