Naval History Forums

I calculate the armor plate is about 3 x 2 meters. If it is part of the main belt then the plate is 32 cm thick reducing to 17 cm at the bottom. The weight 16 metric tons is massive.

Hello all, One flaw was the 10.5 cm battery installed in two different type of mounts (L/31 and L/37), this was corrected on the Tirpitz. Some people will argue about the 3-shaft arrangement, the armor distribution, or weak stern, but I don't think a construction flaw was responsible of the ship's f...

This is what I understand. The "All or Nothing" scheme protects only the most vital places of the ship with heavy armor plates. The "Incremental" scheme gives protection to more places but the armor plates are lighter. There must be exceptions but as we say here, "the except...

I take the Scharnhorst. Less powerful guns but much more armor.

Is it possible that maybe the Tirpitz was better suited to fight at night than the Scharnhorst? The Bismarck did very well against Vian's destroyers at night. What do you think?

Tiornu wrote:I think Scharnhorst's crew would have to outfight Hood's in order to win such a duel.

What do you mean? How?

Thank you for the link. Very helpful.

Have you seen the documentary?

I was looking for maybe some drawings of the wreck similar to those in Ballard's Bismarck book. It would be nice to get an overall view of AR wreck.

In 1940-41 the Scharnhorst is 1-2 knots faster than Hood, armor is more or less similar in both ships, but in my opinion Hood has the edge because she has bigger guns. I'm not sure if the 11-inch gun has power enough to penetrate to Hood magazines like Bismarck did, but the 15-inch from Hood can do ...

What if it was the Tirpitz against the Duke of York + escorts in the North Cape? Considering her superior firepower and heavier armor, how much better than Scharnhorst could Tirpitz have done?

The wreck of the Ark Royal was found in 2002. How well preserved is the wreck? I read somewhere that divers filmed the wreck for a BBC documentary. Have you seen this documentary or photos?

Hi, The battle conditions were very different on 27 May than on 24 May. On 27 May, KGV and Rodney were having difficulties to straddle the Bismarck too at first, and it took them some time. The British ships opened up at 0847 hours and only first hit the Bismarck 15 minutes later (at 0902). Before t...

Hello all, It is very dificult to see the effects of the gun blast of ships in the sea surface unless in an aerial view if one is looking from the top, or from the ship bow like this photo = http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/BDX/BDX267/bxp45904.jpg More, in almost all Bismarck photos the gun blast in t...

Thanks for posting this photo of the DEDALO. When the Dedalo was decommissioned the Spanish Navy donated the ship in 1990 so she could be preserved as a museum in New Orleans, but because of someone's incompetence and lack of funds our DEDALO was scrapped. What a shame!

I think the preservation of historic ships has to do a lot with means and money. No matter how much a ship is loved by his actions if there is no money to maintain it as a museum it will be eventually scrapped. Money is sometimes raised by ship associations, donations, or support of governments. The...

I found this impressive photo of USS Langley. I wonder what are the effects of heavy rolling on a ship and crew too. Can a ship that size capsize due to heavy rolling? http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g300000/g305484.jpg USS Langley (CVL-27) rolling sharply as she rides out a Pacific storm....