Bill Clarke wrote:
Chris, the disaster at Jutland was, IMHO, caused by the combination of thin armour and poor munitions handling
Agreed. I too believe that ability of German shells to penetrate to the ammo/cordite handling areas was a product of the weaker armour of the British BC's. Better safety procedures, which would have slowed the rate of fire may have meant fewer magazine explosions, but turrets would have probably been put out of action (as happened to Lion).
I read that at Dogger Bank, Seydlitz almost suffered a magazine explosion following a hit on one of her turrets and the near disaster gave the Germans the opportunity to make adjustments to prevent a repeat. They were obviously successful.
Also, a Jutland factor was the poor quality of British AP shells - many tended to explode too quickly, bursting on impact or failing to penetrate deeply.
Bill Clarke wrote:
WRT Hood, it was a repeat of Jutland, her deck armour just didn't stand up to the German shells.
Her armour in general could not stand up to German 38 cm shells with the muzzle velocity that Bismarck's had, at the range at which she was hit (16-18000 yards). It was NOT a shell plunging out of the sky through thinly armoured decks as has been portrayed in books and documentaries over and over. The most likely scenario was penetration through the side armour, possibly her 12-inch belt, or more likely the 7-inch strake above it, then through whatever deck plating encountered to explode in or near the 4-inch magazines, which set off the 15-inch aft.
Shortly after she was completed, tests done using British 15-inch shells (heavier than the German 38cm, but with a lower muzzle velocity) showed how her side armour scheme could be penetrated and a magazine reached at the very range that it happened in reality!
So the whole story of her not having closed the range enough is not really accurate. At that point, the closer she got the MORE vulnerable she was becoming to side penetration.
Her case was somewhat different to Jutland though- there was no cordite stacking for rate of fire, and it was not a turret hit that created flash that then burned along the route to the main magazines.
On the subject of kits - I've been hoping to see Flyhawk give us British BC's since they did Lutzow & Derfflinger... so far no such luck.
Paul