Dunmunro quoted R&R book re. QE's reconstruction: "Protection
During reconstruction the Malaya was fitted with 2 1/2-
inch NC armour on the middle deck over the engine
rooms and, like the Barham, the 1-inch plating over the
magazines, added after Jutland, was removed and
replaced by 4-inch NC armour. This increased the total
thickness of the middle deck to 5 inches over the
magazines and 3.5 inches over the engine rooms. This
additional protection was only fitted on the flat of the
deck, the slopes being left at their original thickness."
Hi Duncan,
thanks a lot for clarifying something that has always been a "mistery" to me.......
Re. your conclusion, yes the remedernized QE's were very well protected agaist bombs and plunging fire, as also Tarrant was stating.
However, the key point ifrom R&R s that the 2" HT+mild steel original slope was not improved, therefore nothing was added to the total vertical protection scheme against relatively flat trajectories. Once the belt is penetrated (close to the waterline), there is only the slope between the shell and the magazines/machinery.
Therefore the modernization left the vertical protection to the level of WWI and to the one of Hood. This level was indeed good but proved not to be enough to stop the modern BS 15" shell (that fell with an angle of 10 to 11 °if I remember correctly).
Vertical penetration of QE's belt is likely to happen from average to short distances in case of a gun confrontation against Littorio's.
@Alecsandros:
I fully agree with you (I "intentionally" did not mention the second Sirte
).
When referring to Iachino satisfaction about the gunnery of Littorio's in 1942, I was speaking about the result of the trials, not the outcome of the second Sirte.... After this one , Iachino had to defend himself from the (founded) accusations of being unable to attack a convoy protected by light cruisers with a battleship and 2 heavy cruisers...... Vian was excellent and in my view achieved an important victory (despite having more damages and casualties on board) but Iachino in this occasion was not at all.
However this situation can neither be mentioned as a proof of a bad Littorio's shooting nor compared with the Warspite hit on Giulio Cesare at Punta Stilo with very good visibility and stable parallel courses for the battlefleets, as the Vian's British cruisers were (cleverly) closing and opening range quickly under a huge smoke screen...... The British fire did not achieved many hits too, due to the whether conditions (out of 1500 shells expended by the RN cruisers and 1300 by the RN destroyers, only one 4,7" shell hit Littorio with superficial damage).
RF wrote: "on 10 June 1940 the entire Italian battle fleet should have sailed to Malta escorting a full scale invasion force....."
I totally agree. The "Duce" choose "di spezzare le reni alla Grecia" (litterally "to break the kidneys to Greece" = "to smash and annihilate Greece") instead..... with the known (quite shameful) results until German intervention.....
Bye, Alberto