Hi HMS26 and welcome!HMS26 wrote:This is my very first post in this forum and I thought where better to place it then in the thread dealing with my all-time WWII favorite ship: the KGV BB class! Lots and lots of first-time info I found thanks to the postings of this thread, especially the ones resulted from the “broadside” exchange between dunmunro and alecsandros. Although – after all the straddles and direct hits - damn me if I understood: did KGV have an automatic firing solution relaying system or it was done manually? I somehow feel that the issue remained without a general/majority acceptance.Note: here I would like to point out that at least for me, reading the comments on the Rodney – KGV as the better firing platform issue made me smile. I thought: “how funny is that KGV’s firing accuracy is so much debated (as well as KGV as a class) while the “cock” of the RN at that time – HMS Hood – didn’t manage a single hit - not one - on DKM Prinz Eugen at the Battle of the Denmark Strait, not to mention that she fired at the wrong target for the whole time!”
You mention Hood's gunnery in the DS so I thought I'd point you to a possible explanation of what may have happened - in summary good shooting initially, stymied by the limitations of her outdated Dreyer FC table and the devastating German counterattack:
http://www.hmshood.org.uk/forum/phpBB3/ ... 927ec5d522
More specifically - Hood & PoW were on 300 deg at 0552 - roughly WNW, still across the current. The Germans were steaming south west against it (which you can see in the Rheinubung film).neil hilton wrote:The current in the Denmark Strait goes north easterly along the coast of Greenland (The North Atlantic Drift). Hood and KGV were steaming north westerly across the current (at least initially to shorten the range to avoid plunging fire) and Bizmarck and Prinz Eugen were to the north steaming south.