For better visualisation i have removed the big impact circles and added a BB-size target in the center of the target areaalecsandros wrote: Example: Iowa salvo patterns at 25.000 and 36.000y:
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship ... 76_jpg.gif
Great post. It's stuff like this that makes it such a pleasure to be here with all of you, even while we are bickering about who would win and so forth.boredatwork wrote:
According to Dumas neither one of you are completely right!
1. Richelieu DID conduct test firings in 1940 but was unlikely to have noted dispersion problems...etc.etc.
Dispersion is not related to whether the target is moving or not. It IS related to whether all the guns are the same temperature, though.alecsandros wrote:Impressive...
What I don't know is if Iowa fired against a stationery or moving target... ?
In which combat do this characteristic first salvo/straddle happened, aside from the isolated Nowaki incident in which there were two battleships (18 x 16") firing at a single destroyer?In any case, it doesn't seem to have been unusual for these ships to obtain straddles with their first salvo.
Didn't West Virgina manage a first-salvo hit on Yamashiro at something like eleven miles? I remember reading that she managed hits in five out of six salvos - if so, that's pretty impressive at that distance.Karl Heidenreich wrote:In which combat do this characteristic first salvo/straddle happened, aside from the isolated Nowaki incident in which there were two battleships (18 x 16") firing at a single destroyer?
Have to admitt that's impressive. When I read Willmot's account on Surigao I'm pretty sure that particular information wasn't there. Is there another document in which we can follow that? I will like to read more on that. Seems important.Didn't West Virgina manage a first-salvo hit on Yamashiro at something like eleven miles? I remember reading that she managed hits in five out of six salvos - if so, that's pretty impressive at that distance.
Here's West Virginia's action report:alecsandros wrote:Karl:
"Battle of Surigao Strait", by Anthony P. Tunny. 350pg+ covering exactly this battle...
Check your PM :)
No problem... lots of references to this out there. From http://www.usswestvirginia.org/uss_west ... istory.htm:Karl Heidenreich wrote:Hey, guys. Thanks! It seems that it is you who know about the sources...
Pretty impressive, and a compelling demonstration of just how effective the USN's radar-directed gunnery could be in 1944. I'll go out on a moderately thick branch and speculate that at night, twenty year-old West Virginia - performing as she did at Surigao? - would have been a good match for any Axis battleship, on her own....West Virginia's radar picked up Nishimura's force at a range of 42,000 yd (38,000 m) and had achieved a firing solution at 30,000 yd (27,000 m)... At 0352, West Virginia unleashed her eight 16 in (410 mm) guns of the main battery at a range of 22,800 yd (20,800 m), striking the leading Japanese battleship with her first salvo. Of the first six salvos West Virginia fired, five had struck the target and in all she fired 16 salvos in the direction of Nishimura's ships as Oldendorf "crossed the T" of the Japanese fleet... At 0413, the "Wee Vee" ceased fire...
