This may be possible in perfect conditions and against a stationery target.Neoconshooter wrote:Late war after much fiddling, the average/maximum, depending on who said what, spread of salvo for the Iowa and her sisters was 269 yards long at 25,000 yards. Given late war Radar and FCS, such a salvo would have a >16% of any given shell hitting a broad side target 35 M wide and 10 high. If the target was nose, or stern on, the width of such salvo would be half that 269 yards, or 135 yards wide, thus a the typical ~7,000 M^2 target area BB would give a larger, 25% chance to be hit. So with that most excellent FCS and gun/system accuracy, it would be entirely possible for Iowa and her sisters to take out Bismarck or Tirpitz at >39,700 M, given the Strategic Imperative to do so regardless of Munition expenditure!alecsandros wrote:... And Oldendorf's battleships opened at 22000 yards, or 20km, during the night, with radar-ranged salvos, scoring hits in the first salvos.
Above 25km, depending on the gun, either dispersion is to large, or the angle of fall becomes to steep, and danger space is to small to consistently hit an opponent.
MOreover, the time of flight of the shell is so long that a fast enemy can change position and heading quite easily in the 45-60 seconds necessary for the shell to strike.This is not true. It takes so long for a BB to change direction that it would have had to have had the rudder hard over for 30-60 seconds before the shell was fired to change the ships course more than a few degrees and few dozens of meters.
Maybe straddling, yes, but hits - very difficult...
The numbers are absurd for any moving target.
Long range destruction is a fantasy, as has been discussed several times on this very forum.Given the low shell weight/SD, very high velocity and low elevation and subsequent angle of "Fall of shot" Iowa and her sisters might be immune to Bismarck and Tirpitz return fire until such time as the range has shortened considerably. Given the USN's insistence on superior maneuverability and speed, it is doubtful that either German ship could either close the range, or escape.
Look for Bill Jurens's posts in this matter - he agrees that practical hiting probabilities for > 25km shootings, even late war, were < 1%.