HMS Prince of Wales (Part.II)

So it would seem.

 

Triple turrets

If some triples had problems with shells interfering with each other in flight ( hence, perhaps, the higher placed central gun on the "Belfast's" Turrets, does this mean that one trigger fired off three guns simultaneously ?
Barton

 

Re: Triple turrets

It could do - and it didn't just affect triples but also some twins where the gun muzzles were very close together (the muzzle blast from one gun would upset the flight path of the shell from the other).

A solution to this problem used in some turrets was to fire the guns a fraction of a second apart.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

 

Re: Triple turrets

Which potentially could cause it's own problems with wide shot dispersion.

 

Re: Triple turrets

Interesting how this discussion is working out, isn't it? Each question we answer seems to breed more questions/problems.

 

Does someone know on which places the HMS Prince of Wales was hit by japanese bombs on 10th december and whether and/or where significant fires prevailed on board?

Regards,
Che.

 

No fires that I'm aware of; she was sunk by torpedoes. The hits were mostly on her starboard side, IIRC.

 

There was some discussion of the British 15" gun, followed by less successful 16" of Nelson and 14" of Prince of Wales. I had read somewhere that the British 15" was the best battleship gun of the war by any combatant, of course they may be talking about robustness rather than performance etc. Suppose the KGV class were armed not with the original intended 12x 14" (decreased to 10) but instead with 9x 15". I realize that the triple mount means complications (load drill I'm told, and perhaps even mechanically?) that the trusty existing twin mount did not have, but could narrower triple turrets fore & aft result in a finer lined hull and more speed? What do you think?
Thanks

 

but to be a better gun patform wide is better

 

There is that, although it should be kept to within reasonable limits.

 

Those 14" guns used on KGV werent that bad. It was turret/mounting that gave most of the problems, like I said earlier. Those guns performed quite well, especially considering that everyone else were getting 15", 16" and even 18" guns.

And 15"/42 guns used on Hood and many other ships: It was definitely best gun used during WW1 but it was a bit outdated during WW2. But as it was used many decades, it gave troublefree performance.

Wider beam allows usage of deeper TDS.

Some links:
14"/45, used on KGV
15"/42, used on R, QE, R&R, Hood, Vanguard and monitors
15"/45, proposed to KGV

 

Thanks, and actually I was thinking not of decreasing the overall beam, but of fining the lines, more like Bismarck, which had, if memory serves, as more gradual taper (as viewed from above) to the hull, for less drag...and so I started thinking about narrowing the turrets on KGV to allow this. You could even make turret #2 a twin mount to reduce topweight and still have 8x 15". Hey I like it!

 

There has long been an argument over the best armament arrangement. Some favor the three triple turrets used in the American fast battleships, while others go for a larger number of twin mounts, in order to lose less firepower if a turret is knocked out. I prefer the three triples, myself.

 

Me too. Three triples vs four twins: With triples you got one more gun and if you lose a turret then in both cases you got six guns left. Besides its more economically (in weight-wise) to have your guns in triple or even quadruple turrets. Ofcourse triple and quadruple turrets are more complicated than twins and that might cause some problems that can be handled with time.

 

Why not 4 triples?

(Obviously you'll need a bigger boat to start with...)

 

Wasn't the KGV class designed when treaties limited them to 35,000 tons and 14" guns? I know that shortly afterwards the 16" limit kicked in, but IIRC the design was far enough advanced at that stage that they stuck with 14" and planned to use 16" for the follow ups (Lion class)

Tom

 

US Montana class battleships (none ever completed) were basically Iowa's with four turrets.

 

Yep. Thats right. US had North Carolina -class battleships which were also designed with 14" guns (three quadruple turrets) but they were able to alter the design for 16" guns.

 

Too bad, really; the drawings and models of MONTANA show that she would have been a really beautiful ship.