Naval History Forums

I'm not registered at the axishistory forum. You can post it there, if you want.

German balanced rudders were (almost) empty. There was a little cement in the lover part of the rudder to guarantee that condensed water flows to the lower end of the shaft. The rudders were drained either by being pumped out through the shaft or by using an additional drain bolt, which was located ...

AFAIK you will find some details in Raeder's and Doenitz's memoirs.

The largest party in the German Bundestag today has 33,8 percent. So isn't this party widely accepted?

Suppose B turret was penetrated, resulting in a fire in the turret. Fire/smoke penetrated to B turret magazine and/or shell room. The smoke spread to A turret magazine and asphixiated everyone. That would cause both turrets to be put out of action for a time. To the best of my knowledge, no, becaus...

RF and lwd you’re both right, of course. I wasn’t pedantic enough. Hitler wasn’t elected Reichskanzler directly, but the Reichstag and the Reichspraesident were elected by the German people. The NSDAP was the strongest party and widely accepted.

In the Lindemann biography there is a chapter about the Reichsmarine and the election of Hitler and his first years to be in power, which is interesting. We have to consider that Hitler was elected legally by the German people. Therefore there was no reason for German officers, who feel obligated to...

Hi Duncan, What is your proposed trajectory for a shell to enter the magazines ? Maybe you can draw a rough line in mspaint over that picture you've linked. Because I do not see such a trajectory as likely at all. Oops, I meant a plunging shell, through the deck, not a diving shell as in an UW hit....

dunmunro wrote: The loss of Scharnhorst's forward turrets from a single hit is a very good example.

Wasn't it the loss of only one turret?

dunmunro wrote:Both KM BB classes had very exposed magazines (this is certainly a flaw in the design) and very similar magazine protection.

Please define "very exposed".

Each turret got its electrical power from two different electrical plants. The power cables run through the cable ducts (Kabelgang) on each side on the ship along the torpedo bulkhead and below the armor deck. It seems very improbable to me that both lines can be cut with one single hit. The hydraul...

Duncan,

the hole is in the first superstructure deck between Bruno an the bridge superstructure. I don't think this hit can affect Anton.

.... Alex is right to point out that a deck penetration could not come from a shell that exploded between the turrets. Why not? If a shell penetrated the deck between the two turrets and detonated after penetration I would expect a substantial blast signature from the hole of the initial penetratio...

As for the events during Bismarck's last battle, I remember reading the 14" shell that hit Bruno to have glanced off, but the turret lost hydraulic pressure because of the impact shock, and the guns depressed and became un-serviceable. lookin at a scheme drawing of a 38 cm tutrret it seems to ...

I wonder if the turrets shared a common hydraulic system, so that the loss of hydraulic pressure in one, could disable the other? No, I don't think so. Each turret had two hydraulic pumps for elevation. There were also electric powered auxiliary elevating drives in reserve. The training of the turr...

Well there's not a big disparity in depth below the waterline between the Bismarck class and the KGV after all. About 2 3/4 feet. I would guesstimate that it was about 5ft at typical fighting displacements. :think: How you did calculate (or estimate) 5 ft? What do you think is a typical fighting di...