Hello everybody,
@ Wadinga,
many thanks for the Stuart account ...
You know that I agree with you :
... there will always be doubts, ...
... inconsistencies do not equal cover up and hidden guilt.
Unless I find evidence of the opposite, ... of course, ... if that being the case I think it is fair and due to openly discuss and provide our personal opinions, ... always only from a military stand point, ... being this an historical naval forum about warships.
Back to this engagement analysis, ... I already read several inconsistencies among the various reports, ... and you know me, ... that is making me very curios now about it ... about the truth, ... despite the final result and for the pleasure of finding it.
So even if I am a lot busy with several other things, ... I like to read more and study this battle a bit better.
Doing a current recap from what I have read, ... summarizing I realized that :
1 ) We have 3 Royal Navy battleships ( Warspite, Valiant and Barham ) armed with 381 mm (15 inch) guns firing at 3 Italian warships being their targets (the heavy cruisers Fiume, Zara and the destroyer Alfieri ).
I do not care here about the secondary 152 mm fire to other targets including the Havock.
2) The whole main guns engagement lasted only few minutes, ... I assume so far 4 minutes and 30 seconds ... inside this timeslot ... from 22.28 when Greyhound illuminated the target ... until 22.33 when the Royal Navy battleships had already turned on course 10 degrees having already ceased fire with their main guns.
I have used Adm Cunningham Official dispatches timing here, since on the Italian side there are some timing mismatches.
3) It has been reported that the Warspite only fired her main guns to the Fiume.
It has been reported that only the Barham fired her main guns to the destroyer Alfieri.
Now we are left with some mismatches, ... the Valiant that has been reported having fired initially to the Fiume and only after having changed target to the Zara to finish her off.
On the Zara it seems that the first 15inch shells received were coming from the Barham having opened fire on her and only after having changed target to the destroyer Alfieri.
This is what we need to clear up ... and realize more precisely ... if possible with accounts from both sides.
It seems a " piece of cake " to me ... if all Official records are still available ...
Any help is of course more than welcome ...
Bye Antonio