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ORIGINAL: Nikademus
The explosions suffered by the British were the result of a combination of unsafe ammunition practices (Doors left open between compartments and extra charges laid out...all to speed up rate of fire.
Post by Hornblower »
ORIGINAL: Nikademus
thats actually a bit of a myth. Here's how Cambell recorded the hit on Lion. She was struck by a 12 inch shell on the juncture of the roof and front turret plate at 1600. the shell entered the gunhouse along with pieces of the turret armor and exploded, killing everyone inside the gunhouse. The left gun was damaged and was later condemned.
A fire was started but it was quickly reported extinquished. The ship's chief gunnery officer, Alexander Grant, visited the turret and spoke to one of the surviving crew members of the handling room. After a brief discussion he ordered Q magazine doors to be closed and later the order was given for the compartment to be flooded.
At 1628 the massive sheet of flame i mentioned in an earlier post was witnessed. Had the magazine not been flooded by this time.....most likely the ship would have gone Kaboom.
The above is taken from Jellicoe's memorandum. There was no mention of FJW Harvey, the officer of the turret, only that he had reported to the bridge that the turret was out of action. Harvey was indeed awarded a posthmomous VC for having ordered the magazine doors closed and the compartment flooded while mortally wounded. The actual order to flood the mags came from the Captain and were transmitted from the transmitter station.
So as you can see there is some confusion over who did what and when but one thing that was clear was that the mag was to be flooded, a sensible precaution given the turret was out of commission anyway.
Post by Hornblower »
Plan you interceprt so you can cross the T, use your cruiser in a feint to distract the Germans.ORIGINAL: Nikademus
Necessities of war. There were no other ships available to back up Hood and going up against a brand new BB on a 1:1 situation is not stacking the deck in your favor. PoW's unready state was highlighted by the fact that she set sail with dockyard workers still aboard!
Holland could not cross the T because he was not in position to do so when he arrived within visual range. At that point, his biggest concern was to get within the range preffered by current doctrine as well as minimizing Hood's thin deck armor to exposure.
The failure to coordinate or utilize the shaowing CA's was a flub IIRC but i'd need to brush up on the battle to offer further commentary. [;)]
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