BANG!! Instead of fizz ...

Looking back at to September 1940 the major Ships of the Royal Navy were pretty thinly spread. In total there were 11 Battleships and 3 Battlecruisers of which 2 were being repaired or refitted, 3 were stationed off the West African coast as part of Force M, 4 were in the Med and 5 stationed in home waters on anti-invasion duties.

However two of the battleships in home waters had very lucky escapes the Nelson and the Rodney.

In October '39 the Nelson had been struck by 3 torpedoes none of which fortunately detonated. However just two months later the Nelson struck a mine requiring it to undergo repairs lasting for 7 1/2 months.

In April '40 the Rodney and accompanying ships were attacked by 80+ bombers and the Rodney was struck by a 500kg AP bomb dropped by a Ju 88 which crashed straight through the upper deck and several decks below before fizzing to a halt without exploding.

If one or both of these ships had been lost or required extensive repairs stretching to the end of 1940 how would the RN have distributed its Battleships?
 
Looking back at to September 1940 the major Ships of the Royal Navy were pretty thinly spread. In total there were 11 Battleships and 3 Battlecruisers of which 2 were being repaired or refitted, 3 were stationed off the West African coast as part of Force M, 4 were in the Med and 5 stationed in home waters on anti-invasion duties.

However two of the battleships in home waters had very lucky escapes the Nelson and the Rodney.

In October '39 the Nelson had been struck by 3 torpedoes none of which fortunately detonated. However just two months later the Nelson struck a mine requiring it to undergo repairs lasting for 7 1/2 months.

In April '40 the Rodney and accompanying ships were attacked by 80+ bombers and the Rodney was struck by a 500kg AP bomb dropped by a Ju 88 which crashed straight through the upper deck and several decks below before fizzing to a halt without exploding.

If one or both of these ships had been lost or required extensive repairs stretching to the end of 1940 how would the RN have distributed its Battleships?


Actually the Royal Navy had 12 battleships plus the 3 Battlecruisers. (2x Nelson, 5x QE, 5x Royal Sovereign, 1x Hood, 2x Renown). HMS Queen Eliszabeth and Valliant were finishing their major refits. HMS Repulse was also under a small refit at the time war started, due to her previous tour with the Royal Family.

The Duds on HMS Nelson were not the only ones,a s at the Narvik Campaign, HMS Warspite too was hit twice by U-Boot torpedoes, which failed to detonate. HMS Rodney survived the bombhit as mentioned, not because the bomb was bad, but her protection was too good. The PC500 AP bomb simply could not breach the main armroed deck, as it lacked the speed to do so. It broke up on impact, never triggering the fuse. The Ju-88 had made a glidbombing attack, so the bomb could not have created enough momentum to do what it was designed to do. Had the Ju-88 been divebombing, the 4.7/6.5 inch armored deck, might have been penetrated, although that would depend on the altidude of releasing the weapon. No battleships in WW2, except Yamato, had thicker deckarmor by the way.
 
Actually the Royal Navy had 12 battleships plus the 3 Battlecruisers. (2x Nelson, 5x QE, 5x Royal Sovereign, 1x Hood, 2x Renown). HMS Queen Eliszabeth and Valliant were finishing their major refits. HMS Repulse was also under a small refit at the time war started, due to her previous tour with the Royal Family.

Agreed for September 1939 but by September 1940, the time period I'm asking about, the Royal Oak had been sunk so there were only 4 x Royal Sovereign.

HMS Rodney survived the bombhit as mentioned, not because the bomb was bad, but her protection was too good. The PC500 AP bomb simply could not breach the main armroed deck, as it lacked the speed to do so. It broke up on impact, never triggering the fuse. The Ju-88 had made a glidbombing attack, so the bomb could not have created enough momentum to do what it was designed to do. Had the Ju-88 been divebombing, the 4.7/6.5 inch armored deck, might have been penetrated, although that would depend on the altidude of releasing the weapon. No battleships in WW2, except Yamato, had thicker deckarmor by the way.

The report I have for the bomb strike states the bomb was dropped in a dive rather than a glide however the preferred angle of drop for experienced crews was 45 degrees so who knows. But what it does then state is that the bomb penetrated the deck striking an ammunition locker on the way which broke the fuse. The bomb carried on hitting a table at which two midshipman were sitting, they had been sent below for safety. The bomb then continued down into an engineering store where it broke up on the 4' thick armour where its explosive charge caused a fire.
 
Agreed for September 1939 but by September 1940, the time period I'm asking about, the Royal Oak had been sunk so there were only 4 x Royal Sovereign.



The report I have for the bomb strike states the bomb was dropped in a dive rather than a glide however the preferred angle of drop for experienced crews was 45 degrees so who knows. But what it does then state is that the bomb penetrated the deck striking an ammunition locker on the way which broke the fuse. The bomb carried on hitting a table at which two midshipman were sitting, they had been sent below for safety. The bomb then continued down into an engineering store where it broke up on the 4' thick armour where its explosive charge caused a fire.


Agreed on the later the bomb did breach through the Weatherdeck, which is the outside upperdeck of the hull. This deck normally is lightly armored on BB's simply to protect the lower decks from the blast of the own big guns. The main armored deck was two decks lower and was not breached, asthat would have required a much more potent bomb, with a much higher velossity. (Like the FX-1400 that sank RM Roma in 1943, while the Roma was a modern ship with a thick armored deck like HMS Rodney. (perhapsslightly more spread out, but te main armored deck on Roma still was 6 inches as well.)

An explaination of the poor performance of German shells and bombs in 1940 and 1941 could have been that these were mainly produced by forced labour workers, mainly from the Czech occupied zone, which had quite a number of armaments factories. Torpeodes were a different thing, as these simply were a bit fragile and sometimes a bit too soon brought toservice, without proper development.
 
Top