Hello everybody,
@ Wadinga,
YES, LtntCdr Anthony Hunter-Terry told the Midshipman he was dictating the events and timing and that was carefully taking notes ( and this is probably the reason why the Hood board of Inquiry assumed his timing being perfectly on the spot and taken during the action ) that when Hood was sinking the damaged hull forward part went to the port direction while sinking:
“She was apparently still moving ahead and turning to port. She was down at the stern and listing heavily to port … “
just like Ted Briggs reported too and F.O. Busch noticed as well from Prinz Eugen ( ref. Busch 1943 map showing it too on sketch ).
But as far as Hunter-Terry describing when PoW was turning to port, well that is very clear after the event and after they passed the sinking wreck, since he told the Midshipman to write that they were turning to port between the sinking Hood and the enemy, just before the hit on the aft funnel/crane no doubts about it. Hood was already sinking and the mast that also Rowell noticed felt toward the PoW already disengaging hard to port. Of course Hunter-Terry was obstructed, since the smoke coming out of the aft funnel did not allow him to clearly see anything more of Hood on the turn away.
“At this time we were turning to port between the "Hood" and the enemy and I observed debris falling towards "Prince of Wales", in particular one large piece that looked like the main-mast or a derrick. 0601, "Prince of Wales" was hit by a shell in the after funnel and this obstructed my attention.”
You can read yourself.
http://www.hmshood.org.uk/reference/off ... .htm#Terry
Anyway, that belongs to the other thread as you correctly said.
Here the HMS Prince of Wales Compass Platform with the Hit Nr. 1 passing thru it.
- PoW_path_hit_Nr_1_Compass_Platform_bridge_02.jpg (102.23 KiB) Viewed 4953 times
The shell was coming from GREEN 148° ( around GREEN 150 for the PoW damage report). As you can see path of shell confirms of course the damage report and nails down the PoW course on 280° degrees on that moment, just as I already knew very well.
Everything matches perfectly, with drawings, data and photos, with precision of some inches.
Some notes :
A : Were Esmond Knight was sitting ADO position
B : Point of entrance under the curtain in the middle of the second glass ( 46 inches = 115 cm from the corner stb forward, ref. Yellow segment H )
C : View Plot taken away from the shell, ref. damage photo. Possible position of Ince and Dreyer between View Plot and the Chart table.
D : Corner of Compass platform stb aft were the shell went out, hitting the door too. Ref, damage photos.
E : Exit path on the Searchlight bridge SLS on port side, ref damage photo.
F : Possible position of Capt Leach, Rowell and Gilbert, surviving the shell into the Compass Platform. They were looking at Hood on port side probably.
G : Searchlights bridge, all smashed ref. damage photo and on the ground as Sam Wood stated too.
You may have noticed on the Compass Platform damage photos that both the Compass in the middle of it as well as the Pelorus ahead of it were both undamaged and with the voice pipe on them just like the previous original photo I attached clearly shows you.
Question now will be : Why Capt. Leach needed to go down to order the “ Hard to Port ! “
In fact on the movie Esmond Knight did not show that action being taken, … and the order given from the Pelorus voice pipe while still into the Compass Platform.
Thanks for the additional information, … so 5 on the 285 radar and 7 on the compass/ bridge … but with 10 persons into the Compass Platform usually …
that should tell us :
5 on the Radar 285 room below the boat deck at mid ship
7 into the compass platform ( out of 10 normally in there with 3 survivors : Leach, Rowell and Gilbert )
1+1 on the bridges
... now I need to redo my numbers …
Were did you read Paddon information ? --- > I got it ! ... free pdf download of his book on the internet ... radar Officer on PoW and Warspite
http://www.pdfhe.com/file-6121.html
Bye Antonio
In order to honor a soldier, we have to tell the truth about what happened over there. The whole, hard, cold truth. And until we do that, we dishonor her and every soldier who died, who gave their life for their country. ( Courage Under Fire )