Steve Crandell wrote: "....The aft turrets were wooded, and the Baron didn't open fire on KGV with C and D until later."
Northcape wrote: "So to me, the KGV class was a rather good combination of a stable gun platform, a good fire control, and ordnance accuracy. PoW scored hits quickly at Denmark Street despite poor conditions, and DoY's shooting in the heavy sea at the Northcape was very accurate as well.
If the quadruple turrets would have been less prone to their interlock failures, I think that the ordnance would have compensated the other shortcomings of this class to a high degree....."
At 0848 hours, with the BISMARCK sailing directly towards the flagship, KING GEORGE V opened fire at a range of about 25,500 yards. The gunnery department at first had a difficult task in obtaining the range because of BISMARCK's head-on approach and the squally weather.
At 0853 hours the operator of the Type 284 radar finally obtained an accurate range of 20,500 yards and KING GEORGE V obtained her first straddle.
Alberto Virtuani wrote:
In any case the Baron mention that fire control was passed to the aft director "20 minutes after the open fire", so around 9:09. Possibly this would confirm my statement above, (that C and D were not wooded yet) and the timing given by the Rodney GAR.
northcape wrote:I only have secondary literature on the Bismarck chase and sinking, and in almost all of them the first hit scored on Bismarck during her final battle was described from Rodney, ca. 15 mins after the start of the battle (> 9 am). (The hit which disabled Anton and Bruno).
However, in Tarrant's "KGV5 class battleships" I read that KGV scored her first hit at ca.8:53 (5 mins after open fire) at the base of Bismarck's forward superstructure.
Does anybody has primary literature on the sequence of hits from both KGV and Rodney, and/or is there consensus on that matter?
Thanks!
Alecsandros wrote:".....after which Rodney altered course and no more straddles were obtained."
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