Teleportation: H Classe in place of Bismarck

[ede144]

Honestly, if H is ready to go for Rheinübung, than you have either BS or TP available too. So H and BS will go and the short legged Prinz will stay at home, or go to Norway.
Then we have a totally different can of worms

[Dave Saxton]

Dave saxton wrote; "No, the belt just extended deeper down and was not tapered. The main armoured deck remained 1 meter above the water line."

Hi Dave,
thanks again for the info. Therefore, if I understand correctly, compared to Bismarck, the H class would have had a "longer" slope in order to go from the 1 meter deeper belt bottom (not tapered) to the main deck, 1 meter above water, thus giving to the scheme belt+slope the same effectiveness of the Bismarck one (except for the slightly thinner maximum belt thickness).

Does anybody have an armor scheme for H class that can be posted here ?

Bye, Alberto

The slope retains the same geometry. It does not need to meet the bottom of the belt. The distal end of the belt (the extension of the H class) does not meet the bottom of the slope in either case.

The H class scarp triangle provides significantly more ballistic protection despite the reduction of max belt thickness from 320mm to 300mm because the slope thickness is increased from 120mm to 150mm. The thickness of the slope is more important than the thickness of the belt.

At the lower edge of the belt the thickness of the H class belt is probably greater than Bismarck's because it is not tapered.

By extending the belt deeper down, even without the slope meeting the new position of the lower edge of the belt, it reduces the vulnerability to below the belt penetration by diving shell as per Alex's argument.

I remain skeptical that the historical hit would have been arrested by a deeper belt, however.

[Dave Saxton]

@ Alex

The shell had to explode against the bulkhead at or near the bottom in order to yield the type of damage it did historically. If it exploded some distance away from the bulkhead it could not have caused the perforations it did nor rip up the double bottom structures, as the splinters would be arrested by the bulkhead after being slowed by the oil. How it got near the bottom is somewhat of an enigma. It is rather unlikely that it entered the hull just below the belt. I have lay'ed out the cross section drawings, and if it retained a 18-20* angle it just can't get to the bottom of the bulkhead if it entered the hull just below the belt. It would require it to enter hull much deeper down.

I strongly suspect that this was a case of the hull area being uncovered by a trough in the wave form along the hull at the high speed the Bismarck was making at the time.

[alecsandros]

@Dave
Could be , but that would manifest 1-2 meters to the starboard and port of the ship, or so... A ultra-long functioning fuze and/or a curious underwater trajectory are further required to explain a damage so low in the ship, if that was actualy that deep, and we are not having confused survivor memoirs [for instance, there were some fuel tanks higher in the ship, immediately behind the lower armored belt, no ?]...

Best,

[RF]

Honestly, if H is ready to go for Rheinübung, than you have either BS or TP available too. So H and BS will go and the short legged Prinz will stay at home, or go to Norway.
Then we have a totally different can of worms

Well, yes the thinking here is logical.

However my thoughts were what if Hitler had started the Z Plan earlier, at the time of the genesis of Bismarck, such that H Classe started then in place of Bismarck. That I think could have happened.

Prinz Eugen is relevant in that it had a torpedo armament not available to the big battleships. In a prolonged action with POW there is the option of the Prinz closing like a destroyer for torpedo attack, which makes it easier to sink POW, whereas gunfire alone makes that task far more difficult within the time available, particulary with Wake-Walker and six British destroyers in the background.

[Mostlyharmless]

On further reflection to explain the damage in the double bottom, could the shell from Prince of Wales have hit the bottom of Bismarck’s belt, possibly aided by a wave trough, and deflected downwards?

[alecsandros]

One other thought: do we know if Bismarck had a noticeable roll during her motion on the sea that day ?
Some roll at the wrong time could have helped the shell by exposing more un-protected hull (in conjunction with a delta wave...)
Best,

[Maciej]

British 14" shell falls at 18.2 degrees and 476m/s at 18km.

According to navweaps.com
But it is for 2400 fs muzzle velocity, so with considerably worn out guns.
PoW guns were new, and some of them had measured MV even higher than nominal new. On warships1 board Phill Golin put some time ago exact values of MV of PoW just before Denmark Strait battle.
So with ~2480 to 2490 fs striking angle was lower (trajectory flatter)
But sea was not "flat". There were waves ~2 or 3 meters high. At point of impact angle of hit could be considerably different compared to "flat sea" due to local "wawe shape".
And distance from waterline (real) and hull considerably different between highest and lowest point of wave, so as result distance need to travel before hit