Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
- Thread starter fester
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There's also the report of the US battleship that did a prolonged practice shoot and recorded a % output considerably below maximum. It seems that in prolonged shoots, you get errors in drill.
I think part of the issue for the KGVs was that the interlocks were quite complicated and required a well-trained crew. With sufficient training, that's okay. Without, well...
I think part of the issue for the KGVs was that the interlocks were quite complicated and required a well-trained crew. With sufficient training, that's okay. Without, well...
Story 1806
Aboard Yamato 2147 January 2, 1943
Hyūga was by herself and lagging behind the fleet. A pair of destroyers had been detached to support and escort her. She had eaten another torpedo from Furious. The light cruiser Nagara had been targeted by the full strike from Indomitable. They had misidentified her. She was bigger than the destroyers that had been spotted and was sending an incredible barrage of anti-aircraft fire in the general direction of the strikers. She had to be a battleship so they sent nine torpedoes her way. Seven missed. Two were enough to send her down by the bow.
Aboard Yamato, tea was being passed out. Anti-aircraft gunners were still at their stations as the next wave of torpedo bombers came in. This time the Albacores from Victorious struck true. A pair of flare spotters made a long, slow, low run behind Yamato and in front of her slightly younger sister. One crashed after a 25 millimeter shell killed the pilot.
The other ten bombers pressed hard. Nine dropped while the last one hit the water in flames. Eight survived the egress. Seven torpedoes ran hot, straight and true. The mighty battleship turned into the attack trying to be skinnier than a debutante fitting into her first corset despite her Rubenesque physique. Much like that debutante, Yamato failed to be skinny enough but the turn allowed six of the torpedoes run down her flanks like an illicit lover’s hands. A torpedo burst fruitlessly against the port torpedo defense system. The battleship slowed slightly as water entered the outer voids.
Thirty minutes later, she was back at fleet speed, down six inches due to counterflooding and ready for battle.
Hyūga was by herself and lagging behind the fleet. A pair of destroyers had been detached to support and escort her. She had eaten another torpedo from Furious. The light cruiser Nagara had been targeted by the full strike from Indomitable. They had misidentified her. She was bigger than the destroyers that had been spotted and was sending an incredible barrage of anti-aircraft fire in the general direction of the strikers. She had to be a battleship so they sent nine torpedoes her way. Seven missed. Two were enough to send her down by the bow.
Aboard Yamato, tea was being passed out. Anti-aircraft gunners were still at their stations as the next wave of torpedo bombers came in. This time the Albacores from Victorious struck true. A pair of flare spotters made a long, slow, low run behind Yamato and in front of her slightly younger sister. One crashed after a 25 millimeter shell killed the pilot.
The other ten bombers pressed hard. Nine dropped while the last one hit the water in flames. Eight survived the egress. Seven torpedoes ran hot, straight and true. The mighty battleship turned into the attack trying to be skinnier than a debutante fitting into her first corset despite her Rubenesque physique. Much like that debutante, Yamato failed to be skinny enough but the turn allowed six of the torpedoes run down her flanks like an illicit lover’s hands. A torpedo burst fruitlessly against the port torpedo defense system. The battleship slowed slightly as water entered the outer voids.
Thirty minutes later, she was back at fleet speed, down six inches due to counterflooding and ready for battle.
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Story 1808
Eastern Makassar Strait 2227, January 2, 1943
HMS Eskimo, Tartar, Nubian and Ashanti were spread out, eight miles apart and thirty five miles ahead of the forward cruiser screen consisting of Liverpool and Fiji. Those two ships were twenty minutes north of the main force that by now was patrolling in a race track pattern northwest of the landing beaches.
No lights were on. The only allowed tobacco was chewed tobacco which was driving the impatient smokers batty. Red lights bathed the charts near the blacked out bridge windows. Look-outs were scanning the horizon for enemies and periscopes. Radars were spinning seeking echoes.
Every gun was manned. Every damage control station was occupied by nervous men in flash protective clothing, helmets and life jackets. The torpedo tubes had been checked and then checked again, the deadly but delicate machines were ready to go over the side. The captains had thought about plans to toss depth charges over the side in an emergency. They had not committed to that action but the thought was always present to avoid secondary and unsympathetic explosions.
The radars began to feel the echoes bounce back to them. First one and then two large contacts and the possibility of even more smaller contacts. Nubian turned slightly for a better angle and at 38,000 yards, contact was confirmed. Many ships, some big coming south at 26 knots.
The sentinels began to withdraw at a leisurely twenty two knots even as a directional radio message was sent out.
HMS Eskimo, Tartar, Nubian and Ashanti were spread out, eight miles apart and thirty five miles ahead of the forward cruiser screen consisting of Liverpool and Fiji. Those two ships were twenty minutes north of the main force that by now was patrolling in a race track pattern northwest of the landing beaches.
No lights were on. The only allowed tobacco was chewed tobacco which was driving the impatient smokers batty. Red lights bathed the charts near the blacked out bridge windows. Look-outs were scanning the horizon for enemies and periscopes. Radars were spinning seeking echoes.
Every gun was manned. Every damage control station was occupied by nervous men in flash protective clothing, helmets and life jackets. The torpedo tubes had been checked and then checked again, the deadly but delicate machines were ready to go over the side. The captains had thought about plans to toss depth charges over the side in an emergency. They had not committed to that action but the thought was always present to avoid secondary and unsympathetic explosions.
The radars began to feel the echoes bounce back to them. First one and then two large contacts and the possibility of even more smaller contacts. Nubian turned slightly for a better angle and at 38,000 yards, contact was confirmed. Many ships, some big coming south at 26 knots.
The sentinels began to withdraw at a leisurely twenty two knots even as a directional radio message was sent out.
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by the time this is over, to use a New Orleans saying the IJN, "ain't 'dere no more..."
It wasn't just the complicated interlocks - both Y and A 'turrets' jammed at points during the battle which has nothing to do with crew experience - that's a teething issue to be fixed by the dockyard workers!
Gun A1 due to another known issue that had yet to be fixed was never going to fire more than 1 round during the battle - so after the first salvo POW was always going to be down to 9 x 14" guns
Even a 'green' RN crew isn't going to be that green as there is a massive pool of skilled long service regulars to form a core of any capital ship
Which ship is this? Is it a different transliteration of Hyūga?
What about salvo firing for the old US Standards during shore bombardments?
I guess that in an NGS scenario keeping up as high an Accurate ROF is far less important than in a Dreadnought fight - so unless someone has a actual ships log or something we probably won't know
I’ve always thought of the battleship gun reliability issue this way. Consider that, from the Captain’s point of view, what happens inside the turret is a black box. He doesn’t care if shell handling is more mechanical (British) or more manual (American) than average, all he cares about is the overall rate of fire. The nature of the system does not matter to him, only the output in shells fired does. Now, from our enthusiasts perspective, we see British ships that have their failure to meet ideal rates of fire listed as “mechanical failure” whilst when an American battleship doesn’t fire fast enough, the cause goes down as “drill error.” Now one of these sounds like a more fundamental issue than the other, but actually, if the outputs are compared, the British and American systems are in fact equally reliable. Either the machines or the men give out first in different systems, but the systems as a whole are functionally equivalent.
I have no idea, I assumed that in some of the nastier island battles or even Normandy some of the BBs must have put a lot of rounds down range.
I think by now the KGVs have their teething iddued sorted out and the training done, so the problems should be less.
Except with pistols and shotguns its 14, 16 and 18 inch naval rounds...
So a real life firefight with piss poor accuracy then?
Except with pistols and shotguns its 14, 16 and 18 inch naval rounds...
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