Naval History Forums

Oh yes! On a destroyer you definitely knew you were a sailor in the real sense of the word.

Steve Crandell

Thanks Dave! That's the kind of info I was looking for!

I'm also wondering if they quit firing while changing course? Do you have any indication of that?

My father in law flew off of small carriers in WWII. He describes waking up in his hammock during a big storm and looking through an opening in the side of the hangar deck almost straight down at the water. He didn't stay there. :) I don't know of any ships larger than a destroyer capsizing, but the...

OK to me Antonio's logic makes the most sense. Setting aside the other points, if the photo's were printed "backwards" wouldn't people have noticed that right away? Surely people who were there would have seen them and pointed out the error. I do have a question for Antonio about his very ...

I've been reading Antonio's very detailed description of the Denmark Strait battle, and he lists all the salvos fired. From his description, both sides heavy ships seem to have fired only one salvo per minute, which is substantially less than their their theoretical capability. Anyone have an explan...

Thank you, and I can understand how the survivors must feel. It is possible for me to imagine what they went through, but none of us will really understand without having been there.

Steve Crandell

Sorry Robert - I haven't seen the film, and the only photo I've seen is Bismarck on port side of PoW with Bismarck firing "away" from the viewer i.e. to port. May I have a link to the photo?

Thanks Dave! This has been very informative, and I really appreciate what I've learned here.

Steve Crandell

I don't understand why you took this critical tone with me. I mayself am a veteran, and although I am no spring chicken myself, I have older and younger veterans in my family. The Arizona is sitting in the middle of Pearl Harbor and has no particular historical interest other than as a memorial. The...

Thank you, sir! I know ALL battleships seldom achieved their possible rate of fire for extended periods. Do you know whether Bismarck's entire mechanism for transferring ammunition from magazine to gun was able to match that 18 second cycle (mechanically). I know human crews probably wouldn't be abl...

Can someone explain the mechanics of salvo firing? I understand that Bismarck fired A & B turrets together and then C & D together, whereas British ships fired half the guns in each turret together. I have no idea what US practice was, or where to find out. How often were the salvos fired? M...

Oh, thank you! It wasn't exactly a fair fight. Oregon made a high speed trip around the tip of S. America in order to participate in that battle. Not fast by today's standards, but back then she and her sisters may have been the fastest ships there. She served for many years as the drilling location...

I don't know who does it more, but in the US we do it a lot. I think part of the reason is our ships tend to be named for cities and states, and when a ship is decommissioned there tend to be local organizations that want to buy it, especially if it had a significant role. Having said that, I live i...

My understanding is that early in the "battle", Rodney and KGV were both off Bismarck's bow. Even so, she managed to straddle Rodney, which is an achievement in itself considering she was wallowing in the sea. Remember, the crew was very tired and morale was very low. As far as I can tell ...

Long outboard shaft runs were a weakness in torpedo protective systems. I don’t know if it was a design consideration, but the German ships with 3 shafts reduced this problem to a great degree. All three engine rooms are grouped together, making for short outboard shaft runs. The weakess in that is ...