Naval History Forums

Thanks for the correction. The Germans took advantage of the other major naval powers adherence to the Washington treaty which limited cruiser guns to 8", and thereby created a ship which was militarily superior and was inferior only to ships about twice her size. It would probably have been advanta...

Paul,

Yes, that's what I would think as well.

One factor with armor comparison is that PE's armor would be essentially useless against direct hits from AGS and the reverse wouldn't be true.

Any yes, PE obviously had more, faster firing and probably more accurate gun/fire control than Exeter.

The closest actual battle comparison we have is Exeter vs Graf Spee, and It's an open question, I think. Exeter was very badly beaten up, but did some significant damage to AGS.

Thanks for the detailed answer, Bill. I think I remember reading that supercharges increased bore wear quite a bit more than just the proportional increase in velocity.

If the supercharge the British used was safe (and I assume it must have been or they wouldn't have used it), why wasn't the supercharge used as the normal charge, since it produced more muzzle energy?

Thanks for that reply Steve, A quick question, if one reduces this to revolver calibres it seemed to me (when we were allowed t own them!) that a short barreled pistol ofen left a small amount of unburned powder on the firing point particularly when using magnum loads whereas a 6 ot 7" barrel burne...

I had a little trouble following your conclusion. Are you suggesting that it's better to have a short barreled gun than a long barreled one? It's all about muzzle velocity with the same shell. The longer guns also have larger chambers to accomodate more propellant. If you try to use the same amount ...

I believe the Germans did try to provide U-boat support, but they are too slow and there wasn't enough time. IIRC the Arc Royal passed within easy torpedo range of a U-boat which was returning home after expending all of it's torpedoes on patrol.

Just a couple of comments about light AA rates of fire: The 40mm Bofors as used by the USN was, according to Navweaps, capable of 80 to 90 rounds/min sustained fire. That was given as a British claim. A good loader could achieve about 24 rounds (120 rounds/min) without the gun stopping. I don't thin...

The German CAs were much larger, but I think the few engagements which did occur, the British held their own. I'm not sure if any British CAs were involved; maybe just CLs but my memory fails me there. I don't currently have any reference books at hand but I'm sure there are others here who do.

Thanks to wadinga and mostlyharmless for the good date on the Med. I am a bit confused though because one of you said 50K tons shipping and the other 500K tons, which is absolutely huge. Putting it in perspective, it's about 10% of the total USN submarine tonnage in WWII and over a much smaller peri...

Fellow Contributors, Do you know by any chance how many ships were torpedoed at night by Swordfish? Well, three battleships at Taranto is quite a good start. And then there is Bismarck of course, although poor visibility and the weird zone time used for the operation slew this a little. Agree that ...

Yes, I understood your point, except I didn't understand why the Swordfish was the only aircraft capable of operating that radar. I also wasn't aware that the specialized night Catalinas had it. I'm still learning. Do you know by any chance how many ships were torpedoed at night by Swordfish? Wouldn...

Maybe someone has already mentioned this, but weren't Bismarck's 3.7cm an early version which were loaded one round at a time? I don't think the radar on the Swordfish aircraft was something other aircraft couldn't carry. The fact that is was a biplane didn't really make it possible to carry a radar...