I know that is the common wisdom but let us look at the facts. In the second encounter at North Cape the Scharnhorst was on a southwest by west course at 30 knots. This was directly into the teeth of the wind and the seas, and it had to be taking it green over the bows considering the rough sea state. In this combat the Scharnhorst was also without its forward radar, which had been destroyed in the first skirmish. Yet the Scharnhorst out shot it foes in this engagement: “….the first salvoes from our own guns bracketed the targets. I personally saw that after three or four salvoes a raging fire broke out close to the after funnel on one of the cruisers and there was a lot of fire and smoke both forward and aft on another cruiser…..” (Survivor Goedde)Bgile wrote:Well, neither German ship shot very well against Renown, and Scharnhorst didn't shoot very well against DoY.
I don't think anyone in a position to critique gunnery problems at North Cape survived the sinking of Scharnhorst, did they?
I'd be interested in any information you might have that these problems were corrected, but their shooting in bad weather doesn't seem to have been as good as that of their opponents.
Both the Sheffield and the Norfolk were damaged. One 28cm hit destroyed Norfolk’s X turret. Another 28cm burst below the main deck in an engineering space midships. Both Sheffield and Norfolk had radars put out of action.
Despite the relatively short range and the assistance of radar as well as the cumulative massive rate of fire for the British cruisers, the Scharnhorst escaped unharmed.
During the second to final engagement of North Cape, the Duke of York opened fire at 16:47 hours at 11,000 meters range. It was forced to cease fire at 18:24 hours at about 19,500 meters range because the fall of shot could not be observed with radar. During that period of time it scored about 4-5 known main battery hits. Although it was having problems with its gun mountings, it probably fired at least 275 rounds during this 90 minutes of action.
The Scharnhorst probably fired only a fraction of that value of rounds against Duke of York during the 90 minutes running fight. It appears that Scharnhorst was using the standard procedure of using the first few salvoes to bring the guns up to operating temperature and to confirm the bearing track. According to an officer on DoY:
“ I saw the angry white wink of her first 11-inch salvo, and said to myself,’ she’s fired’…thank God we couldn’t see her shells coming as we could see ours going. The waiting for their arrival was bad enough….. There was a vague flash off our port bow which I caught in the corner of my eye as I gazed through my binoculars and then-crack, crack, crack, sharp like a giant whip, and the drone and the whine of splinters passing somewhere near..” ( Ramsden)
“We hadn’t long to wait before the enemy’s reply came, the shots short at first and then suddenly the most perfect straddle of our forecastle….shortly after that straddle a salvo pitched into the sea just ahead of us…” (Compston)
Scharnhorst then shifted fire to the cruisers to the north before re-engaging Duke of York and Jamaica. For awhile, it could only use turret Caeser, as Anton was knocked out by a direct hit and the forward magazines had been deliberately flooded. After Bruno came back on line Scharnhorst would, according to Fraser’s report, suddenly turn and fire a six gun broadside and then return to its high speed course toward the east. It could not keep up a high rate of fire using this tactic.
Yet as the range increased so did the Scharnhorst’s shooting improve. According to Fraser, particularly from the ranges of 17k out to 21k the Scharnhorst consistently straddled the Duke of York. British accounts atest to the accuracy of these salvoes as they straddled again and again, and the DoY was drenched by shell splashes and shells whistled through the rigging and upper works. Mast stays and radio antennas came crashing down to the deck. Two or three hits were scored all in the upper works. Of course you know this I’m sure. I don’t see how the Scharnhorst’s shooting can be considered poor compared to its opponents in this case.