The end of Scharnhorst

[Dave Saxton]

Thanks for your reply Dave,
I agree that at first it was a high speed chase in very bad weather, but surely when DoY closed to about 4000 yards Scharnhorst was almost stationary (as was Bismarck) after being torpedoed and should have been an easy a target as Bismarck even allowing for the rough seas? I know she could'nt have caught her in a chase but if Rodney had been in the same position (at 4000yards) do you think she would have made a better job of it?

How many did Rodney score at less than 4000m? Are you sure it was better than Duke of York? After Duke of York re-engaged it scored 7 or 8 observed hits over 27 minutes. It scored about 4 hits during the 90 minutes chase segment.

[Thorsten Wahl]

As evidenced by the maps of Battlesummary 5 Scharnhorsts loss of velocity seemingly did not happen at around 1824 but at 1835.
as Scharnhorst was making a generous Zig-Zag in betwen 1820-1830 it loses approximately 20-30 percent speed in the main direction of movement during this time. This may be interpreted as loss of speed, but if one stretches the track of Scharnhorst the distance appears remarkably constant until approx 1830.
But in particular Scorpion and Stord could gain the most advantage from this Zig Zag Movement.

positions
blue 17:00
green 18:00
yellow 18:24
pink 18:30
orange 18:40
blue 18:50

the relative positions show that all destroyer groups could obviously profit from occasional course changes of Scharnhorst for open A-arc for the use of weapons.



for map with zoom klick here
https://plus.google.com/photos/11362860 ... 4337291328