paul.mercer wrote:Supposing Tirpitz did leave Scharnhorst and DoY went after her, would Renown (and pehaps one of the cruisers if they were not escorting Doy) be able to deal with Scharnhorst on her own?
On paper, it's hard to imagine Renown disabling or destroying Scharnhorst.
But there are some puzzles for me concerning the actions during Battle of North Cape, which may point that, in reality, Renown on it's own was more than a match for Schar.
The problems I am thinking about concern Scharnhorst's gunnery during the battle.
From various sources, we've read that:
1) Schar scored 2 hits on CA Norfolk
During the engagement with Norfolk, Schar had all of it's guns operational (9x280mm + 12x150mm). There are no casualties reported for those 2 hits on Norfolk, and the damage was only moderate.
4 years earlier, Graf Spee crippled CA Exeter with the first 2 x 283mm shell strikes. The effects on the heavy cruiser were devastating.
If the hits were indeed 280mm, it puzzles me as to why did Scharnhorst used AP shells against such a target. HE or SAP ammunition would have been far more effective.
2) Schar scored 1 hit and 1-2 near misses on DD Saumarez.
By this time, the German battlecruiser probably had operational 1 or maximum 2 main turrets and 2-4 secondary turrets operational.
It is not clear what caliber the hits were, but again, the lack of heavy casualties and damage on the destroyer may indicate 150mm shell hits. The one exception may be the shell which "passed through the control tower without exploding and killed 3 men".
3) Schar straddled Norfolk and Duke of York many times, without further direct hits.
In the action against DoY, Schar had 3x280mm guns available for over 1 hour (turret C) and 3x280mm guns available for about 30 minutes (turret B).
Many straddles.. No hits...... Withch make me think about the ship's stability and accuracy as a gunnery platform in heavy seas...
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So, taking this into consideration, i would guess Schar would missidentify Renown as a 35000 ton battleship and try to escape (somehow). It would only fire with the rear (C) turret, while Renown would fire with the fw (2 x 2 x 381mm) guns... It's hard to say what would happen... But Schar was unlucky and had stability problems...