Saturday, February 1, 2020

Hits.

This is coolbert:

"gunnery accuracy in the British and our [USN] Navy increased . . . 3000% in six years."

The big bore naval gun of a Dreadnought type battleship. Accuracy once found to be wanting and sorely lacking improved in a most marked manner in that decade just prior to the Great War [WW1].

From the outstanding Internet web site isegoria.net and thanks to same.

"The gun is mounted on an unstable platform"

"In Men, Machines, and Modern Times, Elting E. Morison looks at how we learn to live and work with innovation. He illustrates the three stages of users’ resistance to change — ignoring it, rational rebuttal, and name-calling — first with an example from naval history"

British naval officers pioneering developments in naval big bore gunner accuracy using revolutionary techniques and "innovation".

UNDENIABLY SO [?] THE ABILITY OF A NAVAL GUNNER TO HIT AN ENEMY TARGET MUCH ENHANCED. CONSIDER ALSO THE OUTCOME OF JUTLAND, HITS WITH REGARD TO ROUNDS FIRED. TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION ONLY NAVAL GUNFIRE FROM MAJOR CAPITAL SHIPS PRESENT AT JUTLAND:


Heavy Shells Fired at Jutland:

               15in     14in        13.5in     12in         11in

British      1239      42         1533      1784    

German                                           2424        1173

Heavy Shell Hits Received (Approximate):

                             British                  German

Battleships               29                         28
Battlecruisers           53                         70
Cruisers                   37                          1
Destroyers                1                           1

Total                       120                       100

HARDLY MORE THAN ONE ROUND IN FORTY AS FIRED FROM A BIG BORE NAVAL GUN AT JUTLAND A HIT TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE RESULTS BOTH SIDES COMBINED! AND THIS AFTER MARKED IMPROVEMENT SO-CALLED? GERMANS THEIR ACCURACY SLIGHTLY BETTER!

THAT USE OF TORPEDOES ALSO THE NUMBER OF  HITS WITH REGARD TO LAUNCH CAN ONLY BE SEEN AS POOR:

 Torpedo Expenditure:

                                 British                       German

Fired                            94                             105
Hits Achieved                 6                                3


Very much less than ideal conditions present at Jutland. Gunners their ability to aim, shoot and hit the target made difficult in the extreme by a variety of circumstance, poor lighting, smoke, fog, uncertainty. Fog of war literally so.

coolbert.



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