Naval History Forums

Sorry to have been so long away. During wartime, the shells were fuzed and ready for use. Normally this would not have been a major safety issue as the fuzes had built in safety devices which prevented the shell from arming.

I like the way you used Casey at the Bat to illustrate your point

All in all, I would say that the German offensive was something of a forlorn hope in the Victorian sense in that it could do little more than demonstrate the Wehrmacht was still an entity to be regarded with caution. It made a certain amount of sense in tactical terms, but strategically it was a mis...

Was not Titanic's designer Thomas Andrews?

As to the late Anthony Preston, he was often wrong and at times self contradictory.

If too difficult for your agenda, please try at least to help understanding where did Tovey take the word "temporarily" from (on May 30), when Capt. Leach had not yet mentioned any "more favorable opportunity" ? Presumably, because he was writing after the fact and knew PoW exch...

They used chlorosulfonic acid.

I would think Bristol would have also been a major departing port as well.

Agreed. Besides, were there not several main armament problems on Prinz Eugen during the action? If I remember correctly B turret missed a salvo and then fired only one gun in the turret for the next 13 ordered salvos due to a technical problem, while operational errors caused A turret to miss four ...

I don't think Bismarck fired particularly fast after Schneider ordered fire for effect once the Gabelgruppe had been spotted. Hood and Bismarck were on a converging course which would have caused rapid changes in range from salvo to salvo; additionally, Hood's course was slightly curving due to Holl...

Gentlemen, I'm not sure if this is a myth, but was Lindemannn not heard to say "I will not have my ship shot from under my arse"? If so then it must have been Lutjens who hesitated in opening fire.I have been told that in a sea battle, the Admiral controls the battle but the Captain contr...

Yes, one would normally wait for spotting the fall of shot of the deflection salvo before firing the bracket group to test range. There were instances where Bismarck fired deflection salvos very far short--during the reengagement with Prince of Wales and when engaging Sheffield on the evening of the...

Hello Alberto, Normally in opening fire it was usual in the Kriegsmarine to fire a deflection salvo with all main battery guns--i.e., in Bismarck's and Prinz Eugen's cases, all four turrets. This initial salvo or broadside was intended to test deflection---check fall of shot for line, rather than ra...

Do you see any mystery in Lutjens behaviour or is too much made of it.You see what with his hesitation in opening fire on Hood - he had orders not to engage enemy battleships but he was already under fire - I think perhaps a little too much is made of Bismarck's delay in opening fire on Holland's s...

The 'long message' was sent over a period of 45 or so minutes, but was broken down into three segments of about 200 words each as per Enigma protocols. Each of these segments could be sent by an average telegraphist in about four minutes, with a long enough pause in between each segment for an ackno...

Hi Steve,

I believe they have proximity fuzes small enough for 4cm now.