Naval History Forums

According to Statz path 2 is correct. This would seem to indicate that the damage to compartments 2 and 3 (as numbered in my adapted diagram) more likely occurred from Victorious' torpedo hit rather than from the 14" hit, as it is difficult to reconcile such extensive damage from a 14" hi...

I made up this schematic showing the two alternate paths for the flooding:

as shown by the arrows and the question marks.

Dave Saxton/DunMunro wrote " ... and the auxiliary boiler room" : I have just been rereading the most comprehensive German account on this action I know of in the book by Brennecke. It says that the turbogenerator room (compartment XIV), port No. 2 boiler room (compartment XIII) and the p...

Allow me to quote from the Baron concerning the hit in question. .. and the auxiliary boiler room. The auxiliary boiler room is actually about 15m inboard of the generator room, so the splinters penetrated the 45mm bulkhead and the bulkhead between the generator room and auxiliary boiler room.

OK, I found another film clip of the 5.25" twin turrets, and they fire 3 twin gun salvos in 18 seconds: http://www.wpafilmlibrary.com then enter 506410-1 in the search field. starting at 01:10:54, again at 01:11:00 and again at 01:11:06 from 01:10:05 there is footage of about 4 or 5 salvos fir...

Yes, that would be about 10 rounds per minute in the first instance and 7.5 rounds per minute in the second. That seems in accordance with published information. The Gunnery Pocket Book does state 10-12 rpm, but this figure is disputed in some circles. We know that the gun can fire slower than this...

OK, I found another film clip of the 5.25" twin turrets, and they fire 3 twin gun salvos in 18 seconds: http://www.wpafilmlibrary.com then enter 506410-1 in the search field. starting at 01:10:54, again at 01:11:00 and again at 01:11:06 from 01:10:05 there is footage of about 4 or 5 salvos fire...

Given the slow speed of British carrier planes and the slow deck operating cycle (every plane struck below before the next one lands), it would be well after midnight before the carriers could recover their planes. T RN carriers used crash barriers as per the USN and their recovery rate was just as...

...potentially 57 Fulmar and Albacore DBs, less about 8-12 assigned to recon duties leaving 49- 45 aircraft strike available and 27 Sea Hurricane and Martlet fighters. The Swordfish were typically used for ASW, but some could have also participated, especially as a 2nd wave to arrive after dark. A ...

The Albacore and TBD were in service at the same time, so they obviously were contemporaries. The RN understood divebombing very well, and was the first navy to sink a major warship via a DB attack...The FAA developed no less than 5 DB capable aircraft by 1942, namely the Swordfish, Albacore, Skua, ...

The development of FAA tactical doctrine, pre 1939: Carrier versus carrier: From about 1933 on, the Admiralty showed increasing interest in dive-bombing, as the best means of accurate delivery against small and highly manoeuvrable ships.(6) Dive-bombing was also particularly attractive as a means of...

Barracudas repeated their attack on Tirpitz on six later occasions with basically no success. The dates, all in 1944, were May 15, July 14, August 20 (abortive), August 22, August 24, and August 29. The initial attack worked because it was the first and was thus a surprise; subsequent attacks didn'...

The Fairey Fulmar is not a divebomber, at best it is a glide bomber much like its ancestor, the Fairey Battle. As for the Albacore, they would soon be toast. On another topic, you quoted the British author Eric Brown about another aircraft. Let's see what he says in "Duels in the sky" abo...

My Father in Law served on TBMs in the latter part of WWII, and operated the ventral MG and the radio. He described a number of engagements to me, and never indicated it was removed. It would have been a major thing, since he spent a lot of time firing it during strafing attacks. I looked through s...

I thought pilot's comments on Barracuda was that it was very slow to initiate a roll/turn, which made it hard to take evasive action after releasing a weapon. Obviously if that is true, it would have more trouble than normal with fighers since it would be unable to take evasive action quickly. And ...