dunmunro wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 10:06 pmBismarck's radar had an effective range of about 25km as did KGV's. Maximum optical visibility was about 26000yds (~24km or ~13nm as per Tovey above). How is either RN battleship going to 'die at 30km'? I have already stated that Bismarck and PoW traded fire at ~30km and PoW's fire appears have been more accurate than Bismarck's, which was so inaccurate that PoW didn't realize she was being fired upon.Mustang wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 6:39 pmThat actually completely supports everything I said, the British ships would die at 30km as they lacked the range to engage. The Rodney was 32km maximum and 25km effective, KGV was irrelevant as it would be unable to penetrate.
As for the very low range of the bismarck, that's the same as saying it didn't exist or didn't work. That's a negligible range. It's shorter than an infantry mortar.
I'm sure you'll disagree but since there's no further point to make you can end the thread.
The logs on the Hood website are unavailable, would be interesting to see those.
You are make wildly inaccurate assumptions that are not supported by the historical record and you keep repeating claims that are completely inaccurate even when those statements are shown to be false. KGV's 14in guns could penetrate Bismarck's decks (beyond ~30km), CT and firecontrol stations at any likely battle range.
One feature of Bismarck's 38cm magazine is that they were placed very high in the ship and therefore more vulnerable to plunging fire than those in the RN battleships, which were very low in the ship, and protected by deck armour that was impenetrable to Bismarck's 38cm guns.
13 miles is a unaided eye visual range. Searchlights extend this dramatically. Here.
I admit it's a bad graph but it shows searchlights extend visibility by a factor of five. Basically, visibility is never an actual issue unless there is truly terrible conditions.
Now obviously you can just say this is wrong, but the entire point of having a searchlight is to do this, so that's why they had them.
KGV could not penetrate the main armor. I'm sure you are already familiar with the diagram and I have no need to post it, but the 145mm deck area where the 09:02 hit occurred would not be possible. If you disagree, this is just a diagram, there is nothing to discuss.
It's possible the bismarck also was unable to penetrate, but getting into penetration mostly favors the bismarck as it had the better guns in the first place.