Hi Francis,
of course nobody can say what the result of opening fire (Suffolk from 18000 and Norfolk from less than 23000 yards, maneuvering against the enemy, respectively) would have been.
However our friend Alec has posted several examples of 8" fire in "The Plot" thread here below:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6495&start=1185
Alecsandros wrote: ".......HMS Devonshire chose to attack KGM Atlantis from 15km. HMS Cornwall withdrew out of KGM Pinguin gun range, and responded with fire from 15-16km. But those are exceptions - when the 8" cruisers could dictate the range.
At River Plate, Exeter fired on the Graf Spee at a range of 19400 yards according to British records, and probably 23000yards according to German records. The average would be around 21500yards, or 19km. Exeter obtained 2 direct hits and 1 damaging near miss, all from ranges between 16 to 18km.
At Bismarck's final battle, HMS Norfolk opened fire from around 22000yards (20km), despite the storm, heavy seas, and continous fire by other ships, all making spoting fall of own shot much more difficult than in the conditions present at Denmark Strait. 14 minutes or so after opening fire, Norfolk scored a first devastating hit on Bismarck's foretop, killing and wounding a number of personell, and disabling the equipment in the tallest (and with the highest range) command position of the battleship. So she could do big damage to Bismarck, even with her 8" guns.
It is always a thing to wonder - what if Norolk and Suffolk had opened fire on Bismarck on May 24th, in effective range or not ? What would that have caused Luetjens to do ? Perhaps he would be more anxious, perhaps he would split his fire ?
Who knows.
Anyway, Biritish 8" cruisers had effective range of about 15km, but they did fire out to 20km , sometimes with good results, and they returned fire out to 25km when needed (the case of Suffolk returning fire to Prinz |Eugen)."
Bottom line, if you open fire you can expect some hits (lucky o not lucky as Suffolk 3rd salvo straddling BS at 18:55 on May 24, but not hitting her), if you choose to stay out of gun range, you are sure that you will get nothing, of course.....
In line with the (still valid) Horatio Nelson doctrine:
Adm Lord Nelson said: "No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.""
Bye, Alberto