Naval History Forums

You are the one claiming that the ranges for the straddles are from ~16K to 12K yds. I am merely demonstrating how that would change the nature of the salvos fired. There is no error in the KGV GAR, itself, and the only error being made is that you have chosen to read it incorrectly. "Straddli...

Bismarck would still have been obliged to place its salvo MPI's within a zone from about 50 yds short to about 50 yds beyond the target in order to put the 50 pct zone of the salvo atop the target and have the best chance of scoring a hit - so say about 150 yds in toto (and maybe a little less for ...

Read the Board of Inquiry remarks and do your own count of definitely affirmed hits and possible/likely hits. I'm not making this stuff up. It is not a matter of making stuff up, it's a matter of cross-cheking sources from the other side's point of view. It's also a matter of visible effects, and e...

[ 1 ] By the time that Prince of Wales came under fire from Bismarck, I'm estimating that the range must have been within the inner limit of Prince of Wales' side armor immunity zone versus Bismarck's 15in main battery guns. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? British estimates of KGV class immu...

No, Byron,
if there were multiple visible hits produced by Bismarck, they would have been mentioned, at least sporadically, or at least once, somewhere, by someone. But there isn't nobody to say that.

KGV had the advantage of radar FC and from 0853 onward KGV had overcome the confusion with Rodney's salvos. From 0853 to 0913 KGV fired at 1.7 salvos per minute (34 salvos according to her GAR) versus 1.3 salvos per minute for Rodney (26 salvos according to her salvo chart). After 0913 when her FC ...

Rodney fired 5 salvos with her A arcs open at from 0848-0901:59 and 17 salvos with A arcs closed. Therefore 17 x 3 + 3 x 5 and 2 x 4 (or possibly the reverse) for 51 + 15 + 8 = 74 rnds (with 100% output). KGV fired ~18 x 3 gun salvos and ~4 x 5 gun salvos, for 74 rnds fired at 0902 . At 904 when Ro...

If PoW had exploded instead of Hood we might be speculating that the fire on PoW's boat deck was caused by a 20.3 shell, when, in fact, it was caused by a 38cm shell. There is a wide range of possible scenarios where a 38cm hit could start a fire on the Hood, aft of the funnels. Hence the closing p...

There is confusion in the quotes you provided between turret X and turret A.

If you interpolate the 2 quotes, you end up with Rodney firing most of the original 25 salvos with turret Y alone, which means with 3 guns out of 9.

KGV's salvo rate is known from 0853-0913 but during other periods I have to approximate it based upon Rodney's salvo chart, comments in KGV's GAR and the tactical plot. That is why I have placed ~ in front of the numbers. In other words, you do not know. As I've explained and as we've discussed, KG...

Clearly so, alot of aspects that are not pinned down.
However, your reconstruction reconciles the most critical aspects, IMHO.

Best,

Up to ~0902:00 Rodney had fired 22 salvos according to her salvo chart. KGV fired 22-24 salvos up to (0848-0902) ~0902:00. Your own material posted here http://www.kbismarck.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6834#p67414 writes that KGV fired 18 salvos up to 9:00. Now you say KGV fired 22-24 salvos ...

In any case all reconstructions done after this, accepted it was a HE shell causing the fire, as logic, because a BS 15" shell would not have exploded at contact with the deck and would have most probably caused more serious damages. Bye, Alberto Armor-piercing shots are nearly impossible to &...

dunmunro wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 10:01 am I gave you direct quotes from Rodney's GAR

How many salvoes did Rodney fire between 8:47 and 9:02, and how many salvos did KGV fire within the same time frame ?

Hi alecsandros, Thanks for the info, whoever fired the shots it had a detrimental effect on Bismarck's potential firepower. Certainly so. One of the turrets remained silent , and the other one only managed to fire one shot at around 9:30 or so. The knocking out of the forward batteries was a result...