Alberto, we'll have to agree to disagree about when CS1 identified BC1, as we've discussed W-W did not have access to the Admiralty Master Plot identifying the name and location of every vessel in the North Atlantic, and later this nearly led to the annihilation of the hapless USCG Madoc.Alberto Virtuani wrote:Hi Dunacn,Dunmunro wrote: "CS1 sighted BC1's smoke at 0516/24 and did not positively identify BC1 till later"
NO ! Listen at his interview ! He "KNEW IT MUST BE BC1" (or he was a total stupid, that I don't want to think).
I assure you I don't think Hood had to explode. Had Hood been hit in another place, the early intervention of Norfolk would have been even more valuable, more and more as distance was decreasing and Norfolk could get below 20,000 yards.
Hi Sean,Wadinga wrote: "AFAIK both ships were equipped with 15ft rangefinders"
PoW one was much newer (I hope....). I don't have data for Norfolk.
If what you say is correct, we can expect anyway the same error from the same distance, isn't it ?
I do hope Dave will clarify you the reliability of a 15 feet rangefinder (from 1928) at 13sm distance......
I still think Norfolk gunnery report from May 24 is totally unreliable, starting from its absolute timing.
Of course it cannot be true as the NF track (both the Pinchin's and the Strategical Plot one) CANNOT explain why distance was decreasing slowly in 16 minutes, while it should decrease sharply in the first 8 minutes and then increasing again (sharply after 11 minutes).
Bye, Alberto
Again, you appear to think that Lutjens had no other options and was intent on engaging Hood.
Norfolk and PoW both had 15ft RFs in their DCTs. PoW's was a later model and was a duplex (two RFs built into one mounting) unit. However, we have had discussions regarding visibility and how NF might have had better seeing conditions than PoW. The fact that NF states the ranges so precisely would indicate that they were the best estimates from her RF rangetaker or from her AFCT plot.
RF ranges can be variable but often when the ranges reported are wildly inaccurate it indicates that the RFs were not usable.