Bill, Steve,Wadinga, many thanks indeed for all your info, it was very kind of you all to take so much trouble.
I am surprised that the shooting of the Iowas in the Vietnam and Gulf wars may not have been declassified yet, particularly as it is very unlikely they will ever put to sea again or fire their guns in anger, but of course one never knows, nine tons of shell arriving on top of you is a petty strong incentive to find somewhere else to go!
Who won?
Re: Who won?
To be honest I should have been more specific. I was thinking of the Fritz X its contemporaries and successors.Once you can hit and pierce thick armour at a distance where you can't reliably hit back then the games up. Yes you could have the situation where you continuously upgrade the self defence of the BB to counteract this but then you have a battleship that still has guns limited by what in offensive terms short when compared to aircraft carriers. So you introduce rocket propelled shells? Well TBH for less risk you could fire off a load of anti ship missiles from distance.wadinga wrote: ↑Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:18 pm Hi Steve,
Deck protection provision revolved around perceived threats, which don't always materialize. Bombing was perceived to be more accurate than it proved to be in combat, the precision of Mk 8 radar at 35km was unimaginable before the war.And level bombers against a moving ship don't have much chance to get a hit, especially dropping only one very heavy bomb
As we seem to have established, the aircraft computer has to forecast the target position in 42 seconds time, whereas the ship 35 kms away has to forecast 75 seconds into the future. I think both had a pretty tough computational problem and it is thus that neither seem to have any hits.
The Germans "cheated" by putting radio control in a Fritz-X bomb and sinking the Roma and developing the Hs 293 which had a rocket engine as well for extra speed and penetration. Both were in service by 1943.
All the best
wadinga
You could keep a war of technological catch up going...
But would it be worth it? You can build ships that use electronic countermeasures with far less weight and weaponry that can dish out punishment for less.
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Re: Who won?
I think the fact that people don't build battleships anymore pretty much answers the question of whether it's worth it.
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Re: Who won?
Aircraft delivered ordnance was much more cost efficient compared to battleships, considering building times and -costs.
Meine Herren, es kann ein siebenjähriger, es kann ein dreißigjähriger Krieg werden – und wehe dem, der zuerst die Lunte in das Pulverfaß schleudert!