Search found 212 matches

by Mostlyharmless
Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:10 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Redesigning Bismarck
Replies: 45
Views: 31451

Re: Redesigning Bismarck

My dim memory of other discussions is that a steam plant was destroyed which powered the oil separation plant.
by Mostlyharmless
Sun Jan 14, 2024 5:44 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Redesigning Bismarck
Replies: 45
Views: 31451

Re: Redesigning Bismarck

Having started this, I felt that I shouldn't hide away even if I don't know anything about designing ships. The most significant question seems to be whether to stay with the steam turbine propulsion or to go to Diesel and the related issue is whether to keep three shafts or go to four. The four sha...
by Mostlyharmless
Sun Dec 31, 2023 2:18 am
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Redesigning Bismarck
Replies: 45
Views: 31451

Redesigning Bismarck

For a New Year puzzle, how would members of our community redesign Bismarck if placed in the KM's ship designing office over 1935-6? The ship must carry its 8 38 cm guns in their 4 turrets and follow most of the demands of the KM staff. It will probably have to use the same boilers and turbines. The...
by Mostlyharmless
Mon Oct 30, 2023 2:43 am
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Fast Battleship League Table
Replies: 169
Views: 78916

Re: Fast Battleship League Table

A small issue with the encounters using radar is that some of the ships, such as Duke of York, were equipped with radar jamming equipment by 1943 as briefly mentioned in "German Capital Ships and Raiders in World War II: From Scharnhorst to Tirpitz, 1942-1944" which is a very respectable s...
by Mostlyharmless
Mon Oct 30, 2023 2:40 am
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Fast Battleship League Table
Replies: 169
Views: 78916

Re: Fast Battleship League Table

There is a severe problem in estimating the chances of a shell hitting below the level of the main belt because we do not know how the various shells would behave after hitting the sea. Japanese Type 91 shells were designed to maintain a stable trajectory and estimated to loose half their velocity a...
by Mostlyharmless
Sun Oct 29, 2023 6:08 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Fast Battleship League Table
Replies: 169
Views: 78916

Re: Fast Battleship League Table

One issue that does not seem to have been discussed is the possibility of hits below the main armour belts of these ships, which actually become more likely as we move from normal to 30 degrees inclination to incoming shells (at least for ships with internal inclined belts). The clear battleship exa...
by Mostlyharmless
Mon Aug 28, 2023 10:59 am
Forum: Naval History (1922-1945)
Topic: Strangest ship misidentification
Replies: 19
Views: 13298

Re: Strangest ship misidentification

According to Wikipedia's article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Sirte, Italian aircraft identified the merchant ship Breconshire as a battleship. The two reports from RAAF Hudsons of Mikawa's force before Savo Island were slightly misleading. The first had 'three cruisers, three destr...
by Mostlyharmless
Tue Mar 28, 2023 12:21 pm
Forum: Hypothetical Naval Scenarios
Topic: Prince of Wales in front
Replies: 32
Views: 9327

Prince of Wales in front

I don't know if this has been discussed before but Tovey ordered Holland to Denmark Straits. What if he had explicitly ordered Holland to place Prince of Wales in front of Hood when going into action whilst saying that there was no need for Holland to shift his flag? Holland obviously wouldn't have ...
by Mostlyharmless
Wed Mar 22, 2023 3:57 pm
Forum: Military History and Technology
Topic: Naval turrets being used on land
Replies: 9
Views: 2022

Re: Naval turrets being used on land

There is an article in Wikipedia on the use of Gneisenau's turret https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austr%C3%A5tt_Fort with nice pictures. If we want really ingenious uses for battleship mechanisms, the large radio telescope at Jodrell Bank was turned as if it was a battleship turret using machinery fro...
by Mostlyharmless
Tue Mar 21, 2023 4:09 pm
Forum: Bismarck General Discussion
Topic: Why no turtleback?
Replies: 20
Views: 6019

Re: Why no turtleback?

I had a 170.7 metres citadel of 241.5 metres at waterline or 70.7% but it is less if you use the overall length from https://www.kbismarck.com/proteccioni.html.
by Mostlyharmless
Tue Mar 21, 2023 1:52 pm
Forum: Bismarck General Discussion
Topic: Why no turtleback?
Replies: 20
Views: 6019

Re: Why no turtleback?

What I meant was that the designers wanted to have a certain volume of citadel protected from shells. Having the main armour deck higher enabled them to get the same volume with a shorter citadel. Thus Bismarck had a citadel of around 70% of the ship's length whereas at the other extreme South Dakot...
by Mostlyharmless
Mon Mar 20, 2023 11:03 pm
Forum: Bismarck General Discussion
Topic: Why no turtleback?
Replies: 20
Views: 6019

Re: Why no turtleback?

The advantage for the RN, USN and IJN of having a high main armour deck was that you could have a large protected volume with a shorter citadel which allowed you to have thicker belts and a thicker main armour deck. This made sense to the British as they wanted to make devastating single hits as unl...
by Mostlyharmless
Wed Nov 09, 2022 12:27 pm
Forum: The Dreadnought Era (1906-1921)
Topic: Oldenburg Battery in France
Replies: 3
Views: 2098

Re: Oldenburg Battery in France

Interesting story! We know that the battery was established in May 1941. Rurik was scrapped in 1923 and according to http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNRussian_10-50_m1908.php "After Rurik was decommissioned these guns and turrets were put in storage for use in coastal defense installations, but...
by Mostlyharmless
Sun Oct 16, 2022 12:24 am
Forum: The Dreadnought Era (1906-1921)
Topic: Why built useless battleships?
Replies: 61
Views: 15674

Re: Why built useless battleships?

The question is so famously complicated that it is suggested as an ideal study for teaching history as in "Why Did They Fight the Great War? A Multi-Level Class Analysis of the Causes of the First World War" by Aaron Gillette, November 2006, The History Teacher 40(1):45 https://www.researc...