Naval History Forums

I don't by any means present myself as any sort of authority on the WW2 naval war in the Mediterranean. But from what I have been able to glean in a short time from the great and wonderful internet, the action off Cape Passero seems to have been rather more complicated than the above post suggests. ...

@Byron Angel: Hi Byron, possibly a Captain with a peculiar personal initiative could have decided to ignore the standard procedures, but this was not the case in any situation I'm aware before the "surprise" at Matapan..... Alberto, Interesting misunderstanding, I think. It was not eviden...

..... I would suggest that, while standard Italian doctrine may have dictated that cruiser main battery turrets not be manned at night, it does not necessarily follow that they would NEVER be manned at night. That decision would always rest with the captain, the perceived tactical circumstances and ...

Paul - > When a/c get involved, it's a total toss-up for me; no idea how to make an intelligent assessment of likely outcome. > If a daytime surface action, I don't see any dramatic difference in efficiency displayed at the end of the day. Neither side really displayed any "go for the throat&qu...

..... See Bagnasco and de Toro's book "The Littorio Class". It covers the gunnery and ballistics issues in some good detail.

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IJN design philosophy, in consequence of the nation's certain position of numerical/productive inferiority in a war against the USA, was to seek a technical edge wherever possible. I wonder whether any significant performance advantage was achievable from a conventional torpedo design. While the Typ...

..... Welcome aboard, sir. I agree that Troubridge faced an extremely dicey situation. Apart from the gun/armor/speed inferiority he faced, he was facing a formation speed problem, with Duke of Edinburgh not capable of making 20 knots; His destroyers were so extremely short of coal that they were hi...

Short memory, Northcape. The EEC (European Economic Community) ran just fine for 36 years as an efficient, effective cooperative economic common market. Suddenly in 1993, it became paramount in the minds of certain influential parties with certain important agendas that Europe desperately needed to ...

Too soon to tell. I've learned to ignore what politicians SAY and wait to see what they actually DO.

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D - It's entirely possible that there was an explosion in A turret at the time of Scharnhorst's sinking; A turret had been disabled very early in the action and must have had a large quantity of ammunition remaining. Busch's account suggests, however, that any such explosion was not an immediate res...

..... According to Busch - An early heavy caliber hit did jam A turret of Scharnhorst and a much later hit, penetrating into or delivering effect into A turret's magazine, produced a great fire and large successive explosions sufficient to send hot fragments into the adjacent B turret magazine. This...

..... If I recall correctly (see his book "Grand Fleet"), British Admiral Jellicoe deemed November 1914 to have been the moment of greatest opportunity (in terms of relative numbers) for the Hochseeflotte to seek battle with the British Grand Fleet. The expanded war complements of the Brit...

GaryT - Campbell did make that connection with respect to the Japanese 5/50: light construction > flex > excessive dispersion.

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GaryT wrote "Now, I am not putting words in your mouth here, I am going by what you say ..." Yes you are putting words in my mouth. No you are not remotely representing what I said. Your latest post is final proof that this discussion/debate/exchange really has no useful place to go. Have ...

Re the heavier 3.9in/L65 and the lighter 5in/L51 disparity mount weight, a close reading of Campbell's "Naval Weapons of World War Two" suggests some possible reasons - [1] Service experience with the 5in/L51 had led to opinion within the IJN that the mount had been too lightly built. [2] ...