Look again at the times of flight for the Iowa's guns. The furthest hit obtained by anybody's battleship in WW II on a moving ship was under 15 miles. You not only have range error you have bearing error.Īnd much like fast ships can dodge bombs dropped from medium altitudes (or higher) or turn away from torpedoes (comb the tracks) a destroyer can alter course changing range and/or bearing while the shells are in flight. Were the ships firing full salvos or half salvos? Printing something larger doesn't make it more correct.Īnd look at the destroyer action again, 60 rounds fired by two ships? With shells coming down at a steep angle width (beam) of the target ship is more important than height.Įxtremely good shooting for a battleship at such ranges would be a majority of it's shells in a 400yd diameter circle ( from memory, please check this) so even against a battleship that was not moving the majority of shells would miss. About 2/3rds longer and nearly 3 times wider. If a battleship makes radical changes to it's own course it throws off it's own gunnery ( reduces accuracy).īattleship is a much bigger target.
If the destroyer captain has the IQ of belly button lint he is making radical changes in course to throw off the battleships predications. At 20 miles the destroyer is trying not to get hit and is not trying to return fire against the Battleship. Using a action report against a destroyer to figure out performance against a large battleship is not comparing apples to apples. Unless the target is an escort carrier that cannot make 20kts with a tail wind, in which case the distance the ship travels will be less. From the times above the target ship will have moved about 1/2 mile or more from when the guns were fired. Long range naval gunnery is basically trying to figure out (guess) where the target will be when the shells arrive. To 40,000 yds time of flight was 79.96 seconds, decent angle was 45 degrees 28 minutes. For all the dudes and non-dudes out there ( my curmudgeon card is being reprinted) a few thoughts/factoids on battleship gunnery.įor the Iowa time of flight to 36,000yds was 66.13 seconds, decent angle was 38 degrees.
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