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Originally Posted by Kakurin-san
The British were too close for underwater hits to happen. Most of the shelling happened from a distance of well below 10 km. The flat trajectory of the shells would've led them to ricochet off the surface of the water and fly into the upper hull or superstructure.
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The entire thing didn't happen within minutes, they started shooting at her pretty soon. Even if they were that close, its still an aweful hit rate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakurin-san
And you have to clarify the number of shells. The number 2800 (of which about 300-400 actually hit) doesn't tell that much. More relevant are how many were fired from which guns? KGV fired 660 5.25" shells and Rodney 716 6" ones. Those can be taken completely out of the equation since they are only capable of damaging the unprotected upperworks. Likewise the 781 8" shells from Dorsetshire and Norfolk can be taken out of the equation. They concentrated on the superstructure of Bismarck. So actually relevant for the hull are only the 339 14" ones from KGV and the 380 16" ones from Rodney.
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The 2800 were all shells together.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakurin-san
Additionally the British somewhat hindered their own efforts by bombarding both sides of the ship. So the floodings that occured offset each other. Note the difference to the American approch against Yamato where they only targeted the port side to force her to capsize.
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Well to be fair to them Churchill even told them that he doesn't care how he just wants it done.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakurin-san
Ah yes, this. But again one has to be careful here. The stern structure problems on the German ships were a result of the welding technique used to attach the stern to the hull. So it's a structural problem. It is debatable how much a strengthening would've actually helped.
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Well the Prinz Eugen survived long enough to Capzize after operation crossroads, so the problem was probably solved well enough.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakurin-san
I don't know what you are blaming him for the rudder. This was a combination of inadequate protection of the rudder area and design choices.
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The exact instance was when the Topeedo hit her stern, ultimately causing the rudder to shake hands with the propellar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2av7lz2lkQk
35:00 onwards to about 36:20
Ignore the title, btw it made me smirk a bit too
A bit questionable how accurate it is due to coming from Survivor reports. If I remember it right from Cameron's dive the rudder actually got cought in the propeller - is what it looked like that is.